Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum

This one is called the Creek Fire and it's seemingly come out of nowhere in Madera County, about 150 miles east of San Jose in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

The excitement tonight concerns a place called Mammoth Pool, about half-way between Yosemite and Kings Canyon National Parks. Today Mammoth Pool is a small reservoir behind a dam. There's a rather undeveloped state park there. People like its undeveloped nature, accessible by car and the fact that it offers hiking deep into some very spectacular mountain scenery.

Well, the Creek Fire forced an evacution order of Mammoth Pool. Except that the fire has cut the only road out. So 100-150 people have come in from the wilderness around and are at the campground, trapped there, sheltering in place. Apparently helicopters have gotten in to check on them.

https://twitter.com/MaderaSheriff/status...0190852097

This is Mammoth Pool in normal times, with the high country in the background.



Today (Sierra National Forest photos)

Dramatic TV disaster movie style air rescues last night at Mammoth Pool. The California National Guard used Blackhawks and large twin-rotor Chinook transport helicopters in multiple sorties that flew out approx. 200 people as the fire approached. A dozen or more of the evacuees were injured, including several critical burn injuries.

https://twitter.com/MaderaSheriff/status...7844593664

https://twitter.com/CAFireScanner/status...7339076608

https://twitter.com/FresnoFire/status/13...6327122945

https://twitter.com/dennisreports/status...1803664386

https://twitter.com/NWSBayArea/status/13...8558211073

Photo from Mammoth Pool last night showing things getting pretty hairy (photo by Cameron Colombero)



The helicopters show up



Evacuees at Fresno Airport where the National Guard has their air operations base

In the second image, those scattered patches of fire on the trees in the background almost looks the silhouetted buildings of a city at night with their electric lights shining through windows.

Helicopters worked when they needed to. Occasionally seems like anything that comes along -- including smoke or airboune desert sand -- can disable a military copter.

I'm back! They cut off my electricity this afternoon, so I was stuck without internet, TV or lights. The cause wasn't fire, but rather the load that our California heat wave is putting on our creaky old 1970's vintage electrical grid. The grid was constructed when California had 20 million people, now it has 40 million with little or no new generating capacity, apart from "green" boondoggles. (And they are taking all the nuclear plants offline.) So we are gradually becoming a third-world country with the rolling blackouts.

It was plenty hot this afternoon, 105 F (40.5 C) where I live.

(Sep 6, 2020 08:30 PM)C C Wrote: [ -> ]In the second image, those scattered patches of fire on the trees in the background almost looks the silhouetted buildings of a city at night with their electric lights shining through windows.

It did look like that.

Quote:Helicopters worked when they needed to. Occasionally seems like anything that comes along -- including smoke or airboune desert sand -- can disable a military copter.

I gather that it's hard to fly helicopters in the mountains in even the best of times, due to winds in the canyons and stuff. The fire must have reduced visibility tremendously and created all kinds of hot updrafts. So kudos to the National Guard pilots who pulled it off without mishap.

(Sep 7, 2020 04:52 AM)Yazata Wrote: [ -> ]I'm back! They cut off my electricity this afternoon, so I was stuck without internet, TV or lights. The cause wasn't fire, but rather the load that our California heat wave is putting on our creaky old 1970's vintage electrical grid. The grid was constructed when California had 20 million people, now it has 40 million with little or no new generating capacity, apart from "green" boondoggles. (And they are taking all the nuclear plants offline.) So we are gradually becoming a third-world country with the rolling blackouts.

It was plenty hot this afternoon, 105 F (40.5 C) where I live.

I wonder if the Hollywood Hills ever suffer blackouts. I doubt it.

I also wonder if California's strategy is just to wait for enough Democrat power in DC for other states to subsidize their decrepit infrastructure with federal funds. Make everyone else bail them out like the EU did with Greece.

There’s another one in Willits. It’s at 863 acres and only 5% contained. Highway 101 is still closed. Roughly 1,500 people were evacuated.

https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/9/7/oak-fire/

Someone commented on the Cal Fire's twitter feed calling us a 3rd world state.

(Sep 8, 2020 07:07 PM)Secular Sanity Wrote: [ -> ]Someone commented on the Cal Fire's twitter feed calling us a 3rd world state.

Failing power grid, annual devastating wild fires, epidemic homelessness (complete with human feces and syringes on the streets and sidewalks)...and that's not even getting into the state's finances.

Will California become America's first failed state?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/o...state-debt

California is a failed state. How do we know? They're moving to Arizona in droves.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2...645176002/

Some lifelong Californians agree.

The sun is almost completely blocked out. It looks like it’s night time here. The sky is a dark orange. It’s really creepy here right now.

(Sep 8, 2020 09:44 PM)Secular Sanity Wrote: [ -> ]The sun is almost completely blocked out. It looks like it’s night time here. The sky is a dark orange.  It’s really creepy here right now.

It's like that right now where I live. The sky is all kind of brownish-red. It looks like Mars!

I think that it's a combination of hazy fog overcast and smoke. Classic smog (smoke + fog). The smell of smoke outside is very noticeable.

Like this photograph but dimmer. It's 9:30 in the morning and it looks like late sunset. Very creepy.

I wasn’t able to find any current information on the oak fire but Caltrans is still showing highway 101 closed. Most of the smoke is coming from the one that started in the Mendocino National Forest dubbed the August Complex Fire and it is spreading at a fast rate. They issued more evacuation notices this morning.