Mal4? by Niki2

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Mal4?

POSTED BY: NIKI2
UPDATED: Wednesday, July 11, 2012 07:25
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Tuesday, July 10, 2012 7:22 AM

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

How's Colorado doing? I admit I change the channels the minute they say "Colorado wildfires", I just can't listen to it, but I'd like to hear from you, given you're on the spot and the media (as I learned from our Loma Prieta 'quake) only likes to show the dramatic stuff, which makes it seem worse than it is. I'm not sure how they could do that with your fires, as it's hard to think of them being "worse" than much of anything, but I wonder about it every day and it's been on my mind, so I'm asking you.

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Tuesday, July 10, 2012 7:37 AM

BYTEMITE

I've seen her around. I haven't heard about new wildfires though.

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Tuesday, July 10, 2012 7:43 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

I'm looking for info on the existing wildfires, i.e., containment, what she knows from where she is, etc. The only thing I've picked up (despite trying to stay ignorant) is that one of the big ones started next to a hiking trail. And we know what THAT probably means!

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Tuesday, July 10, 2012 9:45 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

I hope she's okay...I've noticed she hasn't posted in recent days. Damn.

Well, what I found indicates that the weather has changed and given the firefighters a break...less heat, more humidity apparently

But ours have just begun:

Quote:
But a new blaze near Redding, Calif., was causing problems early Friday, just hours after it was spotted and quickly grew to 1,200 acres, or about 2 square miles. Authorities say the fire is threatening dozens of homes and has forced evacuations.

That's just Northeat of us, and an area which regularly goes up in smoke. Damn.

Apparently some of the fires in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Montana are getting tackled, thanx to the change in weather, but they've still got a long ways to go. Hope Mal4 pops in fairly soon, I'm worried about her.

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Tuesday, July 10, 2012 10:12 AM

YINYANG

You were busy trying to get yourself lit on fire. It happens.

I'm not Mal4Prez, but I can help you out with some info anyway.

The fire that may have started near the hiking trail is the Waldo Canyon fire, the one down in Colorado Springs that destroyed almost 350 homes and sparked the big "wildfires and politics" thread. It's currently reported as 98% contained, and the fact that they're still investigating the cause does seem to suggest arson. Especially since they figured out how the High Park fire (in northern CO) started within a few days (caused by lightning, currently 100% contained, 259 homes lost). There's been no further reported deaths in either of those fires.

And yeah, the weather got cooler and wetter, but it's been a mixed blessing - we've had a few days of flash flood watches and warnings, and Saturday night there was a storm so bad they stopped all traffic in and out of DIA for several minutes and parts of I-25 flooded (which was super fun since my family and I flew back in from vacation that night). And a structure was lost due to landslides in the High Park fire area.

There's also a fire that popped up June 30 near the Colorado/Wyoming border, the Squirrel Creek fire, that burned over 10,000 acres before being 100% contained yesterday. And further north in Wyoming the massive Arapahoe fire, started June 27th, has burned more than 95,000 acres and is currently 80% contained. I can't find any reports of deaths in either fire, and structure damage is around 30 homes for Arapahoe. In northern Colorado last week, we had smoke from those two fires blow down our way pretty strongly, or I wouldn't have mentioned them.

If you want to stay up-to-date on the Colorado wildfires (and others in the U.S.) while avoiding news stations, InciWeb is a good source. That's where I got basically all of my information here.

Waldo Canyon fire: http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2929/
High Park fire: http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2904/
Squirrel Creek fire: http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2970/
Arapahoe fire: http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2959/

(Also, I wasn't under the impression that Mal4 was in Colorado, just her parents. PR and I are here, though.)

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Tuesday, July 10, 2012 11:03 AM

MAL4PREZ

Hi NIki! Thank you for the followup. It's nice to be asked.

I am not in CO, my parents are. Yinyang covered the update pretty well - the weather turned around and things are under control. For now. The flood danger will be very real for some time because of the burn scar. But let's hope there are no more big fires.

