Still in the Morning

Posted on October 22, 2007 in Santiago Fire

Daylight has allowed a better look at where the fire has burned. According to the latest report in the OC Register, it has torched 8,800 acres — eight times more than the Malibu fire and in much less time. The country lies west of here, in rolling hills covered by grasslands dried by our waterless winter.

There’s a severe weather alert out:

STRONG SANTA ANA WINDS WILL CONTINUE TODAY AND INTO TUESDAY. AREAS OF NORTHEAST WINDS 25 TO 35 MPH WITH STRONGEST GUSTS TO AROUND 85 MPH WILL OCCUR NEAR AND BELOW PASSES AND CANYONS. THE STRONGEST WINDS AND WIND GUSTS WILL BE BELOW THE CAJON PASS AND NEAR THE COASTAL FOOTHILLS OF THE SANTA ANA MOUNTAINS. WINDS WILL REMAIN STRONG AND GUSTY BUT ARE EXPECTED TO BE SLIGHTLY WEAKER FOR TUESDAY…AND THEN WEAKEN RATHER SIGNIFICANTLY ON WEDNESDAY.

Either this report is wrong (the winds have already subsided considerably) or I have had a lost-weekend-at-the-beginning-of-the-week: the tops of the trees barely move and the current wind speed is a mere 14 mph, still from the NE.

Friends of ours in Irvine, who might have gone to bed next to their suitcases, woke to a better situation than last night. The sky to the west of here is a uniform, thick smoggy gray. As long as winds don’t rematerialize and kick the fire across the 133 toll road into Peters Canyon, the threat to houses is minimal. Firefighters are undoubtably working the line, letting the monster burn itself out.

Maybe later I’ll sneak as close as I can to the firelines and get some pictures of the devastation. For now, all safe — as long as the winds don’t kick up and no one lights a match or lets a spark fly from his ATV up Trabuco Canyon.