Sylmar is on fire. My close friend, Paul Croswhite, built and painted my car with me 17 years ago and lives in Sylmar. Everything I learned about my car I learned from Paul, who's dad worked for the ford family in Pasadena.

I can't get through to Paul since the fires started and I'm worried. Obviously about the welfare of my friends and their kids.

Additionally, if Paul and his family got out, as most people did, and only lost house and all the property you can't carry, that property would include 33+ classic Mustangs.

My prayers for everyone there. Right now I'm 10?miles from there and you can't breathe outside there's so much smoke. 165 homes and 500 motor homes gone so far.

Paul is a collector and has every Mustang part imaginable. Hopefull all is well including his collection. PM me if you speak to him or Patti PLEASE!

Thanks.

CP

Wildfires always seemed to me to be the worst possible way to get hit. The pictures I see of the aftermath show a pile of cinders and a chimney...nothing else. My sister in law's house was under nine feet of water for six weeks after hurricane Katrina and you would not believe how much stuff they still were able to salvage after that. Fires are the worst! Hope they come out OK.

Having done the Katrina thing, definitely hoping for the best with your friend.

my back yard today

I miss living in SoCal, but I don't miss is the wildfires. Hope your friends are ok.

Hope all is well, that is 1 big *** fire, took out 500 mobil homes I hear & I think they said it could be up to 1000 homes in all lost.

Rick

There are million dollar + homes in Yorba Linda, but many people in Sylmar mostly are hard working middle class and poor. Many of these people don't have expensive fire insurance and will lose everything.

Paul's dad worked at Pasadena Ford for many years. When Paul was a kid, the Ford family (their west coast estate is in Pasadena) used to call the dealership whenever they needed a car, and sometimes Paul and his dad would deliver it. He said they were pretty eccentric and very unnassumming. Mrs. Ford used to like driving a Pinto. It was her favorite car, according to Paul.

Paul can assemble any Mustang blindfolded. He taught how to work on these cars and helped me to restore Debbie. In return he would ask me to do simple jobs he hated like installing headliners or just pulling off wheels and brakes. I worked on dozens of Mustangs. Paul would buy $500 junkers, restore them and sell them for a few grand. I lost touch with paul earlier this year, and don't know if his cars survivied. I will have to drive up there since the phones are all out. I will wait a day or so, of course. (He doesn't have a cell phone)

Also, Paul's cars are registered with Central Casting and are used constantly in film, TV, and commercials, including the "That was then, this is now" Mustang commercial when the 2007 came out. There's a red 65 that is used a lot. One time we changed the quarter panel ornament on that car when they needed a 66 just for the shoot. He also has a 67 with major graffiti and bullet holes that was used in a movie. We would make a beer run at 7-11 in this car and the kids would go nuts over the bullet holes in the 1/4 panel, lol. His prize possesion is a 65 triple black GT500, mint. Everyone here has seen Paul's cars.

Hope he's OK.

CP

When our sky looks like that it means we might get a storm and there's maybe a one in a thousand chance we'll get hit with a tornado. When your sky looks like that it mean Hell's coming. What does it smell like there? Can you even breath if that gets closer?
I suppose even though our cars are important to us they would not be the highest priority at a time like that.

THe wind is better today, but it's still pretty bad. The fire isn't anywhere near me, but the smoke is blowing west right through the west side of LA. It smells like a fireplace or a campfire, but last night it was so acrid and thick it was nauseous.

I live at the beach. No one cares about fire here since sand is inflammable. We have to worry about tsunamis and earthquakes arriving to screw with our feng shui, lolol. In 1994, 300 buildings were red tagged (condemmed) in my little town from the Northridge quake. So far, no Mustangs lost in any So Cal disasters, though.

I will post here when I hear about Paul and his ponies.

CP