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Butte County Fire

#21
Yazata Offline
Six more fatalities, all from Paradise. This brings the current total to 48.

(Nov 13, 2018 09:33 PM)Secular Sanity Wrote: Yazata? What do you think about the PG&E thing?

I don't know. I'm more interested in actual events at this point than I am at playing pundit. The investigation has to run its course first.
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#22
Secular Sanity Offline
Yeah, I guess you’re right. Humans love tragedy and we wouldn’t want to appear ill-informed. We have to keep up on the current death toll, right?

They are currently investigating the company to determine if they complied with state laws. They were found to be in violation of state code on eight of those fires last October. They failed to clear vegetation and properly maintain the power equipment.

If they’re found at fault again, hopefully, some preventive measures will be put in place before our whole goddamn state burns down.
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#23
Yazata Offline
Eight more, all from Paradise. The count is now 56.
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#24
Yazata Offline
Yesterday, where I live topped out at 176 ('unhealthy') on the EPA's air quality index. Today it hit 203 ('very unhealthy'). Everything is hazy and visibility is only about 3 or 4 miles. I feel like I'm living in China!

They say that Northern California has the world's worst air quality. (We're Number One! We're Number One! Take that, Beijing!) And like Beijing, you see many people on the street wearing masks over their nose and mouth, it's become sort of a new apocalyptic fashion statement. The postal letter carriers are all wearing them.

https://nypost.com/2018/11/16/northern-c...r-quality/

A few days ago they were expecting winds off the ocean to blow it all inland. But high-pressure has settled in and no winds. So they say this might last until around Thanksgiving, when a rainstorm is scheduled to arrive. (That should blow the smoke away from here and put the fires out up north.)

Of course I shouldn't be complaining. I could be in Chico, which hit a whopping 546 today ('hazardous').

https://airnow.gov/

Latest figures are 63 confirmed dead (probably many more still to be found), 9,700 single residences destroyed, 144 multiple residences destroyed, 336 commercial buildings destroyed and 2,076 'minor' structures destroyed. The list of missing has topped 600, though the Sheriff thinks that some of these evacuated and are alive, and probably unaware that somebody reported them missing. So he wants people who got out of Paradise, Magalia and Concow to check the list and if they are on it, contact the Sheriffs to get themselves removed.

I'm starting to think that many of these people were burnt down to bones and when the winter rain and snow starts (it snows in these mountain towns) the remains may never be found. So a lot of people might just go missing from this and never turn up again.
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#25
RainbowUnicorn Offline
(Nov 17, 2018 03:49 AM)Yazata Wrote: Yesterday, where I live topped out at 176 ('unhealthy') on the EPA's air quality index. Today it hit 203 ('very unhealthy'). Everything is hazy and visibility is only about 3 or 4 miles. I feel like I'm living in China!

They say that Northern California has the world's worst air quality. (We're Number One! We're Number One! Take that, Beijing!) And like Beijing, you see many people on the street wearing masks over their nose and mouth, it's become sort of a new apocalyptic fashion statement. The postal letter carriers are all wearing them.

https://nypost.com/2018/11/16/northern-c...r-quality/

A few days ago they were expecting winds off the ocean to blow it all inland. But high-pressure has settled in and no winds. So they say this might last until around Thanksgiving, when a rainstorm is scheduled to arrive. (That should blow the smoke away from here and put the fires out up north.)

Of course I shouldn't be complaining. I could be in Chico, which hit a whopping 546 today ('hazardous').

https://airnow.gov/

Latest figures are 63 confirmed dead (probably many more still to be found), 9,700 single residences destroyed, 144 multiple residences destroyed, 336 commercial buildings destroyed and 2,076 'minor' structures destroyed. The list of missing has topped 600, though the Sheriff thinks that some of these evacuated and are alive, and probably unaware that somebody reported them missing. So he wants people who got out of Paradise, Magalia and Concow to check the list and if they are on it, contact the Sheriffs to get themselves removed.

