Rolling Western U.S. Is On Fire / Wildfires Thread

The #CarrFire that is burning through Redding, CA has now destroyed nearly 1,000 homes.

It's still just 20% contained and has burned an area *three times the size of San Francisco*.

Six of the 20 most destructive fires in California history have happened in the past 10 months. https://t.co/BcK4gNmnPX

— Eric Holthaus (@EricHolthaus) July 30, 2018

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DjZpEKYUYAII-qS.jpg:large

Was in Ashland, OR last week, which is about two hours north, and the smoke was so bad is was classified as "hazardous." Lots of people wearing masks, or at least staying indoors. Related, we were in Santa Rosa, too, which was hit super hard last year, but aside form a few "thank you" monuments to firefighters I never would have guessed.

from a friend, and I totally buy this theory"

[Now these developers are starting arson fires in Cali to force people to flee north where these prices are “normal”!

Sixteen thousand rental units in Portland are sitting empty

http://www.registerguard.com/news/20180820/wildfire-smoke-to-degrade-lane-countys-air-quality-to-unhealthy-levels

Seattle:

https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/NASA-Vancouver-Fire-thumbnail-620x467.jpg

Missouri man flies to California, sets 13 wildfires, then tries to fly home, cops say

https://www.kansascity.com/latest-news/s6tqdm/picture235504772/alternates/FREE_768/Screen%20Shot%202019-09-26%20at%2011.44.07%20A_fitted.jpeg

After he was arrested, Graham told investigators he and his wife had planned to drive along Calaveras Road near the reservoir together before her death in 2018, according to the news outlet. A report by investigators states: “Because she passed away and could not be with him, it made him emotional, starting the fires.”

The blackouts, which were projected to begin early Wednesday just after midnight, were likely to affect parts of San Jose, Oakland and Berkeley but not San Francisco or Sacramento, PG&E said. https://t.co/myow89C8eu

— Breaking News (@BreakingNews) October 8, 2019

"Can't blame us for fires if we shut off the power grid"
Roll-Safe-tapping-finger-to-head.jpg

PGE recently spent $79 million on lobbying, got $1 billion in tax rebates, made a profit of $4.8 billion and hiked executive pay 94% https://t.co/ELHZLLlKn2

— reclaim UC (@reclaimuc) October 9, 2019

Saddleridge fire being investigated as caused by sparking SCE electrical tower despite residential outages.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-10-13/saddleridge-fire-electrical-tower-investigated-possible-ignition-point

This is normal right?

Black smoke and fire from Nustar Energy refinery pic.twitter.com/nuuCOuiVS9

— KTVU (@KTVU) October 15, 2019

I guess this isn't technically a wildfire but still (wait for it...):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u4BeyqyP8o

I have to say, between the fires and now smoke from a burning refinery, this ad is in pretty poor taste for Californians. #smokeandmirrors#banSUVs https://t.co/RrLBRrM9Ow

— Dr Kristina Hill 🏳️‍🌈 (@kzhill) October 15, 2019

There are approximately 42 fire units at Nu Star incident from agencies around the Bay including- Contra Costa County Fire, Crockett Fire, Rodeo-Hercules Fire, Pinole Fire, Richmond Fire, CAL FIRE and the East Bay Regional Park District and overhead from the East Bay IMT.

— Con Fire PIO (@ContraCostaFire) October 16, 2019

Interstate-80 is the major conduit from the SF Bay Area to Sacramento & beyond...

https://i.imgur.com/jNYX0hs.png

...and is forecasted to be closed for another 6+ hours.

More PG&E power outages coming over the next few days, some could last as long as 48 hours.

Outages already reported in Northern Sonoma County.

The wind woke me up early. Reminded me of how it was the night of the Tubbs fire. First thing I did when I woke up was check to see if there was a fire and wasn’t too surprised.

possibly no bueno with the Getty Fire in L.A., w/the strongest Santa Anas of the year supposedly arriving tonight. the air quality seems to be okay around the city, i assume the winds are blowing the smoke out to the ocean.

there are a dozen or so people on my FB marking themselves "safe" from this fire despite most living in idk Highland Park or Silver Lake or East Hollywood.

haha i assume it's to ward off calls or messages from family who live out of the area?

I heard some terrifying dystopian references (2nd-hand w/o source) about people trapped in their "smart" homes as flames approached, because the power outage meant the "smart" locks couldn't be opened, and the internet was down so they couldn't reach anyone for help?

any source or link for that wld be appreciated

I would think any door would have to have a failsafe way to open from the inside, for a house fire, etc.

