Palm fans or Palm Talkers affected by So Cal Wildfires

[BS Man about Palms]

I thought it might be good to start a post in the main area to catch the attention of most regarding who may have been affected by the So Cal wildfires. 

I saw through a link provided by Dave that Some if not all of the Pauleen Sullivan properties have been burned or damaged in the  Ventura fire. Pauleen passed away some time back, but her legacy palm wise was monumental. 20'+ trunking Ceroxlons, arguably the most photographed Dypsis decipiens in the world and a trunking Lepidoracchis moreana are among some of her standing tributes. I am not sure of the condition of the homes, apartments or palms. Thankfully I don't think any human casualties, but plenty of property damaged. 

I do know in the San Diego area the Lilac fire just missed Braden Dejong, son of Bob DeJong , also known as @pogobob. @Josh-O had his showcase nursery and @pogobob had his house in the evacuation zone. I think they are just out of the area still closed.

I do believe that @Gonzer and Terry De graff wer in evacuation zones and @STEVE IN SO CAL just missed getting burnt and is still in a no return area. 

If anyone else knows of others known here affected, please let us know.

 

Thoughts and prayers go out to you.

[BS Man about Palms]

I should add that I know at least 5 or more Palm talkers that were within a couple miles (including myself) of some evacuation zones. For those unfamiliar with "Santa Ana" driven fires, at full force, the area is at single digit humidity and can have winds anywhere from 35-80 mph that can easily travel 5 miles in an hour.  

Calmer today, worse tomorrow but thankful that as far as Santa Ana wind events, this has been on the more mild side, however, the length has been nearly unprecedented. Normally a few days is the extent of the event...this one will approach two weeks. And with no measurable rain in 6+ months.. it's trouble waiting to happen.

[BS Man about Palms]

http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/55270-pray-for-ventura-california/

[BS Man about Palms]

http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/55268-here-we-go-again/

[Palm Tree Jim]

30 minutes ago, BS Man about Palms said:

I thought it might be good to start a post in the main area to catch the attention of most regarding who may have been affected by the So Cal wildfires. 

I saw through a link provided by Dave that Some if not all of the Pauleen Sullivan properties have been burned or damaged in the  Ventura fire. Pauleen passed away some time back, but her legacy palm wise was monumental. 20'+ trunking Ceroxlons, arguably the most photographed Dypsis decipiens in the world and a trunking Lepidoracchis moreana are among some of her standing tributes. I am not sure of the condition of the homes, apartments or palms. Thankfully I don't think any human casualties, but plenty of property damaged. 

I do know in the San Diego area the Lilac fire just missed Braden Dejong, son of Bob DeJong , also known as @pogobob. @Josh-O had his showcase nursery and @pogobob had his house in the evacuation zone. I think they are just out of the area still closed.

I do believe that @Gonzer and Terry De graff wer in evacuation zones and @STEVE IN SO CAL just missed getting burnt and is still in a no return area. 

If anyone else knows of others known here affected, please let us know.

 

Thoughts and prayers go out to you.

Spoke with Braden and his family and home are ok!

[Palm Tree Jim]

I hope we get good news from all of the San Diego people!

[pogobob]

All is well with both of the de Jong families and properties. Braden's Property was in the most danger as the fires were burning homes and structures within a few acres away. Our property was spared as the wind directed fires within a mile from us. Braden, Allison, and Odin stayed with us even though we were under evacuation orders. No rain in the foreseeable future. Stay alert and be safe everyone as these are trying times everywhere

[Gonzer]

Never (in my mind) was in any danger. Got the mandatory evac call at 9pm Thursday and just shook my head thinking that fire officials were getting ahead of themselves. The fire was miles away, following the river bed which is a good distance from our place with no vegetation whatsoever to add fuel. Another beef I've got is the claim by news services to tune into their websites for the latest updates. Turns out these "updates" were usually almost 12-24 hours old. Using video feed of the first day continuously for 3 days made one think the whole county was still on fire. As the fire neared it's end reporters still used terms such as "rampaging", "inferno", and "unimaginable" to describe what was basically a mop-up operation by the firefighters. Those guys were awesome to say the least (the firefighters, not the reporters). Although one close friend lost his house the LAFD knocked down a blaze within feet of another friend's property. I'm very glad Bob and Braden are OK as we thought right away of their situation, given where they live. Not a good place to be in a wildfire.

