California wildfires: Ten dead, tens of thousands flee as fires rip through Napa

[David48atTD]

Wildfires fanned by strong winds have ripped through Californian wine country, killing at least 10 people, forcing some
20,000 residents to flee and destroying 1,500 homes and businesses.

Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for Northern California's wine-making Napa, Sonoma, and Yuba counties
as the blazes raged unchecked and engulfed the region in thick, billowing smoke that drifted into San Francisco and Oakland.

A state of emergency was also declared in Butte, Lake, Mendocino, Nevada and Orange counties.
Two hospitals were forced to evacuate, state officials said.

Californian authorities said at least seven people had died in the winemaking region of Sonoma, two in neighbouring Napa, and
one-person died in a blaze further north.



Thousands of firefighters battled wind gusts in excess of 80 kilometres per hour as 14 wildfires — several out of control — in eight northern California
counties burned through more than 23,000 hectares since the weekend, CalFire spokesman Daniel Berlant said.

About 1,500 homes and commercial buildings have been destroyed, Ken Pimlott, director of CalFire, told a news conference.



The blazes included the so-called Tubbs fire in Napa County, about 113 kilometres north of San Francisco in an area world-famous for its vineyards.

It had scorched about 10,117 hectares of land as of this morning, according to CalFire.









More here

[aging one]

Pretty horrible. A good friend in Santa Rosa tied the knot with his partner of 25 years on Saturday at their home. It burned down Monday, such a tragedy. Simply gone.

[BaitongBoy]

Lucky for our wine country, it has cooled down in the Okanagan Valley...

[aging one]

Lucky for our wine country, it has cooled down in the Okanagan Valley...

Not so much heat as wind. 50 mile an hour winds are what made it spread so fast.

[bsnub]

Fires were just terrible this year for the whole west coast. I never saw so much smoke come over the mountains into the Seattle area.

[Grampa]

Fires were just terrible this year for the whole west coast. I never saw so much smoke come over the mountains into the Seattle area.

Those "pink sun" days.

A couple days, I did not leave the house.

[Grampa]

Short clip. Total devastation.

Creepy:

[Cujo]

Hurricanes, fires, what's next for the states, locusts and horsemen.

[bsnub]

Hurricanes, fires, what's next for the states, locusts and horsemen.

Most likely. These demons have no conscience. Idiots like slick could care less how this destroys the planet.

E.P.A. Announces Repeal of Major Obama-Era Carbon Emissions Rule

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/09/c...ower-plan.html

[Norton]

Have a few relatives living in Santa Rosa. Talked with a niece who lives in a forested area. Nearly lost her place but fortunately a change of wind direction saved her house. She said many friends and some neighbors lost everything. Wild fires and earthquakes all part of living in gods country.

[David48atTD]

Smoke from a fire sweeping through Southern California has created an eerie orange haze over Disneyland.
Dozens of visitors shared photos of the strange scenes at the popular theme park on social media.


Some posted pictures of clear blue skies side-by-side with the orange smoke, which they said were taken a few seconds apart.


The smoke over the park was coming from a fire churning through canyons in hilly neighbourhoods of Orange County, where residents
of about 1,000 homes were forced to evacuate and a state of emergency was declared.


Here

[bobo746]

[yortyiam]

^ Some of these images could easily be Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Terrifying for residents.

[misskit]

Northern California is such a beautiful place. It sickens me to see so much of it destroyed and lives lost.




Amid harrowing tales of escape, death toll climbs to 15 as Northern California fires continue to rage


The death toll from the Northern California fires continued to rise Tuesday, reaching a confirmed total of 15 as multiple fires scorched upward of 100,000 acres.


Sonoma County alone has received about 200 reports of missing people since Sunday night, and sheriff’s officials have located 45 of those people, said county spokeswoman Maggie Fleming.


The majority of the fatalities are from Sonoma County, where huge swaths of the city of Santa Rosa were leveled by the Tubbs fire. Nine people have died in Sonoma County as of 11 a.m. Tuesday, Fleming said. Two people have died in Napa County, three in Mendocino County and one in Yuba County, Cal Fire officials said.

MORE

Amid harrowing tales of escape, death toll climbs to 15 as Northern California fires continue to rage - LA Times

[BaitongBoy]

Indeed, it's a strange kind of hell to experience travelling along a closed-off highway as a first-aid team heading to work on a fire...The RCMP check your permit and open the barricade for the lonely, eerie trip through devastation...Power and phone lines "dripping" down to the ground and the land smoking like a huge bomb went off...Smoking silence...

The animals suffer grievously...There is a strange sense of camaraderie between man and beast when you meet - an understanding that the disaster is worse than the normal fear between you...So you stumble on by each other...Kind of shell-shocked...

