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"Did you hear about us in California?"

Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 6:58 am
by MarleysGh0st
Asked my sister on the phone last night...

You may recall that the Humboldt fire, which burned 23,000 acres and reached right up to the edge of MarleysSister/BIL/Nephew's property, was contained just last Monday. Apparently, a brief thunderstorm passed through the area on Saturday and the lightning touched off about two dozen new fires in their county. These are just a small fraction of the 500 or so wildfires currently active in Northern California!

None of these are threatening their land now; the fires are further up in the hills, on the other side of Paradise. The winds are calm this week, which means the fires are not spreading as rapidly as that first one did. On the other hand, fire fighters were able to concentrate their efforts on that one, while there are so many now that they're spread very thin. And the lack of wind means the smoke is lingering in the air, so it's getting uncomfortable to breathe.

It's going to be a long, hot summer for them!



SC, please extend my thanks to Fire Boy and his crew, for the work they do.

Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 7:18 am
by dimmzy
Glad the kin are OK, Marley! Will be doing my raindance for them ...

Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 7:25 am
by MarleysGh0st
dimmzy wrote:Glad the kin are OK, Marley! Will be doing my raindance for them ...
Thanks, dimmzy!

The thing is, they don't get any significant rain out there from about May to October. It's not some aberration in the climate, it's normal. They've started the season drier than usual, which is why these fires are starting in June instead of August, but there won't be any relief until the rainy season starts in the fall.

Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 7:35 am
by dimmzy
Gee, that's too bad! So I guess they can't relax for awhile then.

If they get truly desperate, they can fly me out to have a garage sale. It always rains when I have a garage sale.

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 8:12 am
by MarleysGh0st
Bringing this forward for an update: The fires still aren't a threat to MarleysSister/BIL/Nephew's property, but the smoke is still making the air quality very bad and hampering the use of aircraft to fight the fires.

NASA has a dramatic image of California, with the smoke from all the wildfires clear visible. (It's a big, 2 MB image, so I'm making it a link instead of displaying it in this post.)

As an indication of how many fires they're fighting and how rough some of the terrain is, the other day they discovered another fire they had previously overlooked; that one had already burnt through 2,500 acres!

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 9:00 am
by Bob Juch
My friend in the East Bay of San Francisco says it's too smoky to see San Francisco.

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 12:20 pm
by MarleysGh0st
Bringing this thread forward again. Tomorrow will be three weeks since this set of fires, which is being called the Butte Lightning Complex, began. It has burned nearly 49,000 acres so far and they're only calling it 50% contained. Several thousand people were evacuated from Paradise, earlier this week, and that evacuation threat level was increased this morning.

I talked with my sister last night. Still no direct threat to their property--the fire would have to burn straight through the town of Paradise to get to them--but the smoke has the air quality pegged at the hazaradous level. They're staying indoors, because it's unhealthy to go outside.

And the temperatures have been over 100, this week.

A long, hot summer, indeed.

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 8:19 pm
by cindy.wellman
MarleysGh0st wrote:Bringing this thread forward again. Tomorrow will be three weeks since this set of fires, which is being called the Butte Lightning Complex, began. It has burned nearly 49,000 acres so far and they're only calling it 50% contained. Several thousand people were evacuated from Paradise, earlier this week, and that evacuation threat level was increased this morning.

I talked with my sister last night. Still no direct threat to their property--the fire would have to burn straight through the town of Paradise to get to them--but the smoke has the air quality pegged at the hazaradous level. They're staying indoors, because it's unhealthy to go outside.

And the temperatures have been over 100, this week.

A long, hot summer, indeed.
Those are some big numbers indeed. Positive vibes are being sent your way.

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 7:40 am
by MarleysGh0st
Southern California is getting all the news today, but I thought I should post the end to this story.

The Butte Lightning Complex was finally declared 100% contained yesterday--38 days after the fires had started! 59,440 acres burned, 106 residences and 11 outbuildings destroyed, 71 injuries and one death (a man who apparently decided to ignore the evacuation order).

Whew!

Not that the firefighters are getting a break. Some of the teams from this county have been sent down to fight the big new fire at Yosemite.