BarbaraRose wrote:This all just breaks my heart! The loss of the towns, homes, forests, wildlife, etc. Just devastating!!
Hopefully, everyone is on high alert and getting evacuated from those towns in time. The devastating thing with the Paradise fire was the huge loss of life due to not being able to evacuate in time.
Thanks for the post, Barbie.
There have been a few injuries due to the Dixie Fire, but I have not heard of any fatalities, for which I am thankful.
I have run across many photos and videos of small animals and deer darting down the center of a roadway, with fire burning on either side of said roadway. I have not posted links to these because I, like you, find them to be just too heartbreaking.
BarbaraRose wrote: So we all choose the threats we are willing to live with, in order to enjoy the positive things we love in our area. There is no true "paradise".
Well. . . (a bit of gallows humor here) there was a "Paradise". But it burned in 2018. . .
MandysMom wrote:Speaking of fires! Today a new fire, the River Fire, started about 30 miles north East up the hill from me. Was 1400 acres last I heard. Friend north of the fire evacuated around 6 pm. I had been in shower, this afternoon, after workout, and heard the distinctive sound of fire planes go over heading towards the foothills. When you have lived 12 miles from a TAC fire plane base for nearly 30 years, you come to automatically know that sound and if paying attention, know the general direction they are headed.
Velda
Good morning, Velda and everyone. Velda, thank you for your post.
Velda, I pray that your friend and her home are both safe. For me, there are few things more terrifying than wildfire.
Although I didn't live anywhere near a fire plane base during my 30 years of living in the foothills, like you, I know only too well the distinctive sound of fire planes: first would come the higher-pitched engine sound of a "spotter" plane. If it was accompanied by, or rapidly followed by, the bone-deep rumble of one of the big jets carrying retardant, it was time to get outside and look for smoke. If one then saw that there were fire helicopters also coming in, it was probably time to get in the car.
Brief update:
At least for the time being, it appears that most of the town of Chester has been spared, although according to the map (please note - these maps are not static, but are interactive - they can change by the hour):
https://maps.nwcg.gov/sa/#/%3F/%3F/40.274/-121.1418/12Chester appears to still remain threatened.
Greenville has been burned, as noted in an above post, with Crescent Mills again being threatened.
Here is video from this morning of the fight for Chester (most of the fire videos I am posting are from an organization - LSM, Live Storms Media - that records video for resale. I find these LSM videos interesting, and often see snippets of them posted on various news outlets - this particular video is particularly jaw-dropping):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-8ph1s_pHEAs of this morning, the Dixie Fire, in a matter of just a few hours overnight, appears to have increased in size by about 25%. As of this morning, it now ranks as the 6th largest fire to ever burn in modern California. It is still actively burning - and growing.
Overnight, the north-west arm of the Dixie fire appears to have crossed the southern boundary of Lassen Volcanic National Park and has now entered the park - burning over six miles (from the Chester area to the park boundary) in just a few hours, an incredible rate of spread.
The River Fire, as Velda noted (thanks for the updates from your perspective, Velda) continues to burn. Here is a link to updating information on the River Fire near Velda and Colfax (it looks like there is more than one "River" fire currently burning in California):
https://yubanet.com/regional-fires/rivercolfax/The River Fire is looking particularly bad, inasmuch as it is
not burning in a relatively remote area (as is the Dixie Fire) but is burning in a well-populated (although still a bit rural) area that can almost be considered as a distant suburb of Sacramento - California's state capitol.
More on the Dixie Fire (there are
MANY other
large fires currently burning in northern California - I am concentrating on the Dixie Fire because it is the one nearest to me, and I know the area fairly well - I have driven the roads there many times).
According to the map, here is a listing of small Gold-Rush era towns that have been burned over in the Feather River canyon by the Dixie Fire:
Rich Bar
Storrie
Rock Crest
Belden
Twain
Rodgers Flat
Virgilla
Hot Springs
Paxton
Keddie
(possibly others I might have missed - there are many Gold-Rush era towns in this area that still retain a small number of residents).
For those who might be interested, there are a series of fire "lookout" cameras located all over California that are connected to the internet (I guess these are gradually replacing the traditional "fire lookouts" that have been manned by a live person) that allows one to get a look a what various fires are doing.
There is a bit of a "learning curve" to figure out where these cams are located, what they are "looking at", and how to use them - but once one gets the hang of it, the video that can be viewed is fairly astonishing - and pretty frightening (as one is able to fully comprehend how big these fires really are, and how rapidly they are able to progress).
Here is a link to the cam site: alertwildfire.org (this is a link to the "Shasta & Modoc" section which covers the Dixie Fire - there are other sections located throughout the state):
http://www.alertwildfire.org/shastamodoc/index.html?v=fd40731A final note: I have lived in this area of Northern California for over 40 years. Up until the last two or three years our major fires have always come near the end of the fire season, generally mid-to-late October. What would happen in the past is that a major fire would blow up, burn for a week or so, and then the winter rains would come and put it out.
This year not so much.
There are many
many major fires currently burning around the state like I have never seen before - with likely more fires to come - and
this is just the beginning of August. There is likely three months to go - at least - before the seasonal rains begin.
I can't see how these major fires - particularly those burning, like the Dixie Fire, in remote, difficult-to-access deep canyon and high mountain areas - can possibly be fully extinguished without a major influx of rain.
Which isn't going to come anytime soon.
More to come.
Anne
). For me, I couldn't deal with the bitter winters in Minnesota any more. Here, I am at risk of a major earthquake and deal with excessive heat. 
