We're Dying Here in California

The fires are so bad, and it doesn't help that it's pretty windy.

We had YUGE amount of rain that helped with the drought, then we had several heatwaves that dried up the lands. Now we're suffering with fires all across the bay and northern California.

The air is bad! I mean really bad. I'm hacking and coughing, have a headache, and my room smells like smoke. People are coming into the hospital with respiratory problems. Lots of burn victims being sent here as well in Santa Clara. I've got an N95 mask and will be wearing it around campus tomorrow.

It's just creeping closer and closer to my area in San Jose. Already red flag warnings in my surrounding area up the hills.

Edit: Fortunately, just smoke being the main issue.

If you haven't heard....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/10/11/killer-wildfires-continue-to-scorch-californias-wine-country-with-21-dead-and-hundreds-missing/

Looks like a nuclear fallout.

I feel like 1,500 nuclear detonations in your own backyard within the last century will screw you up like that...

3 cheers for the end of the world?

Yea looks bad :( ...get stuff ready incase you gotta evacuate.

Sorry to see people lose their homes. But, I suspect arsonists coupled with the windy weather. It's not the first time.

Yeah it's awful up here, I'm about 5 minutes outside Santa Rosa which is one of the hot spots and there are regular evacuations. There's ash constantly falling out of the sky. I'm just waiting for a random ember to fall on the field behind my house and start another fire. No one showed up to work on Monday, many of my coworkers lost their homes. I have a few guests staying at mine as a result. It's pretty tragic, to be honest.

Anyone who happens to be in the area of Sonoma County should have this map loaded at all times:

http://www.fire.ca.gov/current_incidents/?page=2

@Gaming-Planet you are fine down in San Jose as far as I can tell so far.

Oh yeah, have had my bags packed since Monday morning 3 AM. Took out a few hundreds bucks cash, got a few cases of water, and I top off my gas tank every day.

You know when I say things like this it feels dramatic, but then when you think about it--the hurricanes, the drought, the fires, the record heat, and so forth--you really have to wonder.

Stay safe mrmonkey :(

Oh boo hoo, we get fires here every single summer. Every Australian on GS would agree.

We get fires every summer here, too, they just usually don't kill 23 people (and counting) in two days (and counting).

Yep, schools are closed due to air quality, masks are optional, but i think i'm about to get one. Every day its worse, can't even see the water up by my house. These fires are out of control. Please let it rain, we need the rain !

Only you, can prevent Forest Fires-Smokey.

The scary thing is that they are saying this might have been a man made fire. On the news they saw someone running at 4 am, and they think he might have started a fire in a part of this. I want to hear more on this, and they caught the guy. Very strange. They also said something about some of those transformers blowing up, and that it could only be man made or something like that on the news clip that i watched.

Real life Fallout 4,need to have some underground bunkers

Air quality is better today. Most of the bad air is in San Francisco.

https://airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.local_city&cityid=317

@mrbojangles25:

Ye, we're doing good. Air is much better today.

Actually its in Contra Costa County. As it got near Fairfield this morning, its all coming down the Co Co County Coast. Schools in Contra costa closed till further notice.

Yes. I was speaking of on behalf of the bay area in my regional area. North and East Bay have it way worse.

I'm actually surprised I haven't been pulled to help evacuate/assist other local counties.

Not a fan of all the damn smoke. Seeing the pictures though of the devastation, looks post-apocalyptic.

Wear an N95 mask if you are concerned. The basic cloth medical masks are better than nothing, but they will not really protect you from much (they just block direct spray and stuff, like from coughing and blood spray). You need to get the proper N95 type to do any good, however.

A friend of mine is seriously ill with chest pains right now, and his asthmatic daughter is hospitalized at the moment (thankfully they are far enough from any fires that they don't need to evacuate).

As of the time I'm writing this (3 PM 10/12/17) it's sunny out, clear sky, no smoke smell...last I check the wind was blow NNW so the Bay Area, Marin, and part of Sonoma should be OK from smoke. That can change in minutes, though.

It's a beautiful day out where I'm at. Just try'n to put some positive in the discussion.

Is it really that bad?

Probably because they don't know when to evacuate.

Arsonists. Bored firefighters. I've heard stories they are one in the same.

Yes. Not being contained because of windy weather, low humidity, and embers. Also lots of dry land.

I think I'd be taking a road trip. Stay safe.

I try not to make fun of Arizona firefighters. After all, the 19 firefighters who died (battling brush fires) as a group in 2013 were from this state.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarnell_Hill_Fire

Plus, back in the 90's, I provided weather support to firefighters doing the same thing in Central California. Very dangerous and serious business.

Incidentally, I was in the area during the 1991 Oakland Hills Firestorm. Nasty.

a bit further north in BC, we also had a really bad summer for fires. its seemingly over now, but we had weeks of smoke here in Vancouver earlier this summer, with most of the fires being inland.

according to some research, in BC we had about 900k hectares of land burned this summer, or about 2.25 million acres. the worst fire season in recorded history for our province.

by comparison, the 200k acres burnt in California seems pretty minor, with the major difference being that California is much more heavily populated, and it sounds like the fires spread incredibly quickly so there wasn't time to use fire-retardants to save towns. Many homes were lost in BC this summer, but no deaths to my knowledge.

Yup, here is the most recent update as of 7:30 this morning.

Tens of thousands of acres lost, thousands of homes lost, neighborhoods and businesses lost, schools burnt down, dozens of lives lost, not to mention all the injuries and illness from burns and smoke inhalation.

Firefighters are doing their best, but you really don't "put out" fires like this, you just try to contain them and minimize the damage. A lot of people are complaining about them "letting houses burn down" but honestly it's either that or the whole town. They are doing their best, working insane hours, I mean really these people are god damn heroes if you have an opportunity to donate to a California firefighter fund please do so they need any help.

I'm heading out to an evacuation shelter later today with a bunch of food from my house and to see if they can use any of my time.

Gotta love the dick measuring contests when tragedy strikes...

You guys are real men, real alpha males. Bet you go out and wrestle polar bears and 'roos

Downed power lines. There was a pretty bad wind storm here that night and they said some power lines blew down.

Napa is now surrounded by fires on both east and west side.

@bmanva said:

Dying of this smoke, maybe.

Just wait about a year or two or so. Lung cancer rates gonna shoot up the roof.

Yeah wine prices will go up. Both Napa and Sonoma hit............

No, I know when to evacuate, and have an escape plan and backup.

Not being prepared is your own fault, if its hurricane, typhoon, bushfire, tornado etc season, then you should be prepared, you don't wait for someone to tell, you go on intuition and leave.

dick measuring? I was pointing out that the California fires were probably a worse tragedy, despite their covering a much smaller area than what we experienced this summer.

how about this, you probably weren't even aware of the fact that we had a pretty horrific summer for fires that displaced tens of thousands of people (with many still under evacuation orders) just a long days drive north of you guys until I talked about it. in some ways it is part of the same tragedy since the same heat waves/air masses that dried up California also influenced the BC fires. what does that say about you?