Western Railroad Discussion > LA Fires

How are the RR's fairing in all this craziness out here on the west coast? What lines are affected by the fires. But lets not be remiss in all this devestation, How are the residents involved in all this doing? My heart goes out to all affected by the flames. Stay strong all of you LA and Californian's in this disaster.  Ben

Ths for your concerns.  1000+ structures destroyed.  5 dead.
SO far, AFAIK. metrolink service suspended between Lancaster and Vista Canyon on the Soledad canyon line
All else seems to be operating normally.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/08/25 22:59 by pdt.

Been a pretty crazy 24 hours.    Co-worker had to evacuate from the Hurst Fire in Sylmar.    He's still out for now but it looks like it skipped his home.  
The owner of the Christmas Tree Lane Model Railroad Club in Altadena may have been affected by the fire.   Haven't heard further info, but the media was reporting from his street and it looked like a warzone.   Also concerned for Fred Hill, who owns the Whistle Stop in Pasadena.   I believe he lives in the fire zone.

Keep hearing about relatives who have lost their home in the Pallisades Fire.   There's so much destruction, just about everyone in this city is going to know someone who lost something.  
I myself shut down our store in Northridge today.    Haven't done that one time since the 1980's, other than for the riots and holidays.    Just too much going on in and around the area.

Jason Eminian
Smith Brothers Hobby Center
Northridge, CA
 

While the current wildfires are extremely devastating and my heart goes out to all those affected, the current fires (six of them at the moment I am writing this) are affecting a very, very small portion of the vast Southern California/Greater Los Angeles area.  Only one fire, the Lidia Fire, is anywhere near an active railroad line (in this case the Metrolink Antelope Valley Line/Metrolink Valley Subdivision).  While it may seem to those watching TV that all of Southern California is on fire, its not.  My house, in the Inland Empire community of Fontana has been hit with very high winds (Fontana is know for high winds but these were really strong this time) but we have no fires currently anyway nearby.

I think the biggest concern here is that while these fires are affected an overall small percentage of the area's residences, you just don't know where the next one is going to pop up.  One must be prepared and ready at all times, just in case.  I can watch my County FIre departmentr's incidents via the PulsePoint app and they are responding to roughly a new fire every hour (it is a large county by land area) and fortunately the are either false alarms or dealt with quickly.  My appreciation goes out to all those firefighters working hard right now and everyday to keep us safe.

Things should start improving because the winds have started to die down. The high winds warning has been lifted which means the helicopters and water bombers can do their thing.
Some of them even have night vision goggles so they can do drops at night.

Well,
I just sent this to my kids.Aunt Cathy just texted that all of the Schmidt's (Aunt Joan's Step kids) have had to evacuate to escape the wildfires in LA.I wasn't aware they were all in that area. They are all safe, but their homes may not be. I'm guessing the railroads are less affected than residents.
Gonut

Our friends lost their house and workspace behind their house in Altadena in Southern California. They texted us that they made it out with their lives. They are still in shock and it is tough for them to process. Our hearts go out to them and all those who have such  losses. When you have friends who have gone through losses like these, it makes it more real beyond what we see on the news.

Sadly this is normal when the Santa Ana's kick up.

Poor clearing of the area and no water in the hydrants hasn't helped either.

Posted from Android

My sister on the Pasadena/Altadena border evacuated last night.  The Eaton Canyon Fire is 2 miles to the east, then a spot fire started less than a mile to the west of her place.  Tonight my brother is staying at her home, and all the neighbors are in their homes, but they weren't last night during the worst winds!  This LA Times (possible paywall) has sad images of before and after of two Eaton Fire neighborhoods.  The second one is really bad.  You can move the center bar left and right to show before and after.  Really severe damage, it's probably where they found the 5 bodies.https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-08/shocking-before-and-after-satellite-images-show-destruction-of-malibu-and-altadena-neighborhoods
If the link is removed, Google "before and after altadena".

mapboy

While poor clearing of brush in the past as been a problem.....its been improved a lot as Cal Fire and local fire depts have been getting after ppl about  clearing a defensible area, and not having pilrs of dead brush around.    Ive been watching the TV coverage for a lot of the past 24 hours, and most of the embers have been been from structure fires, not trees and brush, especially down in pasadena, which is relatively urban.

The real culprit is th high winds that blow hot embers up underneath the eaves of houses and under tile roofs.   If you dont live on the west coast, ur not use to having all the house built out of wood.  Brick, stone and mason houses are just about unheard of. 
Wood Pallets that are only a few years old out here, just go up like tinder in this dry climate.  Just imagine how dry lumber thats 50 or 100 years old goes up when there's excessive heat and hot embers.
And when it comes to dry..most of the country averages 3-4 inches of rain a month.  The precipitation in Pasadena since May 2024, has been zero.

Typical high winds in a strong santa ana, are 40 gusting to 60.  At 830 wed night when wind maxed, Burbank recorded winds at 58G83.  The night choppers couldnt  dump water on the fire not only bc of high winds to fly in, but the wind was so strong and gusty , that hitting a spit with water would be nearly impossible, and must of the water would evaporate before reaching the ground. 

