Posted on 10/13/2017 11:50:52 AM PDT by Mariner
After four days of terrorizing Wine Country and surrounding regions, the Northern California wildfires on Thursday became the deadliest in state history, with 31 confirmed fatalities and more expected.
The most destructive of those, the Tubbs fire, killed at least 15 people, and new figures told of its destruction. Santa Rosa lost 2,834 homes and approximately 400,000 square feet of commercial space, and Mayor Chris Coursey expects the numbers to grow.
“We all have suffered a trauma here,” the mayor said. He is said it will take time to recover “from this incident. The city of Santa Rosa has suffered a serious blow.”
Even as fire resources pour in from out of state, Cal Fire Director Ken Pimlott expects the fires to continue to burn “erratically” and “have the potential to shift in any direction at any time.”
Over the day, the number of deaths rose from 24 to 31, as the toll increased in Sonoma County to 17, to eight in Mendocino, and to four in Yuba. Two others died in Napa County, and Yuba County Sheriff Steven Durfor said another burn victim could perish.
The fires’ terrifying wrath rages on. While Cal Fire ranks the deadliest fires in modern history by singular events, the multiple fires burning at the same time combine as the deadliest.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
They are hauling cadaver dogs into the burnt neighborhoods to find them.
It's really bad.
Well, the Democrats have been in control of the state Legislature for over 50 years.
Perhaps they can clean things like this up by year 75.
I hadn’t heard that. That’s terrible.
I’m hoping and praying most of them were in transit and lost communication.
the evacuations started early Monday AM.
Folks have had plenty of time to check in.
They just haven’t.
Local fire authorities are grim.
Many woke up to their house on fire and their entire surroundings ablaze, with no escape.
Explosive fires engulfing entire neighborhoods in minutes.
California is a beautiful state, weather-wise.. but when it gets ugly.. it gets real ugly in a real hard and disastrous way. To be caught in this fire... it looks horrible! I wonder if the environmentalists had a hand in this.... trees and brush not being cared for in the way they are supposed to.. to prevent this kind of thing.
Next up, the rain and the Mudslides. It is just a cycle of Calif BS.
Oh moon beam will beg for federal aid to help rebuild homes in the same spot. Making the ready for the next cycle of Fire, Rain, Mudslides.
You’re probably right.
Every time I have to go out and I smell all the smoke I want to cry because so many couldn’t get away.
It is heartbreaking.
I got so tired of the news people sticking cameras in people’s faces asking them how they feel.
Of course people answer because they are too polite to do otherwise.
All the people and animals who didn’t make it and the thousands upon thousands who lost everything.
I pray this is over soon.
There were perhaps a thousand or so missing. Lack of cell towers etc prevented locating many of the missing, but some 700 have been taken off the list leaving nearly 400 missing. They are finding remains in the ash. Average age of the deceased is around 62, as expected. The elderly could not move fast enough to get out of the fire’s path. They just didn’t have enough time and if they had mobility problems, it just compounded the issue.
Imagine what those in that region would be saying if this were happening in Texas.
Among the sad property losses was the burning down of Charles Schultz’s house. His widow escaped but all the personal memorabilia was lost. The Sonoma Mission has had all of its artifacts removed as well as other historial buildings. But there were paintings lost in personal collections, etc... On a property loss level, it is truly stunning.
Yup. And a lot of it is the fault of environmentalist group who successfully stopped a lot of logging. Therefore the forests are chock full of flammable materials. Also, I suspect terrorism and/or arson. No lightning strikes reported. Al Qaeda at least threatened to burn down these forests.
Absolutely. We had a cabin in the Sierras in California. For many many decades, the environmental wackos decreed that there should be no burning and I’ll wildfires would be put out. That caused an awful lot of dead brush and downed trees to pile up. Add dry conditions, which are common there, and you’re just waiting for a wildfire.
Them envirometal groups gots a lotta Russkies in ‘em. Jes sayin’.
Heck, imagine what they’d be saying if there were a Republican governor.
I guess I shouldn’t do the same thing in reverse, but this state is so screwed up, you just can’t help but address problems.
I agree with your take also.
Amen, my FRiend.
Probably the same reaction you have toward those folks. I don’t agree with them politically, but these folks are suffering just as those that lost homes in fires in Butte County this year...Please, don’t be like Morford in the SF Chronicle and somehow turn this around to blame others that don’t think politically like you.
Did the old folks that died trying to escape the flames deserve their cruel death at the hand of flames? Did the 14 year old kid that ran for his life and was found burnt to a crisp in his driveway deserve his fate...what about his parents, also found in the driveway their bodies raked in pain as 60 percent of their bodies were burned.
What about the man and wife vactioning in the area were froced to dive into a pool beacuse burning trees blocked the path of their getaway? For hours he held his wife in the water as he suffered burns trying to hold onto the bricks that lined the pool. Those bricks were like oven bricks. She died from smoke inhalation and he held her for hours in the pool until the flames eventually subsided and he was able to drag his now lifeless wife out... I wonder what he were to say if it happened in Texas.
People have lost everything.
Jobs too!
This is going to destroy the local economy and drive up the cost of housing even more.
Prevention is going to be tough in the Cali environment because of the winds. Conflagration management in this type of environment often comes down to trying to channel wildfire burns into unexpressive areas (e.g., uninhabited areas like canyons and valleys where natural boundaries can limit spread) where the fire can burn itself out. But with 40-50 mph dry winds blowing flames and embers ahead of the fire front, its going to be tough to make that happen.
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