News as surprising as another mass shooting: California ablaze again/still

[Whateverist]

Three fires burning currently, two in the south one way up north.  The one up my way has the bay area choked in smoke.   Yesterday standing at the shore of the bay in Berkeley I could just make out the top of the new bay bridge where it goes over Yerba Buena island.  But San Francisco and Mount Tamalpais could not be seen on a sunny day.  It was the day to fill the green bin in the garden, which I did.  But the time I finished and got Smokey over to do some ball work I was coughing.  Our fire is up near the town of Chico in the northwest corner of the state.  But the wind has been strong enough to blow most it directly out to sea and down to us.  The two in southern California are near Malibu and Thousand Oaks where the recent mass shooting occurred.  (I don't assume it is the most recent one however.)  How is everyone doing in Southern California, is smoke a problem for you?

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/09/us/camp-f...index.html

[Seraphina]

Lots of smoke here in the valley, too. A few coworkers have family who live in or near Paradise, CA, which I'm hearing has been completely destroyed. One coworker's brother is a paramedic in the Camp Fire area and it sounds grim at the moment.

-Teresa

[Fireball]

I live north east of the Woolsey fire. The wind is blowing away from us, so we're not getting any smoke. We are far enough from the vegetation (minimum 2 miles in any direction) that our house is incredibly unlikely to catch on fire from this fire. There was a fire several years ago that burned all around us, but only a few homes on the periphery were damaged or destroyed.

And yes, the other fire is burning through Westlake and areas around it, so some of the residents are getting a double-dose of grief.

[Whateverist]

Lots of smoke here in the valley, too. A few coworkers have family who live in or near Paradise, CA, which I'm hearing has been completely destroyed. One coworker's brother is a  paramedic in the Camp Fire area and it sounds grim at the moment.

-Teresa

A handful of people killed, lots of mandatory evacuations and I don't know how many buildings destroyed.  The speed with which that fire started and spread I find mind blowing.  Anyone who delayed getting going may not have gotten a second chance.

[Seraphina]

Just terrible. The stories I've heard through the grapevine today of people in the Camp Fire running for their lives through flames... I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

-Teresa

[Whateverist]

I live north east of the Woolsey fire. The wind is blowing away from us, so we're not getting any smoke. We are far enough from the vegetation (minimum 2 miles in any direction) that our house is incredibly unlikely to catch on fire from this fire. There was a fire several years ago that burned all around us, but only a few homes on the periphery were damaged or destroyed.

And yes, the other fire is burning through Westlake and areas around it, so some of the residents are getting a double-dose of grief.

Two miles in all directions must give you some peace of mind at a time like this.  You're lucky not to be getting the smoke.  I took the dogs to the beach in San Francisco today hoping for less smoke.  Not so good.  But I think I'll stay inside now.

[DodosAreDead]

Saw a few videos taken by people evacuating Paradise... let's just say I've never seen the word paradise used like that before. 

Honestly though, it seems worse this time around than the other recent bout when one of the fires was large enough to break records. These may be smaller, but they've already killed people. Seems like a horrible way to die, too.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

♫I'll never stop hearin' the screams in my dreams.♫

[Fireball]

The internet is finally up for us, after the entire county was without it. A lot of the phone lines also are supported by internet providers, as well as TV. We had none of it for about 24 hours, since we use our internet provider for all of them. To top it off, several of the cell towers around where I live burned down as well, so cell phone connectivity was almost nonexistent. I salute the people who went out and repaired all that infrastructure. The winds have pretty much died down, so the smoke is everywhere, though thankfully quite thin where we are. What a mess! Looks like about 41,000 acres burned between the two fires. The Woolsey fire was hardly news until it roared down into Malibu where  all the beautiful people live. In all, about 200,000 people were forced to evacuate. Many are going back to look at a pile of ashes where they used to live. The drought has done serious damage to California; this is one example of what global warming is going to do, going forward.

[Paraselene]

Poor Cali, between the earthquakes and the fires......