Fires in CA. Family was evacuated.

Yea! Great news about your family!!! :)

I live in Sacramento area and feel for everyone down south :(

I am happy that your family is fine. That's great that their house was not damaged. I feel for the unlucky ones though.

Wow, i've been watching this on tv today! How sad!!
I'm SOOOOO glad your family all made out ok so far!
Will keep them in my thoughts and prayers,
Ang

Great news that your family is safe. I will be thinking of them.

Thank God!! I am so glad for you.

We have some close family friends in San Diego area. My Mom talked to them today, they were in the process of evacuating.

I am so glad your family is safe...I just watched the special on 20/20 about the fires...how awful for everyone there!!

Glad your family is safe!

How sad & scary for everyone out there!

Is this the worst Cali has ever seen from fires? What started it? Was it heat related or did a fool not put out a fire or throw a lit ciggy somewhere?

This is not the worst fire we've seen here...and there are many fires spanning from Malibu to San Diego.

sd, I'm very glad your family is safe and their homes weren't damaged. I was reading on the internet about how many homes were gone. Awful. Volley, I was thinking about you. They're not near you, are they?

Not near me but we are getting some smoke.

Damn. CA is always on fire. What's up with that? :?

Fire and surfing...thats us!

I just went to newsweek.com to look at the fire maps...people were making derogatory comments about Californians being able to recover because we are all rich...YEA RIGHT! People find a reason, even during tragedy, to make those comments. Peoples homes burned down to the ground and its getting worse!

My bank is evacuating offices down there and I am thinking of offering my home to some of my fellow employees affected by this fire.

volley, how kind of you! Those poor people. Losing their homes and all their belongings and then idiots say stupid things like "they're all rich". Okay, maybe the Beverly Hillbillies were on TV! Good Lord! I feel for everyone. And, you doing that, well, that just makes you an angel. Gee, never thought I'd call you an angel! :lol: Honestly, that is a very generous thing you're going to do.

Volley that is very generous and kind hearted of you. Not everyone is rich, but it is devastating even if you are rich. The only difference is for the rich it is only devastating emotionally and the not rich it is devastating emotionaly and financially.

I am glad to hear your family is ok.

The only reason people think everyone is so rich in CA is because it is an expensive place to live in most areas. I just see it as people having bigger debt with a mortage and car payments.. ect.

At church ones our pastor was telling us that yes, he had a nice home and a nice car and that many people do. But he likely also had more debt than what we had because of those bills and not to be envious. I learned that lesson when I was in jr high still.

I agree --even if this started near San Diego where homes are 1/2 million plus--no one deserves to get their house burned down with all personal lifelong belongings--inside joke in California is if you can deal with earthquakes and fires---better than hurricanes storms snow tornadoes etc--people are still migrating here because even with what's going on --living conditions are still better!!!!

Chargers,
Ditto for me--I am very glad that everyone's OK. Here in Northern CA, one of my dear friends at work was terrified because her grandsons were right in the heart of things, 17 miles away from it and her daughter in law was at work in the Sheriff's Dept out there, with her son being in Japan for work. You can see where this was leading. Her grandsons are 16 and 12 and she was on the cellphone with her oldest one telling him to watch his brother and leave right when they got the warning. Everybody's OK, thank god.

Ok-I've been watching/reading about the CA fires but can someone tell me how it started?

Tweety-There are about a dozen large fires spanning almost 200 miles in proximity...no definite cause for one or all as of yet. :(

oh ok....I've been trying to figure out how it started but I could never catch that....how sad it is so far......

SD- I am so glad your faily is safe-that's what matters. I will keep them in my thoughts and prayers-as well as the other people affected by this..karen

sdchargers I am happy that your family is well. I live in the Sacramento area and many of my coworkers have family in the fire area. So far everyone is safe but I just saw on the news that over 1500 homes/buildings have burned.

My prayers are with you all on this :!:

Arson is being investigated for one of the 16 fires, the Santiago Fire in Orange County.

