Posted on 11/12/2018 3:22:28 PM PST by Freedom'sWorthIt
PARADISE, Calif. — The dead were found in burned-out cars, in the smoldering ruins of their homes, or next to their vehicles, apparently overcome by smoke and flames before they could jump in behind the wheel and escape. In some cases, there were only charred fragments of bone, so small that coroner's investigators used a wire basket to sift and sort them.
At least 29 people were confirmed dead in the wildfire that turned the Northern California town of Paradise and outlying areas into hell on earth, equaling the deadliest blaze in state history, and the search for bodies continued Monday.
(Excerpt) Read more at wral.com ...
I don’t resent wealthy people.
Hopefully the Reagan museum will be spared.
from what I understand the fires progressed too rapidly...for many to get out in time.
The winds are still very bad according to this article. Very tragic.
Dear Lord! Help them!
We get the same thing up here. Cal Fire cannot go to the store in Middletown in uniform because people are angry they did not save their homes 3 years ago.
People do not get it, you can have all the manpower and every piece of equipment in the world but if that wind is blowing right and it is single digit humidity, it’s done. Those cars you see upside down in the road did not blow up. Exploding cars are a rarity. Generally speaking, the wind in these fires is strong enough to flip vehicles.
I perspire a lot, soaking my clothes, but when I ma on one of these fires, I am dry, my perspiration evaporating as fast as it comes out. I let 3 dry chemical extinguishers go on a corner of a barn that had just started; it did nothing to slow it. The barn was white with chemical and it was burning.
On top of that, people build like idiots. Looking at the satellite and the images on the news, I did not see one structure in Paradise that was defensible.. If you have a wooden deck, standard vents, a wood pile within 100 feet of a structure, palm trees, wood chip landscaping, wooden fences up to your home, leaves in the gutters or valleys, landscaping tight up against the house it is a loser and the crews will pass it up for one they can defend and you cannot blame them; it is their lives.
Add to it that a flame cast from 2 foot tall grass on a back fire I saw lit cast a 14 foot flame. I saw 3 foot high juniper bushes cast a 130 foot flame. At its peak, the Camp Fire was consuming 80 football fields a minute. You are not saving any structures in that and you are dang lucky if you save yourself.
It's always a mystery. I suspect it's probably that people see the fire five or ten miles away and think they have a safe buffer zone. But the Camp Fire in Paradise was consuming 70 football fields every minute! That is almost impossible to comprehend. People also underestimate the strength of the winds. Watch the videos and you see tornado-strength winds roaring through the forests spreading the flames. Burning embers (often burnt leaves) can be blown miles ahead of the fire, so the effective speed of spread is extremely fast.
“Hopefully the Reagan museum will be spared.”
From 2002-2010, our house bordered on to the Reagan Library property. In 2003, we were within five minutes of evacuating because of a fire. The Reagan Library itself was between us and the fire, and they went into overdrive to squelch it. There are historical documents stored there, and Air Force One had just been moved there — still outside, before the pavilion was built.
I have some pretty scary pics of that day. I’ve been through earthquakes in AK and CA, tornadoes in TN, and hurricanes in FL. Fire is the most terrifying.
No doubt in my mind that fire is the absolute worst of all disasters. My heart breaks for those who were lost and the families remaining. I have a great fear of fire. That’s why I try to be good. I wouldn’t like Hell.
I believe it was Bret Baier that reported the death count 31 with over 200 missing....on his show this evening.
Terrible.
OMG. I spent a lot if time up there as my grandparents did move there. Fortunately no tragedies occurred to them. It was in my late teens and twenties some 40 years. I didn’t understand the hazard then. God bless.
The last rash of wildfires in CA was caused by poorly maintained lines and high winds.
42 now confirmed dead.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/trump-oks-major-disaster-declaration-for-california-wildfires
Not silver but a tin alloy used to mate body components, but yes I can picture it looking like silver. I've done body work on my cars and used a simple propane torch to melt the alloy and flow it into cans to collect it. Old cars used lead but now there are lead substitutes used. The stuff melts at a relatively low temperature and flows like water. Horrifying pictures showing just the steel body of cars remaining after the fire, all other components burned away or melted off.
OH NO!
And several hundred still missing and unaccounted for?
What a terrible day/night!
“Is there no Fire Marshal or governmental authority tasked with disaster prevention?”
Oh there is, but their powers are limited compared to the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA), and California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA).
Both those agencies rule with an iron fist, and prohibit land owners from clearing out dead and diseased trees as well as undergrowth even if it means healthier forests. Protection of termites, fire ants, and other pests are above all else.
A fire gets big enough it creates it’s own weather patterns making fires highly unpredictable.
It’s also the aluminum used in parts of the vehicle.
When the current generation of the Ford Super Duty was testing, one caught fire.
All that was left was the frame, axles, and firewall sitting atop a silver looking blob (body work is all aluminum)
Most of the state and county offiials are tasked with wildfire promotion. The way they do it is by prohibiting burns on safe days. That applies to prescriptive and naturally-started fires. If there is not enough wind to carry away the smoke, the fire has to be put out (or not started). That means land managers including federal have to burn on marginally unsafe days, so they are reluctant to do so.
Many minor fires were put out earlier in the summer. One cost is simple to understand: large catastrophic uncontrollable fires. But there is another effect of putting out minor fires, CalFire steals resources from controlled burns to fight minor fires. When they should be burning more unsafe areas, they are putting out fires in safe areas..
The federal government has understood the error of putting out small fires for decades. California will never learn that lesson. They will blame something or someone else.
Yes, but it is worse than those two. Watershed regulations prevent a lot of mechanical clearing. And there's CARB. CARB and their flunkies in each county have blood on their hands. CARB regulations are fully implemented in Butte county which has over 100,000 acres burning or burned. Their regulation only allows burning in 6000 acres out of a county of over 1 million acres.
Isn't the current fire illegal? Sure is. Tell that to the fire. But landowners including federal were unable to prevent it because they could not do controlled burns on more than 6000 acres.
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