mws Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 Today's update: The north east side of Paradise is under mandatory evacuation. Last month it was the southwest side of Paradise that was threatened. In Chico, the sun is but an orange ball, can easily stare at it. The ash fallout looks like snow and we're at least 20 miles from the hot spot. Air quality for the last month has been horrible - probably worse than LA. Maybe even Mexico City bad. Probably not Beijing bad yet, but visibility is frequently less than 1/2 mile. The firefighters are doing their best and performing miracles on a daily basis (still 0 lives and less than 100 homes lost after 3 solid weeks of fires) but they have got to be getting tired. The current fires have been going for almost 3 weeks straight because they are in virtually inaccessibly steep canyons. Choppers are flying nonstop as conditions allow. There are a couple monster Skycranes flying out of the Chico airport with the 10K liter tanks. They appear to be grounded today (smoke too thick for safe flying). On a personal note, we're still perfectly safe, but our electricity bill is going to be painful. 110+ today, and most nights we can't open windows due to the thick smoke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StatutoryApe Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 man, that sux. i just hope that smoke stops coming down here! lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enjoi408 Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 Man.... Thats horrible. I've been to chico before the fires and it was already hot enough. I cant imagine it with the addition of smooke, ash, and fires. Hope things get better dude. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nissyota88 Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 Ha i feel ya, im in the same area as you, currently the shasta ohv park is on fire.. about 10 miles from my house Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unccpathfinder Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 The Piute fire has me smoked out at work and home...scratchy eyes and throat for the last week and a half is killing me...looks like theres more to come On a personal note, we're still perfectly safe, but our electricity bill is going to be painful. 110+ today, and most nights we can't open windows due to the thick smoke. I hear ya...our power was out yesterday when I got home and it was 90 inside...it sucked...and we've got to contact the power co b/c they misread our meter and charged us $17.00 for last month and i'm not trying to have a $600 bill for this month on their account of not knowing how to read the meter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Precise1 Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 I hear you Martin. We don't have it as bad, but it's certainly NOT clear!!! Somoma has fires. Napa has fires. Ukiah was burning. Mendecino is burning. I even heard they shut down 1 lane in San Rafael during this morning's commute because it was burning right next to the freeway... And summer has just begun!! B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mws Posted July 8, 2008 Author Share Posted July 8, 2008 Lost a few homes in Concow. That sucks. Evacuating a bunch of the small towns between Oroville and Paradise. On the good side, I hear choppers flying again! I am very near the airport so hear/see them buzzing in to refuel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unccpathfinder Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 (edited) I have some pretty cool camera phone video of the heavy lifts from the white fire last year...luckly it didnt crash when we were next to it like it did a month later on a refuel but those are pretty amazing aircraft... My boss stays perturbed about all the wild fires...They wrapped this up prior to me comming in the door after 4 years of work on this project...and it has never fought against a fire [and never will] but now it looks like they are reconsidering fighting fires with it...We've got some pretty awesome in house video's of the flight tests...too bad we cant share... I really like the video on the valve test where they're sitting on the runway timing the evacuation of all of the water and you start seeing chunks of concrete flying out while it lifted the tail of the plane probably 2 or 3 ft http://www.evergreenaviation.com/supertanker/index.html Edited July 8, 2008 by unccpathfinder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slick Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 yup, smoke is down here too..... air sucks, it's hot, and nothing is in the firefighters favor right now. i saw about 40 FF's at carls jr the other day, and wished them well, they were heading up north to help relieve the tired guys who have been up there the past month. *does a rain dance* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrimGreg Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 And here everyone thought CA would flood(fall in the ocean post earthquake), alas, CA now resembles the hell it truely is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unccpathfinder Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 And here everyone thought CA would flood(fall in the ocean post earthquake), alas, CA now resembles the hell it truely is. Thats still to come...Hope 2000' is high enough or i'll be swimming...please turn my desert into ocean front property...but this would be very bad for the US b/c longbeach would go byebye Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slick Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 And here everyone thought CA would flood(fall in the ocean post earthquake), alas, CA now resembles the hell it truely is. *sighs* you are so right......... and they don't call it the "golden state" for nothing........... if it ain't on fire, it's dead n waiting to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nige Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 i read a national geographic article about the fires and how the forestry dep't needs to go out and have controlled burns to get rid of the shrubs and saplings on the ground that allow the fires to climb to the tree-tops. Right now they put them out and never let the fire get