Rolling Western U.S. Is On Fire / Wildfires Thread

scary stuff in northern california right now. we're approaching the peak of it but wildfire season gets longer every year.

still two months or so to go before the rains hit Oregon. yeah, scary shit

this wildfire smoke map / forecast is wild:

https://airquality.weather.gov/sectors/conus.php

that interface is wonky but the "vertical smoke integration" forecast seems to show smoke drifting all the way to the lower mississippi valley.

miraculously, we have not gotten serious smoke in Eugene yet. last year was much worse, but I think it's just pure chance (and weather patterns) that we aren't totally inundated at this point.

The #CarrFire that is burning through Redding, CA has now destroyed nearly 1,000 homes.

It's still just 20% contained and has burned an area *three times the size of San Francisco*.

Six of the 20 most destructive fires in California history have happened in the past 10 months. https://t.co/BcK4gNmnPX

— Eric Holthaus (@EricHolthaus) July 30, 2018

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DjZpEKYUYAII-qS.jpg:large

Was in Ashland, OR last week, which is about two hours north, and the smoke was so bad is was classified as "hazardous." Lots of people wearing masks, or at least staying indoors. Related, we were in Santa Rosa, too, which was hit super hard last year, but aside form a few "thank you" monuments to firefighters I never would have guessed.

from a friend, and I totally buy this theory"

[Now these developers are starting arson fires in Cali to force people to flee north where these prices are “normal”!

Sixteen thousand rental units in Portland are sitting empty

http://www.registerguard.com/news/20180820/wildfire-smoke-to-degrade-lane-countys-air-quality-to-unhealthy-levels

Seattle:

https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/NASA-Vancouver-Fire-thumbnail-620x467.jpg

Missouri man flies to California, sets 13 wildfires, then tries to fly home, cops say

https://www.kansascity.com/latest-news/s6tqdm/picture235504772/alternates/FREE_768/Screen%20Shot%202019-09-26%20at%2011.44.07%20A_fitted.jpeg

After he was arrested, Graham told investigators he and his wife had planned to drive along Calaveras Road near the reservoir together before her death in 2018, according to the news outlet. A report by investigators states: “Because she passed away and could not be with him, it made him emotional, starting the fires.”

The blackouts, which were projected to begin early Wednesday just after midnight, were likely to affect parts of San Jose, Oakland and Berkeley but not San Francisco or Sacramento, PG&E said. https://t.co/myow89C8eu

— Breaking News (@BreakingNews) October 8, 2019

"Can't blame us for fires if we shut off the power grid"
Roll-Safe-tapping-finger-to-head.jpg

PGE recently spent $79 million on lobbying, got $1 billion in tax rebates, made a profit of $4.8 billion and hiked executive pay 94% https://t.co/ELHZLLlKn2

— reclaim UC (@reclaimuc) October 9, 2019

Saddleridge fire being investigated as caused by sparking SCE electrical tower despite residential outages.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-10-13/saddleridge-fire-electrical-tower-investigated-possible-ignition-point

This is normal right?

Black smoke and fire from Nustar Energy refinery pic.twitter.com/nuuCOuiVS9

— KTVU (@KTVU) October 15, 2019

I guess this isn't technically a wildfire but still (wait for it...):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u4BeyqyP8o

I have to say, between the fires and now smoke from a burning refinery, this ad is in pretty poor taste for Californians. #smokeandmirrors#banSUVs https://t.co/RrLBRrM9Ow

— Dr Kristina Hill 🏳️‍🌈 (@kzhill) October 15, 2019

There are approximately 42 fire units at Nu Star incident from agencies around the Bay including- Contra Costa County Fire, Crockett Fire, Rodeo-Hercules Fire, Pinole Fire, Richmond Fire, CAL FIRE and the East Bay Regional Park District and overhead from the East Bay IMT.

— Con Fire PIO (@ContraCostaFire) October 16, 2019

Interstate-80 is the major conduit from the SF Bay Area to Sacramento & beyond...

https://i.imgur.com/jNYX0hs.png

...and is forecasted to be closed for another 6+ hours.

More PG&E power outages coming over the next few days, some could last as long as 48 hours.

Outages already reported in Northern Sonoma County.

The wind woke me up early. Reminded me of how it was the night of the Tubbs fire. First thing I did when I woke up was check to see if there was a fire and wasn’t too surprised.

possibly no bueno with the Getty Fire in L.A., w/the strongest Santa Anas of the year supposedly arriving tonight. the air quality seems to be okay around the city, i assume the winds are blowing the smoke out to the ocean.

there are a dozen or so people on my FB marking themselves "safe" from this fire despite most living in idk Highland Park or Silver Lake or East Hollywood.

haha i assume it's to ward off calls or messages from family who live out of the area?