My parents are doing well. They are about 4-5 miles from where the fires hit in city, and my dad's office building somehow miraculously got through it. Well, actually, it was no miracle. The fire was maybe 500 feet away and the firefighters didn't let it get closer. Hats off to those folks! It's amazing, what they were dealing with. The TV cameras weren't there to catch it, but photos of the burnt neighborhoods show that it must have been just awful that night.

The weekend after the fire, as I hear, wood chippers were busy. My parents and all their neighbors were out clearing dead wood and stuff. There's a hill behind their house that would have gone up in a flash if the fire had got that far.

This experience definitely makes me feel for what you Californians face. This thing went nuts because of one passing storm with 50 mph winds for maybe an hour. I can't imagine the hell you get in CA with those Santa Ana winds! I was out there in 2007 and saw the fresh burn scars near San Diego. Just awful.

Anyway, I did kind of disappear. Busy RL these days, lots of dancing and ceramics. I seem to post here in short spurts, then lose track for long spells. Glad I checked in today so you won't worry about me.

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Tuesday, July 10, 2012 1:17 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

I'm glad you checked in, too, M4P, but we'll still worry about you a bit when we don't hear from you!

"I supported Bush in 2000 and 2004 and intellegence [sic] had very little to do with that decision." - Hero

"I've not watched the video either, or am incapable of intellectually dealing with the substance of this thread, so I'll instead act like a juvenile and claim victory..." - Rappy

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Tuesday, July 10, 2012 7:12 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

Mal4, glad your parents are okay, I meant to say something in the big thread but I didn't get a chance. I'm glad Phoenix and YinYang are okay too.

I have Kathy Bates on speed dial, mwa ha ha ha (in exaggeratedly evil voice)

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya.

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Wednesday, July 11, 2012 7:25 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Many thanx, Ying; kinda sounds like I can start listening to the news again, as it seems as if containment is moving along.

I'm glad your family is okay, Mal4, and glad to hear from you--jezus, 4-5 miles, that's waaay too close for comfort!

Yeah, we do get the same thing out here, pretty much yearly in one place or another. Luckily, up here in No. Ca. we don't get it as bad as down South, but we get it. NOWHERE near where I am, we don't get huge wildfires (very often) as the area is so built up. The worst we get are things like the Oakland Hills Firestorm, which took 25 lives and destroyed thousands of homes and hundreds of apartments and condominiums. We can thank the Santa Anas for that one, plus the previous five years of drought. I actually saw it as I crossed the Golden Gate that day--the black plume of smoke was so huge it blotted out the sun in the entire Bay Area. And it was only 1,520 acres! Man can be blamed for the destruction, as they'd built in steep canyons with roads that made access by the fire departments extremely difficult. It did get the "prize" as the deadliest single wildfire event in the U.S.

But when it comes to wildfires--multiple ones all at once, the amount of states covered and the size of devastated area--you've been right up there with our biggies. Our biggest ever, was the Cedar Fire in 2003 which got the prize for deadliest single wildfire event in the U.S. SINCE the Oakland Firestorm. It was down in San Diego, which again, thanx to the Santa Anas, burned 280,278 acres, 2,820 buildings (including 2,232 homes) and had killed 15 people. Our biggest GROUP of wildfires was in 2009, again down South, again thanx to the Santa Anas, and again manmade. They burned more than 336,020 acres and went from July to November before complete containment. Makes yours look "small" (if there is such a thing)--as of July 2 you had a total of seven large fires which had charred a total of nearly 152,000 acres. QUITE large enough for me, thank you, and beyond my ability to comprehend.

Tho' I've read that they think the Colorado Springs fire might have been arson, the fact it was near a hiking trail means to me it might also have been a careless hiker. We'll see. ALL of the biggies I mentioned above were manmade, some arson, some carelessness. Ain't humans wonderful? For all those idjits that say "let it burn" because that's "natural", they should be reminded that the biggest fires in most states, and the biggest and most deadly fires in the U.S., were manmade. Natural my ass!

I'm glad containment is coming along, and you all have my deepest sympathy for what you've endured. Luckily I've never been anywhere near a wildfire, but here in Marin we fear them annually. Between all the protected lands we have, all the hiking trails, the Mountain, the hills, and our OWN idiots who built in steep canyons, we're ripe for disaster (knock wood HARD!).

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