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Bloggers Cover the California Wildfires Part III
Firefighters are now cautiously optimistic that they have the upper hand on the wildfires in Southern California. Qualcomm Stadium is the San Diego Chargers home again - it is no longer a temporary home for evacuees. The L.A. Times has a fire damage database to help people find homes damaged or destroyed in the fires. There were over
2,000 homes destroyed because of the wildfires. SignonSanDiego.com says the death tolls from the wildfires is now 14. Even after these terrible fires Californians will have to keep their guard up because Santa Ana winds don't peak until December. Here are some more California fire highlights from the blogosphere.
FEMA faked a news conference about the wildfires with FEMA employees posing in journalists. They tried to claim it was because no journalists came to the conference but they only gave them 15 minutes warning that the news conference was going to happen. FEMA also gave journalists a phone number so they could call and ask questions but it was a listen-only line. They've been slamed for the fake press conference in blogs (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here) as well as in the mainstream press.
Zzzzzzzz: Vice President Dick Cheney took a snooze during a briefing on the fires.
A Close Call. Part of the lawn at this house was burned but the house survived.
The Firefighter blog has a post about a DC-10 Supertanker making a drop on the Arrowhead Fire. The post points to a video of the DC-10 Supertanker in action.
NFL, Charges donations: "The National Football League is donating $250,000 to the Chargers Fire Relief Fund, and the Spanos family, owners of the San Diego Chargers, is donating $1 million."
Neatorama has a post about how some expensive homes have private firefighter protection.
Some rare trees, butterflies and other wildlife may be snuffed out because of the fires.
Green Sahm wants California homeowners to think about what they plant: "One of my hopes is that more homeowners will think about what they plant after this. In a place like this, drought resistant plants are a must. If it's not too easily burned, so much the better. There are plenty of plants that do grow pretty well out here without constant watering. Some are quite pretty."
Twitter can be a useful tool. The Fast Company explains: "If you've ever been tempted to call Twitter useless, reconsider; the service is allowing thousands of Southern California residents to stay safe by receiving up-to-the-minute geographical information about the spreading fires."
Michael Roston at the Huffington Post writes that President Bush cut the fire preparedness budgets. "During Bush's first year in office, the Forest Service's State Fire Assistance program for wildland fire management was funded at approximately $56 million per year. But the President's budget proposal for 2008 only requests $35 million from Congress, an 18% cut from what it spent in the current year, already well below the earlier levels."
3,000 prison inmates helped battle the flames. They were paid $1 an hour.
Some stunning photos from a Reuters photo blog in a post called Notes from a Wildfire.
AOL Photo Talk also has some frightening images.
The number of YouTube videos returned with a California wildfires search is nearly 4,000.
This video shows the Santiago Canyon fire.
A photograph of the wildfires from the International Space Station. (via The Marble).
With fires still burning serious air quality concerns remain. San Diego has an air quality website than can be found here. AIRNow provides national maps. A more personal account of the bad air can be found here in a post by Queen of Spain - via Social Mom who has a post about the response to the fires.
Bloggers are still calling Glenn Beck an idiot.
A hippopotumus got loose and wound up in swimming pool that belongs to Steve Crosby, the San Diego Chargers special teams coach. Both the hippo and the coach were unharmed.
Some resources for those who want to help: Califirehelp.com, CaliforniaWildfires.org and The San Diego Foundation. Hostess with the Mostess has a few more links in this post.
Our past coverage can be found here and the California fire resources page is located here.
Posted on October 28, 2007
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Bloggers Cover the California Wildfires Part II
 Bloggers have been busy covering the enormous wildfires that have been destroying homes in Southern California. The number of posts have soared over the past few days. This pattern is typical of disasters and other breaking news events. You can see a chart on the right from Technorati that shows the increase in the number of blog posts. This chart shows the number of posts when Technorati is searched for the phrase "california fires." There will be many more posts once evacuees are able to return home and blog about their experience like this blogger did. We already know that at least 1,500 homes have been lost -- hopefully the final tally won't be much higher than that. The good news is that the Santa Ana winds are fading and fire crews are finally starting to make some progress in their tough battle against the fires. Here's another roundup of blogosphere fire coverage. You can find our previous posts about the fires here.
