Be Safe. LA

Image via Wikipedia

As often happens during crises, Twitter is first to respond and provide updates about what’s happening. Here are some great resources to stay abreast of the wildfires in Southern California. Nate Ritter, public service twitter extraordinaire has launched Crisiswire, a site that gathers real time crisis information to help the communities. They are currently tracking Sylmar Fires and Santa Barbara Fires separately. Of course, there is the fabulous LAFD providing Twitter updates and also a blog.

Unfortunately, the Red Cross has just one update on their Twitter account that is 24 hours old.

The most common Twitter hashtags to use are:

• #LAFIRE
• #Sylmar
• #Teafire
• #SantaBarbara
• And the newest unfortunately, Yorba Linda

You can also find photos on Flickr and YouTube using the same tags.

Thanks to Tracy Lee, here are two great maps of the fires, one from CA Governor's Office of Emergency Services and one from grizzlehizzle that is updated in realtime. 

Be safe, Southern Cal and let us know of any other good resources to stay updated.

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