California Wildfires going crazy

[little_old_man]

Last year around this time my mother-in-law and her 102 year old mother had to be evacuated because of a forest fire for a few days, luckily their homes survived.

 

Last night my neice, 4 year old son and her husband were evacuated from their new home which they just moved into a month ago and it's sounding like it didn't survive. They had just minutes to get out and were literally out running the fire as they left town. The paint on their car was scoarched they were so close to the flames as they fled their home. They live in a little town called Middletown and from all reports the town is gone. My brother and his wife who live a few miles from there were evac'd about an hour ago.

 

Been here almost 40 years and thiis is the worst I've ever seen it. Unfortunately this is the price you pay living in the beautiful rural areas of California. Right now I'm glad I live closer to civilization and in a large town.  

[eidolonFIRE]

Damn.... that's crazy....

 

I know a family that has been through 6 complete house fires (in OH)

[little_old_man]

Here is a picture taken last night of the welcome sign for Middletown where my neice lived. The whole area is like a war zone.

 

[bds1961]

Not sure if it from those fires, but I have been getting white ash on my black car here in Concord CA.  all day.  was planning on driving up through that area on Tuesday as I head to Fort Bragg for the guys annual Abalone dive trip.  May end up just having to head through Old mans town and up the usual way along 101

[little_old_man]

Not sure if it from those fires, but I have been getting white ash on my black car here in Concord CA.  all day.  was planning on driving up through that area on Tuesday as I head to Fort Bragg for the guys annual Abalone dive trip.  May end up just having to head through Old mans town and up the usual way along 101

 

Yep, we're getting smoke & ash in Petaluma from the fire. I doubt if the roads will be open by Tuesday if you're going to Ft. Bragg.  This fire has a lot of growing to do over the next couple of days at least, so keep an eye on things before you leave.

[little_old_man]

Well by some miracle it looks like both houses survived so far. My brother's house has 5 acres in a wooded area and the fire seems to have just burned around his property but wiped out neighbors on either side. Same thing with my niece's house. The home 2 doors up the street burned to the ground as well as most of the rest of the neighborhood, but their house is still standing.  Hopefully the winds don't kick up and change that. Still lots of hot spots all over the place.

 

So far the fire fighters have been ignoring containing the fire and just trying to keep people out of harms way by evacuating them. It's currently over 65,000 acres and still growing, slowly moving southward toward Caistoga and Healdsburg and north toward Clear Lake.  One life lost and approximately 1,000 homes destroyed.

Edited September 14, 2015 by little_old_man

[Leadfinger]

That's some scary stuff . .. wildfires burning through dry grass and trees add a little wind and it becomes an unstoppable force. As the fires grows it begins to create more wind that turbocharges the flames . . .literally Hell on Earth.

Waking up to thick layers of ash all over everything outside is a saddening reality that somebody's house, beautiful forest land and everything in it has been destroyed and leaves you wondering if those same deadly flames could reach your house.

 

Most fires like these are started by carelessness, I remember as a kid picnicking at a place called Lytle creek in the San Bernardino National Forest when up the road an 1/8 of a mile or so we could smoke rising up and soon there was a lot of smoke and flames coming down the canyon we rushed to pack up what we could and headed home. Later we heard on the TV news that the fire was started by kids lighting paper plates on fire and flying them like frisbees. (And the parents were where?)

As you know  @little_old_man  living in California means living with the threat of wildfires and if you have acreage how important it is to make a defensible perimeter around your property cuz when it comes that garden hose will be useless.

Glad your families homes made it through such a horrible nightmare.

[Spartacus]

Let me first say how much the fires suck! And I feel for anyone who loses a home or much worse, a loved one...

Second, does the State of California still not allow residents to cut the deadwood in the Forests?

If the the deadwood is not cut, it does become a tinderbox.

