California Wildfires 2020

DNA Solves
DNA Solves
DNA Solves

New Posts

Last edited:
Thanks for the reports on these new fires @margarita25. It’s unbelievable how fast these fires can outrun firefighters. I hope everyone stays out of harm’s way.

Wind and heat have started up again tonight here in Southern Oregon. I’m bracing myself for more fires, but hoping for the best.
 
Adding my thanks to yours, Lilibet!

Margarita, thank you
a076.gif
so much!
 
Today we drove through Talent OR for the first time since the Almeda fire in Ashland-Talent-Phoenix earlier this month. Unbelievable! We drove by one friend’s homesite in a development that was leveled. Their house is gone and one of their cars was sitting burned out in the driveway. They weren’t home, so lost everything. All that was left of some homes was the twisted and burned garage door or metal lawn furniture. We saw the rubble of a friend’s home in another development that was destroyed...just flattened. The fire hopped around town, leaving some businesses standing across a driveway from others that were burned. It’s hard to comprehend how hot and fast the fire burned through these towns.

Today is another hot windy day just like that one, so I’m sure everyone has been on edge like we are.
 
Lilibet said:
Today we drove through Talent OR for the first time since the Almeda fire in Ashland-Talent-Phoenix earlier this month. Unbelievable! We drove by one friend’s homesite in a development that was leveled. Their house is gone and one of their cars was sitting burned out in the driveway. They weren’t home, so lost everything. All that was left of some homes was the twisted and burned garage door or metal lawn furniture. We saw the rubble of a friend’s home in another development that was destroyed...just flattened. The fire hopped around town, leaving some businesses standing across a driveway from others that were burned. It’s hard to comprehend how hot and fast the fire burned through these towns.

Today is another hot windy day just like that one, so I’m sure everyone has been on edge like we are.
Click to expand...

It must be very hard to see this devastation, especially since you knew people who lived in these homesites. I can't imagine...

This article from Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) discusses the fire situation in western Oregon.
https://www.opb.org/article/2020/09/29/weekends-rains-are-buying-time-before-oregon-wildfires-can-pick-up-again/
 
Lilibet said:
Thanks for the reports on these new fires @margarita25. It’s unbelievable how fast these fires can outrun firefighters. I hope everyone stays out of harm’s way.

Wind and heat have started up again tonight here in Southern Oregon. I’m bracing myself for more fires, but hoping for the best.
Click to expand...

@Lilibet Im sorry to hear you are close to the danger. Prayers for you and any others who are close to the danger.

The footage of the fires looks awful. It is so depressing to see all the carnage.

I never fully understood why California and places like Oregon and Washington get these fires until I visited California for a few weeks many years ago.

Two things I experienced in California helped me to understand why they happen in that state. Beautiful sunny days with no rain at all hardly, and the large wind farms that I saw with those large windmills for generating electricity that were located on some beautiful rolling hills that I had never seen before. It was quite a sight and until you actually drive through or near a wind farm like that you dont realize how large those windmill things are.

I think in certain parts of California I think they call the winds the "the Santa Anna winds". So the winds combined with the lack of any significant rain has a lot to do with some of the California fires.

With the fires in other nearby states like Oregon, I am pretty sure the large mountain ranges with all the trees adds fuel to keep them going once they start by lightning or some other source.

Its all so scary and I am so sorry for anyone who is affected. I will keep everyone out west in my prayers.
 
Hatfield said:
I think in certain parts of California I think they call the winds the "the Santa Anna winds". So the winds combined with the lack of any significant rain has a lot to do with some of the California fires.

With the fires in other nearby states like Oregon, I am pretty sure the large mountain ranges with all the trees adds fuel to keep them going once they start by lightning or some other source.
Click to expand...

Here in the Rogue Valley that stretches from Grants Pass Oregon in the west to Ashland in the east, we call those hot, dry, strong winds from the east “Ashlander” winds, our equivalent of Santa Ana winds. They don’t happen all the time, and neither do Santa Anas but when they do, watch out! This is a dry part of Oregon compared to areas at the north end of the state and we really need rain. But even rainy areas are having fires.

You’re right about the mountain ranges and trees adding fuel. Ashland is at the base of the Siskiyou mountains and the area just above town is heavily wooded. You couldn’t pay me to live up there, but people do. I’ve always expected a fire to start there and endanger the city. The city wisely spends the winter clearing and burning brush and other fuel in the forest for just this reason. I never expected a fire to start in a low lying neighborhood and be driven close to ten miles through the valley by the wind. Just unbelievable. Thank you for your prayers.
 
Here is a recent WaPo article showing how hopeless firefighters felt trying to fight the Almeda Fire in my area of southern Oregon. The 12 minute video is chilling. There was no stopping it. Late in the video you will see mention of trying to keep the fire from crossing Talent Avenue and destroying the rest of the town. A friend who lives there was told that a helicopter hovered above the fire, using the wind of its roters to hold the fire back!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/10/20/oregon-almeda-fire/?arc404=true
 
 
Last edited:
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

DNASolves

Who is Escambia County John Doe (1989)?

Members online

... and 147 more.
Total: 1,585 (members: 148, guests: 1,437)

Online statistics

Members online
148
Guests online
1,437
Total visitors
1,585
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
599,274
Messages
18,093,640
Members
230,836
Latest member
a_renee
Back
Top