Wildfires in the west - Mostly California

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California and the others are burning up.

https://patch.com/california/novato...jor-incidents-7-600-firefighters-on-the-lines

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/military-being-deployed-to-help-battle-wildfires-in-the-west/

Current CA Fires: 240,000+ Acres Burned By 13 Major Incidents; 7,600 Firefighters On The Lines
Check out California's latest statewide fire summary and location map as of Friday, July 21. (Breaking)

By Renee Schiavone (Patch Staff) - Updated July 21, 2017 5:28 pm ET
Current CA Fires: 240,000+ Acres Burned By 13 Major Incidents; 7,600 Firefighters On The Lines
California firefighters are in the thick of fire season, battling more than a dozen major incidents across the state as of Friday. Those incidents have burned a combined total of more than 244,000 acres, the state's lead firefighting agency reports.

One of the biggest blazes of them all, the Detwiler Fire, continues to rage on near Yosemite. That inferno has burned through more than 74,000 acres alone, taking out 58 residences and 60 other structures in the process, according to Cal Fire. Another 1,500 structures are threatened, and containment is only estimated at 15 percent.

However, while firefighters are still working to get the upper hand on some incidents, they have made significant progress on others.

"Crews hard work has resulted in gaining the upper hand on five blazes, the Humboldt, Creek, Range, Hogback and Fox fires, bringing them to full containment yesterday," Cal Fire said.

You can catch the full California Statewide Fire Summary for Friday, July 21 below. (Scroll down for a map of current fires and details on the major incidents)

A warm-up has begun, bringing afternoon highs this weekend in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valley to over 100 in many areas, with the foothill regions experiencing temperatures in the upper 90s. Additionally, humidity in many parts will drop into the teens. Southern California will remain warm, and there is a potential for local north winds of 10-20 mph over portions of Santa Barbara County.

Did you know that embers from a wildfire can travel up to a mile away from the main fire and ignite a new fire? Make sure your home is hardened and ready to defend itself against a wildfire at http://www.readyforwildfire.org/
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Hope you guys in Cali are safe ~love, from a Texan
Summer is the worst time to be in the west, isn't it? I'm a bit surprised about Washington getting fires, though.
 
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Everything west of the Rocky Mountains is practically desert with patches of green here and there or am I just thinking locally?, so it's no surprise we get wildfires every year around the summertime. Some years just burn hotter than others depending on how much moisture we get, and the balance between fires caused by lightning strikes and stupid campers/arsonists seems to be even.

But yeah, there's a lot of fires going on right now. Western Montana's practically burning up with the most fire activity currently. Also surprised about Washington since they see more rain than us desert folk do in our lifetime.
 
Western Canada has been burning up pretty bad as well. The entire west of North America is destroying itself.
 
To elaborate a bit on the Canada part, it's about as bad over in the west here too. Several small towns have had to be evacuated, and there's no sign of it letting up any time soon.
 
Yay! Finally something I can talk about! I live roughly 40 miles from the Detweiler fire area. It actually started in my Chief Bedwarmer and I's favorite hiking area. So. Have some pics!!!!

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This was taken from the Mission Ave overpass of highway 99 in Merced... old hometown. A friend took it. Keep in mind the entire town is in between the fire edge and the spot where the pic was taken, and this was on the first day of the fire. It started at 4 pm Sunday. We were visiting family and got a couple daytime pics of the beginning of it...
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The fire is verrrrrry tricky too. The area is filled with ravines, caved in gold mines, and huge boulders. So the access can be tricky. Add to that the dead grass due to a lot of rain bringing extra plants and the summer sun killing them, PLUS a shit ton of Oak trees were killed in the drought, and those fuckers go up in flames like a Roman candle, like EXPLODING into fire. The Firefighters can't even get close to them. Too dangerous.

So, add the increased dead vegetation due to more rains + dead trees everywhere from the drought + inaccessible areas due to terrain + a LOT of rattlesnakes and shit + and the fact that there was a strong winds literally pushing the fire from behind, and that is how it went from 2,500 acres the first day to 25,000 aces the second, 45,000 the third and 75,000+ the fourth. The area is larger then the city of Seattle. Here is a screen capture of a newscast where they outlined what was burned as of yesterday morning....