I was listening to the LA fire radio feed too, and not only were resources  stretched thin with no air support, personel were spending a lot of effort getting out ppl who wouldnt leave their homes till the last second, and ppl who were non-ambulatory...and clearing out cars that ppl just abandoned in the streets so fire equipment could get thru.     There were way more structures destroyed (1200+ ) than the firefighters could defend.

The fires themselves were not physically huge by fire standards, but they were in densely populated areas.

Like tornadoes, if a hugh tornado occurs in a field , it no big dear.  but if even a medium size tornado goes thru highly populated suburb, its "a huge deal.

 

There's plenty of water in the hydrants for putting out small fires, but when you have a multitude of trucks sucking on the system, then you end up with low or no pressure. the other problem is when the power goes out to the wells, it's only a matter of time until the storage tanks go dry. There isn't a water system on the planet that would support the amount of equipment that is on the lines. 

goduckies Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sadly this is normal when the Santa Ana's kick
> up.
>
> Poor clearing of the area and no water in the
> hydrants hasn't helped either.
>
> Posted from Android

So many homes in the Pasadena area, and other areas, have oak and other trees scratching on the roofs.  Definitely no defensible space when you have that.  It's so dry here, I wonder if you can seal the attic vents to prevent embers from entering without causing humidity problems.

With this wind, no one knows where the next spot fire will start, and then it torches the neighborhood before there's enough firefighters to save the rest of the houses.

mapboy

According to Cal Fire (they told us)  Live Oaks  (the ones that stay green all year) are a good defense against fire embers, as the leaves catch the embers, and the green leaves dont burn very well.  We have live oaks around our house..anything that helps keep embers  out of the sofets or attic...is a good thing..  The biggest problem isnt trees...its high dry grass and piles of dry wood or trash.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/25 00:03 by pdt.

Looks like Soledad Canyon was burning by late yesterday.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

---

In the days of wooden snowsheds on the Donner Pass route, didn't the Southern Pacific maintain a steam engine powered fire train?

Updated ...  adapt the TankTrain concept to supply water.  Monitors (nozzles) could be remote controlled --programmed--, as could the train itself. Be useful for protecting an wooden deck / trestles in the area. Could it snorkel from a river, reservoir the line passes over? If retardant was sprayed, the right of way could be a long, wide firebreak, requiring lesser FD resources.

Just a thought ...

* JB *

prr4828 Wrote:

> Updated ...  adapt the TankTrain concept to
> supply water.  Monitors (nozzles) could be remote
> controlled --programmed--, as could the train
> itself. Be useful for protecting an wooden deck /
> trestles in the area. Could it snorkel from a
> river, reservoir the line passes over? If
> retardant was sprayed, the right of way could be a
> long, wide firebreak, requiring lesser FD
> resources.
>
> Just a thought ...
>
> * JB *

BNSF has sets of tank cars scattered about the system that are already like this. Denver has a cut of (I believe) 9 with a caboose that has nozzles on it.
My understanding is that they are loaded with water for quick reaction.
I was told a story where somebody pulled a pin on the cut one night. So when the cars were moved to a different track the hoses tore and drained the block.
Last time I was in Amarillo, I had seen at least one, but, it was dark and I couldn’t see if there were others.

Posted from iPhone

pdt Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> According to Cal Fire (they told us)  Live Oaks 
> (the ones that stay green all year) are a good
> defense against fire embers, as the leaves catch
> the embers, and the green leaves dont burn very
> well.  We have live oaks around our
> house..anything that helps keep embers  out of
> the sofets or attic...is a good thing..  The
> biggest problem isnt trees...its high dry grass
> and piles of dry wood or trash.

In the nearly non-existant midwest prairie "savanna" landscape - occasional trees wihin fields - all the trees are oaks. They are fire-resitant. Without the fires, those landscapes slowly turn into forests filled with all the trees that aren't fire resistant. Oaks also are the most species-rich trees there are, with over 400 other species associated with them.

goduckies Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> and no water in the
> hydrants hasn't helped either.

Innuendo and misinformation spread by social media. 

4 times the usage for 15 straight hours greater than what was ever seen before draining the local tanks.

Combined with the fact that all fire fighting aircraft were essentially useless because of the high winds. Even though some water drops were attempted on Tuesday, the water was blown horizontally and never reached the fire.

Cold hard fact: Municipal water systems can not be reasonably designed to handle major long lasting community wide fires. You would have to triple the amount of local water storage, and what community is going to pay for that?

 

I've been thinking Mother Nature is getting even with California.  Feel bad for those who have lost everything in the fire.  Everyone's insuraance rates are going up because of thise.

Nick tharalson,
Marion, IA

Stop thinking.

ntharalson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've been thinking Mother Nature is getting even
> with California.  Feel bad for those who have
> lost everything in the fire.  Everyone's
> insuraance rates are going up because of thise.
>
> Nick tharalson,
> Marion, IA