I would think any door would have to have a failsafe way to open from the inside, for a house fire, etc.

that's a pretty non-contestable requirement of CA Fire Code for buildings

and we all know how much rich techbro assholes feel about public safety regulations

Cue Silicon Valley Jared and the driverless car scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UBdrMTxsvs

if you die in a fire because of your "smarthome" maybe you... aren't that smart

"Open the pod doors HAL"

SF is on fire and TIME is on it (view quickly before it is deleted):

As fires continue to ravage different parts of California, watch as firefighters face massive flames in San Francisco pic.twitter.com/lFjNOQiBqV

— TIME (@TIME) October 29, 2019

lol

The Zack House by Craig Elwood burned by the Getty fire in Los Angeles.

https://www.facebook.com/KCMODERN/photos/pcb.2525595454199945/2525593230866834/?type=3&theater

xp RIP Time tweet

the reagan library is now threatened by the blazes

bump

CalFire admits in presser this morning that they have NO resources to fight this. Like, NONE. Guess why? Bc the prison populations, who have for decades been California’s primary firefighter hand-crews on wildfires, are too sick with Covid to go. https://t.co/ZZKIpsN5lc

— RH Herron/Rachael Herron (@RachaelHerron) August 19, 2020

well, not exactly NONE. but yeah, that is bleak. $2 to $5 a fucking day for the work, too, which probably makes it the highest paid position available for them

it would be disgusting even if they weren't exposing themselves to immediate and long term danger for that wage. absolutely unconscionable.

https://earther.gizmodo.com/the-climate-danger-of-kamala-harris-prison-labor-legac-1844712734 this suggests it's $5/hour? not that it makes a difference. (n.b. in spite of myself i don't place much of the blame for this on kamala herself, article doesn't do a great job of explaining how the AG's office got to the point of filing that. however, it's not justifiable.)

Anyone know the likelihood of Santa Cruz city having to evacuate? My sister lives there, and this is cranking up her nervousness...

(caveat that i'm just some guy, not a firefighter) It's not too close yet but I'd be concerned about the cluster that just broke out south of Henry Cowell State Park (https://www.esri.com/en-us/disaster-response/disasters/wildfires) . CalFire's general policy is to greatly favor protecting residential areas over parks so I wouldn't be surprised if they're already doing controlled burns around UC Santa Cruz.

xp: She should be fine if she's in town. If she's up the coast or in the hills off Hwy 9 she's probably already evac'd.

I don’t really want to reveal where I live (not Santa Cruz) but um I have a bag packed. 😬

DJI: this account has all the latest information

https://twitter.com/CALFIRECZU/

Now UCSC is under evac warning

If it gives you any optimism, a fire crew on loan from SLO drove high up into the mountains above San Jose to save all of the Lick Observatory structures last night despite insane high winds, swirling flame and ash.

https://news.ucsc.edu/2020/08/mt-hamilton-fire.html

and here's the live shot (the other cams from the actual observatory are no longer broadcasting, not sure if they got damaged):

https://www.see.cam/us/ca/san-jose/mount-hamilton

This was a remote outpost some 30 miles up the hill from San Jose.

california and also the entire intermountain west is on fire

Fire and wind map: https://caltopo.com/map.html?fbclid=IwAR2hBujGNlyLgghWv-ugwVIlK_Sq7s0ywcQEqPelsbsLZGOJa8WuRNmgfrg#ll=37.15703,-122.23938&z=12&b=map&a=modis_mp%2Cwxd_wspd-01

We're lucky the wind isn't higher.

according to this, my parents (and most of their town) are fine unless the fire jumps the freeway

https://twitter.com/calfireSCU

Ugh, sorry.

looking a little better in Montreal this morning, but the last two days were p depressing (not as bad as Ottawa though)

This explains why the early mornings have looked so apocalyptic here of late.

Sund4r told me he drove back from Toronto to Ottawa the other day and basically was welcomed in the middle by giant cloud of black smoke into which he drove. Had to wear a mask in his car. And then in his apartment.

Well now it’s drifted down to DC.

Air quality in Ottawa back up to 10+, highest possible risk.

It was surreal walking around my neighborhood yesterday (in Montreal), just smelled like light campfire smoke, so not really unpleasant to me though obviously unhealthy. Today seems less bad so far at least, I guess the bit of rain we had this night helped.

imo this blows

Seems like the next plume is coming into nyc now

it's pretty weird to watch the rest of the country experience our Oregon summer world, been like this on and off here for 4-5 years now

pro tip: get P100 masks, you want those small particulates filtered

We have N95s aplenty…

ha yes, everyone does now, but do try to get some P100s if you need to be outside in it for an extended period

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1FzbmpFyaw

Is it even worth bothering with a surgical mask, as some are doing?

I don't think so. I think you need at least an N95 to filter out particulates?

