Oren wrote:
On Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:19:55 -0500, "HeyBub"
wrote:

Santa Anna winds can blow embers for two miles. When these embers
land on a cedar shake roof, well, there goes the house!

Notice how many burnt/burning homes have a tile (terra cotta) roof?
Embers get under these, right to the plywood sheathing.

Yep. We're talking 40, 50, 60MPH winds.

Still, I saw two guys with water hoses, buckets of water, shovels and hoes
save their two house while the rest on the street burned down.

Another interesting little tidbit; people loaded up their cars with their
important stuff, but didn't have enough family members to drive all the
cars.

House gone, cars full of stuff (mostly) untouched.

One doesn't normally thing of an automobile as a fire-proof vault. But it
is.