The Gap Fire

The Gap Fire is burning in the hills north of our house. It started Tuesday afternoon and has been slowly and steadily moving down the mountains in our direction. Currently, it's 2-3 miles away. I think we are safe because there's a big avocado and lemon orchard between us and the wild lands where the flames are. Plus, I'd imagine Cathedral Oaks Rd. would be a good barrier, unless the winds pick up substantially.

The power went out last night during dinner and didn't come back on until past midnight. This morning I heard it was out for the entire south coast--that's 150,000 people! Note-to-self: go buy a battery-powered radio.

As the map shows, our little fire is pretty minor compared to the rest of the state, but it's always disconcerting to see flames from your front door. The area of the fire is up to 2,400 acres, ten times its size yesterday. Still minimal containment.

I took some pictures yesterday.

In the morning, all I could see from my street were wispy plumes of white smoke. It seemed as if they had knocked down the fire pretty good.


Then as I went out for my second recovery ride of the day, some spots had really flamed up and the smoke was thicker and darker. A lot of ash was raining down.


We went for a walk after dinner and saw that the fire had spread laterally along the mountains. Occasionally we'd see huge flare-ups which were probably big dry trees catching on fire.


Some nice homes up above Cathedral Oaks. Most of them now have a fire truck parked in the driveway to defend them if necessary.


The smokescreen cast an eerie orange light around the neighborhood.


A lot of spectators gathered at the end of our block. When the crowd grew to about 100 people, the CHP came through and told people to get off the road. The traffic was impeding the fire vehicles.


Mostly just white ash was falling from the sky, but occasionally we'd see entire burnt leaves like these. They were probably still burning while rising in the fire's updraft. The wind can carry them several miles before they float back to the ground. Of course the big fear is what could happen if they're still burning and they land on something flammable in the neighborhood!