Yes, the fires are devastating for California. Wish everyone to stay safe.

It was an amazing lightening show. We're safe from the fires, but have to keep our windows closed due to the smoke all around. Golf has been my only joy since Covid, but it seems I might not be playing due to the unhealthy air quality. All we need now is the Big One.

^^^^^ We're in the same situation as Caflowerluver, but we are on the south side of Monterey Bay. The sky has been a thick yellow smoke cloud all day and now, of course, nothing visible in the night sky. Light ash covers everything outside; I'll have to wash down the front steps and garden tomorrow. The heat wave was miserable and with no AC there was no escaping it! On one side of the house we can smell the smoke, on the other not so much. This is the price of living in a dry, virtually rainless area in the hot summer!

Sable

This is a very sad situation. I feel so bad for all the people and wildlife in this horrible fire. Can 2020 get any worse?

! am not in a fire zone at this time but do have a friend who is ready to evacuate if need be in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The ranch I normally ride at was like a ghost town when I first arrived there a bit early today. I found out they had to go to Napa and another town to evacuate herds kept in those areas. The air quality is awful and my truck was covered with light ash this morning. No AC here either so windows are open and a there is a bit of a burning odor coming in.

The thunderstorm on Sunday had me really worried. I was up early Sunday morning texting to find out if the horses keep in some of the higher pens where I ride were OK. I wasn't worried about fire at the time but afraid they might spook or injure themselves with the storm being so close and no shelter for them. I went in a bit later. No problems. No nervous horses. They did amazingly great. There was a small fire nearby but it was contained.

My heart just aches. Looking at the fire maps, I know so many people who must be evacuated already in several of the fires. I tried to test a couple, haven't heard back yet.

"California Wildfires" is becoming 'expected news'. How many years has this been going on? New areas burned each time? Do people rebuild and wait for the next fire/mudslide? How is this affordable...or permitted?

Friends left Prescott, AZ after a fire decimated their luxury housing development *in a pine forest*. What trees were left would soon die of pine bark beetle. No forest. No wildlife. A few random houses left. I expect people have gone back in and it's all starting over again. This is a higher price than I'm willing to pay for 'temporary housing'.

We are already making a plan on what to take if we are evacuated. I want to take all the photos, but DH says there won't be enough room even if we do take 2 vehicles. After 43 years we have several huge rubbermade containers. He is even willing to leave behind his three guitars and banjo, which totally surprised me. We could make room, he really loves those instruments. It is a hard decision on what to take and what to leave behind. Going to be a lot of heated discussions today.

Those of you have gone through a disaster and were evacuated, can you give me some helpful advice.

It looks like a bad fire season this year, based on this map.

People rebuild next to rivers that flood on a regular basis, and that I have a hard time understanding. Fires are less predictable than floods, but they do seem to be getting worse.

I've never lived in an area that burned or flooded, except for San Francisco, which burned in 1906. Chicago burned in 1871 and they rebuilt that. Rome and London also have great fires in their history.

If I were evacuating, I would take paintings that cannot be replaced.

People have stopped rebuilding along the Mississippi and many small rivers. I recall that one whole town moved to higher ground. They'd been rebuilding for a century. This only came about when there was a change in government-funded flood insurance. Just how many times should you be able to rebuild on someone else's money... when it's a given that the house will not survive the next incident? I fault permitting in known fire/flood hazard areas...and where there's no fire protection service for miles.

Lake Michigan is reaching an all time high. Lakefront property is collapsing into the water. It's hardly a new problem! Forty years ago my DM and I visited a friend on the other side of the lake near St. Joseph, MI. Her beautiful home's 100-foot deep frontage had shrunk so much that in five years the house would be gone. Sad, but it had been easy to foresee. You'd have to be able to accept these places as "Temporary Housing".

I hope the fires will be under control soon, no more people will be evacuated. Prayers sent from an ice hole up north.

Caflower, can you dig in your backyard? I am wondering if you could store family photos and other valuables in a fire proof safe and bury it in ground.

It's quite smoky. For now at least, the fires in the greater Bay Area and south are in mostly uninhabited or lightly inhabited areas. Larger residential areas not yet threatened.

It's a kind thought to offer prayers for those so inclined but what would really help would be having more fire fighters available. They're struggling with many different lightning-strike fires and manpower resources are spread too thin. In these cases, I know that crews are dispatched from other areas and others states and hopefully that's happening and will help.

Though yesterday's air was very smoky, this morning it's not too bad in my area. I even took a good walk this morning without having my chest tighten. I cannot fathom how the firefighters do their job in this weather and am very grateful to them.

UPDATE: 64,000 people evacuated in Santa Cruz and San Mateo Counties. We keep expecting to get the evacuation call as the fires keeps growing with zero containment.

california wildfires article

One problem for firefighters is all the released fire crew inmates are not available to work the fires.

I always said I'd want to be in fire camp if I was incarcerated, in this heat, I don't know?

Caflower--maybe you'd better leave, just to be on the safe side? The smoke smell and haze in SJ is much stronger today, though I'm not sure from which fire site it's coming--we're book-ended.

