Just letting you know that the fire -- which as of late this afternoon has consumed thousands of acres since it started at around 5:30 a.m. this morning -- is "completely out of control" as of 4:30 p.m. San Francisco firefighters have been deployed to the scene. What with the serious winds blowing in the area, no one knows just when the fire will start to die down. Wineries have been lost, homes and......

For those of you with large animals (i.e., horses, emus, et al.) or even not so large animals (i.e., Sprinkles, et al.), a Capitola reader just informed us that you can take your beloved pets to the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds....

Oh dear. A hefty-sized earthquake hit northeastern Nevada this morning. You know what that means, don't you? Time to sound the alarm for everyone in the Bay Area to get prepared. Not sure what to do? Well then, check out the following info: For more safety information about emergency on tips surviving an earthquake, here are some handy do's & don'ts.For free training in disaster and emergency response, visit NERT -- Neighborhood Emergency Response TeamFor......

A two-alarm fire at Bernal Heights home caused the displacement of two elderly folks. The blaze happened at 266 Nevada Street around 6:30 p.m. this evening. According to the Gate, "[f]irefighters found the home's two residents inside and brought them out to safety." Aw. Our heroes! Anyway, other than one of the rescued Bernal residents suffering from breathing trouble -- who was hospitalized for a short period of time -- no other injuries were......

Good Lord, Bay Area residents. It seems that we had not one, but two bomb scares yesterday....

But some good news: The LA Times has a helpful breakdown worth a moment of your time, on how you can help people (and pets!) in need right now. We've re-printed it for your convenience: ...

We can only hope that every single news outlet has printed a typo when reporting the amount of cash the United States is sending Peru, which is still experiencing severe aftershocks. As the death toll climbs past 500, with more than 1,500 reported injuries, the United States government has pledged a whopping $100,000 in support. Why don’t we just send America’s Player, Eric (with his oh-so-attractive pierced nipples) from Big Brother to help them......

SFist Rita is kind of right - it should be easier to find an emergency kit. Target does sell them, if your politics allow you to pick one up there. If not, maybe it'll be helped by knowing that $10 from each purchase (they sell for $29.99) goes to the Red Cross. That's not a bad place to start, but you're probably better off spending some time really putting together something that works for......

Saturday We're going to Southern Relief's first SF Fundraiser for the Victims of Katrina. There will be t-shirts, tote bags, stickers, pins, baked goods and a prize drawing in exchange for donations to the Red Cross Hurricane Katrina relief effort. On the steps of the Christian Science Church (655 Dolores) from 10:00am to 3:00pm. Sunday we're going down to Union Square for KRON 4's Sex and the City Premiere Party. This will be our......

Covering your entertainment scene for the rest of the work week! Tonight, Go check out Neil Strauss reading from his new book on picking up women, "The Game," and learn how you too can have Courtney Love crash on your couch for an indefinite period of time! 7:30 p.m. at the Marina Books Inc. (of course). Thursday, it's tiki night at the Make-Out Room! Hula dancing, tiki carving, tiki movies, and tiki art for sale. Polynesian merriment will abound! and Friday: fans of contemporary opera can whet their Doctor Atomic appetite and check out the premiere of the Oakland Opera's performance of La Belle et la Bete by Philip Glass. The opera's based on the Cocteau film, and the Oakland Opera is staging it as a circus performance. Grab some chicken and waffles after the show! ...

San Francisco's a city of immigrants -- how many people do you know who actually grew up here? -- and our lovely vintage F-line is no exception. The refurbished trolley cars on the F hail from Boston, Philadelphia, England, Italy, and, notably, New Orleans; and starting tomorrow, the New Orleans trolley (that's the one with the sign that says "A Streetcar Named Desire") will be carrying a torch for its hometown. Actually, it'll be......

Cares is in a bit of shock, actually. We just can't stop watching the news and hoping that maybe, just maybe, at some point Wolf Blitzer turns to the camera and says "Psyche!". That's how wishful our thinking has become. We're a week on from when Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast of the US and still rescue efforts are continuing. Continuing. They're not over by a longshot but the progress that's been made......

Though New Orleans was spared the worst of Katrina, it doesn't mean that's it's all coming up roses for the Big Easy. A levee has broken, folks who evacuated may not be able to return for days, and looting has broken out. Of course, as you all know, for breaking news and the personal stories behind the tragedy, check out Technorati's Katrina page, search Flickr for photos or drop in on New Orleans Metblogs.......

Music-loving good samaritans, this is your lucky week. If you like to enjoy a little partying and live performance in exchange for your charitable contributions, you have no less than six different tsunami relief benefits to choose from. On Friday, The Independent is having their second benefit, featuring members of New Monsoon, ALO, Samantha and the Ritual for a donation of $10-50. Great American's benefit that night with indie kings Gibbard, Kozelek, Richman and Bachman......

The tsunami benefit show at 12 Galaxies last night was a huge success, with a packed house and great acts raising over five thousand dollars for the American Red Cross' disaster relief efforts. The great turnout and generosity of everyone involved -- the organizers were hoping for maybe half what they collected -- made friend of SFist Nate Cavlieri very happy and proud: Right now, the morning after the whole thing, I've yet to......

Two dear friends of SFist wrote in to let us know about local tsunami relief events. Your Waitress wants photobloggers and everyone else to know that HiMY SYeD, Toronto native and current Bay Area resident, is asking folks to organize neighborhood vigils on Sunday the 9th and Monday the 10th as part of the Global Vigil for the Global Village. Vigils are already planned for Toronto, New York, Karachi, London and Vancouver, as well......

Shortly after the terrible tsunami in the Indian Ocean, SFist Mary-Lynn put together a great SFist Cares feature. But as the extent of suffering has begun to become fully apparent, we felt that we weren't necessarily doing enough. The scale of this tragedy will probably not be matched in our lifetimes. At least we sure hope not. Of course, we're not George Bush, so we don't have $10,000, or two weeks presidential pay, to offer......

SFist Cares tries to focus on local issues and local charities. But when there are more than 44,000 people dead, thousands more missing, and millions homeless that's something that affects us not as San Franciscans, but as humans. So forgive us this once for going beyond our own borders and our own needy and asking you to help these people around the other side of the globe. By now, only rock-dwellers haven't heard about the......

SFist has been known to be a little crafty - and not just in our excuses why we can't buy that next round of drinks either. We've got some skills and one of them is knitting. We've made scarves for everyone we know and, well, we hope you like what we got you for Christmas this year too. And now we can put our skills to greater use. Afghans for Afghans is an organization that......