I heard some terrifying dystopian references (2nd-hand w/o source) about people trapped in their "smart" homes as flames approached, because the power outage meant the "smart" locks couldn't be opened, and the internet was down so they couldn't reach anyone for help?

any source or link for that wld be appreciated

I would think any door would have to have a failsafe way to open from the inside, for a house fire, etc.

I would think any door would have to have a failsafe way to open from the inside, for a house fire, etc.

that's a pretty non-contestable requirement of CA Fire Code for buildings

and we all know how much rich techbro assholes feel about public safety regulations

Cue Silicon Valley Jared and the driverless car scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UBdrMTxsvs

if you die in a fire because of your "smarthome" maybe you... aren't that smart

"Open the pod doors HAL"

SF is on fire and TIME is on it (view quickly before it is deleted):

As fires continue to ravage different parts of California, watch as firefighters face massive flames in San Francisco pic.twitter.com/lFjNOQiBqV

— TIME (@TIME) October 29, 2019

lol

The Zack House by Craig Elwood burned by the Getty fire in Los Angeles.

https://www.facebook.com/KCMODERN/photos/pcb.2525595454199945/2525593230866834/?type=3&theater

xp RIP Time tweet

the reagan library is now threatened by the blazes

bump

CalFire admits in presser this morning that they have NO resources to fight this. Like, NONE. Guess why? Bc the prison populations, who have for decades been California’s primary firefighter hand-crews on wildfires, are too sick with Covid to go. https://t.co/ZZKIpsN5lc

— RH Herron/Rachael Herron (@RachaelHerron) August 19, 2020

well, not exactly NONE. but yeah, that is bleak. $2 to $5 a fucking day for the work, too, which probably makes it the highest paid position available for them

it would be disgusting even if they weren't exposing themselves to immediate and long term danger for that wage. absolutely unconscionable.

https://earther.gizmodo.com/the-climate-danger-of-kamala-harris-prison-labor-legac-1844712734 this suggests it's $5/hour? not that it makes a difference. (n.b. in spite of myself i don't place much of the blame for this on kamala herself, article doesn't do a great job of explaining how the AG's office got to the point of filing that. however, it's not justifiable.)

Anyone know the likelihood of Santa Cruz city having to evacuate? My sister lives there, and this is cranking up her nervousness...

(caveat that i'm just some guy, not a firefighter) It's not too close yet but I'd be concerned about the cluster that just broke out south of Henry Cowell State Park (https://www.esri.com/en-us/disaster-response/disasters/wildfires) . CalFire's general policy is to greatly favor protecting residential areas over parks so I wouldn't be surprised if they're already doing controlled burns around UC Santa Cruz.

xp: She should be fine if she's in town. If she's up the coast or in the hills off Hwy 9 she's probably already evac'd.

I don’t really want to reveal where I live (not Santa Cruz) but um I have a bag packed. 😬

DJI: this account has all the latest information

https://twitter.com/CALFIRECZU/

Right now the Eaton Fire is 27% contained, the Palisades Fire is 11% contained. Unless I’m mistaken the other big fires this week have been gotten under control. But as nickn noted we’re supposed to get more big winds this week so who knows what tomorrow will bring.

yeah it does seem like the past 24 hours have seen some good firefighting. they just downgraded northeast brentwood, where the getty museum is, from an order to a warning. and I’m back at my apartment temporarily getting ready for work tonight and can’t even see the smoke from our rooftop any more

I watched this live:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq700dkP4h0

LA county gets a tax extension from the IRS … not like income taxes are at the front of yr minds, but … you can put off thinking about them for an extra 6 months

the crazy thing about that escape video i posted is that not only was their home spared, but it seems like based upon where they were located (approx the blue circle), their entire immediate neighborhood (Midlothian) was spared. the darker red areas were all burned. the two families we know both lived in the area where you see Mountlowe. that's almost all of Altadena.

https://i.imgur.com/1YNaNBH.png

New one in Ventura, hopefully won't spread:

#autoincident; #VCFD along with Ventura City Fire and Oxnard Fire Are on scene of a brush fire in the river bottom off North Ventura Blvd in Ventura. The fire is currently at 5 acres in medium fuels with a moderate rate of spread. Approximately 75 firefighters are on scene… pic.twitter.com/9Lj7GZzh1r

— VCFD PIO (@VCFD_PIO) January 14, 2025

I'm watching on channel 9. It’s in a river bed and a remote area

Watching the water drops

It's pretty much out

he crazy thing about that escape video i posted is that not only was their home spared, but it seems like based upon where they were located (approx the blue circle), their entire immediate neighborhood (Midlothian) was spared. the darker red areas were all burned. the two families we know both lived in the area where you see Mountlowe. that's almost all of Altadena.

