San Diego Fires...

jbaakko

Active Member
So, I'm guessing everyone heard about the fires in San Diego. Yes, I got evacuated, temporarily, for about 6 hours on Monday. The people across the freeway from me were evacuated about 5 hours before me, and let back in about 15 hours after me, at 12 noon on Tuesday.

http://www.fox6.com/media/news/7/5/5/75568163-a980-40f6-b96a-996b6553ab3c/latest_map_1030_am.pdf
If you zoom on in to 50% or 66.67% you'll be able to seen "section" numbers, for reference, I'm living just below the 0 in 1209.

No damage to my house, the trains are fine... *Sigh*

:wave:
 

MadHatter

Charging at full tilt.
That's great to hear that nothing happened to your place, or more importantly- THE TRAINS. :) :mrgreen:
 

bigsteel

Call me Mr.Tinkertrain
my brother in-laws ex-wife got evacuated from her apartment yesterday,she said she could see the flames coming just up over a hill...im glad to hear your alright,and your trains also! :mrgreen:.and real quick,i hear that california has some strict smoking laws,yet they seem to smoke more than any other state sign1.
 

jbaakko

Active Member
Sounding good so far, all the model railroaders that I know were not affected, including myself. I have not yet been down to the LHS though. Just a wee bit leary of that, right now...
 

Herc Driver

Active Member
I know help has come in from far and wide. My squadron was alerted and flew two C130's from Charlotte, NC to help fight the fires and have been doing numerous drops each day from what I've heard. We are one of only four military units that help the Forestry Service in fire fighting. A modular airborne fire fighting system (MAFFS) fits into the back end of our C130 and makes drops of retardant as directed by the Forestry Service in conjunction with the local fire officials directions. So if you look up and see a big, gray, C130 with a really big number 7 or 8 on the front side - that's us and we're there to help.
 

jbaakko

Active Member
I know help has come in from far and wide. My squadron was alerted and flew two C130's from Charlotte, NC to help fight the fires and have been doing numerous drops each day from what I've heard. We are one of only four military units that help the Forestry Service in fire fighting. A modular airborne fire fighting system (MAFFS) fits into the back end of our C130 and makes drops of retardant as directed by the Forestry Service in conjunction with the local fire officials directions. So if you look up and see a big, gray, C130 with a really big number 7 or 8 on the front side - that's us and we're there to help.
Haven't seen them myself, figured they're flying out of March ARB. I have however seen the SH60's, CH53's & CH46's with HUGE florescent numbers added to the sides...
 

MadHatter

Charging at full tilt.
** Off Topic **

HercDriver, I thought that you were, well, a herc driver- or is Herce a nick name for an aeroplane? :confused:
 

Herc Driver

Active Member
Yep - you thought right. The "Herc" handle is the nickname of the C-130 cargo plane flown by the USAF and Air National Guard as well as many other countries and has the official name of "Hercules". There's almost nothing that plane can't do - except fly fast. But it hauls a lot of cargo/troops, can land on dirt, and flies low to the ground really well. (Used to fly the C-5 Galaxy before that and there's quite a difference between the two.) Check out AIRLINERS.NET - Airplanes, Pictures, News, Articles, More to find some good pictures.
 

MadHatter

Charging at full tilt.
Thanks, yep we also have them C- 130 Hercules, lots of them, when we have airshows they almost always let them fly by.
 

jbaakko

Active Member
Yep - you thought right. The "Herc" handle is the nickname of the C-130 cargo plane flown by the USAF and Air National Guard as well as many other countries and has the official name of "Hercules". There's almost nothing that plane can't do - except fly fast. But it hauls a lot of cargo/troops, can land on dirt, and flies low to the ground really well. (Used to fly the C-5 Galaxy before that and there's quite a difference between the two.) Check out AIRLINERS.NET - Airplanes, Pictures, News, Articles, More to find some good pictures.
I dunno the new J models the Marine Corps is flying, can get some good speed under them! :twisted:

I dunno why we cannot equip them with the fire fighting modules.
 

Herc Driver

Active Member
The cost of the modules is very high and not all aircrews are allowed to fly the MAFFS missions - there's quite a few years of special training involved. It would seems far less expensive to have many of these units ready for just such a terrible disaster like the fire season brings considering the damage and loss. Ironically, California also has these same units, (but I don't know if their planes are flying these missions or not). Our unit has been asking to go help put out the fires for quite a while now, but that decision is made on the federal level, not the state. If the Forestry Service and the state of California wants the help - they ask for it. I guess they finally decided to ask. I know our guys were happy to help and try to make a difference.
 
Hey Herc, thanks for doing a bang up job for California! I wish there were more folks like you out there... :thumb:

California is such a mess, the good Lord knows how much help they need. I should know, I used to live there... :nope:
 
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