Not good...

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  • #78
Wally has it about right. There is some creep towards our place, mostly due to terrain rather than wind. The smoke is so heavy that no air attack is possible, but ground crews are beginning to arrive from other areas. Next 36 hours will continue to be worrisome, then we're supposed to get some rain. That should help a lot with the visibility issues.
 
Is there a legend? Playing around, there's red spots(concentrated fire?) in a larger area of yellow(threat?)
 
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  • #83
Some good, yesterday afternoon and evening.

First, I broke the rules (I know, again :)), M and I drove into the closure area to our house to pick up some things that had been bothering us that we'd not included in the first mad dash, along with some more clothes as this looks to be dragging on far longer than we anticipated. Felt safe enough doing it, as the fire behavior has laid down quite a bit with better weather conditions for that. Turned out we were far from the only folks doing so. Saw one state patrol out our way, but she didn't stop us.

Second, the power was back on when we arrived. Had only been so for a few hours at most, but the refrigerator was fairly close to normal temp, and the freezer was still well below freezing. So perhaps that's not a loss after all. Stunned, I am. Power was off for 4 days. House is OK. No fire in the immediate area, still a couple of air miles away. Though that last has to be considered in light of the fact that this fire ran 15 miles the first day, 17 miles the second, 5 miles the third on a front 36 miles wide.

Third, the evac. level was lifted one notch for where we are staying with our friends. So now 2 clicks away from mandatory evacuation instead of 1.

On the other hand...smoke is still unbelievably heavy. Far too unhealthy to go outside but for brief times, or critical tasks. Reports of loss of property and life climb by the day. Not done with this by a long shot.
 
Some good, yesterday afternoon and evening.

First, I broke the rules (I know, again :)), M and I drove into the closure area to our house to pick up some things that had been bothering us that we'd not included in the first mad dash, along with some more clothes as this looks to be dragging on far longer than we anticipated. Felt safe enough doing it, as the fire behavior has laid down quite a bit with better weather conditions for that. Turned out we were far from the only folks doing so. Saw one state patrol out our way, but she didn't stop us.

Second, the power was back on when we arrived. Had only been so for a few hours at most, but the refrigerator was fairly close to normal temp, and the freezer was still well below freezing. So perhaps that's not a loss after all. Stunned, I am. Power was off for 4 days. House is OK. No fire in the immediate area, still a couple of air miles away. Though that last has to be considered in light of the fact that this fire ran 15 miles the first day, 17 miles the second, 5 miles the third on a front 36 miles wide.

Third, the evac. level was lifted one notch for where we are staying with our friends. So now 2 clicks away from mandatory evacuation instead of 1.

On the other hand...smoke is still unbelievably heavy. Far too unhealthy to go outside but for brief times, or critical tasks. Reports of loss of property and life climb by the day. Not done with this by a long shot.




:)

Glad you where able to get some piece of mind.
 
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  • #93
It's better than it was, for sure. Weather forecasts now are for less rain to come than earlier ones predicted. These fires are so big that there is every chance that the next spate of east winds will kick them into high gear again. I'm still worried.
 
Hoping for the best. Do you think this is the new normal or will your chances be lessened since the woods close to you has already burned?
 
I'd think the risk would be somewhat lessened once the majority of the tinder was burned away. Years and years ago, they used to controlled burns here. It reduced the risk of forest fires, as well as helped keep ticks and other undesirables in check. I've been wanting to do some controlled burns myself, but never seem to find the time.
 
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  • #96
Reburns of old fires are common, since there is usually substantial dead left behind from the prior fire...prime fuel. There are always lightly burned and unburned areas within a fire boundary too, so plenty of tinder still available.

In fact, about 30k acres of this new fire, called Riverside fire, is on ground burned over about 15 years ago. That one was the Bowl fire, iirc.
 
What are the possibilities of building a fire shelter on your property Burnham? Even if it wasn't for human occupancy, it would give a fairly safe space to cram your stuff that won't fit in the bugout vehicles.
 
I guess it depends on the thoroughness of the burn then, Burnham? A fast-mover chars and leaves much behind to reburn?
 
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  • #99
I don't know that I've ever heard of someone building something like that...but I see no reason it couldn't be done. The problem of course is always going to be, "how much time do we have?". Not sure I'd want to try to move a houseful of stuff into a shelter. What will fit in a Subaru Forester and a Toyota Tundra with a tall canopy is more than enough to deal with, frankly :).
 
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  • #100
Not so much the speed, Scott...more the intensity. Fast can be very intense, and burn everything. Slow can be cooler and leave a lot. Or vice versa. And almost always it's a combination of all those situations across the burned landscape, a patchwork of different intensities, of degrees of burn ranging from not touched at all, to nothing left down to mineral soil.
 
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