It looks like Santa Ana conditions now bring fire along with the hot winds. Here is a selection of pictures from Twitter. California jackals, stay safe!
This is what the sky looks like in Oakland right now. The smoke from the #camp fire is way worse than last year's fires in Sonoma, despite being farther away. #CaliforniaFires pic.twitter.com/a5CvaGrgfO
— xetceterax (@xetceterax) November 9, 2018
Yes, the #smoke from the #camp fire really is THAT bad and widespread. 27,000 people evacuated. #fire #wildfire #chico #paradise pic.twitter.com/PKw7MovLGo
— Chris Dunn (@Chris_WPMI) November 9, 2018
At the hashtag #CampFire, I am seeing requests about missing people.
Raging #camp #fire in #paradise pic.twitter.com/mmWaRd3Pmt
— gabrielle lurie (@gabriellelurie) November 9, 2018
Pacific Coast Highway. RIGHT NOW. I've NEVER seen anything like this here in LA… pic.twitter.com/HgllftMJT6
— Robert Meyer Burnett (@BurnettRM) November 9, 2018
VIDEO: @LACoFireAirOps Firehawk helicopter flying along Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu on the way to protect life and property. This is a historic event. Please follow the direction of local authorities. (Original video, ok to use with credit) @VCFD @LACoFD #WoolseyFire pic.twitter.com/SvZSfipzfk
— LACoFireAirOps (@LACoFireAirOps) November 10, 2018
Fire burning in Thousand Oaks, CA, a copy that was just hit by a horrible mass shooting 2 days ago. Malibu has been evacuated. My heart is heavy. #ThousandOaksFire #ThousandOaksShooting #CaliforniaFires pic.twitter.com/SIHBt2oH31
— Katie M Golden (@GoldenGraine) November 10, 2018
Mary G
Fires have burned to the sea in Malibu a bunch of times in my lifetime. Rich people rebuild with major fire damage control – no wood shingle roofs anymore, brush cleared so that it’s nowhere near most houses anymore – but houses still burn because there isn’t any way to completely defend a structure against 2,000 degrees moving at 100 mph. (These are not meant to be exact numbers.) We will definitely need more firefighters, for sure.
tobie
Somehow the extent of the fires didn’t hit me until I saw these pictures. Stay safe, California Jackals. Fires on the West Coast, floods on the East Coast are now the new normal. It’s terrifying.
cain
So what is the federal response? Why hasn’t Trump said anything what he’s doing to help? Whole cities are being swallowed up by fire. There needs to be a response here. (a lot of them rich folks I assume in Mailibu, maybe even Republican donaters?)
I”m puzzled that there is no information about this.
Mnemosyne
My brother and his wife live in Thousand Oaks, and his ex-wife and her husband live in Oak Park. My niece and nephew split their time between them.
So, yeah, this is very scary. Their only option is to evacuate north or west, because the fires are all to the south and east of them. ?
Tom Levenson
One of my oldest and best friends is on the east side of Chico, which is where the Camp Fire is encroaching now. Haven’t been able to reach him today. Worried.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mary G: I was going to take issue with “Never seen anything like it…”; cause I have. Many times.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: One year, in my lost youth in TO, we didn’t have an escape option, every route out was blocked by fire.
ETA: They’re lucky they reopened the 101 though the Conejo grade after the Hill fire jumped the freeway there.
catbirdman
Just to clarify, Santa Ana winds have long been associated with elevated fire risk — hot, dry winds during the driest time of year and all. But yeah, horrible and scary. And everyone still wants to live in the hills here, so we all have to keep pretending like this shit isn’t going to just keep getting worse.
The Dangerman
@Mary G:
True, but in extreme Santa Ana’s, even more firefighters ill be overwhelmed.
I’ve been watching all day; this thing has taken out some massive Estates. Malibu is well known, but Bell Canyon has some massive Estates that have burned. The final damage count is going to be amazing.
TenguPhule
Is that smoke to scale right?
Because it looks like the area is larger then some actual states of the Union.
Mary G
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah, I deleted a ruder response. I’ve had friends evacuate from Topanga Canyon more times than you can count on one hand.
@catbirdman: Yep. Insurance companies won’t cover certain areas any more, but there are people rich enough to cover the loss who want the views and prestige.
