Folks Of Interest Santa Rosa fire

Kinda makes my 40 years of burned stash of parts this April look pale compared to this. Praying the rains come soon !

 

Thoughts are with those affected by this tragic and evolving situation...
Regards,
Stogy

 

One of the reasons we (CA) have had such hard time this year with the wild fires is because of the heavy rain that ended a 5 year drought . The combination of the two caused a lot of brush to spring up plus we have a lot of dead trees that didn't survive the drought. Add the two together plus a really hot summer and it hasn't taken much to add fuel to the fire so to speak. And just for added fun when you consider a lot of the homes in the hills are on propane then it gets even more exciting when a wild fire burns through one of those communities.

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That picture @gimpyshotrods posted... damn that is awful, whole neighborhoods gone.

 

The smoke here in Reno is even heavy.
I hope they can get it under control soon. Has done a lot of damage and caused 10 deaths that i have herd .
Vic

 

Yeah, just got that info about Vern's area off the radio, too.

 

My wife's brother lives in Pinole...north bay area. She talked to him by phone this afternoon and he said he was safe...fire was 20 miles from his house. But they're moving so fast....I wonder how he's doing now. Fingers crossed.

 

I am aggregating fire and weather data and relaying it out to everyone I can.

My horse trainer is up there, and she has already taken in a whole bunch of people and animals. I am keeping them posted, in case they have to do an evacuation.

So far, outside of the specific fire areas, the temperature is dropping, and is now about 4.2º above dew point. Winds are calm to 3mph, generally SSW, which is toward the less populated areas.

Our firefighting resources are spread way too thin. This is worst case scenario, x3.


Red dots are uncontained fires. Gray ones are contained. If it is out, there is no dot.

Mind the scale. From the top to the bottom of that map is 1000-miles.

 

I'm going to try to get to the ranch in the next couple of days, but we're still not done with this; there are a couple more days of off-shore wind flow before we see some good weather coming down the coast. My sister and B-in-L lost their house Sunday night, three miles north of me, in a large, well-established neighborhood that was all but obliterated in a matter of a few hours. One of my daughters and her husband have a small ranch on the south end of Santa Rosa and are hopeful that they will survive tonight and tomorrow.

This area of California is perhaps some of the best-managed agricultural land on the planet. What precipitated this disaster was what can be described as the perfect storm -- prolonged drought years followed by an incredibly long and wet rainy season in which grasses and ground cover were allowed to flourish but mature trees were not allowed enough time to reestablish a good hold. In spite of the routine clearing and pruning there was sufficient fuel in the wild-lands areas to get the process moving when humidity dropped to uncommonly low levels and off-shore winds spread across the area. The weather and fire-fighting pros have characterized it as an urban firestorm; we're accustomed to dealing with open-land firestorms, but his was something new.

Mike
Santa Rosa

 

Stay safe, Mike

 

Glad to see that you’re safe Mike, worried about Vern in the Orchard. Status report when you get a chance. I think about you Vern & Kent all of the time, thank you for your hospitality and introducing me to them along with Keith. I pray that they’re safe.
Spencer shot my pal Eric in Sabastopol a text saying that no official mandatory evacuation right now for Vern. They did get the cars out though as seen previously.
I’d freak as I’ve got a several dead players in front of both my coupe and woody......
God bless guys!!!

 

It would appear that all of those who are questioning why we live in California would be better asking why our power utility is trying to kill us all.*
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/10/10/pge-power-lines-linked-to-wine-country-fires/

*We'd like to know, too.

 

Absolutely terrifying.
Was hoping better news this morning.

 

prayers for everybody

 

Boy, another long PGE liability battle. Will the home insurers wait for an act of god determination?

 

btt

 

Can only pray from here.

 

The largest for-profit utility here in Washington is not much better. Difference is we sit in the dark for days... it's usually too wet for a fire.

 

Although not a car guy but a really great teacher/coach/father - my cousin's up in Ukiah....haven't been able to reach up that way by phone - hopefully all's getting better in North Cali today !

 

I live in Napa, towards the top end of browns valley, very close to the partrick fire, I, like lots of people, am packed up and ready to leave, I also know that In all the fires we’ve lost at least one 57 chevy 210, and one mid 30’s Chevrolet pick up
I wish everyone the best of luck, and a safe time


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Damn, the pic of that neighborhood all gone is hard to look at.
I can deal with flooding, and even our small tornados, but fire is one badass animal to be feared.

 

Just talked to my friend Jay West who lives in South Eastern Santa Rosa between two fires. He, his family, home and car's have been spared the fires so far.

Some of his cars.

Jay In the white shirt standing his black flathead powered 29 A Roadster in the bottom photo on the way to Bonn. with me in I think 2004.

Afraid everything in the top photo except the car is gone. Fred Stokes place just south of Tardels. hope not. So much memorabilia.

 

The weather was cool and damp last night. Humidity made it into the 90% range in some places.
Winds were calm to very light.
While they cannot safely fight fire at night, at least that kept the spread overnight down somewhat.

 

No words can express our, (my wife and I) feelings for you in the fires. Thoughts and prayers don't do it for me, somehow that is wholly inadequate. May God be with you all in this time of devastation.

During the really hot/dry summer we had here I recently considered this happening here, (Seattle/Tacoma) area, although we don't normally dry out like Cali. but this summer was one of extreme dryness for us. I think it is only a matter of time until we experience it in this area someplace in the larger metro area, especially witnessing how authorities are allowing large tract developments out east in the foothills, just like LA.

Again; May God be with you, bless you and give you the strength to go forward.

 

Man, what Kiwijeff said, these pictures are very hard to look at, they bring a huge lump to my throat. We live in a similar landscape further inland, I'm looking seriously at what we can do to better protect ourselves if we have a fire.
Thanks Ryan and Gimpy for keeping us up to date on the status of our affected HAMB brothers.

 

Thanks for this report, Ryan. One less pal to stress about this morning.

Mike