Fires in Southern California

Well, till you smash into the car ahead of you and then have to walk to safety with a broken leg.

i mean he's literally running for his life

i would definitely be more careful but yeah

tbf he was driving fast in the wrong lane. only car they could smash into would be a fire truck driving at them, and they'd probably die. fire season sucks. hoping the best for those caught up in it this year.

yeah i imagine the sheer adrenaline makes for a lead foot

Understandable, but I was white-knuckling sitting in my office watching it.

I was going to complain about a SoCal thread being bumped for a NorCal fire but that's before I knew the entire state is burning.

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Massive-Camp-Fire-forces-red-air-alert-prompts-13377739.php

p fucking grim in SF right now

heavy smoke and some ash

I think it's worse than last year's fire, as today I could smell the smoke when I was at home.

my heart goes out to those having to leave their homes

P100 masks, y'all

Words fail me. This is the Woolsey Fire approaching Malibu as people desparately are trying to evacuate on PCH. pic.twitter.com/rdJGvbu7kN

— Spin Doctor (@SpinDr) November 9, 2018

This is Zuma Beach right now. Photo from @ktla5news #ZumaBeach #WoolsyFire #Malibu @Amie_Yancey pic.twitter.com/COVm9WA9HY

— Scott Yancey (@Scott_Yancey) November 10, 2018

up in Butte County

These abandoned and burned out cars shows you what a panic it must have been for residents trying to escape the Camp Fire. Unreal scenes in Paradise, CA, this morning. #CampFire pic.twitter.com/AhBuWzS0Tx

— Nick Valencia (@CNNValencia) November 9, 2018

5 people found dead in their cars most likely on that very same road.

jesus

our friend's aunt lives in Paradise and is suffering from Alzheimer's, she was home alone at the time of the fire picking up steam and her son couldn't get to her in time. A neighbor tried to get her out but she wasn't answering and he had to flee. There's still no word.

meanwhile:

Pray for Malibu— and #TheBachelor Mansion... pic.twitter.com/D9t8VxFXeo

— Mike Fleiss (@fleissmeister) November 9, 2018

Is there a German word to describe the feeling of waiting to see if your father-in-law's house burned down? (he's fine, don't know about the place)

Llamas are tied to a lifeguard stand on the beach in #Malibu as the #WoolseyFire approaches. Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Timeshttps://t.co/X8PtsdblHP pic.twitter.com/dvAq6LWSxv

— JJ the Santa Barbarian (@cookiesinheaven) November 10, 2018

#tfw when life is a tarkovsky film pic.twitter.com/K9EEGKQAyM

— Tovarisch (@nwbtcw) November 10, 2018

my grandmother & her husband were evacuated and their house is probably gone. but they're fine. everyone else I know in LA - one of my best friends, my grandfather + his wife, other friends - live outside of the danger zone but say that the city is truly apocalyptic now. I heard the Santa Monica Pier was gone?

I think someone fed you bad intel, the city of L.A. itself is fairly business as usual albeit very smoky. Santa Monica Pier is perfectly ok. Malibu (15+ miles up the coast from Santa Monica) is what’s apocalyptic.

Not to diminish what’s happening at all; the fire going from the ocean to west hills is astonishing to me. It’s coming scarily close to my wife’s dad’s home.

F-I-L’s place in Point Dume survived! Seems like everything across the street from him burned down though. Fingers crossed for other folks here and hope for some good news.

Higher winds coming tomorrow...

no words

WATCH: Screaming DC-10 air tanker drops Phos-Check over #WoolseyFire in Calabasas https://t.co/iBgAWLyr9d pic.twitter.com/lZzI4GXexK

— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) November 11, 2018

was hanging out today with a friend whose dad lived in Paradise: house gone, got his three dogs out, no clothes or anything else.

Some beautiful shots on ig but just no

PG&E has informed state regulators that it experienced an incident early Thursday on a major electrical transmission line at a remote site in Butte County just minutes before the reported start of the devastating Camp Fire.