We are south and west of that circle by like two blocks. No power, gas or potable water, but the house is still there.

Glad your friends place is alright. We know a lot of folks in the Mountlowe area whose homes are just gone.

Sorry, I think I was a bit murky in my posting there, unfortunately, both families we know in Mountlowe lost their houses and everything in them.

The city has returned to some sense of eerie normalcy, which feels particularly surreal. Where I’m sitting right now I’m looking at the hill the Palisades fire had been creeping over and knowing what’s on the other side…

I think one aspect to this is a lot of people are going to leave the city for good. And Altadena was an area where I know so many friends, or friends of friends, who moved there because they were priced out of some of the east side communities that were suddenly desirable 10 to 15 years ago. it was the home of a lot of members of the local creative community, not just Hollywood but a bunch of musicians and artists. But Hollywood too. I really don’t know what many of them are going to do next, some of them just simply aren’t in a position to be able to get another home. and knowing that Los Angeles is a city where your happiness might be dependent upon your immediate community, since it’s such a spread out city and your friends live in another area code you're rarely going to see, I can tell you that it’s really heartbreaking to know that basically you have these two entire communities that don’t exist anymore and you won’t be able to re-create. all of these beautiful old homes are gone, and you’ll never have your neighbors back again, and all the new construction will be some boxy bullshit or new farmhouse style monstrosities. The charm is gonna be gone. And you know not to mention the toxicity of the areas that burned up, I really don’t know enough about that sort of thing to determine how long it would take for someone to be able to live in those areas, but it seems like it might be awhile.

I’m also on a text chain with a bunch of other friends who are working in Hollywood, and they are all sort of over it here at this point. This feels like the nail in the coffin for them, based on what they’re saying. And they weren’t in areas that were hit directly, I think it’s just a sense of exhaustion with the cost of living, the fact that the industry locally had already been in a downturn post-pandemic, and what the climate future of Los Angeles will be, and the knowledge that where many of them live are areas that could suffer the same fate if the conditions are right for it. I mean, this could have happened in areas of Los Feliz or Silver Lake, the foothills of Tarzana, the Valley side of Topanga Canyon, etc. and buying a house for an exorbitant amount of money, that might not be insured, a house that anywhere else in the country might be worth less than half or a third of what you pay here… that’s not necessarily going to appeal to people as much let’s say.

I’m really not sure what we’re going to do, personally. I think it’s quite likely that once we’re done with high school, we are out.

Yeah, I know some ppl in the affected areas whose houses are miraculously still standing but it’s possible the smoke damage and other conditions have rendered their houses uninhabitable

These types of stories are also tragic and breaks my heart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdM9Iz57lvw

I work with a couple of people who live in ALD-MENDOCINO - one guy's house had a broken window but is otherwise OK, the other's house was completely destroyed.

So far I know three people who lost everything: that guy, the owner of me & Ms. T's fave bakery, a photographer friend (and hardcore surfer) who had a cool tiny house in Malibu that she watched burn down from the UK. Ms. T's brother knows ten folks who all lost houses.

Compounding on what omar said, there's a similar feeling in the Pasadena JPL CalTech aerospace startup community too - they're all "do we need to be here?"

Meet the new Four Horsemen: Mike Davis, Marc Reisner, John McPhee and Death

We have a house inspection tomorrow to see what needs to be done for us to move back in - apart from gas and electric being turned back on, and the water being deemed potable for more than a few days.

I love LA. After more than a decade and a half, I'm at the point where I feel like I can move around most parts of the city with relative familiarity and comfort. It is more my home than anywhere else I've ever lived.

Altadena was always a funky foothill town with a great diverse group of people who just got along. Nights at the Rancho, the 1881, Farnsworth Park, taco stands on Washington, talking shit out front of the laundromat, everyone rocking new Dodgers hats twice within five years, quiet chilly Saturday mornings, knowing that any party you go to has at least five musicians five rocket scientists, and five tv/movie folks, and that could be a total of seven people, coyotes stopping in the middle of a crosswalk on a green light and everyone being like "Well, I guess we aren't making this light," blue street signs, Mission Wine & Spirits, July 4th fireworks on the municipal golf course, Everest Burgers...

