Paradise Lost

[Long Run]

Another terrible late fire season. The one in Nor-Cal has demolished a big part of Paradise already.

(CNN)A series of fast-moving wildfires is racing Friday up and down California, destroying thousands of structures and forcing thousands of residents to evacuate through flame-lined streets.

Two fires are just miles from the bar where 12 people were killed in a mass shooting in Southern California's Thousand Oaks, and a voluntary evacuation advisory was issued for part of Malibu, a seaside city popular with celebrities.

A blaze in Northern California sent terrified residents running for their lives as it closed in and destroyed parts of the town of Paradise, near Chico.

Fanned by high winds and fueled by low humidity and dry vegetation, the fires spread rapidly Thursday and overnight into Friday. The threat continues Friday morning, with millions of Californians under "red flag" warnings portending windy, arid and warm conditions that pose extreme fire risks.

Camp Fire: People flee 'carrying their babies and kids'

In Northern California, Tanah Clunies-Ross woke up in the dark Thursday to what sounded like lumps of coal raining down on her home. Within minutes, her family and thousands of people were racing to escape the raging flames of the Camp Fire.

"The smell of the smoke and realizing the smoke was a lot closer than I thought and then seeing flames up to my knees. ... I lost it," she said.
Her family was among at least 40,000 residents forced to evacuate in Butte County after the fire broke out early Thursday, "growing uncontrollably" at a rate of about 80 football fields per minute.

So far, it has burned at least 70,000 acres injured firefighters and residents and destroyed parts of Paradise, a town of 26,000 people roughly 80 miles north of Sacramento.
Friday morning the fire was burning to the outer edges of Chico, a city of 93,000 people about a 90-mile drive north of Sacramento. Area hospitals have evacuated and all of Butte County schools are closed Friday.

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

[Lord Jim]

I was going to start a thread about this...

I just got back from running some errands, and even though we are quite a distance from Butte County fire, outside it smells like every house around here has their fireplace going...

[BoSoxGal]

They're covering this right now on MSNBC - the entire town of Malibu under evacuation order?!?!

It's so terrible to see what is happening in terms of increased fire activity out West; it was one of the reasons I was so glad to leave Montana, because even when my own 'neighborhood' wasn't on fire or under fire watch, the air was noxious for months at a time during fire season.

It's often hard to feel sympathy for Californians, living in such a beautiful place with such generally beautiful weather and largely progressive politics - but damn, the past few years with drought then flooding then horrific wildfire activity, now just weeks from Thanksgiving . . . well, I guess there is a painful price to pay for living in the Golden State.

I will hope for a minimum loss of life, because clearly a lot of people are going to lose property and there doesn't seem to be any way around that.

[Joe Guy]

I just got back from running some errands, and even though we are quite a distance from Butte County fire, outside it smells like every house around here has their fireplace going...

Paradise is almost 200 miles from here but the smoke is so thick that my eyes burn when I go outdoors.

It's very sad to see people losing homes to a fire at a time of year when it should be raining. Nature can be cruel.

[dales]

I'm afraid we now have year round fire season in CA.

Pray for rain.

[Long Run]

[Econoline]

WOW.

[BoSoxGal]

5 people burned to death in their cars trying to evacuate.

Fucking horror!

[BoSoxGal]

I read and bookmarked this article after the last horrific fires in California earlier this year; it's pretty troubling reading.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... new-normal

[Lord Jim]

California Faces Its Most Destructive Wildfire In State History

President Trump, meanwhile, is blaming poor “forest management” and threatening to cut federal funding.

California continues to reckon with the most destructive wildfire it has ever seen as thousands of structures topple and the death toll rises to nine.

The Camp fire, centered on the Northern California town of Paradise, has incinerated 90,000 acres and nearly 7,000 structures, the San Fransisco Chronicle reported. On Friday, authorities announced five people had died in the fire attempting to escape in their vehicles. By Saturday morning, that number had jumped to nine. Three victims were found outside their homes, and one was found inside a home.

