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: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday October 10 2017, @10:43PM (8 children)
This happens every goddamn year in California, like 5 huge fires all literally start within a day or two of each other and yet there's still no talk about why that is so goddamn suspicious -- especially since it happens every goddamn year.
Firefighters, like the FBI, have to justify their existence and the occasional dumpster-fire or mall shooting is not enough justification to gobble like pigs from the trough of public money. That being said, I'll leave it up to all you super-geniuses to figure out what I meant in saying all that.
The only difference is that this year the fires are hitting places that the rest of California doesn't give a shit about, except maybe a couple who are worrying about the property values of their vacation homes. Napa folks are the ones who still throw Blacks off trains for "being too loud."
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by frojack on Tuesday October 10 2017, @10:59PM (7 children)
Those winds with the racist name happen every year at about the same time.
That might explain one fire. Maybe two. Maybe three if embers blow a loooooong way (which they typically don't).
But more than 14 fires ravaged eight counties all started simultaneously in countryside that is relatively dry all summer around (and could have caught fire long before the winds).
Its highly suspicious that the first night of the winds fire springs up in over 14 scattered places. All pupulated by people that go through this every frikin year and know damn well you can't burn anything this time of year.
Its almost like somebody was waiting for the winds. Need an insurance payout? Don't start just one. Too suspicious. Wanna stick it to the man? Burn baby burn. Ala Akbar!
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by slinches on Tuesday October 10 2017, @11:27PM
Or it could be that small fires start all of the time in the dry parts of summer. The difference is that when there's relatively little wind they can be put out quickly and it isn't until the higher sustained winds come that they spread too quickly to be easily contained.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday October 11 2017, @12:58AM (5 children)
Lighnting can happen on clear skies conditions - happens quite frequent in Australia on windy dry days (hot air blown from the center desert) - it is called dry thunderstorm [wikipedia.org].
Once started, bush/forest fires create a weather of their own - the so called firestorm - including:
Frequent case in which kilometer-wide fire containment lines were bypassed by amber attacks.
(the family had cleared the forest around their home for some 200m. I've seen the home and cleared area before and after the fire, I liked the area well enough to go have a late Sunday breakfast around there)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 11 2017, @01:36AM (1 child)
Yeah, but that's Australian bushfires. They're also venomous.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday October 11 2017, @01:43AM
Heh, I was conservative in the distance live embers can travel, an this to account for the wimpy Californian conditions.
In Australia, on a good day, embers can start fires at up to 30 km away [abc.net.au] (this, of course, on top of being venomous - grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday October 11 2017, @01:33PM (2 children)
You beat me to the punch. I grew up in the Rockies and fires would start every summer through lightning strikes alone. Only rarely would campfires, for example, be to blame because locals are all aware of the forest fire risk and there are signs all over the place that report the forest fire risk. In short, you don't need to impute nefarious motive behind fires starting in dry areas in the summer. They happen all on their own.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 11 2017, @02:06PM (1 child)
So if the fires will happen regardless, what is the fucking point of all the signs and BS?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 11 2017, @07:53PM
Because who the fuck needs MORE fires?