Too close for comfort

[GOPHER SLAYER]

We had to evacuate our home yesterday because of the fire in Cherry Valley. We were allowed to return this morning even though the fire is still burning, however it has moved to the East. I pray that the wind does not shift directions. The pictures were taken behind our home. When you are forced to leave because of some disaster, what do you grab before you run? I was trying to choose which single shot to take with me, forget loading equipment. I think it is time to thin the herd. You can see the flames coming over the hill in one picture. The helicopters are still flying over our house carrying water.

[W.R.Buchanan]

That is too close.. living in CA has some benefits and some issues. Politics, fires, and those pesky earthquakes among them. But the weather is nice and I have to drive 200+ miles to find snow,,, So it can't be all bad.

Randy

[NavyVet1959]

Sand burns?

Turn the sprinkler system on and leave the house?

Looks like good ground to have underground fireproof storage though... No danger of flooding, I guess...

[Plate plinker]

Not a whole lot of fuel in your picture maybe it will be stopped in that area.

[funnyjim014]

Bury in the sand what ever you want saved. Just remember were the hole is

[jsizemore]

I gotta know. Where's the cherry/s?

[GOPHER SLAYER]

j, the founders originally wanted to name it Apple Valley but it didn't get cold enough to grow good apples but cherries thrived so it became Cherry Valley. When we first moved here there were cherry orchards all over the place. People would come up from down below and pick them just for the fun of it. After a time people began to sue the land owners over phoney injuries and the orchards closed one by one. One old man told me a creep pulled 250 k right out of his pocket with a lawsuit and the guy had previous back injuries. Hey, the juries don't have to pay the guy, the landowner does. I don't think there are any orchards left.

[44man]

I would not live there but I worry about all that do, same as in flood zones and tornado alley.
The best thing ever is if you are OK.

[w5pv]

That is stealing and I hate Thieves





Vote Trump

[RogerDat]

Good reminder to all of us to consider what our go gear should be and what we might want to store and where. Up here tornado is more likely, or really bad ice storm that knocks out power for a week or two. But for the tornado you sit tight so you want your go gear where you shelter from tornadoes, in order to have it after the tornado passes if your house is too damaged to stay in. The ice storms most stay put but I guess some might need to leave. Still good to plan what to take, as well as how to secure house and belongings. Imagine pretty annoying to not drain water lines, have house freeze, pipes burst, then power comes on and pump starts running. Yeah, a little planning goes a long way.

Stay safe out there. Have a couple of friends that were either threatened by or lost home to wild fires out west.

[Bookworm]

I've lived here at this spot in Okie-land for almost 25 yrs. In that time there has been many prairie fires, swept by high (25-40mph) winds, and fueled by dried up, drought-stricken vegetation.

I have stood on the back porch and watched the planes drop fire retardant within 1/2 mile.

I have watched helicopter pilots scoop water, with huge dump-buckets for dropping water on fires, from a large pond not 500 feet from my house. They were close enough that I could see the faces of the pilots and crew well enough to recognize them on the street.

I've watched helplessly as the enormous fires (some will burn many, many square miles) rage ever closer - helpless to do anything, because the fire has felled the power lines, leaving me with no way to get water from the well.

Watched showers of embers from exploding cedar trees - so many embers they fell like rain - scatter in the high winds, initiating new flame fronts, impossible for the already over-burdened, mostly volunteer firefighters to address.

I've been in the smoke, at a neighbors' house, using a rake or whatever to try to put out flames, for hours - managing to ,not stop the flames, but get them to go around the house and barn, considering that a major victory.

We have been fortunate, in all these years, and all these wildfires. The closest the actual flames have come is about 600 feet from my property line.

It's a horrible feeling, watching the impending destruction, knowing there is absolutely no way to stop this tremendous natural force.

I have cut a fire-zone around the house - nothing more than 2' tall, no drooping tree branches, and I've destroyed those blasted Red Cedar trees. Those things have so much oil in them, they go up like a railroad flare. No putting them out.

You were fortunate to have escaped major damage.
It makes one humble, in a way.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Sounds familiar Bookworm. Pine trees are just as bad. They are so full of pine tar that they explode when they catch fire. I had several on our previous property and I cut them all down.

[9.3X62AL]

My Mom lives close to Gopher Slayer's place, and she got evacuated as well. No damage sustained, and she has learned to keep a "Bolt Box" right by the front door to roll to her car--load in the trunk--and haul pagodas.

Slayer's photos don't show some of the foothill areas nearby that got involved in this Bogart Fire. There aren't many trees other than scattered scrub oaks on these south-facing slopes, but a lot of the country uphill has 6'-15' understory of dense sage scrub and chaparral that has not burned since the 1960s and no fuel breaks cut due to USFS policies of hands-off forest management and supposed budget constraints. The price paid for the serial short-sightedness is raging, explosive fires with incredible "fire loads" that are uncontrollable.

[MT Gianni]

I read recently that the carbon output of one 5,000 acre forest fire exceeds all the carbon output of internal combustion engines in the World. Fix that UN especially with your USDA let it burn policies.