Chantry Flats Fire

Chris, Riley, and I went on a hike in Monrovia Canyon today. (I'll add a separate post about that later.) We left the canyon at 3:10 PM to pick up Chris's car from the VW service center in Pasadena. After driving about two blocks on Foothill, we saw smoke billowing up from the foothills in which we had just been hiking, albeit a couple of miles away from where we were.

This was my view of the fire from the street outside the VW dealership in Pasadena at about 3:30 PM.

This was my view of the fire from our backyard at about 5:30 PM.

This was my view of the fire from the parking lot of McDonald's on Foothill, about 2.5 miles from our house, at 8:00 PM.

When I took the above picture, the parking lot and nearby streets were lined with people in their cars eating fast food and watching the fire. Very surreal.

Since we don't have TV, I've been trying to monitor the fire through streaming video from the local news stations and through neighborhood bloggers. As of this writing, the fire has burned about 100 acres, with some flames reaching 60 feet high, and temporarily stranded about 100 hikers up near Chantry Flats, including several dozen Boy Scouts. The city of Sierra Madre has begun voluntary evacuations. The good news is that the fire is burning slowly and we have very little wind. The fire departments expect to have the fire extinguished within 24 hours.

Update, 10:00 PM: Sierra Madre has begun mandatory evacuations.

Update 12:00 AM: Fire is moving north away from homes, although 100 homes have been evacuated in Sierra Madre as a precaution.

Update, Sunday, Apr. 27, 6:40 AM: The inside of the house smells like smoke now and there's an orange haze hanging along the hills to the west of us. I've been looking for an update on the state of the fire. It looks like the winds picked up last night. Officials now say it will be 2 to 3 days before they expect the fire to be contained.

Update, 4/27/08, 8:30 AM: 350 acres burned; 200 homes evacuated; fire 5% contained. The fire shifted in a southwest direction during the night and is still burning north over the ridge into the wilderness of the Angeles National Forest. We are southeast of the fire and live about a mile south of the foothills, so I don't think we are in any danger of evacuation. Riley and I are headed out for the day to the LA Times Festival of Books. Will check in later.

Update, 4/27/08, 3:00 PM: 400 acres burned; 550 homes evacuated. As Riley and I drove back from the Book Festival on the 210, we got a good view of the burn site. The fire covered a lot of ground on the front side of the mountain. The only active burning I could see was up near the ridgeline, and it's definitely not moving any closer in our direction.

Update, 4/28/08, 10:00 AM: The fire flared up again last night and moved back downhill toward houses in Sierra Madre. It came very close to two homes, but firemen kept it at bay. From the train this morning, I could see steady smoke rising from the lower part of the mountain near populated areas (presently evacuated). It did spread a touch toward the east, but is still burning primarily in a western direction. At one point yesterday evening, the fire was 30% contained, but I think that changed during the night. Because of the rough terrain, the fire is best controlled during the daytime when airdrops can be conducted. Time to extinguish fire now estimated to be 4 to 7 days.

All schools are closed in Sierra Madre. Riley's preschool in nearby Pasadena is keeping the kids inside all day out of the bad air. We're expecting lower temperatures and a marine layer to move in tomorrow, so maybe today will be the last of the bad days.

I've found the best coverage of the fire on The Foothill Cities blog . It has lots of great photos and up to the minute comments from local bloggers.