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 ...
How do they corral Trump into their screeds?
After all this time though one would think they are in a shelter or a friend’s or relative’s house and made some kind of contact.
sfgate.com there are numerous stories and scroll down the main page there was a section of stories by fire region also. Just stay away from Morford’s column a bunch of bile.
The news media has got wind predictions 100% wrong 100% of the time. Their fear mongering is not helping. Monday night they were predicting winds to 80 mph, meanwhile it remained dead calm in the Rincon Valley section of Santa Rosa that night and the past 4 days winds here have not exceeded 10-15mph. I think that the local weathermen are compensating for the fact that they didn’t sound the alarm Sunday about the freak gusts that drove the fire 15 miles in 4 hours.
Also, reports of fire containment are fear inspiring and don’t reflect the reality that containment in most of the fire areas is above 50% as is demonstrated by US Govt. heat sensing satellites. Below is a link to the best map out there on the fire situation, raw unfiltered data rapidly updated and accessible to the public. Point your friends and family in the fire area to this map. It will settle a lot of doubt and panic.
For example, the Adobe Fire, closest to my location, is being reported as 2% contained whereas the map and my direct observation finds that this fire is almost 80% contained. Day before yesterday morning I watched them water bomb a mile long strip at the edge of Annadel Park, set backfires up the hillside and save dozens of homes abutting the park opposite the Bennett Valley Golf Course. Yesterday I went back to the golf course and could see no evidence of active fire for a 5 mile stretch at the park boundary. They are using minimal capability on the center of the park since no structures are up there. Yet officials are still claiming that the Adobe Fire is only 2% contained.
This chronic over reporting of the wind situation and underestimating the controlled areas is approaching collective hysteria. This fire is a killer and remains dangerous in many zones, no question, but the fire crews in the populated areas are now getting the necessary reinforcements and the evacuated towns are largely out of danger.
I have a feeling that the officials responsible for fire fighting strategy are basically saying that even they can’t trust the weather services to give them accurate predictions and are erring on the side of caution, in my estimation, to a panic causing degree.
The post fire recriminations are already beginning to shape up as “investigative reporters” are beginning to take Pacific Gas and Electric to task for bad power line tree maintenance and slow replacement of older pole mounted transformers. This is total crap. Rare freak 50-60 mph wind gusts are not only going to whip power lines together, they are going to blow trees into the lines and no amount of tree branch trimming is going to insure that trees remain standing in those sorts of winds.
https://maps.nwcg.gov/sa/#/%3F/38.4388/-122.6311/14
Most of the fires were caused by electrical lines being knocked down by falling trees and branches, and even power poles snapping due to extremely high winds Sunday night. They had gusts in the 80 MPH range, and some were even reporting microburst-type phenomenon.
Hubby was on a strike team of one of those. High winds and no way of stopping it. All they could do was try to save individual homes. They’d stake out the homes that had done brush clearance to save one home while the others just burned. It finally jumped 101 and hit the ocean. Done.
“Imagine what those in that region would be saying if this were happening in Texas.”
No need to imagine. They DID say it when the hurricane hit Houston.
My son lived in FL in the country and he kept all the brush down/short around his house.. for half a mile around it. I know when wildfires burned out west (not CA), they said the natural way of keeping trees cut and new one growing, made the possibility of those fires almost nill.. but with the environmental wackos, there would be wild fires that “cut” the trees down in a dangerous way. Yea, they don’t have sense that don’t have sense...to figure out what they are doing is wrong. Same with the snail they are worrying about in the water, when farmers are losing everything without water.
Here is the situation as of this afternoon from sfgate:
4 p.m. At least 35 confirmed dead in Northern California wildfires: Two more people have died in Napa County wildfires, bringing the death toll there to four. As of Friday afternoon, a total of 35 confirmed deaths have been reported by law enforcement agencies in fire ravaged areas of Northern California.
The remains of 89-year-old Dr. George Chaney and a 79-year-old man believed to be Edward Stone were found at their home in the 2300 block of Atlas Peak Road in Napa about 9:30 a.m. Thursday by the county’s forensic search team, according to a statement from Sheriff John Robertson.
In addition to the Napa County deaths, wildfires have claimed nine lives in Mendocino County, four in Yuba County.
An estimated 5,700 structures destroyed in California wildfires: The series of deadly wildfires burning across the state have wiped out an estimated 5,700 structures, according to Cal Fire officials. Wildfires raging across California have marked the deadliest week in modern state history with at least 35 fatalities as flames blackened more than 221,000 acres. At least 90,000 people have been displaced by the fires.
Wildfires destroyed at least 5 percent of housing stock in Santa Rosa: An estimated 3,500 homes destroyed by wildfires ravaging Santa Rosa account for 5 percent of the city’s housing stock, said Mayor Chris Coursey. About 400,000 square feet of commercial space in the Sonoma County town of 175,155 people was also lost in blazes since Sunday night.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Live-updates-Death-toll-climbs-to-29-in-Northern-12274332.php
I’ve been following a health practitioner for about 10 years, Dr. John McDougall. He’s 70, lives in Santa Rosa, and got out in his pajamas. They managed to grab a computer and phone. One of his children lost her home as well.
