Sonoma / Napa County Fires, Northern California

Definitely in my prayers.

We had a lot of smoke in the air here in Sacramento today.

It's been a terrible year for fires. My mom's place in Mariposa almost burned early last summer (the Detwiler fire came within 15 feet of the house and garage, but thankfully the tenants kept the brush well cleared), and my brother and his family were evacuated in Corona a couple of weeks ago (they're back in now and their home is okay, though the hills behind it are burned). This ones in Napa and Santa Rosa is the worst so far this year. I'd hoped that the cooler weather meant people would catch a break, but it's been pretty windy.

It's so horrible seeing the devastation of these fires, and the loss of lives is tragic. My thoughts are with the people affected by this, and I'll be donating more money to the relief efforts.

An almost real-time map of the fires: https://earth.nullschool.net/#curre...overlay=pm2.5/orthographic=-115.50,38.32,2819

-cb

My cousins near Santa Rosa are on evac notice. My other cousin near Grassvalley just lost everything in the Lobo Fire. I've been evacuated once this year from the South Fork Fire and put on evac notice a few weeks later from the Railroad Fire.

Living in the mountains of California it's not a question of if a fire happens but when. We say fire season starts on January 1st and ends on December 31st. But this year is the worst I've seen. The loss of life and property is staggering. I live able to evacuate at a moment's notice. I can't imagine how it is for those in urban areas where this shouldn't be happening.

One of my west coast family members made it back to San Francisco from Sonoma State yesterday, driving back roads with the fire visible behind her most of the way. One family member is fighting the fires and one is an EMT flight paramedic with the same unit. Nothing I can do but worry.

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Holding everyone in fire country in prayer.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal, whose parents drove her through the dregs of the great Laguna Fire of 1970 to take her to college

BIL and SIL are staying in separate shelters because they have too many animals for one. As of this morning we know homes two streets over from theirs were destroyed, but no info yet on their street nor when they'll be able to go back. Hot spots and all. The scenes of devastation and how quickly the fires started and spread are frightening and heartbreaking. All day yesterday I saw tweets offering shelter for people and animals, even horses; it was wonderful to see that.

Hoping your family members' homes are okay, Ari.

I'm in Sacramento, and have a number of dogs and cats (and one snake) myself, but if someone needs a place to temporarily house a pet or two, PM me. We don't have a proper guest room, but we do have a couch also. It'll be messy and chaotic, but maybe better than living at a shelter.

Roxxsmom said:

my brother and his family were evacuated in Corona a couple of weeks ago (they're back in now and their home is okay, though the hills behind it are burned).

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I hope they were equally fortunate for Canyon Fire 2 (which is now 25% contained and noises are being made about lifting evacuation orders by this evening.)

My friends in Santa Rosa are ready to flee at a moment's notice, but so far their neighborhood has been spared except for losing power. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for them and for all those in harm's way.

Fortunately for them, the Canyon 2 Fire is burning closer to Anaheim (not fortunately for the people living in the Anaheim hills) and away from their area in Corona.

It's almost unreal how bad it's been with all the disasters this year. I hope your friends' neighborhood remains okay.

They are evacuating 2 miles east of my brother's house near the Anaheim Hills fire. He's pretty safe, the fire would have to have a major change to get anywhere near them. There are two places people can take large animals, the fairgrounds and the race track.

Best wishes for everyone affected.

Roxxsmom said:

It's almost unreal how bad it's been with all the disasters this year.

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It's also unreal to have two major fires in two weeks in the same area. When Canyon Fire 2 broke out yesterday, my co-workers and I were staring out the window at the billows of smoke and wondering just how much was left to burn. (Lots, as it turned out, given the different trajectory of the blaze.) Canyon 2 broke out less than 2 miles from where Canyon 1 did, both of them just a few miles from my office.

I hope your friends' neighborhood remains okay.

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Me, too. I haven't heard from her since early this morning, but I know that she's conserving her phone battery as much as possible, so I'm trying not to be overly concerned by her silence.

Roxxsmom said:

Hoping your family members' homes are okay, Ari.

