Good news of the day! My cousin’s house, their business, and all the animals they had to leave behind have been spared. Barring flare ups, they will have something to return to. Their neighborhood got hit hard so this was somewhat unexpected.
My father was in the Forest Service in the area a lot of years ago and still goes to their old-timers reunions in Oroville. This is the worst fire they have seen.
Here’s to hoping the October rains that are forecast to finally arrive next week actually materialize and knock this thing down. Some areas currently burning are in steep and inaccessible terrain, likely to burn until Mother Nature handles it.
@dietz199
Yes, it is no secret that CA has a forest management problem, but the causes of this fire were not forest mismanagement. There was probably a convergence of factors, including but not limited to weather, but where can you show us that the Camp fire resulted from forest mismanagement?
Let’s face it: a lot of the natural disaster related damage and loss we see, both in these fires and in other locations, has to do with human encroachment into areas that simply are extremely vulnerable to uncontrollable floods, storms, fires, erosion, mudslides, volcanoes, and other predictable environmental catastrophes. Whether or not those events are exacerbated by climate change.
And you can’t pull down all the forest to prevent this. We’re talking about a vast area of forest, 20 million acres. (Forest alone is about the size of the whole state of SC.) If you culled a million acres/year. That’s 20 years. Plus the brush and dry grasses.
Many people have lived in these areas for generations, with no local major fires. It’s next to impossible to predict specifically.
Talked to my brother in San Francisco last night. He said it is still very hazy there- he still can’t open his windows and he stopped walking to work and started taking the bus which drops him off right in front of his building and he also mentioned some people are wearing masks - so scary since it is hours away from there!
@Magnetron So sad to hear about your parent’s house. @TatinG Glad to hear your house is OK but what a scary time for you and your family!!
Watched Monday night football, played in San Fran, the other night. You could definitely see a thick haze in the stadium. I don’t know how the athletes managed in that kind of environment. People in the crowd were wearing masks, and they were only sitting on their bums.
I live in a boring OC area somewhat near the ocean in a flat area far away from any hills or mountains. I told my wife several years ago “No way I am going to live on some mountain top or hills with trees or bushes surrounding or near me.” I got lazy enough about regularly watering plants and trees, so I cut down most of trees and plants and installed artificial grass to save water. I wonder if my artificial grass can catch fire?
Anyway, feel terrible for those who lost their homes in fires. Where do they go to live until they can find permanent housing? Is there a website on how to help these people?
I appreciate that people want to build in areas surrounded by trees and such. And in warm areas there’s obviously a need for that shade. But the reality is that that is risky. Until recently my sister lived in the mountains and was just as much at risk as the people in Butte County. Those lower than that (in Paradise) were nevertheless surrounded by an amount of vegetation that does not exist in cities and suburbs – not to that level. So doing the responsible thing and “clearing brush” immediately outside one’s home is not always sufficient when there is kindling close enough by, and winds strong enough, to jump from trees and brush elsewhere, to one’s own home.
This was not literally “a forest.” But when you look at the various video slides and see the roads bordered on both sides by tall canopies of trees, there is a forest-like surround to many of the residential areas, even if not all or most of the buildings were near trees. I see a lot of those very tall trees in the photos, and when flames shoot up high and winds are strong, conditions are there to transport flames to buildings.
Very sad and I’m not blaming homeowners, again. And PGE has had a pattern of neglect of maintenance in the pursuit of profit, putting people last.
Beach homes in Southern CA are another example. Many past years floods have wiped out celebrities’ homes.
Obviously none of us is safe from all natural disasters, but some are more vulnerable due to location.
Regarding mudslides, John McPhee wrote a fascinating book called “Control of Nature” about humans trying to subvert/control powerful forces of nature with varying degrees of success. There are three major incidents/examples in the book, and one is building in CA is areas at risk of slides. I highly recommend this book - it is very thought provoking.
I remember the John McPhee piece as a New Yorker article many years ago. He described he process of how the fires lead to the horrific mudslides so clearly–it has always stayed with me. I don’t remember (though it’s been a long time since I read it) that the fires themselves were considered as dire as they seem to be now.
It was written in 1989, but still quite relevant (maybe more so now that the fires have worsened). The other stories are about lava flows threatening an Icelandic harbor city, and about trying to control the path of a tributary of the Mississippi River. I suspect all might have been written as long form stories and pulled into the book. But as part of the discussion of the wisdom of building in various areas, and the sometimes heroic and sometimes foolish attempts of humans to modify their environment, it is quite a compelling read.
Talked to our friends again last night. The friends they are housing who escaped from Paradise have a house on a lot that backs to a dentist’s office. This mix of residential and commercial is common up there, and there are often lots in between the two types, which are public property and not attended to as well. Scotch broom is prolific up there, which lights up like a torch. These friends had a concrete fence around their property and fire-resistant landscaping.
I have pictures of Oroville taken six weeks ago last month when we visited. It gives a pretty good idea of the landscape in the north Central Valley. Once you reach the sides of the valley, there are buttes with low forest/chapparal and only a few roads up that way (which was part of the reason for the high fatalities in Paradise – the Skyway is the only road out, except for one other that winds up as a dirt road). This is not Sierra Mountains type of woods.
Sorry, other CC members. I’ve been so self-involved with my own crisis. I am so sorry for those of you whose family and friends lost homes in the Camp Fire. I haven’t expressed this yet.
@TatinG, you need to take care of you and yours. Put on your own oxygen mask first and all? Can’t imagine anyone would fault you for that. This is an incredibly traumatic event.
Our friends are in a daze. We’ve been keeping in touch with them, but after talking to them last night, I wonder if even that is more than they can handle right now.
@websensation, My brother in law and his family were displaced during the Ventura fires last year. On his street of some 40 houses, only two survived: his, and his neighbor’s. They couldn’t go back to the homes for weeks. They stayed in hotels during that time, with the costs covered by the insurance company.
@TatinG - so sorry for all you and your family are going through, but glad to hear your home is alright. My heart breaks for all those that have lost their homes both in SoCal and in the Camp fire, but I’m especially sad about all the people who died in Paradise.