TenguPhule
@cain:
Long sticks and marshmallows. //
JPL
@Tom Levenson: Just assume that he is to busy to respond right now. The situation in CA is horrifying, and unfortunately we have a president who will the blame someone rather than offer sympathies.
It is horrifying.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
This.
I used to live in the hills at one edge of the San Fernando Valley. I’ve seen fire coming down the hills and right towards our house. I have a friend who lived about a mile east of me and he and his wife have lost 2 homes to fires. In 14 yrs. I was born in LA and have lived here all but 17 yrs. To me our natural disasters are fires, earthquakes and flooding. I’ve lived where tornados are the issue. I’ve traveled/spent a fair amount of time where hurricanes are the issue. Not sure which is worse except that one can have two of the same issues at the same time. And neither of them have a lot of warning. That’s earthquake and fire. And after the fires, flooding can be a major issue, because sometimes when it does finally rain here, it really rains.
My friend up in Santa Rosa said it’s very smokey there but right now, no fires all that near them. She had to evacuate in the last big round of fires, had no idea how her house was doing for days.
But it’s nice most of the time…….
Boussinesque
@cain: there were a bunch of troll comments on some of the official emergency notification tweets to the effect of “that’s what you get for electing liberals” and “you’re just doing this for the federal aid money–it’s not coming!” gloating. People are fucking garbage. I imagine Trump’s having a sulk about the election and feeling gleeful that a blue state is burning–he’s just that kind of asshole, and it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise since he’s never even pretended to be a president for all Americans. I’ve been coughing all day from the smoke outside, and I’m on the far fringe of the plume. I hope your friend is safe, Tom.
Cheryl Rofer
Yes, Santa Ana winds have long been associated with fires, but I can recall a time when the reports were of Santa Ana winds with danger of fire. Now it seems like it’s fires, fires, fires, oh yes pushed by Santa Ana winds.
This is partly climate change, but it’s also that more people are building where fires are likely.
No Trump tweets about the fires. Just the Fox mimicry and Macron hard feelings noted in Adam’s thread.
TenguPhule
@Cheryl Rofer:
At this point its rebuilding. Maybe its time to consider giving up on permanent housing in the biggest fire zones and revert to temporary shelters that won’t be missed if it burns down.
TenguPhule
@Cheryl Rofer:
Thank dog for small mercies.
Ruckus
@Mary G:
I have a friend, lives in Topanga Canyon. I stayed with him in 2012. It is always in the back of the mind which way to get out. Every road is only 2 lanes other than the Coast Hwy. Every road is slow traffic, every day of the week. Getting out fast in a mass evacuation? Yeah right.
Yesterday one of the guys at work, his sister works for a sheriffs dept was near one of the fires and had personal car trouble. Stopped in a gas station for help and a woman evacuating went into labor, so she was helping deliver the baby, but the fire was very close to the gas station and a helicopter dropped water on the station and everyone there. I understand they all got out.
Mary G
GBBO alert thread:
HumboldtBlue
Only by a quirk in the wind have my father and my sister kept their homes.
This is fucking madness.
Another Scott
@cain: It took Donnie 9 days to say anything about the 2017 California fires. Don’t expect anything different from him this time.
Donnie is transactional. It’s all about him. California didn’t vote for him or send Teabaggers to Congress, so he doesn’t care.
He’ll eventually say something and sign something because he’ll be convinced that he has to, but that’s about it. There will be a federal response, but in spite of him not because of him. He won’t do anything other than the bare minimum to make it happen.
He’s a horrible monster, and we’ve known this for a long time. He’s not going to change.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
Nelle
By the fire map it appears that my late parents in law’s home is gone. My BIL inherited it and lived there. He’s somewhere in an evacuation center.
HumboldtBlue
@cain:
The Federal government has responded to a request from Governor-elect Newsom to declare a disaster and provide Federal resources.
Locally, we sent five engine companies in a strike team to Butte and our local Cal Fire unit sent some 50 personnel and 10 other engines.
This is fucking madness.
West of the Rockies
@Tom Levenson:
I am on the east side of Chico, Tom. I have heard of NO structural fires within the Chico city limits. It is as smoky as a Boy Scout jamboree here, but I suspect–with cause–that your friend is safe.
That said, our locally-iconic Covered Bridge is gone. That is east of Chico by about ten miles.
