California wild fires.

[NICKYPOO]

I hope our California TOs are hanging in there. I spend a week in Shasta every year. That area is getting hammered right now by the Carr fire. Its super bad. Last I saw at least 65 homes gone. It’s going to get a lot worse before it’s even close to over.

My father was evacuated from his home 4days ago by the Cranston fire. He just found out it was still standing yesterday but the fire missed it by a couple hundred yards.

Meanwhile, the Ferguson fire just sucks. Such a brutal area to fight a fire. There’s so much smoke that here on the other side of The Sierras, visibility is down to 5 or 6 miles at best.

[h2osk8er00]

Hope it gets better. California fire season is just starting too. October to December is the worst. Used to live there and been evacuated a few times and scared more times then I can count. Condolences to all.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[IDBoating]

Not to threadjack, but while we're on the topic of disasters: My very close friend is president of the homeowner's association in Leilani Estates. You may have heard that name recently, it's where all of the lava is flowing on the big island of Hawaii. I know wildfires are bad, but nothing beats Mother Nature laying down TWENTY FEET of fresh rock over your property. We spent Thanksgiving with them last year, and I actually recognize many of the scenes shown on national media. There are streets I've personally driven on that look perfectly fine and then there's a solid wall of fresh rock 15-20 feet tall, like a wall, straight up on top of the asphalt out of nowhere. The photos show people standing next to the rock, it's 2-3X the height of the tallest men in the pictures.

Fire is bad, floods are bad, hurricanes and tornadoes are bad, but WTF do you do about tens of feet of solid rock? That's not just a messy cleanup job before you rebuild... the land itself is rendered virtually useless. There aren't many disasters that literally destroy the real estate. Most insurance policies only cover the "improvements" because they figure no matter what, the real estate is still there, right? Clean it up and rebuild just isn't an option here. This event gives you a whole new perspective on "natural disaster" and especially "recovery". Cleanup would involve explosives and even then, what do you do with literally thousands of cubic yards of spoil? When most of your neighbors have the same problem?

You must have respect for Nature, because Nature has absolutely no respect for you as an individual!

[h2osk8er00]

Good point man. Mother nature is the ultimate. Unpredictable for certain.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[freeheel4life]

It's a wild year out west. This was up in McCall on Friday. Fires just outside of Council. Not sure the name of it. Sounds like 25k acres and growing, with no help from the weather anytime soon.

Feeling for those poor folks in NorCal. I think Colorado has some big fires going too. It is scary as it's fairly early into fire season and no reprieve in sight. 100+* forecasted in the valleys and 90s in the mountains.

Big shout out to all the wildland firefighters, chopper and fixed wing pilots, and municipal departments out there trying to contain these monsters.

[NICKYPOO]

Definite shout out to the firefighters. Those guys got balls. From the ground to the air, it’s all deadly. They earn every penny.

My dad’s house was saved. Its got a bit of red roof now and is bordered by scorched earth but, otherwise ok. I watched a ton of stream footage of that fire and those pilots are radical. Huge respect.

[UNSTUCK]

I don't have any fires in my immediate area, but I went out yesterday morning and found ash all over my truck, and in the air. It's a crazy one this year.

[007]

My sister and bro-in-law just returned to their home in Redding. My uncle, a retired fire chief there lost his hunting buddy to a fire-nado while trying to evacuate people along the Sacramento River. Aunt and Uncle's home was spared, but many in his subdivision were not. Scary crap that Carr fire is. Now 20% contained, but still dangerous as hell.

[IDBoating]

Had a wild one yesterday. Several small fires broke out in the area, so several of this new model of firefighting aircraft took to the skies. They are four engined jets with stubby little bodies that are undoubtedly one big retardant tank. They look like a 747 that got smooshed lengthwise.

Anyway, apparently one of them had a bearing failure in an engine. As it was making its way back to the airport, internal parts of the engine started dropping to the ground. Hot parts which, themselves, started several fires around the airport! During last night's evening news we were treated to footage of planes literally flying circles around the airport, dropping retardant on fires that one of their own fleet had started. Kinda surreal.