Posted on 10/09/2017 1:20:34 PM PDT by Yollopoliuhqui
Whoof! Exciting morning starting around 3 am waking everyone up in our building to prepare for evacuation as the Tubbs fire ravages north Santa Rosa. Right now the closest fire front is 2 miles to the north of our apartment and if the wind doesn't pick up and change direction, we'll be OK. I took a bike ride with my video camera into the fire zone an hour ago and got some scary footage of homes burning on both sides of the road where I managed to get past the road blocks. I'll post the YouTube URL here soon as I get it edited.
There is another fire 10 miles to the south. The prevailing winds so far have been from the east, which is good for our location and just now the wind has died down to about 5mph, so that's a big relief. 1500 buildings up in smoke at this point, including the entire trailer park where I used to live burnt to the ground.
Fire fighters from all over the SF Bay Area are attacking the fire at its most dangerous spots with the emphasis on saving lives first, property second. Our neighborhood is pretty smokey but tolerable. Updates as the situation changes.
Prayers for you and the rest of the North Bay folks.
Incredible. I felt so bad for those folks at “Journey’s End” - was that the trailer park where you used to live?
Hope you are spared looses.
Stay safe.
Prayers for you and all in the fires. I just looked at some pictures and it looks pretty bad. I guess this year’s wine will be expensive.
GENERATIONS of grape growers will suffer the loss.
How Long Does It Take for Grape Vines to Produce Grapes?
https://www.hunker.com/12540066/how-long-does-it-take-for-grape-vines-to-produce-grapes
Wish we could send an inch of rain your way
Thank you for this update. Stay safe.
In my summer after high school I worked at a forestry fire station north of Healdsburg, which is north of Santa Rosa. I learned a lot as a fire fighter and was tested in a number of forest fires as well as smaller fire events.
You’re right, it will be years. My grandmother owned a vinyard when I was a kid.
>>Incredible. I felt so bad for those folks at “Journey’s End” - was that the trailer park where you used to live?
Yes, Journey’s End Senior Mobile Home Park, right next to Kaiser Hospital. They successfully fought hard to keep the fire off the hospital after evacuating the entire facility using Santa Rosa Transit buses. The fact that there was little tree or brush fuel didn’t stop the fire from crossing 6 lanes of Interstate and setting fire to business in an industrial area west and south of the mobile home park. I’m sitting here with my fingers crossed that we don’t get a mandatory evacuation order. About 40 of our 50 senior residents have left for shelters. The roads are open with little traffic, so we’ll be able to high tail it without problem if necessary. Thank you all for your concern.
Beautiful country up there. Hope you all stay safe.
I’m down in the Phoenix valley but I may get a call to bring water buckets from my sister-in-law in the Bay area as her favorite restaurant is in Rutherford — but I guess that is quite a ways south.
When I was in South Korea - 1960s - I had a small Conversational English class some locals asked me to do. We always met in the evenings after their work - at a pharmaceutical factory - and after my military duties.
Sometimes we’d do a meal or some other leisure activity after, or instead of, class (while they would use the occasion to still practice their English with me).
On one occasion we went to a local grape vineyard. The proprietor had platforms taller than the average person, with ladders up to them. We sat as a group picnic style on the platform and employees would bring us baskets of just picked and washed grapes.
It got dark and they had torches around the platform and scattered around the vineyard. Pitch black other than the stars and the torches, with wonderful delicious fresh grapes and really good company. A night I’ve never forgotten.
I’m glad they preserved the hospital at least but I can’t imagine how many people, a lot of them elderly or infirm, have been displaced from these areas. And even if you’re not elderly or infirm, even if you owned a super-nice house and commuted to SF, your whole life has been changed.
Prayers for you and yours!
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