Looks like we have a Sacramento contingent around here! :P I'm a Pocket area kid! :)

My boyfriend's son lives less than 5 miles away from the Santiago Fire in Orange County. Thankfully, it appears they were able to control it on the side he lives on, and I haven't seen any movement in the direction of his house at all. Unfortunately, the Cleveland National Forest is now burning, which might cause the fire to really explode, since it has a ton of trees to burn. :(

My thoughts are with everyone down south and those with friends and family down there. I hope that they keep gaining control of the fires.

WOW! Go Sactown! 8) (and we're all in debt!) sorry, not funny but you know the cost of living around here....awful.

The winds died down a bit so that should hopefully help with the containment. Glad to hear your boyfriends son is going to be okay!

volley, I had to "set my mother straight" tonight! She was complaining about being tired of hearing all the stories of the fires in CA. She said "Hell, they're all millionaires, they can just rebuild." OMG! :shock: I think I went on a 15 minute rant about that comment! Poor thing. I kind of felt bad when I was done, but it made me think of our conversation here regarding this. Like I always say - "You don't know until you've lived it". Just because a person resides in CA does not mean they are a movie star. I pray to God things get better there.

See, that's something else that bugs me... a lot of people are making the assumption that the people that have been evacuated are white and rich. Last I checked, the majority of the evacuees are in San Diego... a place where 30% of the population is hispanic and 10% of the population is african american. San Diego is a very racially diverse city, almost as much as Sacramento is (and Sacramento was dubbed the most racially diverse city in the US a couple of years back.)

Yes, a lot of stars lost their homes in the Beverly Hills fire, but far more middle to lower class people lost theirs in the other 18 or so. Fires don't distinguish between race or class.

And a million bucks buys a decent 3-4 bedroom home in most sections of SoCal (and in the Bay Area.) We're up to around the 500k range in Sacramento.

It's uneducated people (sorry, my mother included!) that make these claims. I'm sorry, but I stand up for everyone. And it ticks me off when people make assumptions.

Not always, though, cannr. I was listening to the radio on my way into work this morning and even Adam Carolla was talking about the difference between the New Orleans Katrina victims (emphasizing that they were mostly black) vs. the mostly white SoCal fire evacuees.

Grr. Just, grr.

The other one I've heard that made me want to cringe was 'oh, let the liberals burn!' because, you know, we're all liberal white tree hugging hippies in California and have no diversity at all. :P

I may be a tree hugging hippie, but I'm an independent, dangit! :P

iguana-Ya know I gotta add my 2 cents!! and I second your GRR!!!

Our wages here do not come close to matching the cost of living.....$500k home, everything. I love CA so I am not complaning but my point is that a very small population would be considered rich. Our central valley and parts of southern california are more poor that some of the Katrina affected areas....no I am not comparing but I am saying that there are some damn poor people affected by this.

Some of my inlaws in Redlands (hispanic)live 12 to a 2 bedroom house and pick fruit for a living. They are happy though......they have their healthy family and cherish all that they have.


One of the reasons I love living here is due to the diversity.

I hope everyone on SoCal pulls out okay. I personally have 11 co-workers that are without a home. :(

So now my 2 cents:
I think it's ridiculous to say that "ALL" people in CA are rich or millionaires! But for the sake of the agruement let's say they ALL ARE! (and i know they're not) but if they were, does that make it ok that people are losing their homes?? Everything they've worked their whole lives for? Things that can NEVER be replaced?!?!
That is the MOST ridcioulous thing i've ever heard!
I have loads of sympathy for these folks! I understand what it means to lose what u've worked ur whole life for!!! (my family lost lots for Katrina in MS)
Sorry for ranting but that just blows me away and thank goodness i have NOT heard anyone say it!!!
:mad:
Ang

Nail on the head Ang!....whether its a cardboard box or a mansion, a home is a home!

I originally saw the comments from people posting the other day on newsweek website.

Yeah, I love my two bedroom, 1 bath apt in Northern CA that I pay 1100 bucks a month for in rent...and this is CHEAP in my town!!!!!

That is cheap where you are (since I know the area) :wink:

Ok i know this may seem silly to u guys in CA but me and hubby watch flip that house all the time and we've had these long discussions in the past about the housing market in CA!! Years ago hubby was offered a very good job in CA with a water company but after looking into it more it really wasn't that great of an offer!
Seems the pay would be a LOT higher with that kinda housing market! :shock: With what u guys spend on an average home we could buy a HUGE home here and our housing market is on the high end also but NOT nearly like CA!
Ang

The pay? Its not...in some places sure its higher but when homes run $500-600k for a 1 story, it doesnt go far.