JPL
@HumboldtBlue: It is and it should not be the new normal. .
trollhattan
@Tom Levenson:
I suspect their communications are either down or heavily overloaded. Hopefully they’re okay.
This is the incident extent map but I don’t know how recent since the last update. Helltown doesn’t look promising.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Cheryl Rofer: The Santa Ana’s have always been fire weather, this is nothing new. I’ve lived here in SoCal for 55 of my 58 years and I’ve seen this since I was a child. The years it doesn’t happen are the exception.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@TenguPhule: The areas that are most prone to fires are hillsides and that’s where wealthy folk like to build for the view.
ETA: So they’re not going to build “temporary housing”. They’re going to build mega mansions.
Ruckus
@Another Scott:
I’d bet that if you wanted the urban dictionary definition of massive fucking asshole, you’d find his picture. Thing is it could be a picture of him at any time of his life. He’s been a massive fucking asshole for at least 71 yrs. I’ll give him the first year, he gets no pass after that.
jl
Horrible. One friend and his family near Chico are packed into their camper van, house probably gone. They are deciding what to do. Might head out of the area since they can flop in the camper long enough until they land with someone who can take them in. He said chance house is left so low, that he’s not going to worry about going back until it’s completely over. And ex co-worker at office up there hasn’t been heard from, people at work are getting worried. I am getting worried.
Also know quite few people down near Thousand Oaks, but the fire isn’t in their areas, yet.
Mary G
Hey Martin, Mimi Walters’ lead has been chopped in half! Now a little under one point.
Mimi Katie Porter
103,975 101,955
50.49% 49,51%
West of the Rockies
We have 5% containment now, that being right alongside Chico. I feel much safer than I did 24 hours ago.
Thanks to those of you who offered comfort yesterday when I logged on here. It was a terrifying day.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: That is true, I remember two years where the LA basin seemed to be ringed with fire. First time I saw on TV a few years before I headed down to UCLA. Second time I saw in person from West LA.
I think main difference is it simultaneous mulitple very bad fires is happening much more frequently, and rapidity of spread making them much more deadly.
Concerning that that news has said there are deaths in Chico fire, but they have never given a count. I wonder why authorities are not releasing the numbers. Maybe because they know there will be many, and don’t want to announce misleadingly low numbers, and will be a while until they know close to final total? I don’t know.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mary G: Looks like Katie may pull out a win, there’s still a lot of votes to count(OC is always slow). I really thought CA-45 and CA-39 were loses.
dlwchico
@Tom Levenson: I live in Chico, right up on the east side. Chico is fine and if your friend was in Chico he should be fine.
Paradise and the ridge up there is pretty much totally destroyed. I have heard an estimate from somebody that drove through the main road that 80% of the town was burned down. I have two close friends who lost their houses. One of them had recently been dropped by her insurance company because the house was in a “high fire danger” area. Not sure what they are going to do.
I have heard they have 10 fatalities so far. If you have ever been to Paradise that is a surprisingly low number. It’s not an easy place to evacuate 20K+ people from.
Right now in Chico the terrible air quality is the biggest problem. I think the fire is unlikely to come into Chico. The air quality is something like 310 right now.
Mike in NC
@Another Scott: After his complete lack of interest in assisting Puerto Rico (but still an A+ response), nothing should surprise us about Fat Bastard’s complete lack of empathy. If it didn’t affect one of his sleazy properties, it didn’t happen.
jl
@dlwchico: Friend in the camper was just west of Paradise. I heard on news that the fire did get into outskirts of east side, but stopped at 99 highway. Was that incorrect?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: Fortunately for the Hill fire that was west of Thousand Oaks and now more southwest is that area burned 5 years ago, so there’s not a lot of fuel. I don’t think the area where the Woolsey fire is burning(it started west of the Valley and south of Simi) has burned in several decades(I think I remember it burning when I was a teen).
FelonyGovt
I live maybe 60 miles down the coast from Malibu and the air quality here is awful to the extent that I’m having breathing issues outdoors. I’m heartbroken and worried, especially for the people in Thousand Oaks who have just been through the shooting.
