Los Angeles Times: Breaking News

Friday, May 11, 2007

Los Angeles Times: Breaking News

Los Angeles Times: Breaking News: "'It was pretty wild'

Tonya Saleda, 42, was operating on just three hours of sleep as she returned home to Avalon with her 7-year-old daughter, Emily, who has asthma, husband Jim and their dog, Honey.

'It was pretty wild. ... It looked like it was snowing, there was so much ash,' said Saleda, who manages a hotel on the Catalina waterfront.

She described streets filled with people carrying their pets to safety and covering their faces to protect against the smoke. Saleda grabbed a backpack and small suitcase crammed with clothes, birth certificates and Emily's stuffed baby hedgehog.

Judee Myers, 61, and her husband Rick, a 62-year-old doctor, both from Sacramento, had to cut their honeymoon short when they were evacuated from their waterfront hotel. 'It was like Dunkirk,' said Rick Myers of the evacuation from Avalon, referencing the Allied flotilla that evacuated troops from mainland Europe as the Nazis advanced.

His wife's escape plan was for them to jump out of their hotel room window into the ocean. He had other ideas.

'We've got the bar and we've got the water,' he said, adding that he opted to 'have another cocktail.'

-Susannah Rosenblatt

12:34 PM, May 11 2007
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How fires get their names

Every year in California thousands of wildfires start throughout the state. In most cases, the dispatch center sending the initial resources to a wildland fire will designate a name for the fire, but the first on scene engine or fire official can also name the incident. Fires are usually named for the area in which they start – a geographical location, local landmark, street, lake, mountain, peak, etc. Quickly naming the fire provides responding fire resources with an additional locater, and allows fire officials to track and prioritize incidents by name. For example during the Southern California Fire Siege of 2003, the largest wildland fire in California history, the Cedar Fire in San Diego County, was named after the Cedar Creek Falls area where it started. The destructive Old Fire, which burned during the same time period in San Bernardino County, was named after the road along which it started - Old Waterman Canyon Road.

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CFN - CALIFORNIA FIRE NEWS - CAL FIRE NEWS

Friday, May 11, 2007