[GottmitAlex]

Prayers go out. 

[Cindy Adair]

5 hours ago, BS Man about Palms said:

I thought it might be good to start a post in the main area to catch the attention of most regarding who may have been affected by the So Cal wildfires. 

I saw through a link provided by Dave that Some if not all of the Pauleen Sullivan properties have been burned or damaged in the  Ventura fire. Pauleen passed away some time back, but her legacy palm wise was monumental. 20'+ trunking Ceroxlons, arguably the most photographed Dypsis decipiens in the world and a trunking Lepidoracchis moreana are among some of her standing tributes. I am not sure of the condition of the homes, apartments or palms. Thankfully I don't think any human casualties, but plenty of property damaged. 

I do know in the San Diego area the Lilac fire just missed Braden Dejong, son of Bob DeJong , also known as @pogobob. @Josh-O had his showcase nursery and @pogobob had his house in the evacuation zone. I think they are just out of the area still closed.

I do believe that @Gonzer and Terry De graff wer in evacuation zones and @STEVE IN SO CAL just missed getting burnt and is still in a no return area. 

If anyone else knows of others known here affected, please let us know.

 

Thoughts and prayers go out to you.

Wow! I have been trying to keep up with the wildfire news with intermittent internet, but now I should have known to come here for the latest.

I am so sorry about the losses and do hope all else can be saved.

Fires are much scarier than hurricanes and my heart goes out to all in harm's way.

[Josh-O]

It was unreal to say the least!! at 11:15 am the fires sparked out only 5 miles from my nursery. in the span of 30 minutes (11:45am) the sky was totally black with smoke. The fire grew from 25 acres to 4,100 acres in only 6-8 hours, a very fast moving fire no doubt

the winds had shifted, blowing the fire at a rate of 100 yards per 20 seconds. That is super scary to hear that coming through a police scanner, The tenant I have renting the house on the hill at my nursery is a police office so I was getting live updates and they were coming in. At one point there were 3 fixed wing aircraft flying over the nursery and dive bombing over the hill to my north (picture # 1 and 2 )out of sight to make a drop and then would re emerge to go get more fire retardant for the next drop. That plane was literally flying over Braden Dejong's house. super scary stuff. The pilot flying that DC9 had mad skills!!! There had to have been at least 20 helicopters making water drops in my line of sight. The winds were 30-35 mph sustained with gusts up to 45 mph at times and bone dry with only 9%humidity. Bob Dejong is my neighbor up the hill from me and it was nice to be in constant contact with him and his son Braden to keep tabs on the fire and there to help each other out in the event the fire hopped the hill.

The fire came as close as 1.5 miles as the crow flies before the winds died down and the humidity came back up. WOW!!!! If the Santa Ana's keep howling it would have been very different outcome for us.

keep in mind Bob's house is only 1/4 of a mile up the road from where all these pictures were taken and Braden's house was directly in the burn area over the ominous looking smokey hill. Its a total God thing Braden's house was spared

DC9 plane getting ready to drop over the hill

this pic was taken only 30 minutes after the fire broke out

a view from the edge of my nursery

a view from behind the "Fair View" garden

 

[Tracy S]

That is so scary. I'm glad you and your nursery are ok.

[Josh-O]

18 hours ago, Gonzer said:

Never (in my mind) was in any danger. Got the mandatory evac call at 9pm Thursday and just shook my head thinking that fire officials were getting ahead of themselves. The fire was miles away, following the river bed which is a good distance from our place with no vegetation whatsoever to add fuel. Another beef I've got is the claim by news services to tune into their websites for the latest updates. Turns out these "updates" were usually almost 12-24 hours old. Using video feed of the first day continuously for 3 days made one think the whole county was still on fire. As the fire neared it's end reporters still used terms such as "rampaging", "inferno", and "unimaginable" to describe what was basically a mop-up operation by the firefighters. Those guys were awesome to say the least (the firefighters, not the reporters). Although one close friend lost his house the LAFD knocked down a blaze within feet of another friend's property. I'm very glad Bob and Braden are OK as we thought right away of their situation, given where they live. Not a good place to be in a wildfire.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thinks the reporters got it all wrong. My wife and I keep shaking our heads every time the reporters keep going back to little 1' tall flaming hot spots (where they seemed to be doing most of the reporting from) and keep saying there was 0% containment. While there was no smoke nowhere in sight

[Josh-O]

23 hours ago, BS Man about Palms said:

I thought it might be good to start a post in the main area to catch the attention of most regarding who may have been affected by the So Cal wildfires. 