Mary G
I have taken out the names, but here’s one family that’s evacuated three times in 2018 alone:
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Thanks for info. Knowing multiple freeway routes to every conceivable place, and keeping track of recent wildfires are handy skill sets in Los Angeles. Tracking mudslide history is useful too, if you are near significant slopes.
Cheryl Rofer
The Moar You Know
It’s always like that here. And we always have Santa Anas this time of year. The difference this year, unlike most years, we have had zero rain and are not going to have any rain at all.
West of the Rockies
@dlwchico:
I’ve see your nym and wondered if you were local. We could have a northstate meet up some time when everything calms the hell down.
Cheryl Rofer
gene108
@JPL:
Unless Fox News is covering these fires extensively, he maybe unaware of what is happening.
Ruckus
@jl:
I believe they try to hold down panic as much as possible because one person can stop an evacuation on many of the roads in the hills that have the most fire danger. Also this stuff happens very, very rapidly, over large areas. The regular winds are assisted by the natural drafts of the fire, creating even more unpredictable winds. And the fires sometimes move so fast they will burn ten buildings and standing in the middle of that will be an untouched home. The fire in Santa Rosa last year, the Tubbs fire, did that. The fire moves so fast that sometimes buildings don’t have time to catch on fire. It’s what makes them so difficult to fight, it’s not a solid wall of fire, it’s a zillion walls of fire, that behave unpredictably.
Martin
Ms Martin is gearing up for work. She does appraisals for celebrity estates. Every time fire tears through Malibu or similar communities, she gets a mountain of work to either re-assess spared estates or work with insurers to cover claims.
Mary G
And another district looks like it will flip:
oldgold
@West of the Rockies:
This may convince Jimmy Butler to stay in Minnesota.
Seriously, stay vigilant and safe.
Mary G
@Ruckus: I saw a firefighter in TO on the news earlier who said he wished people would keep their palm trees trimmed – they go up like candles when a lot of dead fronds underneath catch fire, and the burning fronds travel in the wind up to two miles before landing and starting another fire, so it’s unpredictable.
jl
@Mary G: Great. Some good news. Hope it lasts. I have family and friends around there. That district needs better than Denham, who is a complete fraud in the way he presents himself to the district, and has brought a higher (edit: or maybe lower and more digusting even than before) level of local corruption. I think he is very knowing and deliberate fraud because he goes to the trouble of going through the motions of symbolically aligning himself with the so-called moderates, but his actions and votes are hard core reactionary all the time.
I read that in Kansas, even the people who vote for Kobach hate him. I think same is true for Denham, except that it is mix of dislike, contempt and resignation. Only a minority of hard core Trumpsters have any use for the slob.
Martin
@?BillinGlendaleCA: We’re winning both. CA-45 is down to 2,000 vote gap, with ~90K still to count. We’ve been gaining 1,000 votes for around every 5,000 counted. I expect Katie to be ahead by Tuesday. Same with CA-39, the Dem should be ahead by Tuesday. I think we reliably have CA-10 now as well.
CA-50 could get fairly tight when it’s all said and done.
Again to normal people that don’t live in these particular weeds, there are currently 4.7 million votes in CA that have yet to be counted – about 90K per house race. That’s a million more total votes than were cast in GA. We’re miles from certifying these results.
CA is always a bit slow – we’re a very voter friendly state, but there were a pile of new laws passed since 2016 that puts that on steroids. Same day voter registration and a law that requires notifying the voter for every disputed ballot, among others. So this cycle everyone is still working out how to do this efficiently. It’ll get better, but it’ll be at least 2 weeks before we see this really settle out.
germy
thread:
Yarrow
Stay safe everyone.
raven
@dlwchico: One of my best old buddies lives (d) in Paradise.
jl
@Mary G: I did notice that Denham’s lead was never more than barely over 1,000 votes after late Tuesday night. So, I held out some hope things might change late in the vote count. Primary results indicated that local support for Denham was very weak. I should go check, but I don’t think he even squeaked out 40 percent.
raven
@dlwchico: Another lives in Oroville and works at Forebay Aquatic Center.
HumboldtBlue
@Martin:
There are still about 24,000 ballots to be counted in Humboldt alone. We had voter turnout of more than 60 percent.
