Fires in Northern California

[Artie]

I just wanted to send my prayers and best wishes to everyone affected by the fires in Northern California.
From what I can see, Santa Rosa was hit particularly hard. The destruction looks devastating.
Having spent time there visiting and riding it's hard to digest these images.
Again prayers and best wishes to everyone affected.

[joosttx]

We are 35-ish miles south of the fires. Yesterday it was raining ashes and today the smoke is intense. Right now, the evacution centers are turning away volunteers and goods as there has been an out pouring of help. 15 dead with a 150 missing. The impact could be huge after everything is said and done.

[Matthew Strongin]

Heartbreaking. There's been so much destruction around the world lately it's really hard to stomach yet another catastrophe. I really feel for the people out there. Fire is scary, fast, and leaves such devastation in its wake. The photos I've seen from Santa Rosa are mind boggling.

[j44ke]

Hard to comprehend really. The speed of these fires and the way they consume everything, including oxygen, is incredible. Plus 50mph winds. Must be terrifying on the ground. All strength to the firefighting crews.

[joosttx]

obvisously not the most intense pictures but here is the view from our house this morning and what it is typically. The smoke was intense.

[Artie]

Thanks for moving this admins. sorry about that.

[TMB]

I live in southern BC. We seem to have become a place where we deal with fire and potential fire every year now.

In 2003 we had a firestorm sweep through and we (my family) were evacuated from our home 3 times. The first two times we made moves to save "things", as much as possible of photos, documents, etc.

The third time we were ordered out, my wife and I stood in the driveway and shrugged our shoulders and drove away.

What I took from that experience was that I needed to be ready to go the next time. I decided that the only things worth saving were in fact certain family memories and the important documents. So I started to digitize our lives. I went through the filing cabinets and scanned everything, then got rid o the filing cabinets. When mail comes into the house now, it gets scanned and then the paper goes away.

Photos are digital and are stored on hard drives, etc.

This year when the evacuation alerts came ( we were never ordered out) I was thankful that the only things I had to "secure" were my laptop and a hard drive. And my family.

Everything else is just stuff.

And yes to the comment above, when these fires are moving, the speed of them is almost impossible to comprehend.

Just get prepared because there is nothing else you can do.

[Lionel]

This seems totally out of control up there. What a terrible situation. Can't believe it.

[j44ke]

Fire officials are worried now that some of the fires are going to merge.

California Fires Burn ‘Faster Than Firefighters Can Run’ - The New York Times

[davids]

• A college housemate has lost his house and probably his cats - he & his husband scrambled out in the early morning hours and have no idea what is left.
• The family of one of my daughter's closest friends is sleeping in the father's office. So far their house is standing.
• My web developers are based in Santa Rosa. One has lost a car, and her in-laws' entire neighborhood was incinerated.

This drone footage is shocking.

[GrantM]

Levi Leipheimer's house burned.

Levi Leipheimer loses home in California fires | VeloNews.com

-g

[Blue Jays]

The remarkable speed at which these fires move is beyond belief.
One can literally be fine and then with a switch in wind direction...flames lapping at the doorstep.
Absolutely frightening and tragic.

[j44ke]

WashPo says 400 reported missing. People getting separated from each other and ending up in different shelters is possible, but 400 people is a lot.

[joosttx]

WashPo says 400 reported missing. People getting separated from each other and ending up in different shelters is possible, but 400 people is a lot.

One of the issues with the large number of missing is there is no way of quickly knowing if someone who is missing has been reported missing two or more times. They suspect a number of people missing have been report multiple times which is increasing the total Thus far, all of the fatalities have been of people 65+ years. Trying to id the passed is proving to be very difficult.