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The death toll from Northern California's wildfires now stands at 15, officials say, with a total of nine confirmed fatalities in Sonoma County. The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office said on its Twitter page that the number of dead had increased from seven to nine. Three others are dead in Mendocino County, two more in Napa and one in Yuba, officials say. In Sonoma County, more than 200 people have been reported missing, and 45 of those have since been located, officials said.
The fires have burned 115,000 acres statewide and destroyed at least 2,000 homes and businesses, Cal Fire Ken Pimlott said Tuesday. More than 4,000 emergency workers have been deployed to help battle the fires, including a massive effort at McClellan Air Park, where a record 45 missions were flown Monday that dumped 266,000 acres of retardant on the blazes.
Vice President Mike Pence visited the state's emergency operations center at Mather Air Park Tuesday and announced that President Trump had approved the state's request for federal assistance in the counties of Butte, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Sonoma, and Yuba.
Also at CNN, The Washington Post, KQED, LA Times, and NPR.
(Score: 2) by Snow on Tuesday October 10 2017, @08:23PM (14 children)
Is an acre a measure of volume now?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @08:25PM (2 children)
That or propaganda to make the fire fighters look bad: 266,000 acres of retardant on 115,000 acres of fire and its not out yet?!
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday October 10 2017, @08:49PM (1 child)
Because we all know its 100% effective and always lands exactly where its needed.
We also only sent one firefighter to each fire for the same reason.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @09:54PM
...and if you look at the word (which is not "extinguisher"), you would probably equate that with -prevention-.
As such, ALSO putting it on adjacent unburned areas could keep things from getting WORSE should an airborne ember travel outside the already-burning area.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @08:26PM (10 children)
They likely meant 'acre-foot [wikipedia.org]': The acre-foot is a unit of volume commonly used in the United States in reference to large-scale water resources, such as reservoirs, aqueducts, canals, sewer flow capacity, irrigation water, and river flows.
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @08:31PM (5 children)
Because the metric system is 'too hard' for y'all yokels...
(Score: 4, Funny) by bob_super on Tuesday October 10 2017, @09:03PM (4 children)
Don't you know that the imperial system reduces unemployment? It takes three people to double-check any math, and anyone trying to reduce that budget gets told about lost space probes.
(Score: 2) by DECbot on Tuesday October 10 2017, @11:13PM (1 child)
That argument only works when the rest of the world uses a different measurement system. Otherwise, there would be no need to double check conversions and even then, if there were another region of the world that did use the same measurement system, the double-checking math jobs will be outsourced to the cheapest labor market.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday October 10 2017, @11:17PM
> the rest of the world uses a different measurement system. Otherwise, there would be no need to double check conversions
The imperial system is so internally messy that you need three people to check the math even if you don't try to convert to metric.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Wednesday October 11 2017, @05:47AM
Yeah...well we we can actually count on more than our 10 fingers.
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 11 2017, @07:07AM
Imperial? The USA uses US customary units. Imperial is what is used by the Brits. They are not the same, for instance the number of fluid ounces per cup differs and also the size of the fluid ounce. All of the volume units differ because of this.
(Score: 2) by Snow on Tuesday October 10 2017, @08:41PM (2 children)
45 missions... 266,000 acre-feet?
That is an ass-ton of water. 328 million tons actually. That must be one huge water bomber.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @08:47PM (1 child)
"That is an ass-ton of water. 328 million tons actually. That must be one huge water bomber."
That must be one huge ass.
(Score: 2) by Snow on Tuesday October 10 2017, @08:49PM
Goatse sized.
(Score: 4, Informative) by frojack on Tuesday October 10 2017, @08:47PM
No they didn't mean acre-foot.
Retardant is not dumped a foot deep. You load the plane with the retardant, which is either a powder or a slurry, with a quantity measured in acres, (the amount necessary to cover one acre). Gallons make no sense in this context.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_retardant#Forest-fire_fighting [wikipedia.org]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.