I hope it comes back in some form of unincorporated LA, unplanned, organically grown community. The time we've lived there, Altadena has really felt like home.

I really home the inspection goes well and we can move back in soon. I'm ready to be back in my community.

wishing you the best of luck!

we are packing up and heading back to westwood today. so thankful the worst of the predictions the past couple of days have not come to pass

best wishes B.L.A.M.

there's still an evac warning zone touching the NW UCLA campus but i imagine i'll be back there next week. it does seem like the worst of the destruction is behind us but it's going to take years to recover from all this.

Rooting for you B.L.A.M., as someone who loves LA from afar.

Fingers crossed B.L.A.M.

https://www.reddit.com/r/LosAngeles/comments/1i36ixm/after_the_fires_bidding_wars_and_cutthroat_demand/

so are the fires still consuming structures? Or just scrub land which is probably a good thing to have happen in January

i think it's pretty much scrub land at this point. but still ongoing -- i have a friend who lives a three miles south of Ventura Blvd and who texted this morning to say her subdivision was very "smoky" and people were on edge. it's much more controlled, no one is in immediate danger, and yet the reminders remain.

also i don't trust the AQI as a measurement of the air actually being safe to breathe, i'm wearing a mask if i'm outside for any extended period of time (which i'm choosing not to be for now...) it would be nice to get a bit of rain to finish all this off but we haven't had one of those since....march?

no rain at all for the foreseeable future, depressingly

the eaton fire appears to be about 2/3 contained at least

Still unnerving to see my house in every "burned area" "not burned area" graphic map, satellite photo, etc.

It's cloudy out right now, seems to be trapping smoke - definitely notice the smell outside.

High Wind Warning
Severity: Severe
Significant threat to life or property
Weather Event Onset
8:00 AM (PST), January 20
Description
* WHAT...***POWERFUL DAMAGING WINDS EXPECTED!*** For the mountains and foothills, northeast winds increasing to 35 to 50 mph with widespread damaging gusts of 60 to 80 mph expected. Isolated gusts 80 to 100 mph expected in most wind-prone mountain locations, such as the San Gabriels, Santa Susanas, western Santa Monicas, and southern Ventura mountains adjacent to the Highway 126 corridor. For the coasts and valleys, northeast to east winds increasing to 25 to 40 mph with damaging gusts of 50 to 70 mph, strongest along the Highway 118, 126, and 210 corridors.

* WHERE...A portion of southwest California.

* WHEN...From 8 AM Monday to 2 PM PST Tuesday.

* IMPACTS...Damaging winds could blow down trees and power lines. Widespread power outages are possible. Travel will be difficult, especially for high profile vehicles.

Hang in there everyone

sigh

Article about the guy from Sonoma that built Watch Duty. I wish the app wasn't so necessary.

https://www.marinij.com/2025/01/15/watch-duty-app-california-wildfires/

I'm one of the co-founders of that app (although I stepped away after the first fire season cuz I needed to make money.)

ILX saving humanity once more.

Wow Lucas, thank you. Great to hear about people putting their tech skills to build something positive for the community.

I thought this long IG slide story on "fire amnesia" was pretty illuminating:

https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17857716315281975/

we got another one near Santa Clarita -- the Hughes fire, 3400 acres already.

smoke is coming in heavy over the west san fernando valley

Not again!

jeez this one got big fast

They closed down the 5 freeway but it looks like it will be reopened soon.

Just turned on the local news and it looks like the 405 is on fire.

A new 10-acre fire, the Sepulveda Fire.

As the Hughes fire surpasses 10,000 acres.

had to rush home from work to wake up my fiancé, who wasn’t answering the phone. the sepulveda fire is less than a mile north of us, and we could see some of the flames from our roof. we’re packed and ready, but thankfully its looking like its been pretty well contained already.

good luck, kev

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/did-a-private-equity-fire-truck-roll

61-track charity compilation for fire relief out today:
https://superbloomabenefitforfirereliefinlosangeles.bandcamp.com/album/super-bloom-a-benefit-for-fire-relief-in-los-angeles

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/did-a-private-equity-fire-truck-roll🕸

A colleague said it rained on Sunday?

Hope y'all get more of that instead of the 70-80F and gale force winds.

I heard from my friend in Century City that she got rain.

it rained a bit on saturday night and then on and off all day on sunday, with the occasional brief heavy downpour. the three big fires are all now almost completely contained.