As I'm sure most of you know Southern California is engulfed in fire. Mom and dad, and Sister and her spouse were forced out of their home yesterday due to mandatory fire evacuations. So as I sit here and post this morning I have a home full of six people and two dogs. So far my house is about 10 miles west of the fires but unfortunately it's heading this direction at an alarming pace.

Mom and Dad's home is in the greatest danger and is at this point surrounded by fire. Due to the horrible news coverage (the news is more interest in running a tape loop of homes burning and interviewing the man on the street than reporting anything useful) we are not at this point sure whether or not Mom and Dad actually have a home. Sister and spouse are in the same boat although they live in a rented place so the structure loss will not be their own.

Since the wind is blowing west the sky around my home is glowing orange and chunks of ash are falling everywhere. The ground looks like it has been snowing ash. The air quality is so bad that everyone is being advised to stay indoors. I had to make an emergency trip to the grocery store last night and most patrons were wearing face masks. It reminds me of a post-apocalyptic science fiction movie around here.

Family and their pets are all safe. Possessions can be replaced. I just hope my Dad doesn't have to face the proposition of rebuilding at age 81.

I'm beginning to not like October very much.

I'll keep you all posted as if can.......

Jeff, Good luck and we will pray for rain and the wind to stop blowing. Take care my friend. Keep us posted.

Jean and I were thinking and wondering about you last night and this morning looking at the fire "coverage" on TV. Glad to hear all are o.k., will keep you and family in our prayers jeff.. i heard the wind gusts are up to 80-90 mph........unbelievable.......santa ana must have been quite a woman.

p.s. please contact me if there is anything we can do to help jeff.

My heart goes out to you and your family Dave.

We're thinking of you here in PA.

Jeff, I'll keep you and your family in my prayers. Please keep us posted if you can. If not, of course we'll understand, but we really care about you.

You and yours are in our prayers.

Take care, friends.

Wishing you and your all the best
TOM

Jeff, we will keep you and your family in our prayers.

Jeff, you and your family are in our prayers.
Keep us all posted and let us know if we may be of help in any way.

Like everyone else Jeff I pray and hope for the best for you and your family.

Friend you have had a lots of heart heartache in the last several days.

I wish you a return of good fortune.

Bill

Those fires are very fast so don't take any chances. Keep in mind that your pond is a haven of last resort. We all pray you don't need to use it for that.

Our thoughts and prayers are with you - please let us know if you or any others need anything. Stay safe!

Take care of the family and yourself!

being a volunteer with a local division of the el dorado county fire safe council..we get some great information first hand from various entities...this map just came across my e-mail and highlights what JHAP is dealing with:



JHAP lives in san diego county, the most southwestern county in CA (the extreme lower left for those of you in rio linda )

i'm not sure which specific fire has affected his family.

JHAP when you have yer ears on let us know how things are going.....

Jeff - You sure seem to be getting more than your share of trials and tribulations lately. Don’t take any chances as you are in a very dangerous place!

Gail and I have you in our prayers. This too will pass.

Jeff - I'll pray too!

Jeff - I'll pray too!

I can't even begin to imagine the scale of this tragedy. A few minutes ago CNN reported that almost 525,000 have been evacuated or displaced. That is more than one-fourth the population of our entire state.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who is amazed at how many connections we all have to southern California.

Our hearts go out to all at such a tragic time.

Jeff -- please keep us posted if and when you can.

Jeff,

You're in my prayers. I hope this thing dies down soon.

ok, i just got off the phone w/ jeff. everybody is still o.k.

he is located right along the coast, if you look at the map i posted above, he is due west of the witch fire complex and has been receiving the brunt of wind blown ash and embers for two days. he and his family are holed up in his house a few miles from the fireline. they have not received evac. notices although a volunteer evac. is in effect for his area.

his mom and dad's house (and sister's) has thus far been spared. the fire burned a u-shape pattern around his parents area, but if the winds change to an on-shore flow, the fire could back burn into their neighborhood.

so the prayer right now for jeff's family is that the winds continue to blow offshore and until firefighters can better contain the witch on its western front.

he says hello to all his pond boss bretheren and says he might try to post an update tomorrow sometime. he is grateful for all the kind thoughts and wishes to he and his family.

please also wish my good friend jeff and his bride ricki a happy anniversary - as best they can have! (their las vegas celebration trip of which is supposed to start tomorrow......).

if i know my friend at all, he WILL draw humor from this chapter of life.

Jeff and Dave, we are thinking of you and praying for you as well. I just left a biannual firefighter symposium in Chicago and we were very focused with the cahllenges being faced there. Four firefighters were severly burned early on when their crew was overrun while trying to rescue two folks. Three are in critical condition and the two civilians were reportedly killed. Please keep them in our prayers as well. It is serious business. Please stay out of harms way and I look forward to the redear updates soon.

National news this morning indicates that the winds are now abating and that the humidity should rise tomorrow.

i see that too dave. lets hope the firefighters can get a handle on that western front today because tomorrow they are predicting for a wind shift to on-shore flow which overall is great for the big picture but which also could put jeff's parents house at risk.....its a gnarly situation no matter what, and my heart goes out to all the courageous fire fighters as well. alot of our local resources have mobed down there to help, and guys with 30+ years are saying they've never seen anything like it before.

