If you live in Southern California, how are the fires affecting you, friends, and places like hospitals?

This is so terrible. I know some of the fires are accidental but can you imagine that some of these are actually arson? These arsonists are probably basking in glory watching the news as thousands of homes are destoryed. I hope these people are caught and sent to prison for life. What about the wildlife and all the pets especially like horses that couldn't be moved? CNN is reporting that it is like "Armagedon". That's very frightening. I just hope everyone is safe and we owe so much to these brave firefighters and anyone else stepping into help. I heard a jail had to be evacuated! Are places like the San Diego zoo in jepordy? What kind of upsets me is that the celebritiy homes are getting more attention. A $15 million dollar home is just like a $100,000 home, it's a place where you built so many memories and have lost irreplaceable belongings like photos of family and family heirloms. No one has died, correct? My prayers are with those affected.

Public Comments

1. Absolutely!! Thoughts to everyone across the water. Stay safe guys x
2. we must be watching different news I seen nothing of celebrities except for the castle in Malibu, and someone did die I seen on last nights news. Not sure of the location though. It is heartwrenching to see this. I hope the fricker burns in hell who started this. I am on the East Coast. My heart goes out to each and everyone of you affected.
3. I live in Newhall about 1 mile from the perimeter of the Buckweed fire. There are actually 3 fires in the area. There have been no fatalities here, but there was one death in San Diego. The zoo is not in danger, but Legoland is closed. Pretty scary, especially at night. Gotta love those firemen!
4. I'm in Irvine, right by the Santiago fire. It smells so bad outside, you can hardly breathe. There's ash everywhere. I'm waiting for my boss to call into the office this morning, his house was a mile from the firelines last night and I'm worried his house was destroyed or something. I can't even imagine what that must feel like to know everything you have is gone. You can't get any of it back. I hope they find the jackholes who started this and throw them in a hard, maximum security prison.
5. As usual getting the resources available..the red tape and smugness of the leaders of the fire lines are keeping many aircraft that is available to fight the fires grounded. The military has offered helicopters that are interchangeable to water dropping choppers have been denied....3 747s equipped with water dropping capabilities are being denied access..those would be a big plus because they drop 10 times the amount of water a chopper can and almost 3 times more than the small planes they are using now. But 1 person died in Santa Barbara Over a thousand homes destroyed and as for domesticated animals..no one counts them. I am not looking foreword for the winds to shift from a Santa Ana condition to an on shore condition which means the winds will blow the other direction and all the smoke will envelope our desert and make the air virtually unbreathable..again. There will be many people who will never recover from this because they will realize that their homeowners ins. isn't enough to rebuild and in some cases like Arrowhead where hundreds of homes have been destroyed..they have no insurance because of the volatility of the area and fire from last year made insurance too expensive or inaccessible. And this why I live in the desert. For more info here's a link. http://www.fire.ca.gov/
6. My house burned when I was a child. Everything is gone and there is no home to go to anymore. Your very displaced. As if picked up and sat abandon in a field with just whats on your back to your name. Not only is that one thing you use to have gone now, but the stand it sat on, and the room it was in as well as the place that held the room. Everything you had just no longer exist. Its as if every material part of your life stopped existing. You just have your being to rebuild from with the help of others if your lucky enough. Most of us are. But not all. I can't imagine this one disaster to a person going beyond even that into an entire community. Now the house that contained the room doesn't even have a town to exist in......... Now instead of an empty field, its a whole seperate area your plunged into.......with nothing. Reminds me when I am bitching about something silly that I have alot more to be saying thank you for!!!! At least when the door is left open, I have one. At least when traffic jams up, I am on a street heading home........... and I have one to get to when I am through the jam..... Maybe its a rainy day when I hoped for sunny, but I do have a dry home to retreat into. I have dry clothes and a warm meal. And what was it I had to b**** about??? Do I have time to b**** with all I have to say I'm thankful for instead??
7. I have a brother who works for the US Forest service and lives in Ramona. He is currently on a fire line and his wife had to evacuate. My sister lies in Poway and also had to evacuate. Not long ago a neighbor called her and told her that her house was saved.
8. unbeliveable arson ! wow i hope they catch them
9. I live in Costa Mesa, which is closest to the Santiago fire. I believe it's the least affected right now since there weren't really any homes that have been burned yet. Hopefully it doesn't get that far. It's pretty scary, as I've only lived here for about a year and have never experienced any disasters or lived near one. My family is up north and worried about me. So far, I haven't been able to see the fire from where I am but I was able to see the smoke the first night it happened. Yesterday the sky was slightly yellow from the smoke that was still going by. The air still smells much like smoke as well. The parking space I have in my apartment complex has ashes all around it. It's pretty warm where I am, and I would looove to open the window but I can't, as I want to avoid the smoke coming in. Soooo, yeah...I have it better than a lot of others (San Diego area, etc), so far. Hopefully it stops soon and the fire can be fully contained. =\
10. I live in San Bernardino, CA. Actually, I live in Highland, CA, which is far worse, because the Lake Arrowhead fire is right over the mountain, and its not contained, at all, which makes me scared that it will come over the mountain, and burn the houses. At school, there was a fire somewhere in the mountain, wait, there was like 3 of em, kinda little, but the smoke was everywhere, and we had to run cross country, and i was dieing. all my clothes smell like its burnt, and its so so sad because i know some people that lost there homes in 2003, and this is like a terrible memory for them, and i would feel so terrible if there houses got burned again. this is terrible
11. I live in Laguna Hills, a fire was set(arson) in 3 spots in Santiago Canyon which has traveled its way into where we are able to actually see flames. I work further out here in Rancho Santa Margarita, right next to Coto De Caza and we are worried, not so much that the fire will travel to us, but that more fires might be actually set by arsonists. I saw 2 fires on the way to work this morning. My parents are in San Diego and have not been evacuated, but they left work early due to power outages on Monday, today and yesterday they stayed home due to road closures. My fiancés parents are in Santa Clarita and were evacuated, the fire burned all around his little brother's school. My brother is in Anaheim Hills and a fire broke out behind a Ralphs down the hill from him. My work is having a hard time getting people where they need to go with all the freeways messed up. It seems like all my family and friends are greatly affected by it.