norcal fires have far reaching legs

[Daveroo]

yesterday afternoon a new fire broke near me,was only 100 acres or so,and two airtankers out of the grass valley airattack base saw it while in route to the wind complex of fires,they took quick action and basically stopped/cut it off before it could do any real damage.the reason im typing this though is that this fire started across the street from the home of Brad Sweets grandfather,he is also the grandfather of Kyle Larsons wife.my point is these fires have far reaching legs.this fire was also about 1 mile from my home.

[MrZippy]

Gotta ask....what started this fire? Downed power lines, kids with fireworks, spontaneous combustion? This is getting ridiculous.

[Daveroo]

no official cause as yet to any of them.but with the winds Sunday night downed power lines,trees into power lines ect.

new reports of 21 people dead and close to 500 people missing.i think this is going to have a bad outcome.plus,though its cooler today,we have strong north winds through tomorrow and Cal Fire says the fires in the sonoma/napa ares will grow.

KCRA 3 has a video out about the tanker base at MCC,a spokesman says that in the past two days,remember daylight only,450,000 gallons have been put on the fires and so far the amount of retardant dumped this season is twice as much as last season.and yesterday afternoon it was so smokey that the air ops were canceled on all the fires,and the grass valley atb was closed in the afternoon,well read that as the airport was closed....how often does that happen?..

[Daveroo]

have a look at this page and you can see how heavy the smoke it here.

http://www.alertwildfire.org/tahoe/firecams.html

[FOO FIGHTER]

Gotta say, I've lived here all of my life and have never seen it this bad. Still trying to wrap my mind around 20+ dead, 180 injured, 600+ missing and 3,500 homes and businesses destroyed.

I don't live near the major fires, but the air quality here in the valley is absolutely horrible. All of the smoke in the air makes it hard to breath and the eyes water. I can't imagine what those poor souls living near or fighting the fires must have to endure.

[Daveroo]

Yeah its not fun,back in the early 80s i was working a fire in the thermalands north of Lincoln ,McCourtny and rio oso rd area,was 112F,with 5% RH and 40 mile an hour winds,,was absolutely horrible,and to make things worse,Joe "Hoser" Satrapa flying T89 when it was still a radial did a direct drop on us from about 100 feet or less,he told me later he was so low on his run he didnt see our engine until he was already commit ed to the drop,,lol.knocked me down and i did a somersault on the ground.and about 20 minutes later our engine capt got our rig stuck in a ravine and we got over run by the fire,singed my eyebrows and i had fairly long hair and burnt alot of it off,i spent some time that summer with both pink and blackend wildland gear.wore that pink helmet for three summers,got the yellows changed out for that following season.

[Daveroo]

Gotta say, I've lived here all of my life and have never seen it this bad. Still trying to wrap my mind around 20+ dead, 180 injured, 600+ missing and 3,500 homes and businesses destroyed.

I don't live near the major fires, but the air quality here in the valley is absolutely horrible. All of the smoke in the air makes it hard to breath and the eyes water. I can't imagine what those poor souls living near or fighting the fires must have to endure.

BTW,are you the fella ii was to meet at the auburn airfare one year?..several years ago now..but i never did see the guy.well there was one guy who approached but my father said...whats that a-hole looking at and the person walked away..so i never did find out if that was the guy...my dad was kinda rude at times.

[FOO FIGHTER]

LOL! I think so(?). I seem to remember saying I was going to try and make it, but IIRC something popped up at the last minute and I wasn't able to go.

[AussieMan]

Like here in Australia you have a lot of pine and eucalypt trees. While Australia has more eucalypts than pine I have seen that once a fire takes hold in these forests it is just a case of waiting at the other side as once the fire crowns there is no way to fight it. The problem is the oil content in both types of trees.

[Daveroo]

LOL! I think so(?). I seem to remember saying I was going to try and make it, but IIRC something popped up at the last minute and I wasn't able to go.

lol..well atleast it wasnt you he was being rude too

[Daveroo]

Like here in Australia you have a lot of pine and eucalypt trees. While Australia has more eucalypts than pine I have seen that once a fire takes hold in these forests it is just a case of waiting at the other side as once the fire crowns there is no way to fight it. The problem is the oil content in both types of trees.

you are so right,plus here in the foothills we have madrone and like in socal we hve a brush ( i dont know the name) but when they burn it looks like an oil fire,think black nasty smoke.

[Daveroo]

the entire town of calistoga Is being evacuated right now..manditory evac