Northern California Fires

**Secular Sanity** · Oct 9, 2017 02:37 PM

http://abc7.com/amp/fires-force-evacuati...s/2511052/

I won't be back for awhile.

**Magical Realist** · Oct 9, 2017 05:17 PM

What?!!! Good luck to you and stay safe..

**Yazata** · (This post was last modified: Oct 9, 2017 06:58 PM by Yazata.)

(Oct 9, 2017 02:37 PM)Secular Sanity Wrote: http://abc7.com/amp/fires-force-evacuati...s/2511052/

I won't be back for awhile.

My thoughts are with you and I hope everything turns out OK for you. (I'm closer to San Jose.)

I was going to start a thread about this, but Secular Sanity beat me to it. Here's what I was going to say:

Forest fires have broken out in Napa and Sonoma counties (the 'wine country') and the cities of Calistoga, Napa and Santa Rosa (pop. 175,000) have started burning. Firemen from my area (the south bay) are being rushed up there in mutual aid. Cal Fire (California Division of Forestry) resources (aircraft, crews) are being rushed in from around the state.

It happened suddenly, with police cars rolling through the city streets in the middle of the night announcing mandatory evacuation on loudspeakers and warning people to get out immediately. People reported panic conditions, with smoke everywhere and flames visible, like a scene from an apocalypse movie. Many road and highway closures. Highway 101 (the big N-S motorway) is closed north of Santa Rosa and bumper to bumper to the south as people flee.

https://www.google.org/publicalerts/aler...source=web

It's a suburban/exurban area. Kind of a rural feeling (that locals try to preserve) but hundreds of thousands of residents scattered around along with all the wineries that make the area famous. There's no estimate on how many structures have burned, but the TV is showing residential streets and shopping areas reduced to piles of ashes. Hospitals are being evacuated. Schools including Sonoma State University are closed.

https://weather.com/news/news/2017-10-09...vacuations

Latest estimates are at least 1,500 structures destroyed. Local TV news says that they haven't seen any firefighting aircraft and only local fire crews, who are stretched to the limit and kind of doing triage with the fire, ignoring smaller outbreaks and going where they think they can do the most good. Hopefully the very capable state forestry fire crews and their aircraft will show up soon.

**C C** · Oct 9, 2017 07:10 PM

Definitely hoping you're among those who elude the worst or any damage from this particular event in Crazy 2nd-half Year of 2017.

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**Yazata** · (This post was last modified: Oct 9, 2017 10:05 PM by Yazata.)

The National Guard has sent military police in to assist police, and about half a dozen helicopters with fire fighting gear.

I'm getting the feeling that they might be getting a handle on this thing. The TV news images aren't showing flames any longer and are focused on burnt structures. Most of the shots of flames seem to be from this morning.

Santa Rose Fire did announce a new evacuation area in another SR neighborhood about an hour ago. But they are also telling evacuees from other neighborhoods not to return yet.

https://twitter.com/SantaRosaFire

All the animals at Safari West wild animal park are accounted for.

https://twitter.com/hashtag/SafariWest?src=hash

More photos here:

https://twitter.com/amyhollyfield

**Magical Realist** · Oct 10, 2017 01:26 AM

This should be declared a National Disaster. 1500 homes and bldgs? Not that FEMA needs anything more to do.

**RainbowUnicorn** · (This post was last modified: Oct 10, 2017 09:28 AM by RainbowUnicorn.)

(Oct 10, 2017 01:26 AM)Magical Realist Wrote: This should be declared a National Disaster. 1500 homes and bldgs? Not that FEMA needs anything more to do.

working class america burns while the rich play word games in the media.

strange type of culture

(Oct 9, 2017 08:09 PM)Yazata Wrote: The National Guard has sent military police in to assist police, and about half a dozen helicopters with fire fighting gear.

I'm getting the feeling that they might be getting a handle on this thing. The TV news images aren't showing flames any longer and are focused on burnt structures. Most of the shots of flames seem to be from this morning.

