Stanza the first
Sep. 8th, 2020 04:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thetimesink The sunlight is orange. By that I mean the shafts of sunlight through the trees are orange. You know, that pretty orange that photographers go for just as the sun rises over the hills? …or the hour or so before sunset when that copper/golden hue tints the flowers or the neighborhood boss as he surveys his domain? Yeah, like that. …only this orange is from the drift smoke from fires that are literally hundreds of miles away.
We live in a valley that stretches about 400 miles (from Redding in northern Cali to south of Bakersfield). …and while the closest fires last week were 150 miles to the west and the smoke had no effect here, the smoke from the fires north of San Francisco was channeled through the passes and right down into the valley.
The light flakes drift slowly down. Last week was last week; this week the fire is local, say 35 miles as the crow flies. …or the ash falls. The Creek Fire will pass 150,000 acres tonight. …and this isn’t a “back country” fire, the type you manage until the rains come; this is mountain communities and people (think: the town of Paradise was simply gone a few years back). Both my oldest and I have worked sections of large wildland and wilderness fires, but I think the largest between us was 50,000 acres. This isn’t Dresden, but we have our own “fire weather” here in the form of pyrocumulonimbus cloud cover. That makes air operations unworkable due to wind conditions and visibility. Ground attacks are useless due to the terrain, and dozer lines cannot be put in place fast enough to be of use.
I can follow the daily growth of this beast via the nightly IR surveys and the GIS map overlays produced each morning. …and via the air traffic radar tonight I could “see” that one of the 737 Fireliner tankers had arrived and was working a 75 acre spot fire (there’s enough detail to visualize the spotter plane leading the tanker to selected drop points while the Air Ops boss flew a bit higher to direct their attack). Even money they won’t be able to stop that one from blowing up and heading uncontrolled down a river canyon.
Oh, and as a size reference? You could drop Chicago into the main fire. …or heck, Toronto. Boston? Yea, two (with all the water).
N95s? Yes. My workout area is outside on a patio; with the ash fall, I’ve had to use an N95 (’cause I'm not not working out; more on that in another post). I’ve also supplied my oldest as he comes by to use the equipment each day.
Fires and earthquakes: want to trade?
We live in a valley that stretches about 400 miles (from Redding in northern Cali to south of Bakersfield). …and while the closest fires last week were 150 miles to the west and the smoke had no effect here, the smoke from the fires north of San Francisco was channeled through the passes and right down into the valley.
The light flakes drift slowly down. Last week was last week; this week the fire is local, say 35 miles as the crow flies. …or the ash falls. The Creek Fire will pass 150,000 acres tonight. …and this isn’t a “back country” fire, the type you manage until the rains come; this is mountain communities and people (think: the town of Paradise was simply gone a few years back). Both my oldest and I have worked sections of large wildland and wilderness fires, but I think the largest between us was 50,000 acres. This isn’t Dresden, but we have our own “fire weather” here in the form of pyrocumulonimbus cloud cover. That makes air operations unworkable due to wind conditions and visibility. Ground attacks are useless due to the terrain, and dozer lines cannot be put in place fast enough to be of use.
I can follow the daily growth of this beast via the nightly IR surveys and the GIS map overlays produced each morning. …and via the air traffic radar tonight I could “see” that one of the 737 Fireliner tankers had arrived and was working a 75 acre spot fire (there’s enough detail to visualize the spotter plane leading the tanker to selected drop points while the Air Ops boss flew a bit higher to direct their attack). Even money they won’t be able to stop that one from blowing up and heading uncontrolled down a river canyon.
Oh, and as a size reference? You could drop Chicago into the main fire. …or heck, Toronto. Boston? Yea, two (with all the water).
N95s? Yes. My workout area is outside on a patio; with the ash fall, I’ve had to use an N95 (’cause I'm not not working out; more on that in another post). I’ve also supplied my oldest as he comes by to use the equipment each day.
Fires and earthquakes: want to trade?
no subject
Date: 2020-09-09 04:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-10 05:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-10 11:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-09 06:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-13 09:31 pm (UTC)I started my career at the local State University's Fire Department and worked my way up through the ranks there. I moved on to Cal Fire and worked the west side of the county for a contract department in BFE (read: "nowhere". ...or look up "Coalinga"). It was just me, my engine, and the tarantulas and scorpions who shared the land. Isolated, but that worked for me. I became a medic when that program debuted in our county, and that translated to a move into the metro area at a fairly busy station. I worked that for a couple years before I went private sector.
The spousal unit (who does not read these) came to work for the ambulance outfit and we partnered up from time to time (damned good EMT!). We married seven years later. She's now a reading specialist at a primary school.
The youngest is trained and did lifeguard and first aid work in high school. He just started his masters program in psych.
As families go? Yeah, there are stories...
no subject
Date: 2020-09-15 08:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-18 06:58 pm (UTC)...in my case at least the statute of limitations has run out for most things!