The fires in California are absolutely catastrophic.

[milestogo]

(Camp) Butte County 109,000 acres November 8, 2018 25% contained 6,453 residences and 260 commercial structures destroyed; 23 civilians killed, 3 firefighters injured. 110 civilians reported missing

(Hill) Ventura County 4,531 acres November 8, 2018 70% contained 2 structures destroyed

(Nurse) Solano County 1,500 acres November 8, 2018 90% contained

(Woolsey) Los Angeles County, Ventura County 83,275 acres November 8, 2018 10% contained At least 177 buildings destroyed, 2 civilians killed

Huge area, lots of casualties, many buildings damaged, and the largest fire still mostly uncontained.

[Leghorn21]

1. ...and after calm winds yesterday, which certainly helped, they're back up today

absolutely catastrophic

[The Figment]

2. Real time info here...4:00 pm Sunday

Best I have found

[milestogo]

3. Thanks.

[Achilleaze]

4. And all the republican Clod-in-Chief* does is piss on everyone suffering

what a colossal a-hole. America needs leadership and help, and he* is pissing on the people. He's not a leader. He's a republican a-hole.


* aka republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief

[Brother Buzz]

5. The Nurse fire in Solano county was basically a nothingburger

It was just a wind driven grass fire that burned into the the previously burned Branscombe Fire (4,700 acre) from a month ago and ran out of fuel. I live near it, and it got a brief mention on the news, and how we need to be vigilant during the 'Red Flag' winds, before then switched back to the major fires.

[skylucy]

6. I agree that the Nurse fire was a "nothingburger". I live nearby also. The smoke from the other

large fires is horrible though. I've lived in this area my entire life and the smoke and air quality is the worse I have ever experienced.

[Brother Buzz]

8. To me, it's very reminiscent of the rice stubble burning days in the Sacramento Valley.

The REALLY bad smoke we've experienced were from the recent fires in the Vaca mountains up near lake Berryessa. At one point, I couldn't see two blocks (600 feet).

[skylucy]

10. I thought the recent fires in the Vaca hills were the worse when they happened. This feels worse to

me. Maybe I'm just physically worn down from President PoopyPants and my body is reacting more to the bad air.

[Brother Buzz]

12. Location may have something to do with my observations

I could watch the aerial firefighting jets fly overhead, then run inside and watch on television a computer stabilized helicopter camera capturing the actual bomb run, then run outside and watch it return to Mather for another load. At one point, they were making a complete cycle every thirty minutes.

[Blue_true]

11. What is rice stubble burning?

Is it residual foliage from rice harvesting that was burned? If so, I did not know that rice is(was) grown in California.

[Mr.Bill]

14. I heard a few years ago

that California grows more rice than Japan.

[Blue_true]

20. Wow. I guess I know only the hitech areas there. nt

[Retrograde]

41. There's a variety called "Calrose"

that was developed in California. It's not grown in paddies, but in fields that are shallowly flooded by the winter rains. There are a number of organic rice producers in the Central Valley: there's a weird coalition of rice growers and duck hunters who cooperate on some environmental issues.

[Brother Buzz]

15. Yes, they used to burn everything after the rice was harvested

That is until the eggheads discovered the rice smoke was high in silica, and was a genuine health hazard.

California grows a lot of rice in the western side of the Sacramento Valley. I understand they mostly grow a variety of rice that is exported to Asia. I suspect the conservative (I got my legal riparian water rights, so fuck you) rice growers are not to happy with the orange anus' tariff war.

[Blue_true]

21. Do they compost the rice stubble now?

Sounds like it would make a nice compost.

[Brother Buzz]

28. Better then that, they flood the fields over the winter and let the waterfowl churn it up...

while it decomposes. Win, win.

The trick, or the bit of luck, is getting the fields dry enough in late spring to work them up before flooding and seeding again. Crop dusters do the actual seeding.

[Blue_true]

35. Clever. nt

[Brother Buzz]

36. Ha! I just stumbled across these at YouTube

It's EVERYTHING you need to know about growing California rice. Dude is really into rice!

[tblue37]

7. Total devastation:

[Brother Buzz]

9. That's from the Tubbs fire (Santa Rosa) a year ago

There were documented fire tornadoes involved it that one. The eggheads are really alarmed, and are suggesting we will see a lot more of them in the future.

[bdamomma]

16. so sad

[mastermind]

13. and some good advise from Lindsay Briggs & smokey the bear

Link to tweet

[bdamomma]

17. so sad

both for humans and animals. Poor California. My heart breaks for those residents.


Is there any charity I could make a donation too.

[Duppers]

18. The feds and military should be helping fight these fires!

The man at the helm of gov't is totally without reason and.compassion.

Sending troops to the border - Hell, send them to help fight these catastrophically devastating fires!

[milestogo]

19. They may not be trained in firefighting but there is

certainly a lot of other help needed.