In a brief report filed with the California Public Utilities Commission, the company said a power outage was recorded on its 115-kilovolt Caribou-Palermo line at 6:15 a.m. Thursday. Cal Fire says the blaze started at 6:29 a.m.

Driven by high winds in the Feather River Canyon, the Camp Fire raced west, destroying parts of the the communities of Paradise and Magalia. So far, 23 people are confirmed dead in the fire, which had burned a staggering 6,453 homes and 120,000 acres as of Sunday morning.

https://www.kqed.org/news/11705306/pge-transmission-line-may-be-tied-to-disastrous-butte-county-fire

Yeah it was that which started those massive Black Saturday fires we had here in 2009 (the ones that wiped a couple of towns clean off the map). Winds + high voltage lines + poor maintenance = hell.

Also the Ventura fires last year?

Tubbs fire:

The Tubbs Fire was the second-most destructive wildfire in California history, behind only the Camp Fire of 2018,[6][4] burning parts of Napa, Sonoma, and Lake counties in Northern California during October 2017, and affecting the city of Santa Rosa the most.

there's a massive fire every year in southern california. its 'normal' now.

Thought this was a good thread:

It continues to frustrate me how badly people misunderstand California wildfires. I have mentioned previously here the amplifying role of population growth, and the causal ignition trigger of development at the urban-wilderness interface, but the fuel itself is key.

— Paul Kedrosky (@pkedrosky) November 10, 2018

42 now confirmed dead in Camp Fire

What a terrifying tragedy. It's days later and there are still a hundred unaccounted for.

The toll from the Camp Fire, the worst California wildfire ever, is now 48. The National Guard has been drafted to help with the search for remains. The fire has now claimed 130,000 acres and has destroyed 8,817 structures. 52,000 people have been evacuated

clickbaity title: http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lopez-malibu-trailer-park-fire-20181114-story.html

but man this is so true:

“While it may be true that a fire disaster does create a kind of egalitarian equality, what follows is anything but,” said Mike Davis, author of “Ecology of Fear.” The book included a chapter titled “The Case for Letting Malibu Burn,” a stinging critique of fire suppression mismanagement that leads to catastrophic fires and expensive efforts to save castles where none should have been built.

“Fires tend to gentrify areas,” said Davis, “and what follows a huge fire is not just the rebuilding, but rebuilding on a larger scale, with more expensive structures than before.”

see also: disaster capitalism

btw this is terrifying:

https://google.org/crisismap/google.com/2018-camp-fire

you can look at the Malibu one as well

if you look at the map, a quick estimate shows that the fire burned an area that--east to west--is more than 1/8th as wide as California.

thought this was interesting, particularly in the context of crazy republicans asking why only california ever seems to burn: https://www.firescience.org/worst-states-fire-danger/

Rhode Island has had a larger percentage of its land burned than California.

Camp Fire toll now 56, with 10,321 structures destroyed

In terms of sheer area, 2018 has brought us the largest fire in state history (Mendocino complex), the 7th largest (Carr) and now the Camp Fire has cracked the list at the 20th spot and considering its containment level will no doubt climb at least a few spots on the list.

All this after the previous largest fire was last year's Thomas Fire.

According to a couple sources now more than 600 people remain unaccounted for. Our friend’s aunt is among them.

oh god, that's awful omar, i hope you all find her well

thanks, i'm hoping our friend will update with some miraculous report soon but idk!

i've watched a couple of those videos from people fleeing the scene. when you see the roads clogged up and the intensity of the fire, you see how inescapable it was for so many folks.

this has prompted several conversations among people we know who feel this is a sign to move up their plans to leave the state tbh. ours too! while a city like L.A. isn't affected in the same manner as a more rural, forested area like that, it just feels like a warning about the changing climate. the wildfires being so disastrous in parts of the state that see more rain historically are really a grim sign.