WA State Fires

[Cross-tie Walker]

Hope our Guzzi friends Pete and Dee near these fires are OK

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/hundreds-of-homes-evacuated-in-fast-moving-wenatchee-fire/

[rodekyll]

It stopped being funny -- gonna be a bad year.

[Penderic]

Take a look at the fires taking place now in the middle of Canada (1-2 days ago) all caused by lightning strikes the govt says! Yikes!

Mother Nature having a smoke.

[Yukonica]

AK is getting hit bad but we (YK) have been lucky so far. Praying for rain for you. Hoping we don't go up.
2009; my house is under the flight line for bombers moving north. First two weeks the round the clock sound was comforting. By week 6 the sound of their engines made me physically ill as I wondered who's house was lost and when would my land be burnt.

[dee g]

We are fine.  Our place is about 5 miles west of where the fire started.  I was working when it started. It turned into a shit storm in no time flat.  The houses went about an hour after I went home.  Sad thing is, a bunch of folks from that neighborhood had called 911 inquiring if they needed to evacuate.  At the time, it wasn't an issue and I calmly told them that no, they wouldn't need to leave but if they did, officers would let them know.  Nothing like having officers pounding on your door 3 hours later telling you get the hell out right f-ing now. And no, you don't have time to pack a bag or grab pictures.

It was about 104F and breezy that day, and the winds picked up at sunset. Funny thing, one of the fire chiefs was joking a week ago about how it was hard for him to sit down because of the pucker factor he had just thinking about the dry conditions and high temps.  He was the first fire guy on scene on Sunday and i talked to him today. Poor guy is exhausted.  He had never seen fire behavior like that before.  Everything was fine one minute, then the next minute 6 houses were in flames.

 Pete's shop is right between the two warehouses that burned.  Pretty fortunate that it had a metal roof and nothing flammable around it.  Area is still at a level 3 evac, but he can go to his shop if he needs to. Except customers can't, so no point in him being there. ~sigh~

Much better today. Still kind smokey in town. Hot spots in the burned areas, but people can go back to their homes, if they have one.  :-(

And July hasn't even begun.  At least fireworks have been banned in the unincorporated areas of both Chelan and Douglas counties.  yay!!!!!

[Yukonica]

dee g; hoping all comes out as right as can be for you and your neighbours. As a rural person, your description of how quickly perspectives change is unsettling. Thinking about how to evacuate my dogs with enough food to feed them for days almost makes me nauseous. The rest of the 'stuff' is immaterial. If I can save it; great!. If not; oh well.
truly hope your neighbours are safe.

[rodekyll]

Good to hear from you, Dee.  Sorry for your neighbors, but glad you're coming through it ok.

Willow (sockeye fire) is out of control for dogs right now.  It's the mushing capitol of the world and many rural dwellers have kennels of 20 or more dogs.  Although some evacuated with the animals, owners who were not home were prohibited from entering the fire area to rescue their dogs.  The fire crews had to turn them loose to fend for themselves -- hundreds of them.  But they couldn't be everywhere there were dogs, and upwards of 100 homesteads were obliterated.  Now that the fires are moving elsewhere there 's a huge volunteer effort to round them up and sort them out.  We'll never know how many died.

[Subdewd]

I wish you would put them out. Yesterday was supposed to be sunny here in Missouri but we had a high altitude haze.
 The light was filtered and the shadows looked like we were having an eclipse. Beautiful sunset and moonglow.
 it reminded me of 1980? when Mount St. Helens blew.

[travelingbyguzzi]

No rain forecast for the next 15 days. It is only going to get worse.
Even tho we are only about 1\2 inch below our annual rainfall for this date, all the rain came at once last winter. Really dry in Seattle. I worry about the blackberry season.

[donn]

It was about 104F and breezy that day, and the winds picked up at sunset.

We were over there (N of Cashmere) for a gig Sunday, with a rendezvous point in Leavenworth.  The Bavarian theme always seems a little incongruous for the landscape, but especially when it's 106.

A couple guys smoke, and had to be instructed by our hosts not to, actually by the event organizer who was showing us pictures her husband was emailing her of the fire approaching their house.  So of course they snuck off and did their smoking in someone's car.  As far as I know we got out of there without starting anything.

Really dry in Seattle. I worry about the blackberry season.

I haven't been paying any attention to the stinking Himalayans, nor Rubus ursinus whatchamacallit, but our Marion is coming on OK without watering.  I've had to water practically everything else, though, it is real dry, though.  June isn't usually summer like this here.

[dee g]

Good to hear from you, Dee.  Sorry for your neighbors, but glad you're coming through it ok.

Willow (sockeye fire) is out of control for dogs right now.  It's the mushing capitol of the world and many rural dwellers have kennels of 20 or more dogs.  Although some evacuated with the animals, owners who were not home were prohibited from entering the fire area to rescue their dogs.  The fire crews had to turn them loose to fend for themselves -- hundreds of them.  But they couldn't be everywhere there were dogs, and upwards of 100 homesteads were obliterated.  Now that the fires are moving elsewhere there 's a huge volunteer effort to round them up and sort them out.  We'll never know how many died.

That is heartbreaking.   Lots of folks in the area where the fire started had horses, and being as it was a weekend, most of those folks were home.  I only had to make one phone call to the manager of the fairgrounds.  She went to the firegrounds, got the gates opened up and those who needed a place to put their horses had it. No charge.   During the Carlton fires last year, lots of livestock and such died because they couldn't be rounded up/let loose. 

Found out that an acquaintance lost his house.  He works for the county road dept, and I chatted with him two days ago.  Poor guy. He seems to be doing OK, though.  Pretty much everyone that lost their houses are thankful that no one got hurt and their attitudes are that while they lost everything, most of it can be replaced.  Businesses in town are giving them free food, clothing, shoes, etc.  The offers of support floor me.  I never knew that people around here actually cared about each other.  hahaha