I am taking a break from the Hurricanes, I have decided to write this blog about the wildfires in the Western United States. With so much taking place in the way of natural disasters it is very difficult to justify moving away from the Hurricanes, but the wildfires burning are a huge disaster as well. My plan was when I began to write to make a list of the current fires that are burning, with a few details, then reality struck. There are 54 major fires burning today September 11, 2017, too many to comment on all of them. I live 150 miles from the Detwiler fire in Mariposa County just West of Yosemite, our air is filled with smoke. My brother spent last week in Colorado Springs, the smoke from the fires was so bad he had trouble breathing. On his way home (he lives in Minnesota) an hour away from where he was staying was flooded by Hurricane Harvey's rain. Wildfires can and do erupt anywhere, unplanned and unwanted once they start they are capable of consuming thousands of square acres, adding up to square miles. Placing many responders lives in imminent danger and destroying homes and businesses. They burn forest, prairie, swamps, and grasslands. They are most dangerous in what is called the Urban Interface, (
link) the areas where the wilds intersect with the suburbs. In the charred path, watersheds take many years to recover leaving the areas prone to flooding and mudslides. Fires break out on the perimeters of fires due to red hot embers taking flight, capable of flying a mile or more, the firefighters can be blindsided by one of these fires. They start by rock-slides, gunfire, hot campfires, vehicle exhaust systems, discarded cigarettes, lightning or arson. They occur mainly during the warm dry summer months, high winds make bone dry grasses burn violently and freely.
If you are placed on a wild fire watch:
1) Listen to your radio emergency notices and to stay up to date on the condition and travel of the fire.
2) Know your evacuation route, this should be in your evacuation plan (
link) if you don't have one, you should. Sit down with the family and make one today.
3) Keep your car ready to go, place a 72 hour supply of food and water in the trunk, either construct your own or purchase one from a retailer. FEMA recommends a 72-hour kit, I suggest a 7-day kit. Keep the gas tank full, digest all of the information you can before making any decisions.
4) Have clothes in your vehicles, shoes, hats and warm clothing, we don't know how long we may be displaced.
5) Charge your cell phone and other electronic gear every night in a spot that has easy access. Have a way to charge your equipment after the event begins, there are many products available, some will even jump start your car.
6) Do not assume someone has called 911 to report a fire, call them and report the fire, all they will do if it has already been reported is tell you it has been reported.
7) If you are notified to evacuate, move rapidly and leave immediately, make sure to tell someone where you are going.
8) Have an out of the area contact number, every family member must have it, call the number and report your condition, call again after a few hours.
It's a bad situation in the west today with all of the fires burning, that is no secret, but as the summer stretches on the threat will lessen. Then big heavy rainfall all winter, encouraging vegetation to grow in leaps and bounds, then drying out in May. The fires begin once more in late May or early June. If we could stop the arsons we would be a step ahead of the curve.
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This is accurate as of September 11, 2017. The biggest fires that are burning today, there are many other small ones
caused by embers and other sources. |
Many times I have wished the heavy rains in the Southeast would visit the West for a while during the summer, a quick douse of water would certainly help out. We generally have winds, with the fires creating winds of their own as well it presents an impossible condition for the firefighters, but they always seem to succeed in containing the fires. This should serve to catch us up with the conditions out West. As I write this we are experiencing heavy rainfall in the Sierra's, hopefully it will put out the fires in Yosemite and West of Sacramento. There have been 15-20 lightning strikes as the rain clouds move in, (just now actually) it is relatively odd for us to have rainfall this time of year however it is not unheard of. We will soon hear of fires being put out and new ones starting from the lightning, it sure is a violent cycle. I watched from my back porch last year a fire starting on Mount Diablo, at a distance of about 20 miles to my west. By the time I called 911, it was July 2016, the fire had tripled in size, no one had called, she asked me where I was, the dispatcher was surprised when I told her. So call if in dought, I've also called about fires on the island across the river from me, they are normally controlled burns, they still thank me for calling, we can't be too careful.
Hurricanes, Wildfires, Earthquakes and Floods, we are being challenged almost to the maximum this year, we will persevere, and we will come out on the other side intact. We never know when we will be impacted by a Catastrophic event, we can prepare as best we can, as we have learned from the Hurricanes, purchase an emergency kit for each member of the family. Purchase at least 4 cases of water and reserve them for an emergency.
Four Wild Fires have started in the past 5 minutes from the lightning storm that has just moved in, it's raining hard in San Francisco, we're in for more fires tonight.
Thanks for reading, leave a comment or story.
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