I saw through a link provided by Dave that Some if not all of the Pauleen Sullivan properties have been burned or damaged in the  Ventura fire. Pauleen passed away some time back, but her legacy palm wise was monumental. 20'+ trunking Ceroxlons, arguably the most photographed Dypsis decipiens in the world and a trunking Lepidoracchis moreana are among some of her standing tributes. I am not sure of the condition of the homes, apartments or palms. Thankfully I don't think any human casualties, but plenty of property damaged. 

I do know in the San Diego area the Lilac fire just missed Braden Dejong, son of Bob DeJong , also known as @pogobob. @Josh-O had his showcase nursery and @pogobob had his house in the evacuation zone. I think they are just out of the area still closed.

I do believe that @Gonzer and Terry De graff wer in evacuation zones and @STEVE IN SO CAL just missed getting burnt and is still in a no return area. 

If anyone else knows of others known here affected, please let us know.

 

Thoughts and prayers go out to you.

thanks for all your prayers!!!

[Josh-O]

5 minutes ago, Tracy S said:

That is so scary. I'm glad you and your nursery are ok.

thanks! the sad part is if you drive behind that hill there is some really bad damage and a lot of homes and cars burned to the ground

[Josh-O]

the scary part is the winds are coming back today. I hope there will be no more sick-o's who starts any more "Wild fires"

they should call them what they really are "Arson fires"

[Tracy S]

Yikes. My prayers are with you and your neighbors.

[Palm Tree Jim]

Josh......glad the family and nursery are OK.

Those pictures are crazy.

[BS Man about Palms]

I found a wide variance in coverage on the local stations. I stayed up until 1:30 am trying to see what was new... .First hand reports are the best.

One thing I've learned over the years from watching coverage and hearing it in person is if you are very near to one of these fires and think you will be leaving, start your car early and leave it idling. The giant fires can take so much oxygen from the air it can make them hard to start. This is one reason all the support , reporters etc. in the close vicinity leave them idling. Some people near Gary Levine died in a wildfire years back with one in the car trying to start it... :(

[Gonzer]

I believe Josh has summed it up about as succinctly as possible. The trouble (as I perceive it) is that in this day of lightning fast communications, media coverage, and especially over-zealous city administrators, we are told that in case of a natural(?) disaster to tune into your local blah, blah, blah, for the latest updates. CONSTANTLY told to do this! What good is it to follow this advice when the "latest" is fifteen #@$% hours old!? Any idea how many people, places, and things can burn to a crisp in fifteen hours? Technology has it's benefits, sure, but when not applied properly when called for or when officials make knee-jerk decisions (to fend off any future lawsuits) that make absolutely no sense well, I tend to get a little pissed. Again, glad all's well with my fellow forumites.

Edited December 10, 2017 by Gonzer

[Vari805]

Good to hear fellow PalmTalkers and their gardens are safe down south.   Santa Barbara has been in the smoke and ash since Monday when the Thomas Fire broke out in Santa Paula.  The air quality has been hazardous and unhealthy.  Ash has covered everything.  

Today my son and I had to get out of town, so we headed south (up wind) to Ventura.   I can confirm Pauleens home and apartments were safe.  And looking amazing as always.  We ended up at Golf & Stuff to have some fun, which has a decent Palm Collection as well   

However the Palm nursery on the 101 near Ventura was not as lucky.  

The fire has now burned through the Carpenteria foothills and into The Montecito foothills and backcounty.  Schools are closed through Tuesday due to air quality, and evacuation orders continue West.  

Prayers go out to all the families and homes effected by the fire or  in the path of the advancing fire line. 

[sbpalms]

It's been really bad. We were out of town today but my property is very close to a voluntary evacuation zone.  Air quality is terrible, and masks have been handed out. 

[Kris]

This is really sad...Every alternate years we hear about these wild fire in Cal ? Is someone doing this willfully.

 

[Hilo Jason]

Very relieved to hear that all the Palm Talk people are safe, and their gardens. Hopefully some rain heads that way soon. My Fallbrook house / garden, which is now a rental, was within 1 block of the mandatory evacuation area. I have many friends in town that were evacuated but thankfully all returned to their houses being ok. Some had the fire burn as close as 300 meters away from their house. Scary stuff! 

