And the hits just keep on coming

[BoSoxGal]

Some families weren’t home when evacuation was ordered, others likely chose to evacuate in one vehicle together. Losing an automobile is the least of the devastation they’ve faced.

[Lord Jim]

others likely chose to evacuate in one vehicle together.

I would imagine that would be the case for most people...

In a situation like that, you want to move fast and stay together...

[dales]

The one thing I can't fully understand is the number of vehicles that seem to get caught in these fires.  One would think that they would be used by their owners to evacuate rather than being left behind.

Time was of the essence, many folks only had 10 minutes to leave.

Besides, it's only a car - - - compared with a million dollar house - - - it's small potatoes.

[rubato]

"...
Household — generally two or more persons. Unless we're talking about the Jay Leno household, I would assume that there is normally a driver (like the spouse or offspring) for each vehicle.

-"BB"-

With short notice the additional drivers may not have been avail.

[Sue U]

My B-I-L is basically trapped in his house in Santa Rosa. Not ordered to evacuate but his office is closed and he can't travel anywhere because many roads are closed (or may be ordered closed at any minute). Says he's mostly bored.

[dales]

Says he's mostly bored.

That is until the fire roars over the ridge.

Stay Safe.

[BoSoxGal]

I read a story today about an older couple who survived the fire that burned their neighborhood to the ground by jumping in their neighbor’s swimming pool and staying there for 6 hours - what an experience that must have been, to have an inferno all around!

[Burning Petard]

The tv pictures from the Santa Rosa area have me puzzled. They now show big neighborhoods of what look to me like typical bedroom suburbs with houses close together on winding streets--all leveled to the ground with nary anything beyond an occasional masonry fireplace still standing above the ashes.

Yet there are also trees, evergreens, pines with long green needles and cedars still standing close to the ashes, looking unharmed. Huh? Why/how did so many houses, complete with all the contents and get reduced to ashes while these trees nearby survived? Is there something fundamentally vulnerable about the way these neighborhoods were laid out and the homes constructed?

snailgate

[Crackpot]

The wood in houses no longer holds water.

[Burning Petard]

hot enuff to melt the siding and for the fire to jump from house to house is also hot enuff to ignite the oil in evergreen foilage

snailgate.

[dales]

Santa Rosa fire: they look like dead trees to me.

[BoSoxGal]

If you look at the drone footage I posted earlier in the thread, you'll see what he's talking about - there are healthy green trees right next to totally burned down homes and vegetation.

Here's another video that shows the same thing:

[dales]

The healthy green trees prolly had more water in them, like CP said.

With the loss of life and over 5000 structures burned, I believe this is a pointless discussion.

[BoSoxGal]

Nobody is disrespecting the tragedy of the California wildfires by discussing the peculiarity of wildfire dynamics which destroy great swaths of flora while leaving other flora untouched.

[Joe Guy]

My good friend recently bought a home in Santa Rosa. Now he owns a pile of ashes.

This is where his home is.... was...

[rubato]

Staggering. There were wind gusts up to 80mph the night it started. You can see how it blew the heat sideways so the fire leaped over street after street, normally they would be effectve firebreaks. Losing 3,000 homes in an area which already had a housing shortage is going to be tough and they will be years rebuilding. Where are they going to get the crews to build them and then where can they live? FEMA trailers?


yrs,
rubato

[Sue U]

On Marketplace last night Kai Ryssdal was talking about the weird burn patterns with the author of this article from the LA Times (excerpt):

Though a forensic examination will be required to understand exactly what happened at Coffey Park, the unburned trees still standing in the neighborhood tell wildland fire experts that the cause was not a giant front of flames sweeping out of the nearby hills and fields.

Most likely, the fire was touched off by embers blown from a distance. Firebrands capable of igniting a house can travel more than a mile.

“When you’ve got firebrands going into every crook and cranny, they’re going to find somewhere to start combustion,” Sapsis said.

Fire experts surmise that most of the damage was caused by fire spreading from house to house, leaving some parkway trees and things like trash cans oddly unscathed.

“Those houses are like highly concentrated energy packages just waiting to ignite,” said Donald Falk, a wildland fire researcher in the University of Arizona School of Natural Resources and the Environment. “In that wind-driven situation, I think the predictions of what’s fire-safe and what’s not kind of go out the window.”

[dales]

Nobody is disrespecting the tragedy of the California wildfires by discussing the peculiarity of wildfire dynamics which destroy great swaths of flora while leaving other flora untouched.

That's life (or death).

There were some homes untouched while the home next door burned to the ground.

You can roll your eyes all you wish, doesn't change the facts.

[Econoline]

BSG - I heard that piece on Marketplace on NPR, too; I was trying to find the article Sue linked to and quoted but she beat me to it. So there's your answer: the strong winds and (relatively) close distances between houses made all the difference. One of the people interviewed on Marketplace also pointed out that each of the individual house fires would have been easily controlled by the local fire department without spreading to the neighbors, but there were just too many fires in too many locations and too few firefighters available to fight everything at once.

Dales - it's always worthwhile to question WHY a tragedy happened and to investigate whether a recurrence would be possible and/or preventable, regardless of the fact that there's nothing that can be done NOW to prevent the current tragedy.

[dales]

Dales - it's always worthwhile to question WHY a tragedy happened and to investigate whether a recurrence would be possible and/or preventable, regardless of the fact that there's nothing that can be done NOW to prevent the current tragedy.

The cause is unknown.

Could be weeks before the cause is known.