[Rural_Progressive]

22. There is a lot of roles available even for minimally trained folks

After the hot shots go in and knock a fire down somebody has to sit on the site for 48 to 72 hours to make sure it isn't going to flare up again.
These incredibly hot fires can set root systems on fire and then spread underground. We have had stumps suddenly explode into flames when the fires come up for air. No need for fully trained firefighters to handle that job, my wife and I have taken that duty as needed so the WA DNR could redeploy their man(and woman) power to fires that needed more boots on the ground.

Logistics, cooking, sanitation, transport, maintenance, repairs....the list of jobs goes on and on and the military can certainly handle a lot of those roles. Of course it would be challenge for them to do these jobs as they sit on the border waiting for the caravan to arrive.

What a destructive and worthless piece of mung Donnie O truly is.

[Mr.Bill]

24. A fire like that

affects every department of local government. If there is to be any rebuilding, you will need to rebuild all sorts of infrastructure, you will need more building inspectors, etc. All this coupled with a huge loss of property taxes means a huge financial disaster for years, even decades to come.

I live in Lake County and have watched this all play out since the big Valley fire here in '15 that destroyed 1200 homes.

[Rural_Progressive]

29. We had a triplex of monsters up here in north central WA

it was a summer I'd prefer not to have to experience ever again.

Our county is larger than the state of Connecticut and has a population of less than 50,000. Absolutely devastating, housing still in short supply, county's had to cut back on many essential services due to revenue shortages.

As you said, these MegaFires are gifts that just keep giving with pain and suffering years after they move through.

[former9thward]

25. The military is not trained to fight fires.

It would be a safety hazard to send them in. California has fires every year and no administration has sent in the military. Do you hear CA officials asking for such help? I don't.

[Rural_Progressive]

30. See my post #22

since I live in wildfire country and have been involved in a number of these events I have a perspective others may not have.

[former9thward]

39. What CA official is calling for that?

[Rural_Progressive]

40. If you start at post #18

and then read the responses to it, everything should make more sense.

[former9thward]

42. I have read them and it does not make sense.

Using the military has not been done in any other administration under similar circumstances. And for good reason. That is why no CA officials are calling for it.

[lastlib]

23. Butte County is roughly 170 square miles

almost the size of San Jose, CA.

And that lying pile of excrement in the White House just sits there and looks for other people to blame it on.

[The Figment]

26. Real time info here...6:40 Sunday

[kennetha]

27. My Son goes to school down there

On Wednesday, people he knows were in the bar when the mass shooting broke out. On Thursday, Woolsey and Hill fires break out. By Thursday evening he was under mandatory evacuation from the Woolsey fire. Fled to a friends house in what was at first a safe seeming zone. Was evacuated from there. He's actually been evacuated 4 times now from 4 different locations. Hasn't slept in the same bed two days in a row. Spent one night in a parking lot sleeping in his car. He insist on going back to his apartment tonight, even though the evacuation order is still in place. Tried to talk him into coming home instead, but his school will hold classes tomorrow, as scheduled. Also tried to get him to check into a hotel somewhere far away from the fire zone. But he wants to be near his friends, his housemates, and his fellow students. We're on needles and pins, far away up here in Northern California, worried sick, in a town with no fire, thankfully, but TONS of smoke, from the Camp fire. What a nightmare!

[Downtown Hound]

31. Don't need to tell me, I'm in Santa Rosa

That's the city that nearly burned to the ground last year about this time, and now it's covered in smoke again, roughly one year later. Welcome to our new normal. but the Republicans tell me there's no climate change.

[lunasun]

32. This is where the military could be used maybe ? they have so many close @ the border now in SW

Some must be federal lands burning

[applegrove]

33. Vibes to all.

[BumRushDaShow]

34. And remember that these are on top of the fires earlier this year

I.e., the "Carr" fire, the "Holy" fire, and the "Mendocino Complex" fire.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/worst-california-fires-may-be-over-n899906

[milestogo]

37. 25 dead so far, 6 of those are firefighters.

[marlakay]

38. I feel so bad for everyone concerned

My daughter lost her home last Oct in Santa Rosa and of course being young had no renters insurance lost all.
Thankfully she has good job so has been able to replace a lot and we all helped.

As far as the future I am wondering who makes the rules or are they bribed to build in certain areas especially
Southern CA. I am from CA bay area and always wondered why they let them build so many homes in the
drier areas knowing about the Santa Ana winds and lack of water.

Areas around Clear Lake hills of Santa Rosa, Napa etc are very very dry oaks and I am surprised
a large fire hadn't happened sooner.

The forests they say are happening as more homes are being built in the forest, the dying trees from the pine beetles
causes dry wood which goes up fast and then human cause of camp fires, cigarettes arson etc.

I know from living here in OR and we have had horrible fire seasons last few years, a lot of the forest fire areas are in
deep ravines where the fire workers can't get to safely and there aren't enough airplanes.

[Stuart G]

43. k. and r. nt.