L.A. Times Breaking News Blog says San Diego officials were upbeat during a press conference yesterday afternoon about the city returning to normal soon. "The vast majority of San Diego is open for repopulation," said Mayor Jerry Sanders. The weather report is also encouraging.
The Wall Street Journal has launched a blog about the wildfires. Coverage so far includes the arson probe by the FBI; homeowner insurance worries and the reverse 911 system.
Videos: Helicopter dumps water on Lake Arrowhead fire; California resident films the Witch Fire, apartment complex burns in Rancho Bernardo and Reporter Larry Himmel reports in front of his burning home.
Odd Times Signatures tells the mainstream media to stop comparing this disaster to Hurricane Katrina.
LAist: Fire evacuees are not refugees.
CNN anchor Glenn Beck is the man who labeled Californians losing homes as America haters. Now he is back to explain how the fires started. If you guessed that Glenn Beck blamed the Californians you guessed correctly.
They are fighting over there but we need them over here - are there enough National Guard troops here in the U.S. for emergencies? New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson thinks there are not enough here because of the Iraq War: "Today, as the fires rage, California has National Guard men, women, and critical equipment thousands of miles away in Iraq. They need to come home. We need them here." A post on The Seminal has more about the availability of the National Guard to respond to disasters. Even Former FEMA chief Michael "Heckuva Job" Brown doesn't think we have enough responders.
The California wildfires have set a record for video uploads at CNN's i-Report.
World of Good (WOG) -> People helping fire victims in San Diego.
Firedoglake lists other resources for those who want to help out. Pet Connection lists ways you can help both people and animals.
SignonSanDiego has launched a Help San Diego blog.
Why did the fires start and why did the fires become so intense and so large? Yes, the blaming has started. Theories for fire causes include arson, downed electrical lines, shrubs, overbuilding, global warming, Al Qaeda and even Satan. Note: some of the blogs bringing up an Al Qaeda link - like this blog - are using a news story from 2003.
Global Warming: Climate change has been brought up as possibly making the fires larger and more extreme than they would be under normal conditions. Some on the right are arguing against this theory (see here, here, here, here, here and here) but scientists have been talking about megafires fueled by warming temperatures. The Booman Tribune also brings up the recent terrible fires that occured in Greece which may also have a climate change link. RealClimate offers a more detailed look at the Mediterranean Heat. Let's also not forget that it was just last year that there was an unprecidented heat wave in California that was also possibly climate change related. More on the fires and climate change link here, here and here.
Another blame item has been to blame the environmentalists. The Sierra Club responsed to these allegations by issuing a statement.
Smoke creates a health risk for Southern California residents.
Big tech companies including Qualcomm and Sony Electronics closed down their offices because of the wildfires - primarily because their employees' homes were threatened.
Compiler blogs about how you can use TwitterWhere? to track tweets by location. In this case you could enter locations near the fires to see if anyone is tweeting about them on Twitter.
The Huffington Post reports that losses have topped the $1 billion mark in Southern California.
Things are not good for some of the birds in Southern California either.
CBR blogged about how the fires are impacting the comics industry (via Newsarama).
The Disney Blog reports that Disney is donating $2 million to help fire victims. U-Haul is also helping by offering evacuees 30 days of free storage.
Smoke and ash are obscuring the view in Long Beach.
No! The WSJ blog also says the avocado crop has been damaged by the fire.
Gearlog has a roundup about ways technology can help with disaster response and fire tracking.
Are the California fires the first web 2.0 disaster - or the first Web 2.0 coverage of a disaster? (via Mathew Ingram). The answer is both yes and no but way more yes than no. A good example is just to look back at our archived coverage in 2005 of Hurricane Katrina. There were lots of blogs back then covering the hurricanes - some of them were weather blogs that had already been following the tropical system before it organized and became Hurricane Katrina. Once the story was really big the MSM even started launching some Hurricane Katrina blogs. However, there was nothing like the embeddable Google Maps that bloggers can easily plug into their posts like we now have available. There were also not nearly as many videos available in 2005 and there were no embeddable videos from sites like YouTube. Also missing in 2005 was Twitter.