Here in Ct. many residents buy into the "Is a mortal sin to cut a tree" mentality, so the last two hurricanes we had devastated our power lines due to the fact no one wants to cut a tree. Here most trees here hang way over the power lines for absolutely years. Some residents went without power here for 5 to 6 weeks. Same thing in Long Island, they had people up to 2 months without power with the same problem. The power company's don't want to foot the bill, and State Government is Bankrupt and Boarder-line Communist here when it comes to the environment.

My point is, there will always be wild fires in California, but years ago I don't remember them being this intense and wide spread.

Is there a connection to overgrowth of deadwood waiting to burn during any kind of drought?

And if there were people who actually wanted to burn it (Yes, years ago many people Burned Wood!) do they have access to cut it and use it?

Or is it way more homes in Diverse locations?

[little_old_man]

Let me first say how much the fires suck! And I feel for anyone who loses a home or much worse, a loved one...

Second, does the State of California still not allow residents to cut the deadwood in the Forests?

If the the deadwood is not cut, it does become a tinderbox.

Here in Ct. many residents buy into the "Is a mortal sin to cut a tree" mentality, so the last two hurricanes we had devastated our power lines due to the fact no one wants to cut a tree. Here most trees here hang way over the power lines for absolutely years. Some residents went without power here for 5 to 6 weeks. Same thing in Long Island, they had people up to 2 months without power with the same problem. The power company's don't want to foot the bill, and State Government is Bankrupt and Boarder-line Communist here when it comes to the environment.

My point is, there will always be wild fires in California, but years ago I don't remember them being this intense and wide spread.

Is there a connection to overgrowth of deadwood waiting to burn during any kind of drought?

And if there were people who actually wanted to burn it (Yes, years ago many people Burned Wood!) do they have access to cut it and use it?

Or is it way more homes in Diverse locations?

 

Sparty, the biggest problem we have here in California is that our normal rainy season is about 4-5 months long (November-March) and the rest of the year it doesn't rain, period. On top of that we have had almost no rain at all over the last 4 years, there is an over abundance of dead organic material on the ground, and many of the trees are being infested with wood beetles and dying because of the drought. Add them all together and you have the recipe for a disaster. Fire storms like the one my family is living through right now don't need much in the way of fuel on the ground because once the flames reach the canopy of the evergreen trees like Douglas fir and cedar, the trees explode in flame and the fire simply travels along the tree tops. Once the fire gets large enough it starts creating its own weather and winds, and simply snowballs into a fire storm. This fire went from 400 acres to 40,000 in 18 hours and everybody was caught off guard. This area hadn't had a major fire in 50 years and even with a large perimeter cleared away from your home the heat was so intense that composition roofing material ignited from the radiant heat hundreds of yards away. I'm going to help my brother make an emergency water sprinkler system with a 4,000 gallon tank that will soak the exterior of the house and surrounding yard should this ever happen again. I'll rig it to activate remotely.

 

 

 

Before Europeans arrived in North America, they would regularly burn forests and just let them burn themselves out. There were also constant natural fires that were usually started by lightning. Now our mentality is to put them out at all cost, and all we are doing is making it much worse by stopping the fires. Many trees like Redwoods rely on fire to stay healthy and for new trees to grow. We're killing the forests by trying to save them.

Edited September 15, 2015 by little_old_man

[Spartacus]

Sounds like a tinder-box...

Native Americans regularly burned the woods, even just to hunt, that I do know...

Hopefully you will get some rain!!!

[little_old_man]

Rain is coming into the area today (our first rain in several months) and it should completely eliminate any threats of fire.

 

Just to give you an idea of how close my brother and neice can to to losing their homes, here is a map of the fire area. I've added arrows where there homes are, and in both cases the fire burned all around them.  It's about 15 miles between the two houses.

 

[L!ckALotAPus]

Not sure if it from those fires, but I have been getting white ash on my black car here in Concord CA.  all day.  was planning on driving up through that area on Tuesday as I head to Fort Bragg for the guys annual Abalone dive trip.  May end up just having to head through Old mans town and up the usual way along 101

send Abalone this way please I miss the hell out of it!