Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Fires in Northern California

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Fires in Northern California

    This is not a YouTube video so I need to link to the Chronicle. This is a mixed Berkeley and San Francisco Strike team heading up to Santa Rosa early Monday morning and was filmed by a Berkeley Fireman showing what they drove into. I was to go to a nursing home in Santa Rosa this Thursday but I knew it's location was just a little south of where the major damage was done so far. The home was evacuated is all I know currently.

    http://www.sfgate.com/local/article/...a-12279786.php

  • #2
    Jaw dropping.

    I heard that much of the 2017 Wine vintage is gone and much of the 2018 is at risk.

    Be safe all.
    “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
    Mark Twain

    Comment


    • #3
      Well it turns out one of my fellow volunteers, who volunteered in 2008 after I gave him and his brother a personal tour, lost his dead parents long time house. The house was on 3 1/2 acres of unincorporated land just outside the city limits west of 101 and north of Highway 12. Seems the fire crossed 101 on 50 mph winds in order to reach a few places on the west side where the house was. Neighbors were ok as one had a full water tanker in his yard by chance. There wasn't much in the way of burnable vegetation around any of the houses but when you have wind that is all you need. His two sisters, one disabled in a wheelchair just barely got out without the wheelchair. The house was lost, over 1000 record albums, antiques, heirlooms, the plane fuselage he just moved up there, a camper, a bus, and four cars which one was to be mine are gone. Heat was high enough to melt the aluminum around the house. Car windows turned molten.

      He is taking it Ok and will restart his plane. All the mechanical equipment was stored in another house north of Berkeley. All his other projects are gone and that takes care of the what do we work on next dilemma. Fortunately his nice 1951 Chevy pickup and 1968 VW Bug were also in the other house.

      Comment


      • #4
        My 85 year-old parents lost their house, and their entire neighborhood.
        65 years of married life mementos gone. But, they are well and can even joke about never again having to pack up and move.
        "Everything we own fits into a paper bag."
        Trust me?
        I'm an economist!

        Comment


        • #5
          i'm glad everyone is OK. i was just in Calistoga a month ago, and I loved it.
          There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

          Comment


          • #6
            Fires are terrifying. Still remember one burning up behind our hose when I was a kid. One of the scariest days of my life.

            Sorry to hear about your folks DOR. They will need a lot of love from those close to them over the next few months. The joy of being alive can give way to the enormity of what has been lost. Hope they manage OK.
            sigpic

            Win nervously lose tragically - Reds C C

            Comment


            • #7
              This fire was driven by what is called Diablo winds in Northern California. One maybe more familiar with the term Santa Ana winds which is the term used in Southern California. Santa Ana winds are caused by dry air draining off the high desert to the east. Diablo winds are caused by high pressure inland and low pressure off the coast of San Francisco. The air sinks, warms, dries out and picks up speed as it heads west down mountain slopes. Were called Diablo because they headed towards the Diablo Valley in Contra Costa County where the old volcano, Mt. Diablo, is located. The mountain is directly visible from my office at around 6-7 miles as the crow flies.

              When my parents moved to Los Angeles, in June 1966, I got my first taste of the Santa Ana winds sometime in November I believe. A brush fire was whipped north of the Chatsworth Resevoir and started running south west towards Canoga Park. Where we lived was the extreme north west end of the San Fernando Valley which was as far as houses went back then. Before long our street was filled with cars and fire trucks at the far end of our street. Some stranger is going in and out of our house packing cars. I assume an fellow Carnation Milk Company employee of my father. The cars got packed but there was no room for passengers now! I am up on the roof watering down the shake shingles. The fire was halted at the top of the street at a fence line with only smoke damage to some houses. Twelve years old and welcome to California.

              The other thing I remember about Santa Ana winds was the amount of dirt they blew down. If you had a pool in the backyard it would end up with a 1/2 of dirt all over the bottom. How do I know? My father put one in as soon as we moved in and us kids were thrilled. I wasn't too thrilled afterwards when it fell on me to sweep out the pool of all the dirt that it accumulated. Couldn't wait to get away from that pool two years later.

              One thing about Canoga Park. It was home to Rocketdyne which produced the F-1 rocket engine that powered the Apollo Missions. They had their test facility up in the Santa Susana mountains near Simi Valley where few lived at the time. I remember all during the summer of 1966 they were testing the engine almost always in the early evening. The entire north sky 10 miles away lit up and the roar of the engine was extremely loud. At the time I didn't know what it was but I do remember it was quite a show and I got to see it without being at Cape Kennedy. Those mountains are also the home to Spahn Ranch which was were the Manson family established their next base in 1968.

              Comment


              • #8
                rabidrepublican blog claims an illegal immigrant deliberately set the California wine country fires that burned out my parents home and their entire neighborhood … and several thousand other homes.

                But, it’s just another conspiracy theorist lie.

                No Arrests for California Wildfire

                Q: Was an “illegal alien” arrested for starting the wildfires that have ravaged northern California?
                A: No. The arrest was not related to the wildfires.
                http://www.factcheck.org/2017/10/no-...rnia-wildfire/
                Trust me?
                I'm an economist!

                Comment


                • #9
                  Since some rain came Thursday night all fires have been contained or put out. Now the real problem comes forward. With around 6000 homes destroyed from high end, to middle income, to mobile homes, and to apartments then turns out to be no housing available in the region. All these people have no place to go now even if they were going to rebuild. There are no vacant apartments and those that were have gone up astronomically in the last few days. Nearest places are 95 miles away in Sacramento. Shelters are closing so this is another disaster in the making. No doubt all the lower income people will never set foot and live in Santa Rosa again. Rebuilding will be a slow process given all the toxic debris to be removed and the fact that builders are already busy in other areas.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by tbm3fan View Post
                    Since some rain came Thursday night all fires have been contained or put out. Now the real problem comes forward. With around 6000 homes destroyed from high end, to middle income, to mobile homes, and to apartments then turns out to be no housing available in the region. All these people have no place to go now even if they were going to rebuild. There are no vacant apartments and those that were have gone up astronomically in the last few days. Nearest places are 95 miles away in Sacramento. Shelters are closing so this is another disaster in the making. No doubt all the lower income people will never set foot and live in Santa Rosa again. Rebuilding will be a slow process given all the toxic debris to be removed and the fact that builders are already busy in other areas.
                    We're hearing about vineyards worried about not being able to find workers, and I would add that those burned out homes aren't going to rebuild themselves. Santa Rosa needs a few thousand RVs or mobile homes, and fast.
                    Trust me?
                    I'm an economist!

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by DOR View Post
                      We're hearing about vineyards worried about not being able to find workers, and I would add that those burned out homes aren't going to rebuild themselves. Santa Rosa needs a few thousand RVs or mobile homes, and fast.
                      Yep. Lots of work. According to CNBC, housing starts all over the country is being slowed down by construction workers going to Texas, Florida and NorCal to rebuild.

                      Nutrients from the fire will probably actually improve soil and the wine in the next few years. By far the worst part of the tragedy is the more than 40 lives lost.

                      Comment

                      Working...
                      X