A friend working on the Kelowna fire years ago told me of a bear cub that stumbled out of the woods, shocked and smoking...Literally smoldering in pain...It walked up to the guy and stopped with a pleading look in its eyes for some kind of help...

He used his Pulaski to pole-axe the unfortunate beast, sparing it the misery...

"The tool combines an axe and an adze in one head, similar to that of the cutter mattock, with a rigid handle of wood, plastic, or fiberglass. The Pulaski is a versatile tool for constructing firebreaks, as it can be used to both dig soil and chop wood."

[Klondyke]

Perhaps the only developed country where almost all houses are of wooden structure. And so many wildfires every year, more than in any other country.
No lesson out of it? (same as with the mass shooting)

[bsnub]

Perhaps the only developed country where almost all houses are of wooden structure.

I do not think you have ever experienced a wildfire first hand. It doesn't matter what a building is made of. The fire will ravage anything in its path.

[misskit]

Perhaps the only developed country where almost all houses are of wooden structure.

How do you arrive at this conclusion? Isn't construction the same in Canada? I know it is in Japan.

[Klondyke]

Yes, you are right, in Canada the same (do they do something differently than in USA?).
And in Japan, obviously just the old housing - not very sure.

What I mean - a comparable countries - in Europe you will hardly find some new buildings by wood. Few exceptions are sometimes highlighted in news as something crazy or very special.

And of course old farm houses, sometimes fashionably renovated for weekend sejourn.

Never a new housing, although they hardly experience such big fires. Exception sometimes south France, Spain, however, always stone and mason houses.

[Grampa]

I do not think you have ever experienced a wildfire first hand. It doesn't matter what a building is made of. The fire will ravage anything in its path.

Spot on.

[Norton]

Just got of the phone with my bro who happens to be in Santa Rosa. A nephew and niece lost their homes. Nothing left. 85% of folks in the area without power. The city is surrounded by fires. Winds pick up and fire storms jump all over. Not over yet.

[Klondyke]

It doesn't matter what a building is made of. The fire will ravage anything in its path.

Are you saying that the wooden house (as built in USA) burns same way than a house made from bricks/concrete blocks etc?
Tell it to a fire fighting expert. Why there are fire resistant door pre-described for a certain resisting time (up to 90 min.)? Why not just the plywood door?

When the fire reaches such house with wall of vertical wooden structure, it is like a hundreds of chimneys burning, much more than fire of the chaparral around.

Apr 29, 2003:
When wildfire swept through Bob Heath's neighborhood in Napa, Calif., a lot of other homes in the fire's path burned to the ground. Why not his?

"I had Cultured Stone all over the outside," notes Heath, (incidentally a vice president of marketing for Cultured Stone, a cementitious siding company). "The fire flashed right over it but did no harm. It caused just a slight discoloration in some places."

http://www.builderonline.com/buildin...-proof-homes_o

Top 5 Fire-resistant Building Materials

Residential fires kill more than 2,500 people per year in the United States alone [source: CDC]. And most fatal fires occur when people are asleep in their homes, as smoke can lull a person into a deep slumber [source: FEMA]. Ever wonder how your walls would protect you? While no practical building material is truly fireproof, well-constructed houses and buildings can help prevent such tragedies by using materials that are relatively fire-resistant.

Top 5 Fire-resistant Building Materials | HowStuffWorks

[BaitongBoy]

^ Pretty obvious to most who are in fire-country...Not all buildings are the same...

[aging one]

Are you saying that the wooden house (as built in USA) burns same way than a house made from bricks/concrete blocks etc?
Tell it to a fire fighting expert. Why there are fire resistant door pre-described for a certain resisting time (up to 90 min.)? Why not just the plywood door?

The wood house will stand and the brick with concrete will fall in a 6+ earthquake. Hence the different building standards in California. Which is more likely to happen? This Santa Rosa disaster was really a one off thing that was whipped by strong warm winds going though an area that was backed up against open land.

But all of California is also subject to wild fires as is the whole west coast as far in as Utah.

[Norton]

While no practical building material is truly fireproof, well-constructed houses and buildings can help prevent such tragedies by using materials that are relatively fire-resistant.

All true but Santa Rosa and surronding communities tend toward restoring houses that are 30 to 50 years old. All wood frame and siding. All part of the rustic draw of the area. Bottom line, folks don't want to demolish a beautiful victorian and replace with a concrete box.

For interest if desired the local rag.

Home, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, Bay Area Newspaper, CA news

As of this morning Thai time 85% of the area is without power and estimated 7,000 homes destroyed.

My old high school is still standing. Stone building to house stoned students.