Which today are the same as 'no wind at all', for the time being. The fire crews estimated that they had 12 hours (the daylight-ish) to drop water on the fire effectively until evening, when the Santa Ana winds are supposed to swing into gear. Those are some terrible winds - they come up from the South, they're warm and fires love them. So far though, things seem to be improving, based on radio reports and the view from our skylight.
The governator declared a state of emergency this morning, so additional resources have been released to workon the 'Tea Fire'. Last night there were fire crews up from Ventura County (next county south), Los Angeles county (about 1 1/2 hours south) and down from San Luis Obispo county (about 1 1/2 hours north), as well as helicopters. The choppers don't usually fly at night, especially with high winds (gusts in the mountains were clocked at 70mph), but in a couple lulls the pilots flew with night vision goggles, dropping water on the hot spots, which is probably what slowed the blaze. When it started it grew very fast, so their work made a big difference. With the state of emergency we got additional air support, so there are lots of planes and helicopters flying back and forth with water. They're taking it from everywhere: reservoirs, the ocean...
Hopefully things continue this way for the rest of the day, and they'll have a handle on the situation by evening. We usually only get the tail end of the Santa Anas this far north, but the more control the fire crews can get the better off we'll be. More to come.
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