Thomas Fire

[Jim Eshelman]

The Thomas Fire, now winding down over about three weeks of burning, is (in terms of acreage burned) the largest fire in California history. We drove through Ventura County yesterday on the way to north Santa Barbara County, and, although things look clear from the freeway near the coast, there is enough residual smoke in the air to burn my eyes (requiring drops) and to trigger tight-chest coughing until we passed through the county.

It began, under typical and less than typical charts, December 4, 2017, at 6:26 PM, near Santa Paula, CA (time of its first report). It affected Ventura Co. and part of Santa Barbara Co. Only one death is credited to it (a firefighter), plus the destruction of 273,400 acres (as of 12/23) and 1,063 buildings. It will be a while before we have figures on the damages caused, but in its first 10 days it cost $177 million to fight. Over 100,000 people evacuated for a while due to the fire.

My only explanation of the atypical, Jupiter-dominated charts is that, for so vast a fire, there were no casualties at all except for one firefighter. This, however, does not address the enormous property loss. For comparison, the Cloquet Fire burned almost as many acres (250,000) and caused 452 deaths. In any case, the solar ingresses are fabulous, and, as we usually see, the fire began with Mars on a CapQ angle.

Year: Capsolar {+2}
Neptune on MC (2°41')
Saturn on Dsc (2°58') [sq. non-angular Mars 2°52']
Mercury & Venus are more widely foreground
-- Mercury-Venus sq. (0°19' in mundo)
-- Venus-Neptune conj. (2°00')
-- Mercury-Neptune sq. (2°28' in mundo)

Bridge {+2}
t Saturn op. Capsolar Asc 11/8-12/14
CapQ Moon op. s/p Neptune 12/4-1/2
t Jupiter sq. Cansolar MC 11/20-12/9
Saturn/Neptune overlap: Dec 4-14
(This was the primary surge and terror of the fire. Adding Jupiter would have cut it off 12/9. I have to include that Jupiter, being a factor in the Cansolar, was giving an independent message from the Saturn and Neptune indications of the Capsolar.)

Quarter: Libsolar {+2}
Saturn on Dsc (1°53')
Moon-Venus conj. (1°13')

Month: Caplunar (Dormant.) Moon-Uranus sq. (0°14').

Week: Arilunar {0 Mixed}
Jupiter sq. MC (0°09')
Moon-Uranus conj. (0°02')
Moon-Mars op. (0°14' in mundo)
-- Mars-Uranus op. (0°36')

Day: Capsolar Quotidian & Transits {+2}
p MC sq. t Mars (1°55')
p Moon op. s Neptune (1°00')
--------------------
t Saturn on s Dsc (0°49')
t Mercury on s Dsc (1°34')
-- Mercury-Saturn conj. (0°47')

Day: Cansolar Quotidian & Transits {-2}
p MC conj. t Moon (1°33')
-------------------------------
t Jupiter sq. s MC (1°04')

NOTE: Check PSSI Capsolar to see if meridian touched t Mars or t Uranus - both were close in the estimated chart.


SUMMARY {-2}
Year: Saturn Neptune (Mercury Venus). Mercury-Venus Mercury-Neptune Venus-Neptune.
Bridge: Saturn Neptune (Cap). Jupiter (Can).
Quarter: Saturn. Moon-Venus.
Month: (Dormant.) Moon-Uranus.
Week: Jupiter. Moon-Mars Moon-Uranus.
Day (Capsolar): Mars Neptune (CapQ). Mercury Saturn Mercury-Saturn (transits).
Day (Cansolar): Moon (CanQ). Jupiter (transit).