Posted on 10/15/2017 7:19:37 PM PDT by rey
Please post this for me as I am in the middle of this mess near where the nunns fire started. This article explains how these fires followed nearly the exact same path they did in 1964. http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/7382773-181/gaye-lebaron-tubbs-fire-revives?artslide=0
It is complete mismanagement. The burnable material wasn’t managed the people were not alerted when it started
I’m well though suffered hard but pray for the others who are much worse off.
Thanks to whoever posts this for me. Go Cubs!
Yes go cubs. It’s a nail biter tonight.
Ping
Go Cubbies- why the heck are they swing at so many high ball throws?
Napa fire history over the past 100 years includes major blazes that have taken their toll on our county and its people. Here’s a list of some of the historic Napa County fires:
* 1913: Fire started in Sage Canyon and burned south to the Delta, 1 fatality
* 1923: Mt. St. John fire started in Rutherford, and burned over Mt. St. John and west into Boyes Springs in a few hours. Cause: burning out bees.
* 1930s: Fire started on Mt. St. Helena and burned along the Mayacamas range to the Delta.
* 1964: Hanley Fire, at 72,000 acres, burned from Mt. St. Helena to Santa Rosa. Other fires occurred in the county at the same time: Conn Fire, Nunn’s Canyon fire, and the Mt. George fire. Causes: undetermined, 149 structures lost.
* 1977: Howell Mt. Fire, at 2,200 acres, burned Howell Mountain and threatened Angwin. Cause: vehicle fire.
* 1981: Atlas Peak Fire burned 20,000 acres in one afternoon, from Atlas Peak into Soda Canyon and the now Silverado Highlands. Cause: arson.
* 1982: Silverado Fire burned 2,000 acres on Mt. St. Helena. Cause: downed power lines started a structure fire in high winds.
* 1999: “16” Fire, at 38,000 acres, burned from Rumsey Canyon/Brooks in Yolo County to Lake Berryessa.
* 2000: Berryessa Fire, at 5,000 acres, burned the west side of Lake Berryessa. Cause: sparks from a boat trailer dragging a wheel with a flat tire.
* 2004: Rumsey Fire, at 28,000 acres, burned from Rumsey Canyon/Brooks in Yolo County to Lake Berryessa. The fire’s footprint was parallel to the one from the “16” Fire five years earlier.
There were common factors at play in all these fires. Major fires tend to occur during strong northeast wind conditions. These periods of high wind and low humidity cause fires to spread rapidly, with extreme fire behavior that is very difficult to suppress. Most, if not all, of these historic fires were caused by human activity.
The best way to address this risk today, as we shape a fire strategy for Napa County, is for every homeowner in the wildland area to create defensible space around their structure and along their driveway. This will minimize the chance of loss and make it safer for firefighters to approach if they are needed. Once we have accomplished this, we can begin to discuss the environmental benefits of fire and how to manage our Napa landscape for the long term.
Real Time Fire Map
http://www.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=b58439409a644a04a66a7e686f144258
Yes especially Bryant.
“...the people were not alerted when it started....”
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That’s true from what I heard. And the horrifying reason given was that they didn’t want to create traffic jams. WTF?
I read that the automatica alert system wasn’t used because it was a huge wide alert system - iow, went to areas that weren’t needing to be evacuated, so more people would have gotten the alert, than needed to evacuate. For one. For another thing, directions to evacuate to were different in different places since there were so many fires starting all at the same time (another factor...) and so people may have gone right into an area with fire heading towards it.
IOW it was a mess because the alert system was not fine tuned enough to warn bits and pieces of areas, nor, afaik, fine tuned enough to give people the directions of where to go.
Add to that the incredible speed of the wind blowing the fire and it was just beyond human capacity to be able to get everyone out of the way.
I’m sure things could have been done better (they always can be better) but from what I’ve read, not being there, there wasn’t any gross mismanagement. And the fires, many of them, may indeed have been arson.
Thanks, I didn’t know of their problems/limitations with their alert system. It still might not have been a bad idea, although a calculated risk, to automatically make automated wake up calls saying there are fires in the region that were getting out of control. I understand the initial “blow up” was at night when many were asleep.
I read an article about this problem and the sheriffs or whoever it was that made the decision were pretty wracked about it. It was not a cut and dried issue. They plan to make it better for next time, to be able to send alerts to more specific areas and so on.
Maybe they made the wrong decision, but they were apparently trying to do the best thing. And there was so little time, and new fires kept popping up.
Should have added - I can only imagine the dispatch calls.
I should think before hitting post...
Also early a lot of power and phone service including cell phone went down, adding to the mayhem.
Some would say the best way to fix this is eliminate mankind, as they are the cause of everything bad!!!! 8>)
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