YazataJul 3, 2018 05:19 AM (This post was last modified: Jul 3, 2018 08:24 AM by Yazata.)
The biggest one at the moment is east of Lake Berreyessa, on the border between Napa and Yolo counties west of Sacramento (and not that far west of Davis, home of the UC campus). It's big, 60,000 acres (~90 sq miles) and has been dubbed the 'County Fire'. The fire is currently burning a large mountain area in a rural agricultural region. Evacuations so far are limited to some thinly populated farm and ranch areas. They include Rumsey canyon, which I'm rather fond of.
Cal Fire is deploying its army once again, some 2,000 firefighters, 177 fire engines, 50 dozers and 12 helicopters devoted to the County Fiire so far. (Fighting large wild-fires in the Western United States is a military-like operation.)
Thanks for the updates. I ought to be keeping up with the developments, but it seems to get drowned out by so many other classroom cataclysms raising their hands at the same time.
YazataJul 28, 2018 05:13 AM (This post was last modified: Jul 28, 2018 05:42 AM by Yazata.)
Two big fires are creating quite a bit of consternation.
One (the 'Ferguson Fire') is near Yosemite National Park and has forced the park's closure. I get the impression that they are making progress on this one. It's 25-30% contained and they are talking about reopening Yosemite on August 3.
The other (the 'Carr Fire') is near the northern California city of Redding and is causing major evacuations as we speak. Two firefighters have already died fighting this one. 328 engines, 17 helicopters, 3,400 firefighters and "numerous" fixed wing air tankers from around the state.
There hasn't been a Santa Rosa style firestorm burning down entire neighborhoods (yet), but they want the residents out in case something like that does happen. The fire did burn into the western edges of the city last night. One of the local TV stations was live on the air when they were informed that the TV station had to evacuate. So they told everyone to be safe and went off the air.
Edit: I was looking at the Carr Fire incident report a few minutes ago and it said 60 structures destroyed. Now it says 500. So they must have just gotten a better count of what that recent incursion into the Redding city limits did.
38,000 have been evacuated so far, though mandatory evacuation areas are growing.
Three more fatalities have been located, a 70 year old grandmother and two grandchildren that she was taking care of. (A sad thing.) Added to the two dead firefighters, that brings fatalities to five.
For Scivillage participants in the Mendocino county area (there's at least one) there are two much smaller new fires that are nevertheless worrisome and bear watching. One is near Potter valley and the other near Hopland. Some evacuations there.
(Jul 28, 2018 09:58 PM)Yazata Wrote: For Scivillage participants in the Mendocino county area (there's at least one) there are two much smaller new fires that are nevertheless worrisome and bear watching. One is near Potter valley and the other near Hopland. Some evaculations there.
I know. It’s crazy. I was up north yesterday. The smoke was almost unbearable and the traffic was nuts. We actually had another here last week. I got an evacuation alert, looked out the window, and thought—oh, shit! Here we go again. They had it contained by nightfall, though. Those alert systems have to be saving lives. I grew up here. I don’t remember a time when there were this many fires. I don’t know. Maybe as kid I just didn’t pay any attention to them.
I live on a hill overlooking the whole valley. I just looked out my back window. The one nearest me is huge. It looks like a giant, intimidating cloud. Scary! I wasn't aware of how big it had gotten.
Here's a video of a Cal Fire guy giving a briefing on the Mendocino situation as of about 12:15 PM today (3 1/2 hours ago), showing maps of where the two fires currently are and describing where the fires have been headed and where the Cal Fire defensive lines are set up. (It really is like an army at war.)
He actually sounds kind of hopeful that they can save most of the threatened structures in the vicinity. Only half a dozen or so buildings have perished at this point.
As for the Carr fire, it doesn't seem to be threatening Redding at the moment but instead is headed south in rough (and very thinly populated) mountainous terrain. They only have about 5% containment on this one, but Redding is out of the cross-hairs... for the moment at least. Some of the precautionary evacuations have been lifted.
YazataJul 31, 2018 05:00 AM (This post was last modified: Jul 31, 2018 05:21 AM by Yazata.)
It looks like the Mendocino fires have crossed into Lake county and are bearing down on Clear Lake. New evacuations of communities around the northern end of the lake. Consternation in that region. The Lake county county seat of Lakeport is under mandatory evacuation, the superior courts are closed, the jail evacuated and so on. There have apparently been several arrests for looting.
These two Mendocino/Lake fires are now being battled by 2,000 firefighters, some 200 engines and 12 helicopters. They are doing a good job, since reports are that only 7 residences have been lost in these two fires so far. (Compare that to the Carr fire, which currently stands at 818 residences destroyed.)
But... they say these fires threaten 10,000 structures. So it's definitely a dangerous situation. Hence the evacuations.
Given the other fires around California, especially the big Carr fire west of Redding (where they have a containment line protecting Redding and are trying to save other communities like Igo) and the Ferguson fire near Yosemite (where the situation is improving), Cal Fire is stretched thin. (They only have about 10,000 men total, on call from a variety of agencies, all of whom are called up.) Reports are that firefighters are pouring in from other states to assist. President Trump has declared a federal disaster.
Do you know what I do remember, though, Yazata? There weren't as many fires but prescribed burning was ongoing. That's something that I haven't seen in awhile.
Jul 3, 2018 05:19 AM
(This post was last modified: Jul 3, 2018 08:24 AM by Yazata.)
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