Parts Of LA Are Burning

 It was very foggy several days ago, from what I could tell, mostly within three or four miles of the coast.  

So, this afternoon, as we were driving home from errands that got us as far east as Beverly Hills, and we saw a wall of clouds off to the west, I assumed it was a fog bank.  Though it looked a bit odd, and it seemed to be more north and to the south was still clear.  

When we got home, I walked around the block to take some pictures.  

We were listening to KJZZ, and didn't hear any news of the Palisades fire.  It was pretty windy, and I thought the off shore wind was keeping the fog to the coast.  

It was much later that we heard about the fire.  And then, as I was reading about the fire, almost midnight - an alarm went off on my phone.  

We're about six or seven miles, as the crow flies from the Palisades.  Malibu is even further.  When I bike to the beach and then north through Santa Monica and to Will Rogers State Beach (back in Los Angeles), Pacific Palisades is above the ocean.  Those areas are up in the foothills of the Santa Monica mountains.  We're down in more city area.  

Here's a picture of a couple of houses up on the bluff at Pacific Palisades from my bike ride along the ocean the other day.  

But I did just go outside and while the moon is bright, the air is starting to get smoky.  

And we've had three more alarms go off on my phone.  The last one is for folks in Topanga Canyon to be ready to get out.  

And another alarm just went off but I didn't get a screen shot.  The alarms really screech.  It's 1:15am.  I really don't think we're in any danger.  When I was growing up, we would see the red glow up in the hills, but it never got out of the hills.  

But these are different times.  I probably should leave my phone on, just in case.  But I don't think I'll get much sleep if I do.  

Our tickets back to Anchorage are for Friday night.  

Here's the LA County Emergency map for right now.  We're about where the black star is.  That looks much closer than I realized.  But that orange blotch along the ocean is the evacuation area, NOT the fire area.  There is all of Santa Monica between the evacuation area and us.  As you can see there is another fire to the east.  But I'll leave my phone on.  It's 1:30 am as I post this.