In the past, yes, our market was on FIRE where you could buy a 50 year old house for $700k+.

My coworkers in North Carolina are appalled at what we pay for stuff.

And with these fires, EVERYONE will feel the effects in the costs of certain produce.

ks, $1100 per month for an apartment? :shock: OMG! Hell, I'd have to be some kind of hooker or something to live out there! Standing on the corner, cigaratte in my mouth, "Hey, baby............." Oh.Sorry.

Here in NY 1100.00 per month wont even get you a small(tiny) studio apt.

It is amazing the difference in the cost of things when you go from one area of the country to another. We so badly want to move back to NY but can not afford it...my house in upstate NY would cost about 300,000 to 350,000. My bil bought a house about 5 years ago and paid 265,000 and it is only 1200 square feet. In some places that would be cheap for a house in others, it would be so expensive.

Yep, yep. I pay $870/month for a 770 sq. ft. 2 bedroom/1 bath apartment in Sacramento, which seems to be mid-range price-wise. In the bay or SoCal, the same apartment would be in the $1100-$1300 range, I'm sure.

Also, the houses here include NO land whatsoever....a small porch and a patch of grass.

my mom spent 4 months at Scripps in San Diego critical condition ward--I met many wonderful people in time I spent there during her recovery--most employees that I formed relationships with --can not afford homes and never will be able to in that area! even though they are making way more money than central valley California employees at hospitals where I live -- and most San Diego hospital employees I met at that time lived in apts.-- I have relatives who are in real estate in that area but established themselves more than 20 years ago-- and say that many people in homes there today have 4-5 families living in them--so even though there are many rich people in this area there are also many low income people in the service industry in this area serving the high income others--I have a distant cousin who rents out a room in his home to pay for mortgage! --cost of living in Ca vs. pay rate unless you are rich-- is unbelievable--but people do it because they believe the advantages out way the disadvantages-- and anyone involved in this tragedy has been in my prayers and frugal attempts at donations and help in the past week! God Bless You All !! The rich people are not being burned--hard working Americans are suffering through a very serious tragedy and any unfavorable comment about this situation is simply from someone who doesn't understand what's really going on! Don't compare to Katrina--compare cost of living to income ratio--and this will reveal the tragedy to those in doubt!

Another fellow Californian on the board!!

Well said Hanky!!

p.s. from what I have read so far people who have died are from the Indian Reservation and Mexican border who refused to leave-- I read a story today that the really rich have private people who came and sprayed homes with fire retardants and didn't depend on state emergency assistance!They had the private money to protect their property! and didn't get burned!

I agree with the :shock: for $1100 for rent. I pay $500 for a 3 bed. duplex with a 1 1/2 car garage and a nice big yard. Heck my dad sold his house and was paying less for a house payment and he had a 3 bed. 3 bath. ranch style house with a bar/rec room fin. basement and a park like yard ( yes I would have bought it but I didn't want the hour drive to work)

But now back on topic lol. I feel bad for everyone that has to deal with the fires. I know how bad it can be to lose everything you ever worked for and to lose things that cannot be replaced (long story won't get into to it here lol) But we also came close to losing everything up at our cabin, some a-hole decided it would be funny to start a fire when it was red flagged up there and ended up burning hundreds of acres, the dumba$$ :evil: So my heart and prayers go out to everyone affected by the fires :rose:

my younger bro here in Ca had home catch on fire in 2001--Christmas EVE--local news -- story terrible tradgedy from personal belongings lost-- where my town all donated--he said afterward that he prayed for months every day "God thank you for what happened"--he almost died trying to pull uninsured 1960 Harley out of garage which was on fire but he ended up with home being paid for and went on to better and bigger investments--not the same as what has happened with wildfires now! these people are not millionaires !!wake up people in this country who are passing judgment please!

Hooray for the rain we received today in Ca!!! :P :lol: :D

And its cooled of quite a bit on So Cal!! But we are still in the 80's up here in the northern area.