I'm starting to think that many of these people were burnt down to bones and when the winter rain and snow starts (it snows in these mountain towns) the remains may never be found. So a lot of people might just go missing from this and never turn up again.

on occasion that i chat with parcel delivery contractors, they run about 10 to 15km per day.
thats a death sentence in those type of air quality conditions.


see the new missing count has balooned up to 1000now that they have some better quality numbers in.


i hope those body search teams have short shifts. cant imagine the dogs will last long. they will need to rotate them out real quickly to keep them working & healthy.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46245346
Quote:More than 1,000 people have been reported missing in a California wildfire which has destroyed thousands of homes and killed at least 71, local officials have said.
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#26
C C Offline
(Nov 14, 2018 06:52 PM)Secular Sanity Wrote: They are currently investigating the company to determine if they complied with state laws. They were found to be in violation of state code on eight of those fires last October. They failed to clear vegetation and properly maintain the power equipment.


Seems a universal trait of electric companies, especially when the main power lines are actually running over/through residential property rather than skirting it along the roadways. Even when you persistently notify them about growth into the power lines and months later they finally come out, the crews will often just trim rather remove the problem trees that will soon cause the situation again.

~
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#27
Yazata Offline
Confirmed death toll is now up to 71.

Cal Fire's fire progression map as of today is here:

http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/pub/cdf/image...7_4273.pdf

It looks like the fire has been stopped in the west but is still advancing in south and the east, deeper into the mountains. It's surrounded Butte College (the local community college) on three sides. The college has been evacuated since early in this thing, and I hear that Cal Fire has been using it as a base and staging area. It looks like they have been making a heroic stand at a little place called Yankee Hill too.

Another map. Black is where they have containment lines in, red is where the fire is still growing.

http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/pub/cdf/image...7_4272.pdf
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#28
Secular Sanity Offline
(Nov 17, 2018 04:48 PM)C C Wrote: Seems a universal trait of electric companies, especially when the main power lines are actually running over/through residential property rather than skirting it along the roadways. Even when you persistently notify them about growth into the power lines and months later they finally come out, the crews will often just trim rather remove the problem trees that will soon cause the situation again.

They’re enhancing their vegetation management.

But we knew this was coming, right?

PG&E Asked Permission to Raise Rates Over California Fires

Quote:Advocates for utility customers have balked at PG&E's contention that it needs to raise rates because of wildfires. They say its problems are the result of poor management decisions.

"We don't pay electric bills in order to keep bailing PG&E out from its own negligence and incompetence, and we can't afford it," said Mindy Spatt, communications director for The Utility Reform Network.

…Fire investigators have blamed PG&E equipment for 12 of last year's wildfires, including two that killed 15 people combined. In eight of those fires, investigators said they found evidence of violations of state law and forwarded the findings to prosecutors.

The company is facing dozens of lawsuits from insurers and people who lost their homes in last year. And a lawsuit this week blames PG&E for the latest fire, accusing the company failing to effectively maintain power lines.

California regulators generally allow utilities to pass on the costs of those lawsuits to their customers, but only if the company can show it prudently managed its equipment. The new state law makes it easier for utilities to bill customers if they can show a fire got worse from things outside their control, like severe weather. But lawmakers didn't drop the standard that puts all the liability on the utility, which is unique to two states.
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#30
Yazata Offline
Many evacuation orders are being lifted. People are being warned that conditions are pretty Spartan, with no electricity, cell service, water, supplies or fuel available.

Confirmed death toll is now 79. Sixty some have been tentatively identified.

The number of missing goes up and down as people are added to the list and taken off. The Butte Sheriff recently put it at 699. It was well over a thousand at one point, so they are having some success locating survivors who may not have known they were reported missing.

The current count as of Nov 20 is 12,637 single residences destroyed, 310 multi-unit residences destroyed, 483 commercial buildings destroyed and 3,718 'minor' structures destroyed. Add it up, and it's 17,148 buildings lost.

Paradise used to be a nice homey little town in the woods, popular as a low budget retirement community for people of limited means. It's kind of the antithesis of Malibu and its celebrities. That's why I care a lot more about Paradise. Many of these people in Paradise lost everything...
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