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Thank you, Roxxsmom. They say they're fine. They've gone back home, although the smoke is so thick there (NE of Santa Rosa) that they are having to wear masks. Loss of homes on all the bordering streets, but their street is untouched.

i heard about this from watching Mystic7...(he's a pokemon go youtuber)...and he was on vacation in the wildlife preserve when it started...so they had to evac in the middle of the night.
sure hope that everyone can get back to their lives promptly.

if only we could take the snow from colorado and dump it on the fire to put it out.

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Yeah, West Coat fire season and East Coast hurricane season tend to coincide. I always wish we could take some the excess East Coast water and dump in on the West Coast fires.

My SIL in Lake County has just emailed to say they're okay, but cut off from the counselling centers they operate.

Still concerned about another SIL's ex-MIL in Napa. And the thousands we don't know.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Siri Kirpal said:

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)
Yeah, West Coat fire season and East Coast hurricane season tend to coincide.

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A good reminder that weather systems are strongly interrelated over the entire planet. We here in the far northwest (Alaska) have had a very cloudy and wet summer and fall. But we are prone to major fire years every so often, usually late spring/early summer, when the wet air masses are carried off somewhere else.

caw

Ari Meermans said:

Thank you, Roxxsmom. They say they're fine. They've gone back home, although the smoke is so thick there (NE of Santa Rosa) that they are having to wear masks. Loss of homes on all the bordering streets, but their street is untouched.

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I can only imagine how bad the smoke is over there. Even here in Sacramento, the sky is hazy and it smells like smoke. My eyes and sinuses and throat are irritated.

I'm glad their home was saved, but I'm sorry for all those who haven't been as lucky. Something like 3500 homes have been lost so far. That's an insane number, and what's really weird is that these fires don't *just* seem to be affecting people up in the hills or out in the woods or brushy areas, but they're burning pretty urbanized, developed neighborhoods in flat areas.

This is so crazy -- the air quality in SF and Berkeley is so bad people can barely go outside, and it's apparently going to be worse tomorrow. There was ash falling in Oakland earlier today.

A lot of the fires may have to do with PG&E lines.

I grew up in Sonoma, so I'm very, very familiar with the areas that have burned. A lot of things that had always been there in my memory are gone. As for burning in the flats, the flat area that burned actually isn't very far from the hills. So I can see how that could have happened. The fire burned through the hilly Fountain Grove area first, before reaching the flats. But it's definitely different from what we have seen in the past.

In Vacaville, where I teach, it's been so smoky the last couple of days that the school district decided to close the schools tomorrow and Friday. And the Atlas Fire, east of Napa, is encroaching on Fairfield, which is just to the west of Vacaville. I'll be fine in Davis, but with the north wind expected to pick up again tonight, it's hard to see where this ends.

Some extraordinary photos from the SF Chronicle.

This is just beyond belief.

http://www.sfchronicle.com/local/ar...ifornia-wildfires-12270289.php#photo-14328191

We just heard from the BIL that winds are picking up and folks who were let back in are being told to evacuate again. The latest info we have are that 23 lives are confirmed lost and hundreds are still missing. That's far more tragic than loss of property and it's horrifying.

The President of the United States has, as far as I've seen, said nothing about this disaster. But he's now threatening to pull FEMA out of Puerto Rico.

caw

Trump is clearly disastered out. Houston was a lot of work, but he pulled off at least the minimal decencies. Florida wasn't quite the feared catastrophe, so he didn't have a *lot* to do there. But by the time Puerto Rico came around, he was bored, and he didn't particularly like them anyway - only he's allowed bankruptcies. The fires in the west? Not even on his radar. He's done with disasters.

rugcat said:

Some extraordinary photos from the SF Chronicle.

This is just beyond belief.

http://www.sfchronicle.com/local/ar...ifornia-wildfires-12270289.php#photo-14328191

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Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Thanks for this, rugcat.

One of the photos reminded me of 2007 when there was a fire going in San Diego County. The air in San Diego was horrible but my mother drove the two of us to a restaurant to meet with some friends. We passed a small stucco bungalow, outside of which were two tethered horses. Not a common sight in the city of San Diego.

The weirdest aerial photo of fire damage was from that same fire. It showed two side-by-side residential cul-de-sacs, one of which was completely burned except for the house at the far end, the other was completely fine...except for the house at the far end. A wrenching visual reminder of how unpredictable fire is.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal