August 4, 2015

  • Fires

    One of my readers commented this evening that he was concerned about the fire at Point Concepcion, but had heard that it was nearly contained.  I have not heard of that particular fire.  It is quite possible that there is a fire at Point Concepcion that I would not hear about -- the Point is on base at Vandenberg AFB, and we often don't hear about fires on base.  There has been a public announcement that there are 21 fires burning in the State right now.  CalFire is wondering where that rumor began, since there are 40-60 fire complexes.  Most of them were started by lightning strikes in the last week.  The biggest fire is the Rocky Fire (I've mistakenly been calling it the Lake fire), in the northern end of the Napa Valley near ClearLake, about 100 miles north of San Francisco.  It began as several fires, which have now burned together into one huge fire.  The reports are that this fire is behaving in ways that veteran firefighters have never seen happen before, and it must be VERY scary for people in the area.  Some 1,300 people have been evacuated from their homes.  They are keeping 3,000 firefighters on the fire overnight tonight.

    So far, the fires have mostly occurred in northern California, although there have been several in Southern California.  We are at the very beginning of our fire season, which won't end until we have our first good rain in the fall.  There have been several days of "monsoon flow" weather, with thunder and dry lightning, but little or no rain.  It appears that weather may be shifting at this point, but everybody will continue to be on alert until the fall rains begin, and hope that there will be no major disasters in populated areas.

Comments (14)

  • Hope you have some rain to help with the fires! That's a lot of fires and a lot of manpower needed. :(

    • I don't expect that we'll see much rain until October or November! The manpower for this summer's fires will be colossal -- 3,000 just for the big one that's burning now! The real concern is the lives of the firefighters as well as the lives and homes of those in the way of the fires!

  • Praying you will be safe and that the areas burning will soon be contained. Wish I could send you some of our rain. I keep telling it it would be welcome in CA. :-)

    • Thanks -- I'm in a pretty safe area -- there are fields and a canyon, but they're small and urban and there are fire stations all around! We'll probably see our next rain in October or so!

  • Prayers continue, for all in the path of fire.

  • Fire is a scary thing - almost behaving as a living entity. Praying that no lives or livelihoods are lost!

    • Definitely behaving as a living entity. And this year the behavior patterns are different than what the firefighters know, making it extra difficult.

  • Hi Janet. It is really tough. I have no idea what the Govenor or President can do.

    • Welcome, Frank! I don't think there's anything they can do, other than to fight the fires. I hope you're safe!

  • I am glad to read this report, and know that you are okay.

    • So far, the closest big fire to where I am has been about 40-50 miles away -- the one that burned the cars on the freeway. Hopefully that's as close as they'll get! Meantime, there are little spot fires all over the place, and they seem to be putting them out pretty efficiently!

  • Haven't read anything about the northern CA fires for a few days ~ hoping things are getting better?

    • The big fire in the Napa Valley is still burning, and has been joined by another big one in the area. We are having hot and windy summer weather, and everything looks s if it will explode into flame at any minute! I'm in Santa Barbara this week, and it's even hot here, right by the beach, where the heat is rare.

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