[Darold Petty]

17 hours ago, Vari805 said:

 

However the Palm nursery on the 101 near Ventura was not as lucky.  

 

Do you mean Rincon Palms ?   I have purchased some nice plants there.   

 

[BS Man about Palms]

Has anyone heard from Perry?

 

[Darold Petty]

Perry should be OK, his Mom's house is way out on the bluff, west of Hope Ranch; and his own home is way up at Grover Beach. 

[Vari805]

1 hour ago, Darold Petty said:

 

Yes Daryl, this was Rincon Gardens.  I have bought a handful of palms there.  My last purchase there was a 30" box Royal,  in 2012 that I had planted at my previous house.  I was shocked to find a Royal commercially grown so close to Santa Barbara.  They had field grown Royals too.  I would say 80-90% of their stock was field grown. Lots of kentias too.  So sad!

[Firepalm]

Very relieved to hear that Bob, Braden and Josh's places made it through this without damage.  I haven't had a chance to visit Braden's new nursery yet, but have been thinking about it all weekend just because it seemed like he was right in the path of this fire.  My place in Oceanside was about 2 blocks outside of the mandatory evacuation zone so we packed up just in case, but I think the closest the fire ever got was probably about 3 or 4 miles away.  

[Panamajack]

This has to be one of the warmest Decembers ever. Here in coastal Los Angeles we've had temperatures in the mid 80s for over a week now with breezy conditions in the early evening. Lows have been in the low 60s to high 50s. The 10 day forecast calls for highs in the low 70s and no rain in sight. I don't think I remember a December like this, and I've been in L.A for 18 years. Glad everyone is ok. Stay safe, people. 

[Pete in Paradise Hills]

The one year i take a two week late December vacation,   and we probably wont get rain?!

[Silas_Sancona]

10 minutes ago, Pete in Paradise Hills said:

The one year i take a two week late December vacation,   and we probably wont get rain?!

 

28 minutes ago, Panamajack said:

This has to be one of the warmest Decembers ever. Here in coastal Los Angeles we've had temperatures in the mid 80s for over a week now with breezy conditions in the early evening. Lows have been in the low 60s to high 50s. The 10 day forecast calls for highs in the low 70s and no rain in sight. I don't think I remember a December like this, and I've been in L.A for 18 years. Glad everyone is ok. Stay safe, people. 

 

10 minutes ago, Pete in Paradise Hills said:

The one year i take a two week late December vacation,   and we probably wont get rain?!

..I've heard the same thing from people here in Phoenix as well, regarding the degree of warmth being experienced this December. While only in the 70s, such day time highs are 8-12 degrees above what is considered " average" for this time of year locally.. and it's looking like the 70s is where we'll stay for at least the next 7 days as well. After breaking the 106 day streak of no rainfall with an amazing .07"  we're also looking dry through Christmas, per the same forecast that keeps the entire West coast bone dry, esp. the further south you head.  I won't be surprised if the overall winter breaks several long term records across the region.

As far as the fires go,  also glad to see that none of our members were directly impacted. Like Josh and Gonz had mentioned, I also saw several issues in regards to how well.. or not so... the media were covering the fires.. Best info I found while watching Twitter were updates from various sources closely following scanner traffic via local law enforcement/ fire departments.  Even so, there were several times many hours would go between updates from Cal fire, or other resources regarding current info on evacuation areas, acres burned, and/ or current progression..   On the flip side, having closely studied the subject, I can understand that conditions under the given circumstances can change so rapidly that up to date ..updates  are much more challenging.  "..an acre a second/ 40-65acres per min". Is an incredible ROS by any standard.

When all is said and done, it's very possible just the acerage burnt via the Thomas Fire alone could top the #1 spot as greatest CA incidents.. ( currently held by the Cedar Fire, San Diego: 273,246 acres) and this happening in DECEMBER..  quite sobering.. as is the potential that CA, and/ or the Southwest, could see a year round fire season more often in the future.

Many good tidbits worth browsing over via Daniel Swain- Weather West / CA. Weather Blog.. and acouple good blog entries via Bob Henderson over on Weather Underground.. 

 

[Moose]

Unfortunately the carnage continues. My son in Oregon has been spared to far