BREAKING NEWS UPDATE:                                                                                                                                      Firefighters say people are trapped who decided not to follow the mandatory evacuations. They are brining in helicopters to pull them out of the ‘Gold Creek’ are of the ‘Station Fire’.

It feels like we are standing in the middle of an ashtray that has been set down directly in front of a blow dryer. The smoke here in Big Tujunga Canyon is so thick, sometimes it feels like we are standing in a fog bank that has just rolled in off of the Pacific. If that were only the case, any type of moisture would be very welcome at this point in Southern California. Across the west, dry conditions from a major drought the last couple of years have given firefighters fits and we still have several months of fire season ahead of us. The canyons and mountains where these fires are burning are as dry as I have ever seen them. The brush is brittle and moisture is hard to find anywhere.                                                                                                                                                               What scares firefighters the most….the Santa Ana winds haven’t started yet. They normally don’t arrive until late September and last into November. Right now, with temperatures across California into the triple digits and with humidity in the 8-9 percent range, the flames are driven strictly by fuel. That means if we get a marine layer, or a significant drop in temperatures and rise in humidity, it will help firefighters significantly.                                                                                   As we stand here and watch the fire race across the mountain, I meet the owner of this clearing where we have parked our crew for our live reports. Mike Weston tells me he spent about 30-thousand dollars in the last year to cut a fire break around his 100 acres or so. The money is well spent as the fire burns all around him, but his land and home still stand. Horses have been brought here for refuge, I can here them rustle as the fire is stoked by a light wind now swirling in the canyon. It sounds like a waterfall as brush and trees sizzle under the wall of flames.

More info to come. Here are some fire pics I snapped from our location.