I find it absolutely amazing that my Californian friends are so calm about fire. I was in a house fire 45 years ago. Jumped from a second story window, had a lot of my hair burned off and the house was reduced to ash and rubble. I remember that for a few years afterward, any time I smelled smoke, even passing someone on the street with a cigarette, I was instantly hyper-alert and edgy. But my friends in California don't seem to freak out about smelling smoke and barely seem to consider the fire a threat unless it's close enough to see.

Well we Californians are used to fire season and earthquakes. We freak out at the thought of hurricanes and tornadoes. Everyone fears the unknown and people tend to adjust to mother nature in their respective areas.

Most of my friends ,even those in evacuation areas themselves, are more concerned about livestock and wildlife right now.

My DD just escaped dying in an apartment fire 18 years ago yesterday. But she is sharing evacuation procedures and livestock rescue resources on her Facebook page. Working on being helpful rather than stressing out.

I hope everyone is safe. I think when you live in an area prone to natural disasters you get used to it. A year or more ago there was a tsunami alert for Hilo Hawaii. Have a friend who lives there and I messaged her, telling her I hope she was in a safe place. She sent me back a picture of her and her friends having a meal in a restaurant very close to the bay.

"Well we Californians are used to fire season and earthquakes. We freak
out at the thought of hurricanes and tornadoes. Everyone fears the
unknown and people tend to adjust to mother nature in their respective
areas."

I agree with this.

Heavily wooded areas more often than not are away from the more populated regions. There are some exceptions. Just as those who live near undeveloped open areas or parklands anywhere should know to expect more critters of various kinds, people who live near or in heavily wooded areas in our arid state know or should know to expect a fire risk. That doesn't make it better or worse for anyone but it is what it is.

jupidupli, I can't imagine that having to evacuate an area due to a fire risk would compare in any way to being in a burning building. Other than fire storms driven by stong winds as was experienced recently (not now), and even then to some extent, there's usually enough warning to evacuate and avoid personal jeopardy. Not unlike the numbskulls who hold hurricane parties or fail to leave areas when there's a flood warning, oftentimes loss of life in fires comes from people thinking they can/should stay to protect their property and then find the situation overwhelms them and they can't escape.

I lived through a fire in 1957 when I was 5 years old and have never forgotten it. In my mind I can still see the house burning to the ground and my mother crying as clear as if it happened yesterday and not 63 years ago. We lived way out in the country on 40 acres and by the time the fire engine arrived from another town our house was a total loss. We lost everything we owned except the clothes we were wearing.

I am hyper alert when I smell smoke or there is a fire. In the 43 years we have lived in CA it has never been this bad this close to us.

That's so sad, Caflower. Hope it won't happen again. Can you rent an RV if you have to escape? It would be cheaper than hotel. RV sales went up crazy. RV rentals went up 650%. It must be tough financially for the families who have to face wild fires every year. Hope everyone has fire insurance, and insured for replacement value.

caflowerluver...We were evacuated for the Waldo Canyon fire in 2012. I took clothes, shoes & photo albums. Everything was covered by insurance including the hotel...and temporary housing. The problem is, most people don't own multiple homes and there was a shortage of ones to rent or buy. People did end up living in their motorhomes. It took many up to three years to rebuild, since there was a shortage of builders. Also, insurance companies want a list of everything you owned & the model number of electronics, sizes/photos of oriental rugs. Appraisals for art or jewelry. It's good to keep an inventory and photo disc in a bank deposit box.

I hope you don't need my advice. I hope you never have to live through a complete burn in these days and times. Insurance companies are a nightmare to deal with. Be safe. Be well.

I always mention to people who are not in the path of danger presently, that they should scan and archive their photos. Save them in the cloud or to an external media they can take them with them. It is heartbreaking to lose photos. It is a good past-time scanning and enjoying your photos. I did photo restoration work for folks after super-storm Sandy and it was so sad to hear the stories that this was their only photo of a Grandparent or their wedding.

" In the 43 years we have lived in CA it has never been this bad this close to us."

Best wishes, I hope you and your family remain out of danger.

Just out of curiosity, I remember the so-called Lexington Reservoir Fire that went up the canyon that Hwy 17 is in and jumped over Summit Rd in many spots. Is your home anywhere near that area? Maybe you've been through this before, that would be unfortunate.

I can't imagine experiencing something like that. I really feel for the people and animals. Those fire brigades from what I heard are working over 72 hours battling these fires. Canada and as far away as Australia are sending "firemen" into help out and to hopefully give some of the hard working firemen some rest.

Elmer, I think she's down in the Aptos/Soquel area. I am watching our old neighborhood near Carmel Valley Village being evacuated. And I think of all the time I spent in Big Basin or the Little Basin area, and in the beached north of Santa Cruz. I feel like all my ghosts of memories are in danger.

sushipup1 - you are right we were not near the Lexington Reservoir Fire. And I think this one is bigger and is definitely a lot closer. It depends on the wind direction and speed and if the fog comes in overnight if we end up leaving.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and well wishes.

