Why aren't people in the California fires getting out earlier?

They cling to the futile hope that the flames will spare them.
But they will turn to cinder like the rest.

For some, it has had to do with taking time to help others. A nurse became trapped after first getting patients safe. She was rescued.
Lots of fires in past have resulted in some homes being saved because the owner stayed to run their garden hose over their property. Those people have been considered lucky, or resourceful. This time it left them dead.
I saw on the news a home completely destroyed, and they found the remains of a garden hose all stretched out.
In some cases, people go to bed in a safe area, and things change dramatically while they sleep.
Some simply have no way.

It’s like what Al Gore said in his film “An Inconvenient Truth” (Or a reasonable substitution) “If you put a frog into cold water, then slowly heat the water to boiling, the frog will sit there, and sit there, and sit there…....... until somebody pulls him out. But if you drop the frog into boiling water, he’ll immediately jump back out!”
People don’t want to leave their home, their castles, their comfort zones, so they hang on, waiting until the last possible moment, hoping for the best, hoping that someone will pull them out before it’s too late.

Some have said they didn’t have enough warning.
I don’t know what they meant. Perhaps they wanted assurances the fire was coming at them.
I saw one lady that was being interviewed that said they passed a woman walking on the side of the road with a baby. I hope they didn’t pick her up because their vehicle was full of people and not because it was full of belongings .

Often, the fire moves faster than you can imagine. The Camp fire moved so quickly that people were trapped before they even knew it was close.

In the Oakland Hills Fire, people died while driving down the narrow windy roads, overtaken by flames.

Paradise CA was destroyed in an hour, the fire came down one side of town and spread to the other side of town almost immediately. The sparks can engulf tinder a half mile away and everything in between goes up at once.

All the homes are burnt & the sky is orange
California burnin on such a…

Oops, too soon

I also heard many people refused to leave the
animals. Its very sad. I saw video of horses running down streets with fleeing cars. I wonder if any jellies are around there. Caravans there I think.

@KNOWITALL He’s not where the fire is. A former Jelly did have to evacuate but is back home now.

So many reasons. A lot are given in above responses. My in-laws were under voluntary evacuations last Friday and Saturday. At one point they sent us a picture with flames coming down the hill that they could see from their front yard. My wife and her sister begged them to leave, but they said they were okay. Turns out they were okay.

You just never know. About 10 years ago my wife and I went to bed with the fire about 60 miles away from us with winds blowing in the opposite direction. We were awakened at dawn by authorities telling us to get out now. We were stuck in a traffic jam and I nearly had a panic attack when the ash and cinders starting falling on our cars. We eventually got out, but we had about 15 minutes of warning. Fire is completely unpredictable. You just never know.

My cousin got out, but her house burned down.

@chyna….that story is what prompted this question. I wondered how they could just drive past a woman with a baby trying to escape.

I messaged Coloma and she pointed out that the fire spreads as fast as the wind blows…80 mph in some cases. If the wind switched in the night, Tinyfaery, and was blowing 80, that’s no time…

Is Coloma in the lines of the fire?

No. But she has been in the past.

So terrible.
When I lived in Reno, we all watched TV coverage of a fire near Carson City. A reporter who was a favorite of myself and my daughter was there with a camera man. A sudden shift of wind and in an instant they were cut off. She told the guy to leave the camera rolling as they got in the van and tried to leave. They were surrounded, and I honestly feared we would see them perish. They drove right through flames, and it wasn’t one little spot. The had to go through one burning patch after another.
They made it out. My daughter and I cried.
Men perished fighting that fickle bitch. Later, they filmed the burned out firetruck the news van had been parked by.

The day I left Reno to live in the Midwest, there was a fire there, and came close enough to evacuate homes within the city. A high school was at risk. The smoke was thick as I said goodbye to friends.
Stupid truck had no radio. I had to check updates with friends when we stopped to eat at a place with wifi.

My heart is heavy, knowing how deeply so many people are being affected.