Some of you may see this on the news...pretty dramatic stuff. Saturday I was in a memorial service for a friend in the town of Healdsburg, just west and over the hill from where this started. By the time we returned home, around 5, a blustry wind came up...with some serious gusts...near 40mph...with no red flag warning given it was unusual...a warm wind out of the northeast. As it turns out, that wind carried the fire from treetop to treetop in a remote residential neighborhood and burned straight at the town of Middletown. The fire went from 50 acres to nearly 50,000 acres in one day. Half of the town is now gone. People sitting in their living rooms had no warning, no call, nothing...one minute they smell smoke...the next minute literally in several cases...the fire was on them. Many barely escaped with their lives....neighborhoods with bikes, cars and rvs left in the driveways...all burned. Fortunately the latest report is of only one fatality. 4 firefighters were burned badly when they were airlifted into an area to save a home and the fire roared over them..they're all stable in the hospital.
This is the forth fire in as many weeks in Lake county to our north and just over a couple ridges. Sunday morning there was ash fallout as far as 100 miles south of the fire, we got our dose and we're maybe 15 miles as the crow flies..or as the fire burns. Moisture content this am is good and there is a light drizzle falling but the fire is 0% contained and continues to burn in all directions. nearly 2000 firefighters on site and more coming.
My wife and I were planning and preparing to go on our annual fall camping trip...until this settles I think we may stay and cut more grass.
Everything is crispy dry...leaves crumble into tiny pieces, grass breaks, trees are dying due to lack of water....it's not a scene you want for a wild fire. Then have a wind kick up...brutal...My son has a couple friends who have lost homes near the epicenter of the fire...my honda generator was up there giving them power to construct a new deck on a new home...
We all have incidents of loss near us these days...hurricanes, floods, tornadoes...typically we have earthquakes....this year we have fires..and alot of them. We're packing up this morning...maybe by good fortune we'll be ready to leave quickly....but not for camping...
​They've lost over 400 homes so far and 100's more outbuildings, barns and vehicles...and that's an early count....over 10,000 evacuees in shelters.
More to follow.......you'll probably see it on the news
This is the forth fire in as many weeks in Lake county to our north and just over a couple ridges. Sunday morning there was ash fallout as far as 100 miles south of the fire, we got our dose and we're maybe 15 miles as the crow flies..or as the fire burns. Moisture content this am is good and there is a light drizzle falling but the fire is 0% contained and continues to burn in all directions. nearly 2000 firefighters on site and more coming.
My wife and I were planning and preparing to go on our annual fall camping trip...until this settles I think we may stay and cut more grass.
Everything is crispy dry...leaves crumble into tiny pieces, grass breaks, trees are dying due to lack of water....it's not a scene you want for a wild fire. Then have a wind kick up...brutal...My son has a couple friends who have lost homes near the epicenter of the fire...my honda generator was up there giving them power to construct a new deck on a new home...
We all have incidents of loss near us these days...hurricanes, floods, tornadoes...typically we have earthquakes....this year we have fires..and alot of them. We're packing up this morning...maybe by good fortune we'll be ready to leave quickly....but not for camping...
​They've lost over 400 homes so far and 100's more outbuildings, barns and vehicles...and that's an early count....over 10,000 evacuees in shelters.
More to follow.......you'll probably see it on the news
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