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

take care Aimless ♥️

sounds really difficult Aimless and sleeve, hope you will be ok

Echoing all the above good wishes. The air may be thick right now in SF but that's nothing like what you're both facing.

Aw shit. Went level 2 a couple minutes ago. Bye for now.

oh man, yeah head out

Hoping best for you, aimless, and others in the thick of it.

Whew! False alarm! I heard the phone broadcasting the "alert" klaxon sound, glanced at the text and didn't absorb the full message beyond "Level 2 alert BE SET to go..."
If I'd been calmer I'd've seen that it applied to an area 12 miles south of here.

Stay safe friends

12 miles isn't far :(
good wishes, all

I just spent the morning running masking tape over all of my house's door and window seams (including the front door) to keep out the smell of smoke.

Hope all in any potential fire paths are ok!

today in Oregon:

Big takeaways from Oregon Governor Kate Brown's presser:
- Salem-area fires are expected to merge.
- evacs in Portland metro is possible as early as Sunday
- decent # of ppl fighting fires are students
- we need MIN 2x the ppl power
- have requested aid from DoD
- WH hasn’t returned the Governor's call
-Fires in Clackamas county merged, and Portland is “on alert”
- Oregon Convention Center is open for evacuees
-ppl with RVs go to Portland International Airport
-Senator Merkley has been calling WH “multiple times a day”
-Rep. DeFazio says WH signed Emergency Order
-10% of pop evacuated and may rise to 35% before it's over
-Do not breathe air outdoors in Portland and Willamette Valley

In other words, things are looking great!

has the WH returned Merkley's calls, at least? or neither Merkley nor the governor? jfc

nothing, not a fucking thing.

last time washington voted for a republican president: 1984
oregon: 1984
california: 1988

is idaho (R for every election since 1964) getting their calls returned?

my place smells like smoke, AQI here is about 300. i've alluded elsewhere but never been too specific about it: a couple months back i survived and am obviously still dealing with a whole cascade of pulmonary embolisms -- the upper lobe of my right lung is a goner due to related infarction -- so my lungs are not in great shape to say the least.

when i got home from the hospital i remember saying aloud "hope the wildfires aren't bad this year! not sure i could handle that!" so yeah.

oh man, dude. idk if I can do anything from Eugene but my ILXmail does work if you need anything.

we also have spare bedrooms fwiw

yeah that completely sucks, clay. :(

that sounds concerning Clay. I smell smoke in my house too even with the windows closed. I explored getting an air purifier but the ones I've looked at are backordered. I'm staying indoors and not exerting myself

I'm really thankful my wife and I both have full strength P100 masks that we bought during the 2016 fires, it's the only way I've been able to walk the dog (who thinks we totally suck, btw)

thanks guys! I think i'm fine. the only way for stuff to really get in outside of cracks here and there is the wall-mounted A/C and we wrapped both inside and outside in plastic and taped it to hell a few days ago. I think it's hard for things *not* to smell like smoke after a few days of this.

sleeve, thanks so much for the offer. I have a couple closer last ditch places I can go but I'm pretty intent on riding this out if it's only for a few more days. have not been going outside, obv, and have a very kind roomie who's been taking care of me and things for awhile now. one bummer is literally the day before the smoke settled in i had started going on tiny tiny walks outside for the first time in a couple months and now, well, gonna have to wait a bit

That's very difficult, Clay, tho I'm glad you have a good roomie and seem to be in good enough spirits.

Truly best wishes to all of you. Let us know if you need anything, or know of any others who do.

I'm in North central AZ. I had thought it was overcast today, which almost never happens this time of year. Yeah no it was smoke particles from California. The sun looked eerie on my drive to campground near Williams.

Probably that massive snow storm north of you in the Rockies is creating some weird weather as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH5APw_SLUU

triangle setup using two filters is even better, you can overload the motors with a filter smack over the fan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A8Yink0czc

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ehnc3XoXsAEHp3U?format=png&name=medium

The smoke from these fires reached Europe yesterday.

Enjoy! But don't indulge to excess.

To give an idea of how fast this developed, this is an official description from a government website called Inciweb (emphasis added by me):

The Beachie Creek Fire originated in the Opal Creek Wilderness approximately 2 miles south of Jawbone Flats and 6 miles north of Detroit, Oregon. Prior to the historic windstorm that arrived in the area on Monday, September 7th, the Beachie Creek Fire was estimated to be 469 acres. The fire grew overnight to over 131,000 acres driven by high winds and extremely dry fuels.

The sky's been a weird gray, but obviously nothing like the apocalyptic red you all are seeing.

There's a Detroit, Oregon too? Was stealing Portland, Milwaukie, and Salem not enough?

my friend's mom's place survived the fire in phoenix, oregon!

I preferred to pronounce it deh-TWAH. But if it makes you feel any better, the town of Detroit, Oregon was effectively erased from the face of the earth as of last Tuesday morning.

xp glad to hear that, tlg. Phoenix and Talent both got it pretty bad.

xp That's a start, thank you. Now please find a new name for your The Dallas before Texas feels any more messed with.

yeah me too, it's a super cute place. sending good vibes to everyone affected. my local fire is about 75% contained and the ash has stopped falling but i'm still not ready to go for a jog because of the pervasive haze. i live on a main emergency road uphill from a big fire station, and pretty much backed up to a regional park which is just a series of canyons full of piles of overgrown dry brush, so every time the marshal goes by in his truck with sirens blazing i get real nervous.

xp as a fellow san diegan and burrito lover, i'm honestly not sure why you're trying to provoke ppl. you seem cool enough but this probably isn't the time or place.

(not my intent! really only hoping to provoke Texas with the Dallas thing. you know they probably have a chip on their shoulder about it)

I'm not sure if you are aware that the Oregon city you are citing is The Dalles.

it's the dalles and i thought it was prounounced "the dales". as in chip and dale.

As a lifelong local it is pronounced to rhyme with some hypothetical tavern named "Al's", and not "ales" as in IPAs.

also if we think the western u.s. is bad take a look at south america and africa in this nasa fire map

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EhnWM88UMAIJ5ep?format=jpg&name=large

https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/

i mean .................................

we are so so fucked.

Do not forget the enormous catastrophic fires that raged across Australia just a few months ago. iirc, estimates of wildlife killed by those fires ranged up to one billion animals.

From what I understand most of the fires in Africa are in the savannas and are important aspects of their ecosystems. But yeah, the steady deforestation of the Amazon is a major global threat and only likely to accelerate as long as Bolsonaro turns a blind eye to land-grabbing arsonists.

this piece argues that controlled burning needs to start being applied to 30 million acres in ca alone (right now it's like 13,000 acres or something)

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/09/california-cant-afford-to-wait-for-climate-action.html

i can't keep any of these numbers straight everything is just like "an overwhelming and impossible amount"

So basically a long intense fire/smoke season annually until everything that can burn, does?

^ without a major shift in forest management, yes

There are other books, of course, but I really do think that City of Quartz and Ecology of Fear are absolutely required reading for anyone living not just in LA or California, but anywhere on the West Coast.