Posted on October 25, 2007
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L.A. Times Launches California Fire Twitter
The L.A. Times which has been providing non-stop updates on the blazing California wildfires on its website and breaking news blog has added a Twitter profile to the mix at @latimesfires. The twitter launched about three hours ago and alredy 49 has updates.
We added to the L.A. Times Fire Twitter our fire resources post from earlier today which includes several other Twitter profiles covering the fires.
Other Web 2.0 related posts include this one from Danny Sullivan which covers wildfire map resources like the Google Maps mashup that has been cited by numerous blogs over the past two days. More map tools and resources can be found here. If you are interested in the technology being used to cover the fires and alert people about approaching fires you might also like Mobile Messaging 2.0's post discussing all the reverse 911 calls.
Filed in California Fires
Posted on October 23, 2007
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Bloggers Cover the 2007 California Wildfires
Wildfires are continuing to burn out of control in Southern California. You can see a list of resources about the wildfires here. Hundreds of thousands have been evacuated from their homes and at least 750 homes have been destoryed. The fires are fueled by unusually powerful Santa Ana winds and an ongoing drought in the region. Here is some coverage of the fires from the blogosphere.
L.A. Times Breaking News Blog says the Witch Fire is halway to the ocean.
Resident in the Green Valley Park area was stuck in her car with her pets.
Thousands of evacuees are staying at Qualcomm Stadium: "5,000 and perhaps as many as 10,000 people are at the stadium"
Global warming is fueling mega-fires.
Mashable has a post on the Twittering of disasters. Wired does too. More Twitter links in the resources post.
BuzzFeed has a roundup of links about the Malibu fire.
A thread on Calitics contains a list of phone numbers to call for information.
Lost Remote's post includes links to some Live video streams.
Glenn Beck labels California homeowners as America haters. Discussion of Glenn Beck's strange and insensitive comment continues here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. More blog posts about Glenn Beck's comments in the previouis entry.
The O.C. Source: "Heavy smoke hangs like a pall over much of central Orange County and a fiery red glow pierces through the night skies, as the Santiago Fire continues to consume everything in its path."
Queen of Spain blogs about the important of virtual neighbors and that her "house didn't burn down yet."
Truthdig notes the worldwide interest in the fires.
The Disphan Chronicles compares it to the Cedar Fire in 2003.
Larry Himmel - CBS8 San Diego's neighborhood guy -- reports from the scene of his own home which burned down.
Rick Rockhill has an interesting post about his personal experience leaving San Diego county.
Success in Life and Money offers a tribute to the firefighters battling the flames: "We so appreciate their hard work and all the firemen that have come from all around to help out! You guys are all so amazing and we all thank you so much for protecting us!"
TMZ reported a fire at the LG House Malibu, which was home to some Hollywood parties over the summer.
Jim 2.0 has compiled a great list of San Diego Fire resources.
Girl's Gone Child: "Because no matter what may burn in the fire, there are some things impenetrable. Indestructible. And those are the things that matter most of all-- and the only things really worth protecting."
Chris Messing blogs about the use of Twitter hashtags. (via Doc Searls)
Dr. Steve Forbes at the Weather Channel provides a detailed look at the Santa Ana winds and other forces fueling the wildfires.
Mobile Messaging 2.0 blogs about the reverse 911 calls that were made to notify homeowners about the urgent need to evacuate. (via GIS Sites)
Posted on October 23, 2007
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Wildfires Rage in Southern California
 Wildfires are raging in Southern California today. Some 250,000 people have been evacuated from San Diego county. In Malibu a church, several homes and historic castle burned. Sections of the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) have been closed because of the fires. Numerous homes have already burned but no exact numbers have been given. Firefighters can't even protect some homes because they are too busy rescuing people. Here are some highlights and resources.
The currently very busy Los Angeles Fire Department has a blog and a Twitter.
