The Brea and Yorba Linda fires
As much of the country probably knows by now, we had some pretty serious fires around here this past weekend. Brea and Yorba Linda were basically on fire and were the ones that affected my and my family the most. The Brea fire was less than two miles north of my apartment and wound up coming within less than a hundred feet of our office building. It turned out fine. My Mother lives in Yorba Linda and was under evactuation orders because it came fairly close to her house as well. Scary stuff.
Fires are a very scary thing and I've never had one come so (relatively) close to me and my family. Even though the Brea fires were a little ways away, they were steadily pushing south and I was genuinely worried that it might come close enough to make us evacuate. I was never really worried that our apartment would be damaged as there was no brush or anything near us and the fire would have had to travel through quite a large number of other buildings to get to us. The evacuation itself was what worried me most. We have two cats, a dog, and a hamster here and finding a place to go with all of them would be tough. There's extended stay hotels that allow pets, but most of them were either in Brea, Yorba Linda, or Anaheim Hills... all of which were affected by the fires. Not good. Luckily we never had to evactuate so it wasn't an issue, but I'm definitely going to do some pre-emptive planning for the future so that I can avoid this worry.
My Mother's condo is in Yorba Linda and the fire there came quite close to her place. The smoke was dark black and made the area practically dark as night, making her turn on her car's lights when she left to go to my Grandpa's house which is also in Yorba Linda, but further from where the fires were. Later in the night the fire started to approach my Grandpa's house as well, and they were prepared to leave and head to a hotel in Tustin, but luckily that didn't happen. People that chose to stay in her condo complex walked around the area in shifts through Saturday night to make sure that if anything caught fire they'd be able to warn everyone and get them out.
Thankfully neither I or anybody I know directly was negatively impacted by the fires beyond an inconvenience. Nobody I know lost anything, though people I had gone to school with or knew about through other friends lost everything they had. It's really sad and I wish everyone the best. There's so much damage in Yorba Linda, it's just baffling. Yorba Linda has really never been affected by fires like this and honestly the city was totally unprepared. It's been said that there was a major water failure in the Hidden Hills estates that prevented water from being able to be pumped up the hill and that firefighters and residents alike were left without water to fight any of the fires. It would be horrible if this could have been prevented, but hindsight is always 20/20.
Fires are a very scary thing and I've never had one come so (relatively) close to me and my family. Even though the Brea fires were a little ways away, they were steadily pushing south and I was genuinely worried that it might come close enough to make us evacuate. I was never really worried that our apartment would be damaged as there was no brush or anything near us and the fire would have had to travel through quite a large number of other buildings to get to us. The evacuation itself was what worried me most. We have two cats, a dog, and a hamster here and finding a place to go with all of them would be tough. There's extended stay hotels that allow pets, but most of them were either in Brea, Yorba Linda, or Anaheim Hills... all of which were affected by the fires. Not good. Luckily we never had to evactuate so it wasn't an issue, but I'm definitely going to do some pre-emptive planning for the future so that I can avoid this worry.
My Mother's condo is in Yorba Linda and the fire there came quite close to her place. The smoke was dark black and made the area practically dark as night, making her turn on her car's lights when she left to go to my Grandpa's house which is also in Yorba Linda, but further from where the fires were. Later in the night the fire started to approach my Grandpa's house as well, and they were prepared to leave and head to a hotel in Tustin, but luckily that didn't happen. People that chose to stay in her condo complex walked around the area in shifts through Saturday night to make sure that if anything caught fire they'd be able to warn everyone and get them out.
Thankfully neither I or anybody I know directly was negatively impacted by the fires beyond an inconvenience. Nobody I know lost anything, though people I had gone to school with or knew about through other friends lost everything they had. It's really sad and I wish everyone the best. There's so much damage in Yorba Linda, it's just baffling. Yorba Linda has really never been affected by fires like this and honestly the city was totally unprepared. It's been said that there was a major water failure in the Hidden Hills estates that prevented water from being able to be pumped up the hill and that firefighters and residents alike were left without water to fight any of the fires. It would be horrible if this could have been prevented, but hindsight is always 20/20.
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