Sorry caflower, I don't know where you live and you certainly do.

I just remember I had a work colleague at the time of that fire who lived on the ocean side of Summit Rd, just to the west but not far from where Soquel-San Jose road intersects it for the run down to Soquel and the ocean. His neighbor's house was partially burned but saved by firefighters. I think of that area as above Soquel and without looking at a map, closer to Soquel and Aptos than is the current fire that I believe to be in Davenport and Bonny Doon but I'll defer to you. That was what my comment was based on.

callower......put your photos in zip-lock bags now when DH is not around. Start putting them in the car under the seats or tuck them in places nothing else will fit. Trust me, DH will be glad you did after the fact and you will, too. Prayers that you and everyone else stays safe.

We never evacuated for hurricanes for several reasons. We had livestock that needed attending to. We had a shrimp boat....my husband's only means of making a living....that had to be looked after. Also, this fact is never mentioned, but we would not put our lives in the hands of those who deemed evacuation necessary, and for example, Hurricane Rita, which I think was 2005. It was right after Hurricane Katrina that hit New Orleans. People freaked out....expecting the same. Many people who were first timers dealing with hurricanes.

Houston more or less emptied out. The officials had only one side of the freeways open. No gas stations open. And while everyone had gassed up.....sitting in stopped traffic for hours upon hours in August heat, cars ran out of gas, some overheated....and over 100 people died trying to leave. There was no need for Houston to evacuate like it did. People on the coast, yes, but most people in Houston, which does flood easily, would have been safe.

And the hurricane didn't hit here....it went in to the east. They can turn at the last minute.

We had no damage from Hurricane Harvey itself. No water on our property. However after it went inland, it turned and came back.

It stalled out over this area. Some places got as much as 60 inches of rain. No high winds...like a hurricane, but steady, unrelenting rain. That is why flooding was so bad. People flooded who lived no where near a bayou.

Do I wish we had evacuated? No. It would have been next to impossible to get back in to see after anything. I had moved my horses and they were in 5' of water even so. They all would have drowned. I lost a horse and 2 donkeys.

Not every "numbskull" has a hurricane party. That would be mostly people who don't have much to lose in the first place. It is not always as simple as it may look, to those looking on with no experience with hurricanes.

Georgysmom2 - thanks for the advice. We are going to make room.

Of all the things lost in my childhood fire, the ones my mom missed the most were the photographs especially the really old ones.

We will evacuate if we have to, but waiting till the last minute because things can change in a heartbeat. And there is the problem of looters. There has been several arrests. A fireman's truck, up at the fire, was broken into, his wallet stolen and bank account cleaned out. What kind of scum does that?

Nicole - pardon my late reply. I am sorry you went through that. Thanks for the advice. I will take pictures of everything, like furniture, that we are not taking with us. I will download them to my external hard drive that we are taking with us along with my laptop. We have an inventory list for all our things, but it needs to be updated. So many things we need to do that we put off for years.

Elizabeth - you are right about scanning. I have thought about it for years but put it off thinking I had lots of time. Things can change in a blink of an eye.

"we would not put our lives in the hands of those who deemed evacuation necessary,"

We have public safety/first responder forces to protect the public. Part of the reason for evacuation orders is to help them do their jobs without having to deal with civilian traffic in transportation routes in the affected areas. Having them around impedes their work and sometimes distracts their time because of having to rescue people who didn't obey the evac order.

I'm not sure what is the best word to use to describe this attitude or outlook but as a start I find it shocking and as far away from "thoughtful" as it could be. If you don't like the emergency services in your area, work to change them. But it isn't the prerogative of any individual citizen to ignore them, that endangers them and others.

If you think it was smart to direct many, many thousands of people onto a freeway, and have them locked in place for hours on end in August heat, while many died....that's you, Elmer. I don't care that you think it is not "thoughtful" for me to say this. It is the truth. As usual, your opinion means nothing to me.

Sounds like some would stay in the lane they are in while driving rather than move over to let emergency vehicles go through.

cauliflower remember the areas around where your spare tire is located if your vehicles is so equipped. Having them packed and ready to go can save your life when you take a few minutes to grab things to save. Neighbor could have lost her life when her house caught on fire with that last minute grab and pack. As it was her mind started functioning and got out just before it engulfed the area her bedroom was in. As seen in the news stories last year of the people who waited to the last minute to pack and leave then found they were driving into the fire waiting is not a good thing to do.

What I think is smart to do is to have experienced and informed government agencies give advice and direction to protect the public. To be so callous and flippant about ignoring a lawful order to evacuate from agencies whose mission it is to protect the public is astonishing. Do you drive through stop signs and red lights too because you don't like being told what to do, when you have a different opinion?

Not that "hypocrisy" is an infrequently used word these days, but how is it that people who have so-called "law and order" political views so frequently suggest disobeying orders from agencies whose job it is to provide law and order? Is it the imaginary deep state (what a horrid and ignorant term) that is part of a "conspiracy"?