How are our Californians feeling and faring with the North California fires?

I am not directly effected by it, but I know several people who have been.

If it’s anything like the PNW fires were in August/September then I don’t envy those in CA now. Even those of us relatively far from the fires themselves had terrible air quality for quite some time. I wish the best to everyone impacted in CA.

I have had a few friends that live in Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino that have been evacuated. One couple had a place at Silverado Resort, and they think it is okay, but cannot get near it to find out. Another couple left Silverado at 1 a.m. yesterday, and are safe but have not heard about their condo.

The air quality is awful all over, San Francisco smelled like a hickory pit barbecue joint this morning. Right now the sky has an eerie cast to it. I haven’t been able to see ten miles to Mt Diablo since Sunday.

It is so sad.

I got a text from a member here a few hours ago. When she went out to her car after work it was covered in ash. And she is pretty far from the actual fires.

This is pretty bad.

Terrible

My cousin and her family had to evacuate from Santa Rosa last night, they are OK and staying with friends. They don’t know the status of their home.

Also last night, Anaheim Hills (near Disneyland for those of you unfamiliar) is also on fire. The freeway system was choked to an almost stop. I’m about 15 miles from that fire, but it is very ashy and smoky.

My other cousin, the mother of the one in Santa Rosa, and her husband live in Bakersfield, and apparently there is a fire there too.

It’s all very scary. October is always the worst month for CA wildfires. We lived through 2 of the worst wildfires in CA history in 2003, and then again in 2007. A few friends lost their homes.

I’m doing okay physically, but the horrendous extent of all those fires to the north has me anxious and diffusely angry.

Here’s a summary of the North CA fires:

Tubbs Fire in Napa and Sonoma counties: 27,000 acres; 0 percent contained; 571 structures destroyed, including 500 homes. Eleven people have died in the wildfire, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said.

Nuns Fire in Sonoma County: 5,000 acres; 0 percent contained.

Atlas Fire in Napa County: 25,000 acres; 0 percent contained. Two people have died in the fire.

Redwood Fire Complex in Medocino County: 21,000 acres; 0 percent contained. Three people have died in the fire, according to the SF Gate.

Cascade Fire in Yuba County: 11,500 acres; 15 percent contained. One person has died in the fire, the Yuba County Coroner’s Office said.

The reason my anger is diffuse is that according to this source, there’s no known
connection between the blazes, and authorities have not cited a cause for any of them.

One thing that vicariously terrifies me is how the Tubbs fire was able to destroy so many homes. One of my friends, whose brother lives in Forestville near Santa Rosa, said he heard that Tubbs was driven by winds gusting up to 70 MPH.

I feel so lucky that even though I live in a part of So Cal that’s hotter and drier than No Cal, all we have here is the 8,000-acre Canyon 2 Fire. Also, I haven’t smelled or otherwise noticed any smoke where I live in the LA area.

Air quality here has been horrible the past couple of days. I don’t recall in my lifetime so many fires so close to where I live in so short a span of time. 15 fires currently burning all erupted the night of 8th. I doubt they were all started by lightning either.

It’s sad seeing such beautiful terrain burn and incredibly disturbing to see the amount of houses that have been destroyed. These are the most destructive fires we’ve seen in a while and the full scope of the destruction isn’t even known yet.

I wish about 1” of wind-free rain over a 24-hour period, for Nor Cal.

I wish a fiery death or at least life without parole, for any arsonists involved.

Doesn’t Coloma live in Northern California. Has anyone heard how she is doing?

@flutherother Coloma lives in the Sierra foothills, her area has been relatively free of fires this week.

The proximate cause of many of the fires was downed power lines dropping into dry vegetation.

I’m in the South Bay. I’ve been smelling smoke since last evening. The nearest fires are roughly 100 miles to the northeast of me, but the skies have gone hazy with grayish brown smoke and the air is nasty to breathe. Even with the house all closed up, my lungs and sinuses are irritated. I’m worried about my husband, who has COPD.

According to the last report I heard (5 AM, 10/12), 3,500 structures have been destroyed. This firestorm swarm has now caused more destruction than the hellacious 1991 Oakland Hills fire.

@Jeruba @zenvelo @DominicY

Would it be feasible for you to leave for areas with breathable air?

I know I can’t write for anyone but me, but if I was up there I’d be thinking of going to some relatively inexpensive place to recuperate, such as a Motel 6 in Salinas or even, <shudder> FresNO.

You know it’s bad when the ‘No has better air quality than the Bay Area…

Unfortunately it’s not feasible for me to leave right now, but I do spend most of the day inside with filtered air, and I’m youthful and healthy (apparently), so I’m not as at risk as others may be. Still, school is being canceled in some areas due to the air quality and I’m sure people who can are getting away. I’d love to go to Tahoe right now and escape, but alas, I’ve got to stay and work. Today and tomorrow the entire Bay Area is in the “red zone” for air quality (second-worst out of five zones). I hope it improves the day after.

You can see the air quality designation and predictions here: http://www.sparetheair.org/

@Brian1946 The air in the Central Valley (Modesto, Fresno, Bakersfield) is not much better. And I still have to work in San Francisco. I am lucky, though, all I need to really moderate is my outdoor workouts.

Here’s the body of an email I got from the Courage Campaign:

“Evidence is building that the North Bay fires were likely caused by electric company PG&E’s negligence.

Audits show that Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) failed to fulfill its responsibility to cut back trees near power lines—and that downed power lines caused by falling trees likely started the fires that destroyed more than 6,000 homes and businesses and killed 41 people.

PG&E has a history of getting away with shoddy work, putting profits over people, and then passing the costs onto its customers when its carelessness causes damage. But not this time.

We’re going straight to the California Public Utilities Commission to demand that it hold PG&E accountable for the devastation it caused—without passing the cost on to the customer.

PG&E is one of the largest natural gas and electric companies in the U.S., and it provides services to more than 16 million people. The company more than doubled its profits in 2016, to $1.4 billion.

Part of how it makes such profits is by prioritizing money over people’s safety and ignoring essential maintenance. For instance, PG&E is supposed to cut back trees near power lines and make sure the lines can stand up to strong winds, like those that downed lines on the fire began.

And this isn’t the first time PG&E’s negligence has cost people their lives. In 2010, improperly installed PG&E gas lines exploded in San Bruno, killing eight. In 2015, overgrown trees caused a fire in Butte, killing two people and destroying hundreds of homes.

Outrageously, PG&E has passed the cost of the damage caused by their negligence on to their customers, while continuing to rake in skyrocketing profits.

We need to stop PG&E before they try to raise rates yet again to cover the cost of this latest disaster. States all over the country are fighting similar battles. On the East Coast, states from Ohio to West Virginia to North Carolina are fighting to stop Duke Energy from raising rates to cover the cost of cleaning up a coal-ash spill the company caused through negligence. The Sand Diego Gas and Electric Company is trying to hike rates to pay for a fine it received for starting fires in 2007.

We can’t allow PG&E to continue its dangerous precedent of making customers pay for its misdeeds while executives earn millions in bonuses.

We’re driving phone calls, emails, and in-person actions to the California Public Utilities Commission to demand that PG&E be held accountable for the North Bay fires and not be allowed to pass the cost on to customers.”

Just today, The SF Chronicle reports PG&E thinks it may be someone else’s equipment to blame.