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

I think OFD (Oakland Fire Department) has a specific division that deals with this, Vegetation Management. ... it's where they sent the evil inspector who got tons of complaints from his time inspecting buildings ... and now he has returned to inspecting buildings and making people miserable.

A decade ago I had a really great corned beef hash & eggs in Greenville. RIP.

it's real bad folks, but no one's talking about it unless the smoke affects them, because the biggies are in fairly remote parts of the sierra nevada, and i guess gawking at all the 'climate change bad' signs of the apocalypse is starting to wear out its welcome in the media, especially because it's bad and keeps on being bad and nothing ever changes.

anyway, just registering that slc as an aqi of 171 at the moment, because a cold front means we're in a direct line of flow right over the great basin.

it's sort of become a pastime of mine to read the comments on facebook from local yokels when the weather service shares smoke forecasts and such. so far i've seen a comment from rhonda of fillmore utah saying something like "this is just so bad and affects so many people. is there anywhere that isn't smokey" and yolanda of west jordan saying something like "another bad thing from california" (utahns LOVE to blame california for EVERYTHING that is wrong in the world, including but not limited to rising prices, moral decrepitude, and government red tape).

when the smoke flow drifts inland, you might as well not even know it because all of twitter, media, etc. is on the coasts.

when it blankets san francisco, suddenly the world is ending lol

a thing that salt lake liberals love to do is share aqi charts that put salt lake at the top of the charts worldwide. doesn't matter of it's "our fault" or not. they just love anything that makes salt lake look like the weird-ass conservative town it is, from the comfort of their single family homes cushioned by health care industry dollars.

*panicking influencer voice* this is an incredible reminder that your greatest competitor is yourself pic.twitter.com/7ZabLw1Rb2

— Daniel M. Lavery (@daniel_m_lavery) August 6, 2021

is this wildfire racist? needs a rename imo

just gonna grouch on this thread for the next three months. my sinuses hate me.

(utahns LOVE to blame california for EVERYTHING that is wrong in the world, including but not limited to rising prices, moral decrepitude, and government red tape).

LOL! who hates us (California) more: Utahns or Oregonians?

Former Californians.

NGL— I kind of thing Erika was right in the EMA track.

yeah, but neither you nor Erika were born/raised here. Like, I was just born boring, by that logic?

I think these days Utahns actually hate CA more, even though Oregon has a longe rand more venerable tradition of hating Californians

Idaho, Colorado, Arizona ain't exactly fond of Califorinans either from what I gather

Wonder how Nevadans feel about California

this fkn guy

throw him in the fire imo

The man is listed as a lecturer in criminal justice studies specializing in cults and deviant behavior at multiple colleges in California. https://t.co/nGQrkLAAS7

— The Sacramento Bee (@sacbee_news) August 11, 2021

Hangable offence

Don’t give a shit, sue me

Honestly surprised there aren’t more accelerationists, this is cali we’re talking about.

It’s all going to fucking burn anyway. Idk maybe the feds could take a couple trillion from the military and show they’re serious about fighting wildfires. Or something, anything ffs. Biden seemed very concerned.

The playbook is going to be, find the scapegoats with no actual power to change anything, like working people who can’t afford evs, or people who water their lawns too much, or crazy people like this professor who are easy to hate, rinse and repeat, from now until the last “this is fine” dog can’t breathe anymore.

yeah, but neither you nor Erika were born/raised here. Like, I was just born boring, by that logic?

― sarahell, Tuesday, August 10, 2021 3:50 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I think that with people who were born in California, there's more variation. But most of the people who moved there, including myself? Yeah, it made me very boring.

it's full-on pouring in slc but the smoke concentration is very high. kinda trippy.

cold fronts used to bring fresh air, now it's the opposite it seems

We now have a red sun in SF.

Indeed. Still, glad we had made it this far this summer.

hella smoky here in sac

My son is with friends at Lake Tahoe - they had ash falling on them yesterday from the Caldor fire.

It's too bad the north American monsoon's reach doesn't extend to California, Nevada etc. Since it arrived here in AZ on 4th of July, wildfires have been nearly nonexistent.

Pretty hazy here in Oakland, but nowhere near as bad as we had a couple years ago.. I have nothing to complain about

We need a thread for Irrational Climate Change Related Fears

eg public health resources say exercising outside with an AQI ~50 is fine ... but what about ultra-fine particulate matter???

don't do it imo

i recommend running in 150 aqi personally, love to get dizzy and sick-high on the burning remnants of the planet, it can only increase your tolerance for next year afaict

sleeve, you do realize that many cities go above 50 on a regular basis, right? unless you have asthma or other related health problems, you're probably fine tbqh.

lol no I didn't, it's been a long week. thanks for the reality check.

I'm afraid to even post this but it hasn't been too bad in the Eugene area so far, people even 30 minutes away have seen a lot more smoke

yeah, wasn't trying to be a jerk, was just a little '?' at yr response. when it gets about 100 is when it's time to start really worrying about outdoor activity.

For reference, near where I used to live in Siskiyou County, California, the current AQI is 317.

sleeve, you do realize that many cities go above 50 on a regular basis, right? unless you have asthma or other related health problems, you're probably fine tbqh.

― heyy nineteen, that's john belushi (the table is the table), Saturday, August 21, 2021 1:53 PM (three days ago)

and we can get into the significant disparity of areas within cities ... like West Oakland vs. Montclair

A coworker had some kind of airbnb booking in South Lake Tahoe and just called off her trip - apparently it was a no-refund deal.

I feel pretty certain you can argue for a refund if all the roads are closed and local authorities are begging people to stay the f%@k away, and the air quality is the worst on the planet.

more than stay away, there are mandatory evacuations for all of south lake tahoe. and gridlock traffic trying to get out of tahoe basin.

https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/08/30/caldor-fire-latest-updates/

yikes

its crazy

a few of my coworkers have family and/or vacation homes up there, just hoping everyone can get out safely

meanwhile there are people driving to burning man from California ...

they have a chance of becoming burning men themselves (let's cross our fingers)

Hmmm, maybe this is where my coworker booked her stay... I see SO many of their ads on youtube:

VRBO refusing to offer direct refunds to people in Tahoe Basin, customers say

Robertson said the property he booked through VRBO, a short-term rental booking site, refused to give him a refund for his $4,000 stay, even as neighboring counties began evacuating and the Air Quality Index spiked into the 400s — an incredibly unhealthy range...

VRBO said it recommends travelers "consider buying travel insurance that provides the right coverage for their needs to help protect their vacation plans."

Apparently they recommend dealing with the hosts themselves, which begs the question: why use VRBO at all?

THIS is the patio where you will die of smoke inhalation
THIS is the customer service call where you will yell at someone you don't know for not refunding your vacation booking

i'm schadenfreuding at the vacation home class and you can't stop me

the local hospitality industry workers living in the trailer park around the corner otoh, i hope they can get out of there

My boss's boss has a 2nd home up there, but she says they rarely go... the drive is too far, traffic, etc. etc.

On the other hand, my cousin's husband has an old cabin that his family bought in the forties, I hope it's safe as they've done a bunch of work on it the last couple years