Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I hope all is well With Mr Hall and CO tonight, I heard that fire is getting pretty close?

Take care, thinking 'bout ya!

RJ

I'm pretty sure things are fine in Santa Anna, but forum member Greg Feo lost his home and almost all possessions due to the fire in the Chattsworth area. Thankfully, he and his wife are safe. While Greg is not a prolific poster here, he is on several other boards including the Beat Gear Cavern.

Greg had an incredible collection of vintage guitars and amps, some of which he has posted photos of here. I understand that the fire came on so fast that he only had time to save a few instruments.

The fire is up North, you may be thinking of the Santa Ana winds that have fed the fire.

What the hell is happening in the US these days? Is it just my imagination or are you people just continually getting your bell rung by Mother Nature lately?? Good luck to you indeed.

It's a big country. Lots of space for bad things to happen. Then again, I do recall reading once that, overall, North America has the worst weather in the world. Or perhaps it was the most natural disasters.

I might have dreamed that one, though.

I am so shocked and saddened about what happened to Greg, though. He's a really nice guy, and had some incredible gear. But if it comes down to Greg or his gear, I'd rather have Greg around any day.

Santa Ana is at least 75 miles from Chatsworth.

Living is SoCal myself, there is little to no chance that RIC offices will be anywhere close to any of the wildfires. Santa Ana is in the middle of Orange County and is surrounded by miles of improved city. These fires affect the areas of suburbia that borders on unimproved empty land.

I hate to see were some one has lost most of his gear due to things like fires, floods, et al. Glad that Greg and family is safe.
Chatsworth is my old stomping grounds. Went to Chatsworth High. Can someone who lives in the area please enlighten me as to why they are refering to it as the 'Topanga Fire'? After all, Topanga is like...in the other direction...
Good luck to all who are in the area!!

I work in Northridge where you can see and smell the smoke. There's even ash settling on all of the cars here it's so close.

JH mentioned that the 1993 fire stopped in his "backyard", although I don't know how literally he means this.

I had just purchased a house in a beautifully hilly area of Irvine, CA, called Turtle Rock, at the time of that fire, which was called the "Laguna Canyon" fire, although it messed up more than just the Canyon. My own house was at the northeastern edge of the fire zone.

I went to my studio the morning of the fire, unaware that there even was a fire until news reports around noon mentioned a fire in the Canyon--about three miles from my house. By evening rush hour, I hopped on the San Diego Freeway to head home and as I climbed the hill at twilight, I could see a line of flames off in the distance, on the hilltops. I thought, "that's near my house", but refused to believe that the fire was anywhere near it.

As I got to a major intersection at the bottom of the hill near my house, there was a massive traffic jam. I was driving my Sunbeam Tiger with the hardtop off. There were embers falling all around. I got to the head of the line after about 20 minutes, the police turned me around and refused to let me up the hill. I drove back over some folks' lawns till I got to an empty street, and got out of there. I went back to Huntington Beach and slept on a friend's sofa.

I assumed my house and everything in it was lost. The next morning at 6:30, I was back at the police command post. They told me they were letting people up the hill beginning at 8 am. I got a good breakfast and came back. I was first in line. It was as quiet as a tomb. I was let through and drove very slowly. There was lots of ash on the street, and I remember it crunching under my tires.

I turned the corner onto my little street, and there was the house, untouched, although there was lots of ash everywhere.

It happened that, just as the flames started reaching the end of my street (about a block and a half away), the wind had shifted and blown the fire back upon itself, allowing the firefighters to get control of that front of the fire. By dawn it had burned itself out.

I had a girlfriend at the time who lived in Emerald Bay, a beautiful gated community on PCH, north of Laguna. The night of the fire, as I watched TV news from a friends' house, I watched my girlfriend's house go up in flames. She was in Europe that month, and was pretty philosophical about it by the time she finally arrived back in Southern California a couple of days later.

I was merely thankful that my own house had gotten out unscathed. When you live in a hilly or canyon area with lots of brush, September through November are always a bit touch-and-go.

I live in a canyon once again (will I ever learn) in Northern California, and it's much more organized here and now. We have practice drills once a month, and the firefighters are sticklers about keeping the brush cleared from properties. Fortunately, we had a pretty cool and wet spring and little summer to speak of, so this year things are very green.

I used to hang out at Stoney Point in Chatsworth.