Fires

[AngelsLongBall]

Holy shit that was close!

[fan_since79]

There are at least 100 people missing in northern Calif, and authorities fear some of them couldn't escape their homes in time in the middle of the night as the fire roared through neighborhoods.

Winds weren't too bad today, but they could kick up again tonight and tomorrow.

I've lived in this state for 45 years and cannot recall anything like this.

 

Edited October 11, 2017 by fan_since79

[Blarg]

10 hours ago, Geoff said:

Looks like a post apocalyptic landscape.

 

 

Fallout Santa Rosa. Available this fall. 

[Amazing Larry]

18 hours ago, Geoff said:

Looks like a post apocalyptic landscape.

 

 

[well_red]

16 hours ago, fan_since79 said:

I've lived in this state for 45 years and cannot recall anything like this.

2003 was pretty terrifying.  Strong, dry offshore winds fanning flames in the middle of the night with no warning is a nightmare scenario.  

[Tank]

my daughter's college has cancelled classes for the rest of the week and has encouraged kids to go home if it's possible. the winds were horrible last night and the fire has started moving from calistoga to st. helena. from there, it's just a few miles up howell mountain to the school, if it goes in that direction.

my wife and i have been debating this morning on what to do, from leaving her there to putting her on a bus or seeing if she could catch a ride with someone down to LA (the school is 450 miles away from us). my daughter is content to stay up there for now and i think my wife will be okay to leave her be for now. i'll find out better when i get home. if my wife's a weepy-eyed mess, then i don't imagine junior will be staying up there the rest of the week.

[Blarg]

I'd offer to make the drive and shuttle her back since I have time off but they worked on my right, not left foot. No driving for another 12 weeks. 

Edited October 12, 2017 by Blarg

[Tank]

just use a british car and you should be good to go. i'll chip in $20 for gas.

[red321]

1 hour ago, Tank said:

my daughter's college has cancelled classes for the rest of the week and has encouraged kids to go home if it's possible. the winds were horrible last night and the fire has started moving from calistoga to st. helena. from there, it's just a few miles up howell mountain to the school, if it goes in that direction.

my wife and i have been debating this morning on what to do, from leaving her there to putting her on a bus or seeing if she could catch a ride with someone down to LA (the school is 450 miles away from us). my daughter is content to stay up there for now and i think my wife will be okay to leave her be for now. i'll find out better when i get home. if my wife's a weepy-eyed mess, then i don't imagine junior will be staying up there the rest of the week.

not sure if this impacts the discussion...but reports are the winds are supposed to kick back up and they are concerned about areas that have been spared so far

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-fires-northern-california-20171011-story.html

[Tank]

1 hour ago, red321 said:

not sure if this impacts the discussion...but reports are the winds are supposed to kick back up and they are concerned about areas that have been spared so far

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-fires-northern-california-20171011-story.html

that wasn't as promising as i'd like it to be.

[arch stanton]

Hang tight, Tank. I hear they're building a high speed train that runs that route. Could be done anytime

[Angel Oracle]

Is the 241 fire causing a big back up on Irvine Blvd between Culver Drive and Newport Blvd????

TWENTY minutes to travel that 3 miles the past two days!!!!

Bumper to Bumper the whole way, NEVER, EEVER been like that before!!!!

[Brandon]

I've thrown up the map and it has me hop off Irvine blvd. kind of a wild side street deal from lake forest to Tustin.

today I did 241 to 133 to 5, take that first exit (I forget the name), left all the way down, right on barranca. seemed to be the quicker than the map having me take weird side streets and turning every 200 feet.

[Angel Oracle]

I am going to take Irvine only to Culver tomorrow, then turn left and take Culver to Bryan and then right on Bryan.

[Tank]

After a stressful day trying to figure out how we could get junior to a safer location, considering all kinds of options both reasonable and slightly less reasonable, I got home. Much to my surprise, there she was sitting in my chair! She found a friend driving home last night and hitched a ride, unbeknownst to us. Got home at 5:30 this morning and stayed with grandma so she could surprise us. She completely succeeded. We are greatly relieved she's safe and that she's here until Sunday, assuming classes actually resume Monday.

next up, a pointed discussion on when to surprise your parents, and when not to.

[red321]

That's great news tank. Glad she's safe. 

[Taylor]

1 hour ago, Tank said:

After a stressful day trying to figure out how we could get junior to a safer location, considering all kinds of options both reasonable and slightly less reasonable, I got home. Much to my surprise, there she was sitting in my chair! She found a friend driving home last night and hitched a ride, unbeknownst to us. Got home at 5:30 this morning and stayed with grandma so she could surprise us. She completely succeeded. We are greatly relieved she's safe and that she's here until Sunday, assuming classes actually resume Monday.

next up, a pointed discussion on when to surprise your parents, and when not to.