“Due to the burn injuries, identification could not be immediately made,” the Butte County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

Video of the inferno taken by Paradise resident Brynn Parrott Chatfield on Thursday shows the horror of the fire. In the video posted to Facebook, two people are seen in a car trying to escape a barrage of flames licking the road.

In Southern California, Venture County Fire Department Assistant Chief Chad Cook said drought and wind conditions have also played a role.

“The first part of this fuel bed had not seen fire for many years,” Cook said Thursday. “Drought-stricken fuels, Santa Ana wind conditions, low relative humidity, high temperatures: It’s a recipe for fire.”

The Woolsey fire has also caused 200,000 people to evacuate the city of Malibu. The fire has scorched more than 30,000 acres, the Los Angeles Times reported.

By comparison, the Tubbs fire last year burned more than 36,000 acres, destroyed more than 5,000 homes and killed 22 people. It was the most destructive fire in California’s history until this week.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ca ... e871ab8910

[Econoline]

It was the most destructive fire in California’s history until this week.

I've got a feeling that this sentence is going to be used a LOT in the next few years.

[rubato]

Gosh Trump is just SUCH a busy man with his businesses and now being president and all that I am impressed that he took the time to study forest management and then familiarize himself with the history of forest management in California.


The man is a genius. Or, a goddamned liar.


yrs,
rubato

[BoSoxGal]

Death toll now officially up to 25, with 110 persons still missing.

Donald Trump should be showered in gasoline and set aflame; I'm done pretending even the bare modicum of civility toward that inhuman piece of crap. If ever this country needed a visitation from a political assassin, it is NOW.

[Bicycle Bill]

Donald Trump ... that inhuman piece of crap. If ever this country needed a visitation from a political assassin, it is NOW.

I disagree; that's too good with him and also puts him on an equal footing with people such as Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, just to name a few.  Better he should be indicted, impeached, found guilty, ignominiously removed from office, and summarily stripped of all honors and remuneration that would normally be due a former POTUS ... and then live a long life alone with his shame.

Or suffer some sort of disease that, while it does not kill him, causes him to — oh, I don't know, maybe have to piss and shit into a bag for the rest of his (hopefully long and miserable) life?

It is just my regret that we no longer have public pillories or flogging, and the practice of tarring-and-feathering miscreants before riding them out of town on a rail has long since fallen out of favor.

-"BB"-

[BoSoxGal]

Ok, you’re absolutely right - I agree. Assassination is too good for him.

[RayThom]

I've been praying to my Lord Jesus Christ every day that Lord Dampnut's neurosyphilis progresses quickly. With his ever eroding mental faculties this would be the most obvious medical explanation as to why he behaves the way he does.

https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/tru ... c-behavior

[RayThom]

[Long Run]

If the last few years are the new (ab)normal, there will need to be a rethinking of how much to invest in fire defense of homes and towns (home insurance may drive this), and a review in forested areas of how much potential fuel to leave and how much to remove. No simple answer to be sure.

[Econoline]

Here's a pretty good explanation of what's been going on; this CNN meteorologist is apologetic about getting into politics (to the extent that he has to debunk Trump's tweets—e.g., these are *NOT* "forest fires"!)—but he mostly just sticks to the meteorological facts. I love it when he says—re Trump's ignorant tweets—that "It's like taking funds from the National Hurricane Center until you stop all these hurricanes." Yup, pretty much.

[Burning Petard]

Paridise? We build big cities in deserts in Nevada. We build mansions on the coast and are surprised when the ocean comes into the second floor.
We build very expensive homes in the territory of predictable fires followed by mud slides. We plan carefully flood containment basins in Texas, then build extensive housing developments right in their middle.

Followed by a circle jerk of emergency aid, thoughts and prayers.

snailgate (my only excuse is that I have not had any coffee this morning)