Posted on 08/03/2018 5:53:52 PM PDT by notpoliticallycorewrecked
The Ferguson Fire in Yosemite National Park has jumped Hwy 41 in the Park. The fire is now headed toward Badger Pass Ski area, which is a fire base camp. There is only one road in and out of that area. The fire crews are now trapped and have to shelter in place. PLEASE pray for the safety of the fire crews at that location. They are in immediate danger. We have already lost two firefighters with this fire.
Prayers.
I live 35 miles east of Carson City. We have been smoked over from the Ferguson Fire for over 2 weeks, with only Wed & yesterday being able to see the hills because of a wind. Today- back to smoked over.
I had no idea that fire was so bad. Definitely, prayers from me and my family. Keep us posted.
I live about 30 miles east of Yosemite along Hwy 395. The smoke is very heavy here. Plus there is another wild fire burning in the wilderness of the High Sierra just south of Yosemite that has not been featured on the news that is also sending smoke our way.
Here is another link, good for big picture but not real-time. https://airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.local_city&zipcode=89519&submit=Go
Very sad. Oakhurst is a favorite spot of mine. The environmentalists are guilty of all the bad fires over the last twenty years because one thing: the white spotted owl. The hysteria about the dang owl moved responsibility of the forests from company loggers to public government workers. Now Yosemite is lit up again.
St. Florian, ora pro nobis. Wow. Hwy 41 is right there in the heart of forest.
Can they be helicoptered out?
The town of Oakhurst is currently safe. The section of Hwy 41 that the Ferguson fire jumped is in Yosemite NP. Oakhurst is suffering in that the air is unbreathable, and that most of all tourists have all left due to the fire and smoke, so their economy is taking a huge hit.
The helicopters and planes are currently not permitted to fly due to the extremely heavy smoke. They cannot see where to make the drops amid the mountains or see each other to avoid a collision.
Update for 8/4/18
This was this mornings update. (Sorry, this is late babysitting grandkids this morning.)
The fire crews in the Badger Pass area are still safe. They had two areas that challenged the containment line, but the rest of the line is holding.
I’m not going to get wrecked for failure to be clear. So to be clear, those firefighters deserve ALL of the sentiment described here.
That stated, they do NOT deserve to have themselves placed in danger because government put them there. There is also no excuse to not utilize all resources, such as the failure of my own state to overcome bureaucracy and use its contract for the supertanker...a grossly-reckless act. This is the perfect forum to call these out, yet many here will immediately pounce upon me for denigrating firefighters; that is STRAW MAN.
For decades government has embraced the defective policy of extinguishing wildfires out of sheer human ignorance. No different than the intransigence in the face of sound science on “climate”, our leaders ignore the facts of “fire ecology” and not only continue to place firefighters in harms way, but permit extremely-risky development practices, substandard construction in fire areas and now kow-tow to environmentalists to close roads in wilderness (the one road cited in the article perhaps an example; regardless, access is a factor for both ingress AND egress).
There is ample evidence that fires in natural areas not directly-threatening large populated areas should be permitted to burn and simply evacuate people in its path. There is NO EXCUSE for firefighters to be placed at risk simply to stop the advance of a natural process which, science now shows, makes for more dangerous future fires.
There is also no excuse to place firefighters’ lives on the line merely to protect property which was not built with the highest level of fire protection available (there are many excellent examples of homes surviving wildfire whereas all neighboring properties had their structures destroyed).
Common sense dictates here, not emotion. For a number of years I have been highly-critical of wildland fire practices by government and development which exposes lives & property to unnecessary risk.
I should not get a single critique of my words here, particularly in this forum, but where there is one, there are others...
There is ample evidence that fires in natural areas not directly-threatening large populated areas should be permitted to burn and simply evacuate people in its path. There is NO EXCUSE for firefighters to be placed at risk simply to stop the advance of a natural process which, science now shows, makes for more dangerous future fires.
There is also no excuse to place firefighters’ lives on the line merely to protect property which was not built with the highest level of fire protection available (there are many excellent examples of homes surviving wildfire whereas all neighboring properties had their structures destroyed).
Agreed!
Deserves repeating!
We own property in that area and it was nearly burned last year. I’d rather the whole place burns down than have the firefighters in thst danger for a whim vacation home built in a drought in the middle of NOWHERE by my own mom with love but no climate or nature sense. It was her risk.
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