Posted on 11/08/2018 9:50:17 PM PST by kingu
just wow. It’s been a rough day in California - disaster north disaster south. Paradise was an old town - lots of antique shops if I’m thinking of the right place.
I had to evacuate due to the Woolsey fire. Man this sucks. Hope I have a house tomorrow but the family is safe. I take hikes back in the hills where the fire is about to reach. It’s so dry back there.
It is very, very bad. But some good news. I was able to get ahold of WB6IAG and K6PBT. They are alive and relatively well. Evacuated.
Ron and jhis wife got stuck in Paradise and had to shelter in a building as fires burned all around. Gas Stations blew up...fire fighters were calling for more water as I heard on the frequencies. I didn’t know that Ron was still stuck up there. I talked to him a little after 8 this morning. He was gathering the critters up. (as well as radios to I imagine) He said the fire was a mile away...a few minutes later it was a block away. It was estimated at one point the fire was consuming 80 footballs fields per minute. Or...it traveled some 20 miles in 12 hours.
As of this moment buses are getting ready to evacuate the community of Forest Ranch...
As for K6PBT...I sent an email and an hour ago he wrote back. Doing well and in Chico. These are elderly hams and mobility is an issue. Paradise had a lot of elderly living there. Lots...
The whole town is gone...literally. devastated....gone. a whole town. 25k+ residents. gone....
The fire is moving into the eastern parts of Chico at this moment and south towards Oroville, (my location.) We should be safe through the night. East parts of Chico not so safe. They are evacuating now.
Its bizarre. The photos are stunning. Imagine a glowing red black night of hell, except its eleven in the morning elsewhere. Surreal.
Been scanning all the frequencies. There have been brave acts by firefighters. People fleeing for their lives from cars stuck on escape routes. There hasn’t been real talk of deaths...but we know that there are. How many? Don’t know. Have heard that some people may have perished in their cars. Don’t know if that is true. How many old people have died in their homes confused with power out and no way to communicate to the outside world?
PG and E cut power. They played it safe. In some areas they cut power prior to the fire to prevent swinging power lines from arcing. Winds have been bad.
Those that wonder if it was terrorism, homeless, etc...don’t know the area and are barking up the wrong tree. How the fire started out on Camp Creek Road has yet to be determined. Maybe it was the winds blowing at 50 mph down the Feather River Canyon that had something to do with it.
Early this morning when I looked out the window the “thunderhead” plumes of some were quite visibile over the tree line. The fire was said to be 2K acres then. By early afternoon it was 18K acres. More than 20K now. It moved fast. Absolutely no containment as of yet.
Horses are running wild down roadways looking for safety. There was no time to load them up and take them somewhere. People left with what was on their backs. They opened the gates and hoped for the best. What were they supposed to do?
No hotel rooms for 75 miles around.
Paradise gone...Magalia next...Chico threatened, Forest Ranch on the list.
And that is the report as of this moment.
Am I just dense? When I was a Boy Scout we built a fire when we went camping and we called that a campfire. We didn’t ever call a forest fire the Camp Fire. There is no town named Camp. There is no mountain range named Camp. Why are they calling this the Camp Fire?
In many cases, trying to call to a home was to no avail, as power was cut. Cell Service very, very spotty. Lost my main internet for example as the line ran through Paradise for some reason. Using a hotspot that is very spotty. I imagine most of the missing people is just a temporary issue...until they get their name on the Red Cross list. Some people have evacuated further south. way south to Sacramento, Woodland and perhaps beyond.
Because the fire stated at Camp Creek Road and Pulga along the Feather River...that is why it is called the Camp Fire.
OK, thanks. So, it wasn't a campfire that was left unattended then. An intelligent person might have called it the Camp Creek Fire.
I have been praying they will be found.
Yes, many were probably lacking a way to communicate, or on the road or something.
CDF likes simple one word names for the fires...They name ‘em. You and I don’t.
Would not surprise me if all these fires were the work of terrorists.
We currently have significant smoke here in Walnut Creek.
Sounds like it’s Past Time to put these City/Town Councils and “homeowner associations” OFFICE HOLDERS under the rocks they came from and put some Normal Folks in place so there can be so common sense measures put in place.
Prayers for All involved.
Evidently, the fire started on Camp Creek Road. Hence the name.
Cannot believe in one afternoon, the town of Paradise is gone.
Those dead trees needed to be cut down immediately. This is a manmade natural disaster, the ecoterrorists are too blame.
I don’t know the geography. How does this affect Cal State Chico? A few thousand people attend college there, right?
When humidity is down near 5% in lots of beetle kill pines, just about anything that emits a spark or glow—no matter how tiny—can start a wildfire. Lightning, generator exhausts or chimney flues without spark arrestors, a bullet hitting a grassy spot, a spark from a cookout,...
And before anyone goes crazy on “a bullet hitting a grassy spot,” I was in the Guard and put out a few fires on ranges.
And BTW, I lived near quite a few wildfires. There were almost always assumptions and rumors about arson and homeless people, but most of the fires near me were started by lightning (not many people around). Many others were accidents involving established residents with controlled burns (with permits), campfires, smoking, cooking out, machines emitting sparks and the like. The only fire that I remember involving arson was the Hayman Fire, started by a government employee who was hating on her ex.
In California? I don’t know. The population per square mile is huge there, with many people of different cultures.
Doubtful it was lightening—we get lightening only very rarely here in No CA—maybe once a year or even less. . .
This is tragedy.
Not only because of the lives uprooted and home/property destroyed.
But also because the most beautiful piece of countryside in America is burned to the ground.
They named the town Paradise for a reason.
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