November CA Wildfire

Update 2 | Summary
Posting Date: November 19, 2008, 4:02:00 AM

Calmer winds and cooler temperatures provided some relief to firefighters battling three blazes in Southern California over the last five days. The most dangerous fire, the Freeway Complex Fire, is now 70% contained. In the San Fernando Valley, the Sayre Fire, which destroyed over 600 properties, is nearly 75% contained. The Tea Fire, which ignited in the hills near Montecito on Thursday, is now 100% contained. As of today, Tuesday, November 18, the fires reportedly have burned close to 42,000 acres (65 square miles) and have destroyed more than 1,000 houses, ranging from multimillion-dollar mansions to modest mobile homes. Nearly 1,000 other structures remain threatened in California. The causes of the three fires remain unknown, but human involvement remains a possibility in all three cases. The most devastating damage occurred in the Sayre Fire at the Oakridge Mobile Home Park, where the wood, aluminum siding, and tar roofs of the modular homes provided ready fuel for the fire. This incident prompted California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to call for changes in building codes to better protect mobile homes in future wildfires. Despite the easing winds, fire officials are still concerned about the unseasonably high temperatures and low humidity affecting the region today. According to AIR meteorologists, another round of weak Santa Ana winds may arrive by Friday or Saturday. These winds should not approach the strength of the earlier Santa Anas and are not forecast to pose a significant fire threat. While the situation on the ground seems to have stabilized substantially and the diminished winds have aided firefighting efforts, the perimeters of the fires—the outer edge or boundary of a fire—have been changing significantly during the last few days. Yesterday, California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner announced that he was declaring an “insurance emergency” in the affected areas. The declaration should help speed up the claims process by allowing insurance companies to send in adjusters from outside California to assist their staff. The AIR Wildfire team is closely monitoring the fires in Southern California and is running simulations of what remains a highly dynamic situation. Additional information will be made available as warranted by events.

Update 2 | Downloads
Posting Date: November 19, 2008, 4:02:00 AM