the chance to burn out the forest floor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nige Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 ah, this is the crew: CAL Fire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SC88Pathy Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 The Big Sur fire is still burning down here. It's very far away from my house but the smoke has been horrible. Today it was really smokey at my house, smokey enough to partially block out the sky. It's dissipated now but still visible towards the south. The fire is still only 18% contained too, and its been burning for several weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrimGreg Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 I (and our house at the time) survived a few San Diego brush fires in the 70s and 80s. Closest one burnt to the back yards of the houses on the street behind mine. All that damn scrub brush out there is just tinder, if it doesn't catch fire, it breaks off it's stem and rolls down the street. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Precise1 Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 CA now resembles the hell it truely is. Yeah, and the winters are nothing but ice and snow... I (and our house at the time) survived a few San Diego brush fires in the 70s and 80s. Now I understand why you don't like Cali (or our brown brothers). You lived in the wrong part... B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unccpathfinder Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 Big Sur I heard is going to be burning at least another month...I figured the winds would get good and cranked up here in the next week and set them back a while as I saw many times last year... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrimGreg Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 Yeah, and the winters are nothing but ice and snow... Hell hasn't frozen over Now I understand why you don't like Cali (or our brown brothers). You lived in the wrong part... B I Lived in the Eureka area for a few years also, beautiful area, but still Calif-u. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mws Posted July 9, 2008 Author Share Posted July 9, 2008 (edited) A friend had to evacuate at 1:30 this morning.... His neighbor's house was burning and both sides of the road were burning as he ran. Not good - he barely got out. This same area was threatened last month by the Humboldt fire coming from the other direction. It stopped about 1/4 mile from his place. Several dozen homes lost during the night. One of our employees (he sits right outside my office) is right in (or was in) the path. He left Monday night so is not in immediate danger. I see he is wearing brand new clothes today - didn't have time to grab more than a few things as he headed out. Edited July 9, 2008 by mws Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slick Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 looks like paradise is gettin nailed....... again. it's BAD up north. i feel sorry for them folks. the monterey/big sur fire is at least changing a bit so some of the evacs have been called off for those folks.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kittamaru Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 The thing that gets me is, every year this becomes a big story... it happens... every... year... It's going to happen... so why do people live in the fire threat areas? It's stupid in my opinion... if it happens year after year, stop moving into the fire zones... hell, their honest to god only real way to put those fires out is a MOAB or a Nuke... vaporize all the fuel or blow the fire out via suction created when the MOAB (giant fuel air bomb) goes off... MOAB would be the best choice (traditional bomb, non nuclear) and it would, most likely, instantly put out a majority of the fire in the area of it's effect. Cheaper than what they are doing now, and wouldn't endanger the lives of hundreds of fire fighters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slick Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 The thing that gets me is, every year this becomes a big story... it happens... every... year... It's going to happen... so why do people live in the fire threat areas? It's stupid in my opinion... if it happens year after year, stop moving into the fire zones... hell, their honest to god only real way to put those fires out is a MOAB or a Nuke... vaporize all the fuel or blow the fire out via suction created when the MOAB (giant fuel air bomb) goes off... MOAB would be the best choice (traditional bomb, non nuclear) and it would, most likely, instantly put out a majority of the fire in the area of it's effect. Cheaper than what they are doing now, and wouldn't endanger the lives of hundreds of fire fighters. sorry, but Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mws Posted July 9, 2008 Author Share Posted July 9, 2008 (edited) I agree to some degree. I choose where I live to minimize my risks. But the same can be said for living in areas prone to: Flooding Hurricanes Tornados Earthquakes Tsunamis Lightning Ice storms Volcanoes Nor'easters High crime rates But of all these, I would argue fire is the hardest to avoid. Yes, mountainous areas are high risk, but there have been some serious losses in urban areas as well. Most of the damage in an earthquake is due to the fires. Firestorms can pretty much happen anywhere when conditions are right. Here, we had unseasonably dry conditions, low humidity, high temps, and then a freak dry lightning storm followed by several days of high winds blowing in sub 10% humidity air. Kind of a perfect storm thing. This is a once every couple hundred years scenario. Kinda like the Mississippi flooding last month. Or the New Orleans hurricane. It would suck if we ALL had to live in dirt huts in Duluth... Edited July 9, 2008 by mws Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mws Posted July 9, 2008 Author Share Posted July 9, 2008 YES! My friends just got word their home is still standing! All their efforts to make their property defensible (clearing brush, trees, grass, pine needles etc) paid off! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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