Santa Rose Fire did announce a new evacuation area in another SR neighborhood about an hour ago. But they are also telling evacuees from other neighborhoods not to return yet.

https://twitter.com/SantaRosaFire

All the animals at Safari West wild animal park are accounted for.

https://twitter.com/hashtag/SafariWest?src=hash

More photos here:

https://twitter.com/amyhollyfield

Quote:I'm getting the feeling that they might be getting a handle on this thing. The TV news images aren't showing flames any longer and are focused on burnt structures. Most of the shots of flames seem to be from this morning.

how many different news providers are you accessing to garner that interpretation ?

entire suburben neighbourhoods raised to the ground

[Image: 22366364_1630581983632782_29332353485664...e=5A760675]

**C C** · (This post was last modified: Oct 10, 2017 04:17 PM by C C.)

Tragedy. No matter how fortunate to at least be alive -- still lots of pain, woe, and deprivation to feel and suffer through after returning.

(Oct 10, 2017 09:14 AM)RainbowUnicorn Wrote: working class america burns while the rich play word games in the media.

Ironically the initial footage I saw yesterday seemed to focus on the wealthy homes that had been destroyed. Of course, just about any neighborhood there might exhibit the aura of an expensive tag compared to cheaper costs in the Ozarks or other Lil' Abner regions in flyover land.

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**Zinjanthropos** · Oct 10, 2017 08:11 PM

I don't drink but people here are worried about the price of wine going up because of vineyards destroyed by fire. People have priorities you know.

**Yazata** · (This post was last modified: Oct 10, 2017 09:13 PM by Yazata.)

(Oct 10, 2017 01:26 AM)Magical Realist Wrote: This should be declared a National Disaster. 1500 homes and bldgs? Not that FEMA needs anything more to do.

There's currently a news conference underway.

The President has declared a federal disaster and FEMA says that it has a convoy of trucks containing the usual supplies (bottled water, cots etc.) heading from San Jose up to Napa Airport. There should be more of that happening in coming hours.

Good news and bad news. Conditions are better today without the 50 miles per hour winds that drove the fire into these towns before dawn yesterday morning. The winds are what made the fire spread so explosively. That's the good news. The bad news is that they say that they currently have 0% containment and are concentrating on creating fire lines to the south of the fires, since they expect the winds to start up again in coming days, threatening to drive the fires south once again into populated areas.

The latest count is approximately 2,000 structures destroyed. 13 fatalities are known at this point (bodies found in burned structures) but this number is 'fluid' and expected to rise.

Cal Fire is on the scene (the California Division of Forestry forest fire fighters). The US Forest Service has sent aircraft and crews, including a big 747 retardant bomber. They say that the various aircraft have already flown 45 sorties from McClellan (a former air force base) in Sacramento and are dropping record amounts of retardant . The news conference said that the federal Dept. of Defense has authorized the National Guard to fly its Reaper drones for photo reconaissance. The National Guard has 242 troops in Sonoma and Napa counties. They are MPs and those operating fuel trucks supplying fuel to first responders, since gas stations aren't working without power. There are also aviation assets, including about half a dozen helicopters with fire-fighting gear. People live out in the hills and nobody has been able to contact them yet, so the helicopters are doing that (among other things).

There are 28 shelters currently with 3,800 people in them. 77 cell phone sites were destroyed, along with one hub facility. The cell providers are sending in cell-on-wheels units and the National Guard is sending in what they call Joint Incident Site Communications units, that can provide cell service. There are 230 police from other nearby police agencies helping on mutual aid, along with the MPs to help deter looting.

Highway 101 is now open north of Santa Rosa though some off-ramps remain closed.

The saddest thing are the Local Assistance Centers being set up. These include federal, state and local agencies, insurance companies and whatnot. These one-stop assistance centers will help people who have lost all their papers and IDs and account numbers when they suddenly had to flee yesterday morning just with their kids, pets and the clothes on their backs.

The state says that all the fires are under investigation. Lightning wasn't happening and 95% of fires are started by people. But they also said that many fires are happening all the time in California and are usually put out before they spread far. But this was a combination of extremely dry late-summer conditions (summer is California's dry season) along with the strong winds blowing from the north, making small fires big very quickly and blowing them into populated areas.

(Oct 10, 2017 04:16 PM)C C Wrote: Ironically the initial footage I saw yesterday seemed to focus on the wealthy homes that had been destroyed.

Most of it is middle class. But I think that this hit some of the more upscale parts of these areas as well. In Napa, the Silverado Country Club has been lost (host of PGA golf events and site of a number of posh estates).

The posher areas are often woodsier than middle class housing tracts, and that can be dangerous in fires. Dry trees go up like fire bombs and strong winds blow burning embers all over the place. (Run the videos in this news story.)

https://www.cbssports.com/golf/news/look...ter-event/