A Google Maps mashup showing the location of the wildfires. (via hermosawave)
Many multi-million dollar celebrity homes are threatened by the first. Hollyscoop points to homes of Courteney Cox and David Arquette, Harry Morton, Jennifer Aniston, and David Geffen.
Paul Kedrosky writes what he saw this morning in a post titled, "Surrealism in San Diego."
This Envisat image captures the smoke arising from raging wildfires burning in Los Angeles, California.
Daily Kos has a collection of emergency links and stresses not to click them unless you are in the area because servers are under pressure.
TMZ.com says the castle that burned in Malibu - Castle Kashan - was about to be sold for $17 million. (via Brian Alvey)
The Gulbransen family were blogging the fires before they were evacuated. (via Michelle Malkin)
SignonSanDiego.com has a fireblog.
Curbed LA is also pointing to the interactive Google Map.
LA Observed notes that the Daily News was not delivered to many readers.
The Glittering Eye's post points to some good resources including the County of Ventura website, City of Malibu website and the Malibu Arts Review.
The Daily Green explains how Santa Ana "Devil Winds" form.
The CDF California fire incident website is struggling to keep up with demand.
Some videos have been posted on YouTube. Search wildfires and sort by date. Or search "Malibu fires" or "San Diego wildfires."
The L.A. Times Breaking News Blog has good coverage of the fires.
Cat Dirt Sez is blogging about the San Diego Fires. (via San Diego Blog).
CBS8 in San Diego County has a blog with news updates.
Blogging.la lists some live fire news feeds.
Susan Braudy at the Huffington Post blogs about what she thinks is a New York Times coverage misfire.
Good coverage at And I Still Persist (via Blue Crab Boulevard)
The Moderate Voice: "We won't use the trite phrase 'it's deja vu all over again' but Southern Californians have been there, done that, seen the region suffer a massive financial and environmental blow, with property destroyed, families homes wiped out, shelters popping up to house displaced residents, and forests burned black with horrific tales of animals dying in fires or being trapped to bleed to death on wire fences as they fled in terror."
Crazy Aunt Purl blogs that "Los Angeles is smokin'"
SignonSanDiego now has a blog covering the fires in San Diego.
The San Bernardino Sun and Inland Valley Daily Bulletin also have a fire bog.
Center Networks has a post about how social media websites are being used to report and learn about the fires. They mention a couple other twitters including @kpbsnews and @nateritter. There's also the LAFD Twitter we mentioned above. Center Networks also linked to a couple Flickr photo resources here and here.
Wired's Monkey Bites points to another Twitter covering the fires: @viss.
Eat the Press: "But perhaps the most important question facing us today is this: How long, exactly, will it take Anderson Cooper to fly to Malibu?"
People and their pets face danger from the fires in California.
The Disney Blog reports on some minor wind damage at Disneyland from the powerful Santa Ana winds.
CNN Anchor Glenn Beck made an ugly comment. Glenn Beck said, "I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today." Glenn Beck's strange and insensitive comment is being discussed here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
Some more resources in a post here on kithbridge.com (via Instapundit) Rim of the World and Infinte Monkeys are two of the resources Kithbridge found that are blogging the fires.
The Google Lat Long Blog blogs about its San Diego fire map.
Defamer blogs about Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger's ability to manage the crisis.
The WOW report finds a celebrity home map on the BBC. For more about the stars read how David Geffen is helping out.
Gizmodo: "Those wildfires in Southern California are getting dangerously close (as close as 100 yards) to some of our favorite companies, as Sony, HP and Broadcom have shut down business for the day and evacuated their offices. Some employees have or will lose homes to the fires, which frankly sucks balls. Stay safe guys!"
Other resources include CBS2.com, KNBC, MyFox Los Angeles, Wikipedia, NBC San Diego, 10News.com, California Fire News, LAist, KUSI, Battling California's Wildfires, ABC7.com, OC Register and LATimes.com.
Update 10-23-07: The latest coverage of the fires can be found in our 2007 California Wildfires resource.
Posted on October 22, 2007
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