Canyon fire in Orange County California

[1ijac]

Thanks for the kind thoughts.  We were lucky and they stopped the fire moving in our direction about a mile away and people are returning after the evacuation.  As of last night, I think 9 or 10 homes were lost and the Fire Authority did a fantastic job keeping the fire from spreading into more homes.  We had everything important packed in the vehicles just in case.  My wife was amazing at what she accomplished in preparation.  While I was chatting with a neighbor drinking a beer and watching the fire come closer, she was packing the SUVs hosing down the house and property.  Thank god she took a liking to me 42 years ago.  Someone has to be the responsible one.     The northern wine country fire looked terrible on the news.  I feel for anyone who loses property or loved ones to these wild fires.  It is so devastating.  My thoughts go out to those affected.  Fugi, Sorry to hear about your cousin's loss. I just heard my wife's uncle lost all his acreage of mature grape vines at his winery in Napa.  Again, thanks for the kind words.

one-eye 

   

[Maverick]

This year has been a super bad year for wild fires. Montana really got hammered and most folks don't know about it as the hurricanes got the lions share of coverage. Best wishes for all who were threatened or hurt by this years fires.

[MiloMorai]

North of the 48th also had its fair share of fires this year especially in BC.

[Mister Fork]

North of the 48th also had its fair share of fires this year especially in BC.

Yep. Most of western Canada was in a smoke filled haze with poor air quality for 2 months solid - up north here we tend to let the fires burn to help cleanse the landscape as firefighting has now been focused on protecting assets and letting Mother Nature do her work. Before, we'd hop on the fire and try to beat it down - that only built up the tinder on the forest floor.

Happy to hear One-Eye that all is well with your house. I have friends that lost everything in the fire last year in the Fort McMurray fire. The company that I worked for flew out tens of thousands of people in 24 hours with two airlines who provided 150 flights out of our facility base plant airport.

[JunkyII]

I'm about 50 minutes away in Concord...the amount of smoke down here is nuts. Hope you up north there are doing ok.

[Airhead]

I'm in Ukiah- We're pretty rural out here, and there was little or no warning- it's one AM, and all of a sudden your house is on fire. Some people had to flee on foot the fires came so quickly and destroyed cars, others managed to drive through the flames to escape, and others didn't make it- a friend lost his grandson, and his daughter, son in law and grand daughter are in the hospital with severe burns and the grand daughter may not make it. Unfortunately there'll be others who didn't make it out because it's mostly dirt roads and mountainous terrain.

I have no idea how many of my friends are homeless- our house is open for showers, naps and decompression, and it's been a busy place. I'm on the Board for our local Humane Society, and we almost lost our shelter and had to evacuate about 150 dogs and cats.

Because we're so rural we don't get the press the population centers get, but so many people have lost everything it's heartbreaking.

Today we'll look for stray animals that survived the fire, maybe drop bottled waters off for the first responders- the devastation up here is indescribable and so many people have lost everything.

Pray for NCal- we need it. 

[Meatwad]

Heartbreaking