She wins a daughter award. It's always encouraging to hear stories of millennial children doing something that makes their parents happy.

[m0nkey]

That's awesome. Glad to hear (read), tank

[ten ocho recon scout]

On 10/10/2017 at 10:44 AM, Adam said:

Yeah yeah yeah. lets work on those fries buddy

Agreed. Strad i stopped by your little restaraunt today, and the normally boring fries were cold and burnt (thumbs down emoji if i could do emojis here).

So i was on the fires monday from kickoff. It was pretty insane. Havent been on one that bad in about a decade.

I was the first copper there and was with the fire CP. Normally wed wait for a supervisor but there wasnt near enough time. So i started broadcasting we needed to start evacuations, based on what the fire chief was telling me.

So we started with like 5 guys...took awhile to get anyone else, because before it started, we were already tied up doing cop stuff.

So 5 of us had to speed through the hills (and traffic of people fleeing) and the first neighborhood had about 200 homes...big properties, hills, and had to run door to door on foot. The amount of people who refused to leave was mind blowing...

Initially it went kind of smooth. We got that neighborhood mostly out. Then the wind shifted.

At the same time, we start getting 911 calls of old people who need help getting a really old spouse out, old people who cant drive, etc. So our team broke down quick (still waiting on mutual aid from other cities).

After getting some old man out, i headed back to where i was originally supposed to be. Ended up missing a turn because the smoke got so bad. So i had to dive up a hill to u turn. 

Get to the u turn, and its chaos. A backroad (rich people with horse property) is bottlenecked because people and horses are all over the street...stopping the main evac route. This is because their neighborhood is on fire. Didnt even have time to get their horses in their trailers, they just ran out of the neighborhood.

No fire guys there, and im alone. Fire finally gets there and yells at me to get rid of the horses. I ask the fire guy if he wants me to shoot them. 

Fire cant even get into the neighborhood, because there is only one way in, and its too smokey to see anything (keep in mind the fire guys are all coming from different cities, have no clue about the layouts theyre in.)

No air support for the first 4 hours at least. Wind was too bad to get them in.

After leaving that neighborhood i head down the road (since im unassigned, my original team is still evacuating a neighbornood north of me). Were sticking to our original plan on which neighborhood first. 

I end up with two fire battalion chiefs. No engines, just with their SUV. Theyre explaining to me where the fire is headed. I broadcast the info, but there is no one available to assist (at that point). 

I start driving towards the neighborhood in question and see the fire has already jumped the main road. Now were fucked.

Finally i get a team of like 5 guys from another department with me. We get to the neighborhood in question, and several homes are already on fire. Were running door to door, amazed how many people are still home. Have to force entry at one house for a guy in a wheelchair who is waiting for his wife to come get him.

After we cleared that street, fire dept arrived, but i assumed that block was done.

We regroup down the street and are relatively safe (maybe quarter or so mile from the main fire). We get back to giving evac orders (which is taking way longer than we have time for, based on the speed of the fire). Cant get any of our PD helicopters up because of the wind. Would have been a huge help to have them making broadcasts.

Fire jumps again, to an area we were told "if it gets here, get out, immediatelly".

Thankfully most of the houses in this area were empty. We (my team, not everybody else) are the furthest in the bad zone. We have maybe 6 of us, have to notify roughly 200 homes, plus a condo complex with about 300 units...fuck that, were giving notification on the speaker now (keep in mind we dont have masks or goggles, and the embers are falling on us, trees burning all around us, etc). 

Finally at this point, and i think its because the built up neighborhoods are right in the fire line, the air support rolls in. Straight out of the movies, like the cavalry. The big air tankers are dropping maybe 75 yards from us, mayyyyybe 150 feet off the deck. Seeing planes that large, flying that low, that fast, and that manuevarable was exciting as hell (a few guys got some phosphate leftovers on them).

Fire jumps again. We move to another neighborhood, which thankfully is mostly empty. The fire is RAGING in the brush next to here. But because our end (police) is mostly handled in this area for the moment, i FINALLY get a chance to stop and drink water (it had been about 5-6 hours....).

Got to take a few pics of the action. Have some pretty decent shots, but was too busy to get the really cool shots i would have liked to when it was hollywood with the air tankers.

Run in to some fire guys i know. Theyre short people on their engine (keep in mind they had to keep their fire houses staffed for the other emergencies non fire related).

I ask if they need help and they said "yeah poser, if you want, grab a hose". So another deputy and i pretend to be firemen and start spraying the brush next to the fire guys. Meanwhile in front of us, the helicopters are dropping every minute or so, maybe 50 feet in front of us.

