No. of Recommendations: 4
FYI: Anybody can download the KTLA app and see the phenomenal coverage from the famed KTLA fleet of helicopters.
Curently watching the DC10 tanker '910' ** doing spectacular low level drops on Mandeville the canyon wall between Mandeville and Westridge, a skoshie west of the 405/Sepulveda Pass.
That's where I had my last intimate relationship with a Santa Monica mountain fire. About 1981, just before Thanksgiving, we rode our bikes up to west ridge until we encountered the fire vehicles, parked, observing the flames on the east side of the 405.
That was when/where I asked an LAFD where they would establish a hard defense line and he replied, 'at the seaweed' (meaning the Malibu high tide line).
My folks house in Sullivan and Uncles in Mandeville survived. My uncle in Malibu got burned out.
I've always been annoyed that developers were allowed to build in many of these indefensible canyons and hilltops... and then owners plant highly flammable privacy hedges and trees surrounding their mansions.
It makes as much sense as building coastal homes in hurricane zones. The cost to insurance companies and taxpayers is enormous.
** "The DC-10 Air Tanker is a series of American wide-body jet air tankers, which have been in service as an aerial firefighting unit since 2006.[1] The aircraft, operated by the joint technical venture 10 Tanker Air Carrier, are converted wide-body McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 passenger jetliners, and are primarily used to fight wildfires, typically in rural areas. The turbofan-powered aircraft carry up to 9,400[2] US gallons (35,583 liters) of water or fire retardant in an exterior belly-mounted tank, the contents of which can be released in eight seconds. Four air tankers are currently in operation, all DC-10-30 aircraft, with the call-signs Tanker 910, 911, 912 and 914."
