Views from Medina Road

I see our SoCal wildfire has attracted the attention of Kathryn Cramer, at least to the extent of wondering about mapping tools. A legitimate concern; moreso than a flood, the location of a wildfire is difficult to pin down from news broadcasts or any other source, while it's underway. On Friday the winds had died down such that a pall of brown smoke descended over the entire west San Fernando Valley; no apparent source of the smoke, let alone visible sign of flame, was possible. Today the skies are clear and the fire under considerable control. Lost, perhaps, among the misleading headlines ("thousands of acres of suburban LA in flames" it said on Netscape's homepage, ignoring the fact that most of the fire was in Ventura County, and in the hills, hardly the 'suburbs') and the alarming photos was that the response to the fire has apparently been a phenomenal success. Only two houses were burned, the fire was controlled, and credit is being given to lessons learned from the disastrous fires of 2 years ago, and building and brush control codes that have been in place the last couple decades. (The first house, at least, that burned was built in 1946.)

FYI, on the map that Kathryn links and thumbnails, I live just southeast of the 101 freeway and Topanga Canyon Blvd, which runs north-south between the 27 designator and word 'Topanga' on the map.

I am leaving within the hour for a half-weekend in the low desert, Palm Springs area, and... and... I'm not taking my computer. So I hope nothing earth-shattering happens while I'm away from e-mail.

P.S. I seem to be getting comment spam. Hmm.