I feel like fucking rambo. Dont feel anything i should have (tired, hungry, dehydrated), except my eyes are almost swollen shut from the smoke the last several hours.

Finally, the fire in this area is pretty much knocked down. The helicopters made a huge difference. Once the smoke clears a bit i see about 3 houses that i had no clue were there....we stopped the fire maybe 50 feet from them.

I notice for the first time im not even in my city anymore.

Finally we got help from all over kingdom come, and we started getting swapped out and got to go pee and get water. I sneak away for a few minutes and drive through the burn areas. It was surreal. Looked like the moon, but peaceful as hell.

Drove back to that neighborhood we grabbed the wheelchair guy. They only lost a couple homes totally, a few more damaged, but about 90 percent made it.

Sorry for the long winded post. Hell of a day. 

[ten ocho recon scout]

Couple of things that stood out. First, it was impressive as hell to watch Fire do their thing. Whereas i (and other non firefighters) was wondering where the hell they were sometimes, they knew where to ignore, and where to fight. They seriously made the most of the initial scant resources. The relatively little loss of homes vs what it looked like at ground zero when it was raging is a testament to them knowing their craft.

And the overall teamwork was amazing. On the command level, the mutual aid was outstanding (its not easy getting cops and fire from other cities to drop everything, run to a foreign city, and fit right in).

Havent felt this much pride in a bit. Didnt see one dude hesitate. Obviously as a cop, we know very little about fire, and have nothing to protect us or fight it with. But at least with the guys i was with for the most of it (who almost all barely met that day), everyone was game face. Sprinting down streets that were covered in smoke, roofs and landscapes on fire, kicking in doors where the roof was already burning, etc. 

Sucks to get partners who you know are totally squared away for the bad times, bond with them, and know youre never gonna work with them again, or remember their names a day or two later.

[ten ocho recon scout]

9 hours ago, Tank said:

just use a british car and you should be good to go. i'll chip in $20 for gas.

If its british, you need to pitch in for "petrol".

[ten ocho recon scout]

 

Great video. At about the 2:20 or so mark was where i was late in the afternoon, in Orange. At about the 4:20 or so mark is rhe neighborhood we got the wheelchair guy out. Crazy to see it in this video. When we were there it was totally blanketed in smoke, but once the wind died down a bit i guess it cleared out.

Towards the end with the two heavy tanker helos, i think (not sure) we were behind that (towards where the helos are flying towards) but could be wrong.

Glad i found this vid. Was too busy to be able to film anything. 

[gotbeer]

@ten ocho recon scout Cool story.  Just some observations.

9 hours ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

So we started with like 5 guys...took awhile to get anyone else, because before it started, we were already tied up doing cop stuff.

Eating donuts is not doing cop stuff.

9 hours ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

Get to the u turn, and its chaos. A backroad (rich people with horse property) is bottlenecked because people and horses are all over the street...stopping the main evac route. This is because their neighborhood is on fire. Didnt even have time to get their horses in their trailers, they just ran out of the neighborhood.

No fire guys there, and im alone. Fire finally gets there and yells at me to get rid of the horses. I ask the fire guy if he wants me to shoot them. 

 

Priority #1 is to save the horses.   Priority #2 is to save the dogs.  Priority #3 is to ignore the cats, because they will use the fire to try and kill you.

9 hours ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

Run in to some fire guys i know. Theyre short people on their engine (keep in mind they had to keep their fire houses staffed for the other emergencies non fire related).

First few times I read this, I thought you were making a Nate joke.  Now that I know what you mean, I'm still going to consider it a Nate joke.

[ten ocho recon scout]

9 hours ago, gotbeer said:

@ten ocho recon scout Cool story.  Just some observations.

Eating donuts is not doing cop stuff.

Priority #1 is to save the horses.   Priority #2 is to save the dogs.  Priority #3 is to ignore the cats, because they will use the fire to try and kill you.

First few times I read this, I thought you were making a Nate joke.  Now that I know what you mean, I'm still going to consider it a Nate joke.

Lol!

And it wasnt donuts, they were cronuts.

Talk about hectic, forgot to mention this earlier. About an hour in we were all bitching about why the next shift coming on out with us yet. We had no clue because we went to a different radio channel so outside agencies could talk on the radio with us.

No BS, within that first hour, we had a hostage barricade (tweaker beat his lady and threatened to kill them both), a gas station got robbed at gunpoint, and we had a fatal car crash...

When it rains it pours.

[mrwicked]

this map shows the fires and smoke spreading and changing with the winds.

crazy.

up here now the fires are moving towards sonoma, so we have more friends evacuating.

https://tools.airfire.org/websky/v1/run/standard/CANSAC-2km/2017101000/