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/07/us/masks-wildfire-smoke-air-quality.html

Went out to get groceries just now (picked the wrong time but I've been sick all week) and felt like the dog in the "This is fine" cartoon.

it's pretty weird to watch the rest of the country experience our Oregon summer world, been like this on and off here for 4-5 years now

― broken breakbeat (sleeve), Wednesday, June 7, 2023 6:36 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

i wouldn't wish smokey air on anyone, but yeah, from a western pov it's a little jarring to see "this sucks baaad" in 2023. not like in some perverse bragging tone or anything. just a note that many parts of the country that don't have many posters to this message board have been living this reality for quite some time. my sympathies to everyone dealing with this right now. the good news is weather patterns change and the smoke always moves somewhere else. then moves back to you. then gets worse next year.

i'm super glad we'll see some media hand-wringing and rationalization about it in the coming weeks though.

it does suck bad

I’m in the Baltimore area. This has happened before, not pretty rarely in my memory.

(The only other time I remember it was in the Austin area a decade or so back when the city of Bastrop was on fire for weeks.)

I moved to Montreal from Oregon 9 years ago. So, I left before the real bad summers started, but I did experience fires while there, including waking up on vacation in Bend one morning to the surreal sight of midsummer snow that I realized after a confused minute was falling ash. There have also been plenty of wildfires in Quebec before this year. What's freaking me out is that it's only June

i've seen a fair number of westerners with thoughts along the same lines as sleeve/map and i get it, but . . . this *hasn't* happened in nyc before. (james redd could only compare it to 9/11!)

i mean, if the west coast of the usa gets hit by a hurricane sometime, that too will be very noteworthy despite the southeast getting several every summer

I suppose maybe I could have should have lowballed and compared it to that one time NJ sent us some foul-smelling air.

Yeah, FW2020 was rough. 5 of the 10 worst wildfires in the history of California (and Oregon wasn't much better).

Not only were we in COVID lockdown but also choking on dense wildfire smoke for close to 3 months. Even our indoor AQI readings were in the triple digits. Those of us with kids dealing with at-home everything and then no more going outside for fresh air made things extremely unmanageable.

https://i.imgur.com/WsuDF4n.jpg

Good luck East Coasters.

(no filter on the pic, white-balanced to the interior lighting)

It makes me think of there Las Vegas set scenes of Blade Runner 2049.

ok fine i will admit to experiencing a ~tiny~ bit of schadenfreude after spending many many years slowly accepting that smoke = summer in northern california

but also: i am v sorry this is happening to you all, it super sucks & i know firsthand it becomes very depressing + scary very quickly. stay safe! stay indoors!

Thanks. Definitely some disturbing AQIs over here in Queens, some very unhealthy and even hazardous.

veg otm

oh in case anyone needs indoor filters:

https://deohs.washington.edu/edge/blog/how-make-box-fan-filter-clean-indoor-air-smoke

i pulled up the purple air map for nyc. jfc, that is worse than what we had in norther california in 2020 when everything turned orange and freaky.

stay safe y’all :-(

incredible photo, Steve

There have also been plenty of wildfires in Quebec before this year. What's freaking me out is that it's only June

I have lived in SF for most of my life, and September 9th, 2020, dubbed "orange skies day", will always be a day I remember, it was a very dim orange twilight all day and even the birds didn't know how to respond, it was freaky. Steve Shasta's photo captures it

I think the particulate matter AQI score in NY today was maybe even higher though

Yeah, that day was incredibly eerie but it was nowhere near one of the worst air quality days that year. Iirc, the orange skies were a result of a cloud layer creating a buffer between the city and most of the particulate.

welp

i've seen a fair number of westerners with thoughts along the same lines as sleeve/map and i get it, but . . . this *hasn't* happened in nyc before. (james redd could only compare it to 9/11!)

i mean, if the west coast of the usa gets hit by a hurricane sometime, that too will be very noteworthy despite the southeast getting several every summer

― mookieproof, Wednesday, June 7, 2023 4:31 PM (two months ago)

yup. everything is on fire around us right now as well.

over 1000 fires in Canada

https://data.statesmanjournal.com/fires/

Photo of a hurt and angry planet

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2023/09/16/multimedia/18californiatoday-hilary/18californiatoday-hilary-articleLarge.jpg

Nothing really close to me at the moment; being basically on the shore of a giant lake must keep the ground pretty well irrigated, I guess. But I'm keeping an eye on the map.

https://www.mtfireinfo.org/pages/current-fire-info

Quebec man who blamed wildfires on government pleads guilty to setting 14 fires

A Quebec man who posted conspiracy theories online that forest fires were being deliberately set by the government has pleaded guilty to starting a series of fires himself that forced hundreds of people from their homes.

Nice misdirection dude