No kidding, Regina. You’ll appreciate this being a nurse (me, too). The photo was taken by my neighbor across the street. Awesome guy, neurologic radiologist. He was actually just looking out the the window with his 2 yo daughter when the lightening struck. He was filming on his iPhone while trying to call 911. First 3 attempts were busy signals! The 4th time he got through but placed on hold. So, we both thought, “hmmm, what if you were having an MI?!?” Not much faith in my EMS system here. That was terrible. Fortunately, another neighbor got through to 911 and they were able to get our FD dispatched. The Vista FD was awesome, and got here in just minutes. The photo looks smoky, but it was actually a downpour happening at the same time, thankfully, which tamped down the fire.
HQ you made my new heart start thumping with that photo. Holy cow, that said, going to bed. Be safe and fill us in tomorrow!. xxoo
Mrsg, I was working upstairs when we had two lightening strikes about 15 mins. apart. That second one, that set the palm tree on fire make my hair stand up on the back of my neck. I hit the ground in my office, because I had the window open. Spent 10 years in N. Indiana, and spent a lot of time in thunderstorms. It shook the whole room. I knew the second one was really close. You could smell smoke almost immediately. Thankfully, it was coming down pretty hard when that strike hit the tree, and it kept the fire from spreading too quickly, and gave the FD enough time to get here and get it put out, thankfully. We have been living in the shadow of a wildfire out here for the last 6 years, as we watched this 157 acre citrus orchard slowly die. The new owner has come in and cut down all the dead trees, and then are all pile up now, in piles. It would be manageable and defensible if we had a fire start out there, now. The FD did not mess around. They came into our development and tried to open the water authority gate to get up the water authority easement road. The gate was locked, and they had a key. Which didn’t work. So, they whipped out the giant bolt cutters, and made short work of the lock. Water Authority trucks showed up, and you could see the FD having a “discussion” with one of the Water Authority folks. Would like to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation. FD needs to have complete access to ALL roads, dirt or otherwise, in our area.
Oh dear, that slow EMS response is not funny at all. You’re right, and MI or a CVA in progress and one loses consciousness…they can trace the call, but still. Heaven forbid a violent crime is in progress; I’m married to an NYPD cop which is, ironically, why I never take the help arriving in time for granted in the least: heard (and seen, of course) too many stories. Not sure how your systems run, but I know some municipalities have decentralized 911 services and thus a busy signal is a damned scary possibility.
I would have jumped out of my skin when it struck! That’s such an eerie feeling. With such dry ground as you have a lightning strike is a surefire way to get bad things going. Good job by FD there. Even with drizzle that ground looks like hay. I lived in Westhampton, NY in the 90’s when we had wildfires out of control for about 8 days; rain barely made them blink once they had enough of a heat base.
I agree with Mrs. G! Glad you are safe and hmmm… maybe some medicinal wine is the way to go.
Adding: too bad about that abandoned orchard. I drive around unconsciously scoping where things could be planted - sad when planted land gets cut back.
Glad it’s under control.
Well, our EMS system is centralized, which I think is why we got bottlenecked, because we all got hit really hard with this huge pop up thunderstorm. It covered about 1/2 of San Diego county very quickly, and we’re a BIG county. We had torrential downpours, flash floods, power outages, and over 500 lightening strikes.
And it is extremely sad about this very old, heirloom Valencia orange orchard that was all on sour orange rootstock that produced the finest Valencia oranges you’ve ever tasted. I tried as hard as I could to get the new owner to save at least part of it. I was only successful in saving about 5 of the 13,000 trees.
And yes, enjoying a nice cold glass of La Crema Chardonnay. It is 80 degrees, 85% humidity and very still. It feels like Hawaii here right now. Extremely weird.
Excellent choice on wine! 
Must feel like the Wizard of Oz just blew by though.
5 of 13,000…wow. Not much to else to be able to say there. But you do what you can, so kudos to you, and 5 is much better than zero.
Didn’t I say that you had a better chance of rain than I? 
It looks like you had an interesting and at least slightly beneficial afternoon.
You got SOME rain.
You got some excitement.
The neighborhood has something in common to talk about.
That tree looks like a lightening magnet, and palms provide lots of dry surface area fuel. Now that fuel and, I hope, at least a bit of the ground around it have have lost some of their power to fuel a wildfire before the start of the real wildfire season.
The FD learned about the blocked access road and can address that problem before a bigger emergency situation.
Although it must have been more than a bit nerve wracking to see and smell fire so close to home when you’re well aware of the power and speed of wildfires, and know you live in an area where they are likely to occur, it probably helped increase local awareness, and hopefully preparedness, for such an event. Because of that, maybe, just maybe, today’s strike helped avoid a future neighborhood disaster.
I say drink that wine in celebration of good fortune, not as a sedative. Cheers!
The FD has to have access to your property, any locked property. The site of the orchard (charred) sounds horrible. You are fine though and that it what this is all about. You and dogs first, trees second. The whole scene just is frightening. We’ve just had a huge thunderstorm here, but no damage in my area. Take care HQ!!!
Thanks, mrsg. And I think that’s what the conversation was about with the Water Authority. the FD has to have access to all property. This was an empty lot, and the water authority easement road runs across the lot. What is weird to me, is why the FD came the way they did, and not via the opposite side of the road which is not gated off. But, the bottom line - the key they had should have opened the lock. So, the water authority and Vista FD will have to work that one out. Fortunately, this did not involve the orchard behind us, but now that all the trees have been taken down and are in several huge piles, if that orchard were to sustain a lightening strike, and start burning, it would be defensible. Thank goodness. To see 157 acres of dead trees for the last 6 years had us all quaking in our boots when fire season hit. It would have been fuel like you have never seen. Dante’s Inferno. We are slated to have a repeat performance this afternoon. So, hoping for just a good downpour without the lightening.
Is there a plan for the 157 acres?
Yes, the company that bought the orchard is Altman Plants. They are just about the largest grower of succulents in the USA. It will be another growing ground for them. So, hoop houses will be going up. Not super happy about that, but nothing we can really do about it. We homeowners have met with Ken Altman and his son, and expressed our concerns and what we would like (a screening hedge put up, no road close to our back property lines, quiet.) So, we’ll just have to see what happens. Due to the land’s zoning for Agricultural Use, there is little we can do to force them to comply. Ag is very protected and doesn’t carry a lot of restrictions. For example, there are really no noise restrictions, so the owner can use heavy equipment to conduct agricultural activities. So, it would be up to Mr. Altman out of the goodness of his heart, to try to be a “good neighbor”.
I like to repeat MuddyMess quote. Hopefully things improve for the better. Good lucks and stay safe, Hoosierquilt.
Tom
It’s raining again in Indiana.
I am starting to worry if the mosquitoes are going to start eating the apples.
I helped the wife start a new Rose garden on the weekend. It just about doubled the space she has for Roses.
I see that Stark is selling a very limited variety of fruit trees in pots. Most of my trees are Stark and I have had very good luck with them.
Spring Satin plumcot (left) and Methley plum (right) from a local orchard.
The Spring Satin are okay, but the Methley are amaze-balls.
I have been working on grafting one of my wife’s rose . I put more grafts on it yesterday and it rained two inches and washed all of my grafting seal off ( latex caulking. ) and I had to get up early today before the today show came on and replay.
Grafting Roses. I might have to look into that. We have tried to start some cuttings but we have failed every time so far.
I started another thread on it a while back. I should post an update.
I tied up a couple of limbs today that were getting a little heavy.
Beautiful blush on those. You’ve got them sited nice for sun.