Firefighter Blog: Gov. Declares State Of Emergency For Ventura County

<body><script type="text/javascript"> function setAttributeOnload(object, attribute, val) { if(window.addEventListener) { window.addEventListener('load', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }, false); } else { window.attachEvent('onload', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }); } } </script> <div id="navbar-iframe-container"></div> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://apis.google.com/js/platform.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> gapi.load("gapi.iframes:gapi.iframes.style.bubble", function() { if (gapi.iframes && gapi.iframes.getContext) { gapi.iframes.getContext().openChild({ url: 'https://www.blogger.com/navbar.g?targetBlogID\x3d6823728\x26blogName\x3dFirefighter+Blog\x26publishMode\x3dPUBLISH_MODE_BLOGSPOT\x26navbarType\x3dSILVER\x26layoutType\x3dCLASSIC\x26searchRoot\x3dhttps://firefighterblog.blogspot.com/search\x26blogLocale\x3den_US\x26v\x3d2\x26homepageUrl\x3dhttp://firefighterblog.blogspot.com/\x26vt\x3d-1585559697748296898', where: document.getElementById("navbar-iframe-container"), id: "navbar-iframe", messageHandlersFilter: gapi.iframes.CROSS_ORIGIN_IFRAMES_FILTER, messageHandlers: { 'blogger-ping': function() {} } }); } }); </script>

August 19, 2007

Gov. Declares State Of Emergency For Ventura County

It's a safe bet Governor Schwarzenegger's office is getting the skinny on the Zaca Fire when others are finding it difficult to get the whole story. Inciweb.org has been down all day today so maps and "official" information is hard to come by.

Inciweb is a government operated website that act as a repository of information on large fires nationwide.

Incident commanders or their team members upload reports to Inciweb twice daily so the general public can better understand what is happening on the ground. When Inciweb goes down it's time to put the ear to the ground or start reading tea leaves.

Maybe the Governor's people read this quote by a fire official earlier today;

"It's growing, and it may become the granddaddy of them all before this is over with," Maeton Freel, a fire information officer with the U.S. Forest Service told the Ventura County Star." LATimes

I'm looking at satellite image loops and what I am seeing is a fire with three distinct heads on a clear path NE towards Kern County through Ventura County.

Run this Image Loop and see for yourself. I'm told most of the smoke plumes are the result of firing operations so I'll go with that until something else confirms my worst thoughts.

To appreciate the terrain confronting firefighters here is a photo of the Romero Canyon area in the general area where the fire is burning on the Southwest front of the Zaca.