Are any of you familiar with Barricade fire blocking gel? I heard an interview on NPR that discussed it or something similar. I think it might be worth checking into if you live in a fire prone area.

http://www.barricadegel.com/default.asp

Here is the interview from NPR, just click on the LISTEN button:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15264319

Is there any chance of our Pond Brothers in California getting out their tractors and either brush hogging the tall grass or discing a fire brake around their place? If they don't own one maybe one of us close enough to give a helping hand. It may be to late (just a thought)

Like catmandoo stated, its hard for me to imagine the evacuation of so many. Jeff, I hope you and all family members come through this with everything still intact and a story to tell. From some of the news reports I've watched concerning the evacuees holed up at QualComm stadium , its nice to see how well folks are working together in such trying times.

havent heard of the stuff GW, thanks for the info.

tim, good thought for small brush and grass fires, but these late summer socal wildland fires dont even need brush to spread. they are literally moving from one house to another. i heard one story yesterday afternoon of a line of firefighters holding up and standing behind a fire resistant curtain, they were protecting another line of firefighters that were attempting to protect a house. the plasic sunroom windows and decking on the house they were trying to save was melting before their eyes. they had to leave and the house perished. the heat from these things is unbelievable.

Jeff and Dave, best of luck! You guys and all the good people in that area are in our thoughts and prayers.

First off I want to thank all of my pond Boss family for their positive thoughts and prayers and to let you know that they worked!

My family's homes were all spared this devastation. My mom and dad, sister and her spouse were able to return home yesterday. It is an earie sight around San Diego, the devastation is of a scale that is almost unimmaginable. Fire consumed a tremendous number of homes. The fire raged (and burned homes quite literally to the gound) to within a matter of a few hundred feet of mom & dad's home yet spared theirs. Who knows why one family is spared and another suffers tragic loss. Is it the power of prayer and positive thought, divine intervention,karmic forces, or just sheer dumb luck. As I sit here in posting this update I can tell that I don't have any answers. But I can also tell you that I felt great comfort knowing that my extended Pond Boss family was "out there" (some of you more out there than others) sending us all of your positive energy and prayers. I know that had the need arose that I could count on you to help my family "rise from the ashes" if it had come to that - that is of great comfort at such trying times.

A special note to Mr. Lusk: I now have had a very small glimpse of what you must have felt with the loss of your home. It gives me a much better appreciation your post fire circumstances. You are inspirational proof that a family can overcome such a tragedy, rebuild both their home and their lives and thrive.

As the fires raged my family evacuated to my home. Since Ricki (my wife) and I normally live alone it was interesting to have a home full of six people and two dogs. We did what all family does pulled together in mutual support.

Once Ricki and I knew that everyone's homes were safe and that fire no longer was a threat, we did what any able bodied red blooded American would do - LAS VEGAS BAYBEEEEE! We told our family to lock the door when they left that we were going to escape to L.V. to celebrate our anniversary. Ricki and I had made hotel reservations months ago and bought very good show tickets all of which would have gone to waste if we didn't use them. So here I sit updating you from Vegas (betcha don't feel so bad for me now, dang I should have played the sympathy card longer).

I have decided that since October was such a lousy month for us I am going to eliminate it from our calendars. We will combine September and the nasty "O" month to form the new month of Septober. Septober will have 61 days. Halloween will be celebrated on Septober 61st, our anniversary on Septober 50th. All people of German decent (my family included) will now be able to have a 61 day beer drinking festival herein after known as Septoberfest.


To DIED, thank you my friend for just being there to talk to me and offer your support. I am greatful that I met you through this great site. I truely appreciate the friendship that you and Jean and given Ricki and I. I am going to take you up on your unconditional offer of support - I bought a starter fly fishing combo and some flies at the Vegas Bass Pro Sho and I believe that to truly emotionally heal from this near tragic experience you need to provide me with some additional fly fishing lessons.

Thank you all once again for you thoughts and prayers! I hope one day to meet all of you at a Pond Boss convention to properly thank you in person.

I will return home from Vegas on Septober 60th and will catch up with the rest of the pond boss threads then.

A greatfull....

I think a lot of us have been logging on and waiting for your next post.

Good to hear and enjoy Sin City.

Jeff - thanks for the update. Glad you are all ok. I would bet that if you talked to Bob about the fires (his and yours) he would tell you that the response here was just what he would expect from family - because that is what we are - no thanks are needed as helping is what the PB family is all about.

Dude! Great to hear you're safe and sound, at least upon your arrival at Lost Wages. Departure can be a different story.

Very glad to hear good news from you.
Congrats on your anniversery.Hope you have a great time and safe trip home

Glad to hear our prayers were answered! I'm so glad for you and your relatives!

I think I'd be interested in building a moat around the house with some type of spraying apparatus that shoots mist or water up in the air via diesel power, but undergroud or in a protected building. Maybe leave the moat empty until their is impending fire danger and then pump water from a nearby pond into it.

I agree with DD1. We have all been waiting for that post. Have fun in LV, and remember, don't take "insurance" - if THEY offer it, then it's not in YOUR best interest.....

Welcome back, Snake eyes. Very glad that all has turned out safely for you and yours

Great news indeed!

Now go and put it all on black.

Well, we're back from Vegas and now the clean up begins. The house and yard are covered with ash. I'm going out this morning and wash down the building and yard.

Fortunately Vegas was good to us so perhaps my Septober luck is turning around.

Thank you once again Pond Boss family, you folks are great!

Now to catch up with a weeks worth of posts here.....