Hollywood Fire 3/30/07@2:23pm

Barbie · Post by **Barbie** » 03-30-2007 04:26 PM

Hollywood Fire is about 2 miles from us. If the winds prevail towards it, we should be okay. If the winds change, we could have to evacuate all our animals in a very short amount of time. Thankfully, Lake Hollywood is accessible to the scooper 'copters, and hopefully they can stop it before it climbs up and over towards the Hollywood Sign. We've right beneath the Sign in the foothills. All of you who believe it in, please THINK POSITIVE. This is the first time in more than 40 years we have been this threatened. The brush is deathly dry due to less than 2.5" of rain all season, and we're a tinderbox, waiting for a match.

SETIsLady · Post by **SETIsLady** » 03-30-2007 04:28 PM

prayers coming your way Barbie ! Stay safe.

Shirleypal · Post by **Shirleypal** » 03-30-2007 04:33 PM

Hope all stays well in your area Barb.

tiffany · Post by **tiffany** » 03-30-2007 04:38 PM

Thinking positive outcome for you Barb....

Barbie · Post by **Barbie** » 03-30-2007 04:40 PM

Good Grief - this is scary!

SETIsLady · Post by **SETIsLady** » 03-30-2007 04:43 PM

I would be out of there all ready. Barbie you live right smack in Hollywood huh ?

Raggedyann · Post by **Raggedyann** » 03-30-2007 04:43 PM

Hope the wind changes Barbie. Keeping my fingers crossed for you, hubby and critters.

Barbie · Post by **Barbie** » 03-30-2007 05:08 PM

SETIsLady wrote: I would be out of there all ready. Barbie you live right smack in Hollywood huh ?

We've got all important papers in the car, cat carriers open and stacked. Wish I had a laptop to take with me, but he's never felt it was necessary for me to have one. He DOES, however, have everything backed up on chips in his pocket, so I guess most of our important computer things will be saved.
He just commented that maybe we wouldn't have to worry about Spring Cleaning... (the perpetual optimist!)

Like I said, I'm glad the lake is so close and the scoopers can get to it.

BUT. If that tower above the Sign goes down, none of the LAPD, Sheriffs Department, 911, and other inter-necessary services can be interactive. That happened to us a couple of years ago. And that's scary for the entire city.

Shirleypal · Post by **Shirleypal** » 03-30-2007 05:14 PM

I am glad you are prepared Barbie, I was in the 1991 Oakland Firestorm, I was lucky I didn't lose anything but many of my friends lost everything. I was away from my home for almost a week staying with a friend and had no idea if I had a home or not.

Barbie · Post by **Barbie** » 03-30-2007 06:00 PM

It APPEARS they have it all under control ... but if the Santa Ana winds pick up and blows it toward more dry chaparral, it could become a threat, again.

Here's where we live ... and THIS (altho it's all piped with sprinklers and kept cleared of dry brush) is why we always get so freaked.

Barbie · Post by **Barbie** » 03-30-2007 06:24 PM

Shirleypal wrote: I am glad you are prepared Barbie, I was in the 1991 Oakland Firestorm, I was lucky I didn't lose anything but many of my friends lost everything. I was away from my home for almost a week staying with a friend and had no idea if I had a home or not.

Shirley, that had to be awful - the NOT knowing, as well as your friends who suffered such terrible losses. I'm so glad you and they were safe!

The only other time I've been this freaked over a fire, was Thanksgiving week 1980... I was in the process of moving from Orange Cty. CA into an apartment at Gower and Franklin, in Hollywood. I'd just taken a job in Hollywood, so I was working all day every day, then making the 125-mile roundtrip every evening, moving things from down there to up here.

Things I needed immediately were always taken into the apartment at the other end of the apartment building at night, but things not necessary, I locked in my storage unit, above my car's parking space, in the apartment carport. On Tuesday before Thanksgiving I came down with the flu; had to go to the doctor, and he sent me home with antibiotics and told me to go straight to bed. When I reached my building, someone else was parked in my space, and I was far too sick to go knocking on everyne's door to find out who owned the renegade car. So I parked in the hotel lot across the street and went to bed.

Someone torched the car that was parked in my spot, later that night, and everyone in the building lost their vehicle (and everything in the storage compartments) ... except my car (which wasn't there) and a bandleader who had all of his group's uninsured instruments inside his van, which was parked next to my space. Greg leaped through the flames, backed out the van, and made it about 300 feet before two cars totally exploded. One car engine ended up in the kitchen sink of the apartment of the 2nd floor at the other end of the building from where I lived, and I didn't know anything was going on until the firemen broke in my front door with a hatchet after my downstairs neighbor convinced them he KNEW I was up there, because I was very sick and taking medication.

When all was done ... my apartment and the one below me still had running water and electricity. No one else did, and the apartments at the other end of the building were a total loss, as were all the cars and the storage facilities. My car, across the street, was used to house ALL my pets and those from the other tenants, until they could either go back into their units or go somewhere else until the apartment building was repaired. NONE of the dogs/cats/a parrot were in carriers - and I guess all of them realized they just had to 'get along' until the crisis was over. (None of the pets knew each other.) The only thing of value (that I consider NOW to be of value) was the implant that fell from my great-grandmother's nose when I was a 'tween -- I'd carried it around in a small jewelry box since 1958.

I sifted through those ashes in that burned area for days - until the owners had the construction crews come in and clean up/re-build. Never found anything ... not my class ring, not the implant (altho at that time I didn't know what it was; I just knew it was important) - not one shred of anything recognizable. In retrospect, the loss of that implant is even more devastating than it was then, because NOW I know expectly what it was.

I'm seeing lots of WHITE smoke now, and the reporters are saying the fire is contained ... I sure hope it stays that way.

Thanks to all of you who posted.

Barbie · Post by **Barbie** » 03-30-2007 07:45 PM

And now, if you can believe it (as if our air isn't bad enugh from the fire!) HERE COME THE CHEMTRAILS!

tiffany · Post by **tiffany** » 03-30-2007 08:14 PM

Boy you do have lots of flora and fauna there Barbie. Living in the Sierra's we were always on the watch...a couple of fires came close but those hotshots are remarkable.

My aunt and uncle lost everything in the Oakland firestorm including their cars......they were almost engulfed in the fire............I remember that we were rockin and rollin that year too.

Divinorumus · Post by **Divinorumus** » 03-31-2007 07:28 AM

That's a very pretty area you live within Barbie. Despite how green it is there, don't you worry about living so close to the Hoolywoodians? Mother nature has that whole area heavily targeted in her revengeful war plans. Please be careful and stay safe and be ready to escape in case you should ever find yourself suddenly surrounded by them hoodlywoodians engaged in heavy conflict and battle with the elements of nature! Of course, on the other hand, where on earth is it now safe while we're at war with nature? Thanks for sharing those before images. That first picture where there is that Hoolywood giraffe on the top of that hill with all that smoke in the background is precious and just about says it all, huh?

SETIsLady · Post by **SETIsLady** » 03-31-2007 08:52 AM

Illinois teens start Hollywood fire

Barbie, how ya doing out there ? What a beautiful home you have