West of the Rockies
@raven:
Not much left of Paradise. A 6 p.m. (PST) press conference tallied 6,500 homes and 200 businesses destroyed. It is beyond brutal.
raven
@West of the Rockies: I’m reading that, I emailed him but haven’t heard anything (which I know means nothing)
raven
@dlwchico: I just realized his company is actually in Chico. Matson and Isom.
HumboldtBlue
@West of the Rockies:
I just watched some video and went through a photo gallery.
Devastation.
J R in WV
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
55 of 58 years? You youngster, you~!!!~
Let us know when you get actually old…
;-)
amygdala
Here in the People’s Republic of SF, a good 170 miles south of the Paradise Fire, the skies were bordering on apocalyptic much of the day, and the air quality is pretty bad.
The pictures and videos feel like a rerun of last year’s Sonoma fire–entire blocks reduced to ashes, people desperately trying to flee. The death toll is already scary, and it’s hard not to imagine, again like last year, what the fire crews will find in the days and weeks ahead.
Twitter is full of conservatives gloating about what’s happening out here, but there are also people across the state offering up a couch to someone who is displaced or barn or yard for people’s critters, large and small. Have to hope the winds die down and that the fire, utility crews, and such stay safe. We’ll get through this.
sukabi
@JPL: not just him. Pruitt visited a month or so ago and when confronted with the science on climate change having an impact on size and ferocity of the fires told them climate had nothing to do with it, forest management (or lack of) was the cause…
dlwchico
@jl: It did not get into Chico proper. It would have to burn through my house to get to 99 right here and it didn’t do that. Further south it reached 99 and I have heard it jumped the freeway a bit.
I have heard that one home that is right on the edge of Chico got burned, but I don’t know if that is true. Lots of rumors.
If your friend got his camper to Chico he should be fine. A lot of them in the Lowes and Walmart parking lots near my house.
Tom Levenson
@West of the Rockies: Thanks. Have spoken to my friend. He’s got the RV fueled up and loaded, and pointed west. Hoping that it’s not needed, but st least he and his wife are prepared.
dlwchico
@raven: So far 10 fatalities. Odds are your friend made it out of Paradise.
Anybody in Oroville should be fine. They were evacuating people to Oroville.
dlwchico
Map showing what has been burned.
https://i.imgur.com/DAc5uwT.jpg
sukabi
@sukabi: Seen one shithead you’ve seen em all….got wrong shithead, it was Zinke
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/401550-zinke-on-california-fires-this-is-not-a-debate-about-climate-change
Martin
@West of the Rockies: There can’t be much more than 10,000 homes in Paradise given the population.
jl
@dlwchico: He and his family were one of the groups that I heard about on the news that were hunkered down in big parking lots. He was directed to large parking lot out in an open area between Paradise and Chico when the fire swept through Paradise. Not sure why that happened, Maybe authorities thought it was safer for them there than on the road.
He watched his neighborhood burn down in the distance, and he’s telling people almost sure his house is completely gone. Scary to think about.
Cheryl Rofer
J R in WV
Wife and I have talked for years about driving the Pacific Coast highway from San Diego to Washington state.
But now, what time of year could you do that without danger from heavy rain caused landslides, fires, etc? Still beautiful, mostly.
We visited Yellowstone in 1991, not long after some of the park was burned over. There was rich green new growth, deep, with tall burnt tree trunks standing out of the new growth. Most of the part was beautiful, even the parts that had been burnt the year or two before.
But on the coast highway, where would you run to escape these unbelievable fires? We don’t commonly have this kind of ferocious fires here in the east — the only one I recall was the one that overran Gatlinburg TN a few years ago. During a dry spell, also caused by locals setting something on fire, burned much of the town, Dollywood, etc.
NoraLenderbee
@J R in WV: Start in So Cal in spring or early summer. It’s a wonderful trip.
Here in San Jose, the sky is purplish-beige and you can taste as well as smell the air.
Ruckus
@Mary G:
Which is why when the cities trim them, they really trim them. Anything close to dead or falling off, goes. The fronds are pretty good sized and dry as can be so yeah, in a brush fire it’s a lit match which can go anywhere and cause huge additional damage.
Interstadial
@jl: Roads were jammed and traffic was stopped, so hundreds sheltered in place under firefighter supervision.
Genine
The smoke is truly terrible. The smoke in Oakland and San Francisco is worse than it was during the Tubbs fire. I’m sending light to all. Everyone stay safe!