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The area circled, Bagby, used to look like this....
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It has all completely burned to the ground.

Mariposa was mostly evacuated for a couple days, but they are allowing some back. Coulterville is still evac'd, and they are now trying to get Sonora to evacuate, as the wind has shifted and is herding the flames toward that city. These are all historic Gold Rush Era towns, with amazing architecture that is just gone now.

Containment was at 0%Sunday, Monday ended at 5%, Tuesday was 7%, Wednesday and Thursday were 15% containment. Today is at 25%. Nice huh? Oh, and over 75 homes burned, with nearly 200 structures (barns, out buildings, garages, businesses, etc.) burned to the ground as well.

Because of the difficulty reaching some of the areas affected, the main fighter in this battle has been the Air Drop Squad. A DC-10 equipped to drop fire retardant on fires, and flies at only 250 feet ABOVE the flames. Imagine a passenger plane flying like this guy has too, and you will see why they have such a stressful job! The other droppers (helicopters, smaller planes, crop dusters, etc) are helping out too.

Departments from all over the state are sending in what they call Strike Teams. The teams work from 12 to 24 hours a shift, then drive from the fire line to the Merced County Fairgrounds, where all of the firefighters have tents set up and can be fed and cleaned up before collapsing into a cot to pass out long enough to get some of their energy back. Then they wake up, throw on their turnouts and gear, and head on back to the fire lines. Estimates are at about 4,000 firefighters are currently on the Detweiler Fire right now.

All animals are rescued and placed in temporary shelters, with volunteers working them. People are being evac'd to churches, gyms, and even parks in the safe cities near by. People have all they can save packed into their cars, and strangely enough there haven't been any robberies as of yet.

Hope this info helps you guys out. As the daughter of a Firefighter, their summers are often spent working on fires like this. It is hard for their families, to be parted like this for months at a time.
 
Fate must have heard British Columbia snickering at Alberta for having Fort Macmurray scorched, and decided "You're next"

Ironically, Fort Mac has been sending relief to BC for the fires.

The thing is, the west has had a very wet fall, winter and spring. Four feet of snow fell in British Columbia over 3 days about the time the Oroville Dam was overflowing. All this water caused everything to grow in, then when summer hit, dry up into a tinderbox.

The heat hit so suddenly that there was serious flooding in the Okanagan lake region. So to go from floating down the river to going up in flames has been quite the ride.

The largest wildfire in BC is/was in the town of Ashcroft, which ballooned to 15 square miles within 5 hours of it starting. Just about any picture of that fire shows the surrounding area full of tall dry grass:

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Several larger towns in the cariboo region have been evacuated as a result, and the military has been called in to relieve the police of blocking roads so they can chase looters.
 
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It's so nice here in Oregon, surrounded by all this water.
 
Makes me glad I live in a state bording the Gulf. We never have to worry about this shit.
 
Lackadaisy said:
Fuckers steal 1/3 of my state's water and they still are in "drought" conditions. Let em burn, I say.
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California (LA in particular) has not been very good about handling their water infrastructure:



I also notice they tend to be more vocal about their problems. Texas and Iowa get a big tornado? A little bit of yelping during the rescue efforts then they rebuild. Fires and drought in California? You never hear the end of it.
 
Maiden-TieJuan said:
The area circled, Bagby, used to look like this....
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It has all completely burned to the ground.

Mariposa was mostly evacuated for a couple days, but they are allowing some back. Coulterville is still evac'd, and they are now trying to get Sonora to evacuate, as the wind has shifted and is herding the flames toward that city. These are all historic Gold Rush Era towns, with amazing architecture that is just gone now.
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That sucks. :( I love the Gold Country, and I hope they'll be safe soon before any more history is lost.

I'm not too surprised about Washington. East of the Cascades, things get pretty toasty every summer, and even here on the west side, we've only just gotten rain after about five weeks at 70-80 degrees.

Stay safe, Kiwifornians.
 
Johnny Bravo said:
We have fires here in Cali as often as Kansas has tornadoes, we're used to it.
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Wildfires are an integral part of the West's (not just california's) ecological cycle. It ensures that the soil is fertile and clears away dead brush for new plants.
 
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