I cannot imagine losing everything you have, house, cars, everything, at 70. He’s fortunate to have done well and his business continues, but to lose all of your memories, the little things your children and grandchildren made when they were young, etc., and to have your child lose her home as well, must be awful.
How is it that the fire moved so fast that so many people were unable to leave? The fires have been burning for awhile now - did they change direction or something?
Are you trying to be funny? If so, it’s not working, and you should perhaps find some other topic to mock. People burning to death in their homes is not funny!
I did. Thank-you.
Nature is irrepressible. Prayers up for your husband and his fellow life savers.
the recently adopted policy of "let it burn" in order to let nature take its course, is irresponsible negligence. Our modern technology and level of available revenue has the ways and means to suppress these fires within minutes of being reported
State of the art initial attack systems and fire season lookouts have been abandoned The liberal environmentalist think tanks are to blame.
Wildland fire, unlike other forces of nature, can be supressed if caught in the initial stages, but there is not the political will to fund it, and a let it burn policy to clear brush and forest fuels "natures way' is an environmentalist pet policy that makes me furious, they will not buy initial attack equipment, their priority is CAL PERS
As if people in Florida, the Midwest, and in flood plains across the country DON’T rebuild in the same places that disasters overtake them?
As if the guy who just got totally wiped out magically gets enough money to go buy another patch of land someplace else to build on?
In tornado country, you’re probably statistically safer rebuilding right where ya got hit. Flood plains — depends on the size of the flood; was it a “100 Year Flood” or the annual wash out? Fire? Same. Statistically safer to rebuild right where ya were, and just increase your defensible space over what you had previously.
Florida — ya get your annual dose of equatorial African ugly, and there’s nothing you can do but prep like a beast, roll the bones and hope it’s all standing when the wind dies down.
Fires in California burn different places every year; the same swatch of Earth doesn’t get razed regularly. This particularly murderous flaming massacre will not be seen, again, in our lifetimes.
Mudslides, although portrayed by national media as practically Statewide, are confined to relatively small regions of the State; Malibu is notorious. Sitting at home in Jersey Watching CNN cover it, you’d think all of Malibu takes a dive into the Pacific every February or March; it just isn’t the case. And there are a few other areas that are prone. Maybe this is a “newsflash,” but #fakenews has been around a long damned time. Don’t buy it.
There wasn't much to be logged on the hills where the fires started. The biggest problem was record rainfall (40 inches instead 20) last winter leading to a lot of brush growth. Then a hot dry summer. They could have taken out all the trees and it wouldn't have changed the equation.
Your broader point is valid though, without forest management, including brush, there will be massive fires from time to time.
Perhaps. But that will require 100% mandatory ember-proof building codes. There are intact houses with bushes out front and trees in the yard, surrounded by burned houses. The difference was pure luck in some cases, but also the fact that there were fewer entry points for embers (soffits, eaves, roof vents, porches). Those homes had class A roofs. Others did too but the fire started some other way.
There's a lot of emphasis on clearing brush in firewise communities. But that's strictly a problem outside of the built-up areas that burned. The original fires started in heavily overgrown areas, from record rainfall last winter and a typical hot dry summer. Those areas were at fault. But in the built-up areas the houses were not ember-proof. The brush and trees were generally not a problem (although some idiot bureaucrats will require bare yards now). Again, the homes burned to the ground but a home literally 10 feet away at the closest point did not. From luck this time, but ember-proofing next time. In the dense neighborhoods where everything burned, the ember-proofing will have to be 100% or close to it. Otherwise it will happen again, in the same location.
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/7521925-181/fire-toll-now-35-in?ref=most&artslide=0
Fire toll now 35; in Santa Rosa 19 dead, $1.2B damage; 50K evacuees!
Evacuations have just been ordered in east Sonoma, and for Santa Rosa residents off of Highway 12 between Adobe Canyon and Calistoga roads.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lU7wFtb4Ovv5ctzxA1ZR6FyNkR0FuYsipQqX18vNgMU/edit#
The link below takes you to the original post, I made yesterday re donations.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/3594608/posts
Many woke up to their house on fire and their entire surroundings ablaze, with no escape.
Explosive fires engulfing entire neighborhoods in minutes.
We had reservations in Bodega Bay for 3 nights beginning Monday.
Early Monday morning about 3 am, we got Nixle evac notices. Shortly after that local police were going from door to door tell us to get out and evac.
We threw in our travel gear with our bug out bags into our Ridgeline, and tried to leave to get to Bodega Bay. We couldn’t get out of town and stayed a few hours with friends until the roads were cleared.
We talked other evacuees at the Bodega Bay hotel from the Coffee Park and other Santa Rosa areas. They got zero Nixle warnings and no cops or firemen telling them to evacuate. The smoke and/or high winds woke them up, or a neighbor woke them up. They decided to leave on their own.
Those in charge of calling evacs were apparently afraid of causing a panic and didn’t declare the emergency evacus.
If true, they caused a horrible result.
They may have killed hundreds.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.