No Danger in Redlands

A lot of people have called the last few days to ask if I am near all the fires in Southern California. The short answer is yes (although "near" is a subjective term). The closest fire is north around Lake Arrowhead but there are so many around it is impossible to tell where all the smoke is coming from. On Sunday while I was on my way to church, the wind was so strong out of the north that I had a hard time keeping my truck on the road. That afternoon several families couldn't make it to church because some of the major interstates around Fontana were closed. On Monday I took a friend to the Ontario airport and the drive was fairly miserable. The sky has been brown and the air has the stench of smoke. On my way to work I can usually see the San Bernardino Mountains clearly, the last few days I wouldn't know they were there if not for just knowing. The last 2 days the smell of smoke has continually gotten stronger.

The good news for me (and I suppose the bad news for some other people) is that there are a lot of urban areas between where I live and the closest fires. I've been keeping an eye on the satellite images that are coming in as well as the maps that delineate the fire perimeter. Several people that work at ESRI have been forced to evacuate and the company is helping them to find temporary places to live. Hopefully the Santa Ana winds will die down and they can get everything under control.

The major concern for me is air quality. I usually sleep with windows open and open my deck door as soon as I come in from work...I haven't been able to do that the past few days. I am supposed to have a boat dive off the coast of Catalina Island on Saturday but the news is reporting that Long Beach is getting some of the worst smoke pollution...Long Beach is where the dive boat leaves from. I guess I will have to wait and see if that trip will be possible.


I will try to keep this posted with any changes I hear about. While I'm thinking about it, I will point you to a link showing how ESRI's free software ArcGIS Explorer is being used by some people to track these fires. It looks like the ArcGIS Explorer team is doing a good job of keeping things posted about the fires as well. ArcGIS Explorer is mainly a viewing software and is limited in its analysis capabilities...but it is still a good read and a demonstration of how important it is to have spatial technology. The link is: http://blogs.esri.com/Info/blogs/arcgisexplorerblog/