I'm in Warner Springs 120 miles east of LA up in the mountains. I retired and bought a house here 3 years ago. Every year there are larger fires within a 20-30 mile radius or so and a few small ones have been within a few miles but none has hit this community directly in living memory. One reason I bought here is my sax player partner has lived here for 25 years and told me about this house coming up for sale and what a good deal it was.

I've been doing gigs with him around this area for as long as he's lived here and one time I was coming up for a gig he called me while I was on the road to tell me there was a small fire close to the highway about 10 miles before I would get to his house. Sure enough the road was closed for about 15 minutes to allow fire trucks though and when I finally arrived I hear this very loud noise as I was driving up the hill toward one of our small lakes. I soon realized it was a chopper. Sure enough I get to the top and there's a Huey hovering a few feet above the lake sucking water from it. Man, that thing was loud from less than a 100 feet away.

Even though fire is certainly a threat around here the HOA has done a good job clearing brush in a roughly 100-200 foot perimeter around the area plus there's a large Cal Fire station 5 miles down the highway plus the water from the lake is available. There have been small fires within maybe 5 to 10 miles around the immediate area over the years I've been coming up here from summer lightning strikes but they always get knocked down quickly. Warner Springs Ranch is 8 miles from me and has been a local fixture here since the mid 1800's and same thing, for whatever reason the big fires never seem to get going in this area.

Obviously, I hope it stays that way but of course you never know. There are local hazards no matter where you live. for you guys living in South Florida I'm sure you heard of Homestead AFB. Hurricane Andrew wiped that base off the map and it never reopened, I was there for a while in the 60's.

Bob

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