It's fire season again

When I lived in Pittsburgh, the only natural disasters that happened were when Steelers and Penguins lost. I lived through a flood in Houston (Tropical storm Allison, 2001) where we replaced a house with a beautiful concrete pier and beam construction and never worried about a flood, but every hurricane season and rain brought on anxiety of what may be. Prior to moving to California 2 years ago, we stopped going to Ashland Oregon due to fires disrupting Shakespearean festivals over the past 5 years. Now in California, I am thinking of purchasing a home back in Pittsburgh, in case quake or fire knocks us out of our SF house. I do wonder though about why people dont build with concrete or something like tridipanels. I would think much more resistant to fire.
 
AleksR said:
When I lived in Pittsburgh, the only natural disasters that happened were when Steelers and Penguins lost. I lived through a flood in Houston (Tropical storm Allison, 2001) where we replaced a house with a beautiful concrete pier and beam construction and never worried about a flood, but every hurricane season and rain brought on anxiety of what may be. Prior to moving to California 2 years ago, we stopped going to Ashland Oregon due to fires disrupting Shakespearean festivals over the past 5 years. Now in California, I am thinking of purchasing a home back in Pittsburgh, in case quake or fire knocks us out of our SF house. I do wonder though about why people dont build with concrete or something like tridipanels. I would think much more resistant to fire.
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I'm sure cost was the issue before California's fire season got to where it is today. Non-conbustible materials are much more popular now and, in many instances, are required for new construction. In addition, fire sprinkler systems are now required in all new homes.

Many communities have also launched fire break programs where individual property owners and communities as a whole are required to establish and maintain defensible space between structures and wildland areas. For communities as a whole this means obtaining easements over properties in the most likely path of fires and clearing or thinning vegetation to stop a fire before it reaches town. For property owners, they must now establish fire zones around their structures that basically require extensive pruning and removal of vegetation and trees.

We live in a heavily treed wildland area. We built our home over 30 years ago with a Class A fire resistant roof but have raised wooden decks, wood sidings, and wood overhangs that would not meet current codes for new work. As such, our insurance premiums have risen quickly. To keep this cost under control, and to help assure that we can get our insurance renewed each year, we have been aggressively trimming and clearing around our buildings and keeping our roofs and decks clear of all debris. So far we've been renewed each year, after an inspection. We'll see how it goes when we're up for renewal again later this year.
 
AleksR said:
When I lived in Pittsburgh, the only natural disasters that happened were when Steelers and Penguins lost. I lived through a flood in Houston (Tropical storm Allison, 2001) where we replaced a house with a beautiful concrete pier and beam construction and never worried about a flood, but every hurricane season and rain brought on anxiety of what may be. Prior to moving to California 2 years ago, we stopped going to Ashland Oregon due to fires disrupting Shakespearean festivals over the past 5 years. Now in California, I am thinking of purchasing a home back in Pittsburgh, in case quake or fire knocks us out of our SF house. I do wonder though about why people dont build with concrete or something like tridipanels. I would think much more resistant to fire.
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Building codes are part of the issue AFAIK. Trinidad and Tobago build to Cat5 hurricane levels cheaply. But they build with concrete blocks or something ? that's not allowed in the USA . Sorry, I don't recall the details but people know how to build fireproof, floodproof, and foolproof buildings that cost less than current codes. IIRC
 
Our winds are calm this evening with heavy smoke from the Creek fire nearly 200 miles south of us. The TV news is announcing a 'Diablo (devil)' wind event tonight with sustained winds in the 20-30mph range and gusts to 50 mph before midnight. Local forest humidity levels are in the 5-15% range, very dry. Our north state utility, Pacific Gas and Electric, is now announcing a PSPS (Public Safety Power Shutoff) starting for us at 9PM this evening and going through WED. Their hope is that these PSPSs reduce the chance that wind damaged electrical distribution equipment will start a wildfire. Campfires have been illegal locally all Labor Day weekend, but even one unattended illegal campfire combined with devil winds and low humidity are not good news.

We're gathering our Go bag again...😕

Fire season peak is still weeks away. Wildfires have burned nearly 2.2 million acres in California as of this evening.
 
Sierratim said:
Our winds are calm this evening with heavy smoke from the Creek fire nearly 200 miles south of us. The TV news is announcing a 'Diablo (devil)' wind event tonight with sustained winds in the 20-30mph range and gusts to 50 mph before midnight. Local forest humidity levels are in the 5-15% range, very dry. Our north state utility, Pacific Gas and Electric, is now announcing a PSPS (Public Safety Power Shutoff) starting for us at 9PM this evening and going through WED. Their hope is that these PSPSs reduce the chance that wind damaged electrical distribution equipment will start a wildfire. Campfires have been illegal locally all Labor Day weekend, but even one unattended illegal campfire combined with devil winds and low humidity are not good news.

We're gathering our Go bag again...😕

Fire season peak is still weeks away. Wildfires have burned nearly 2.2 million acres in California as of this evening.
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I wish you safety and good luck. Taylor
 
As predicted, PG&E just cut power to tens of thousands of homes, including ours, to help prevent wildfires during the growing winds coming over the Sierras, the Diablo winds.

Our flashlights were at the ready, emergency radios on, Go bag at the door. I think I'll finish my glass of cabernet and go to bed...I'll deal with the generator in the AM 'cause coffee...😎
 
Was going to go for a bike ride yesterday as it finally cooled a bit - from 110/82 to 97/72. But the sky was orange and a LOT of ash dumped on the cars outside, so we stayed in. :rolleyes:
We are 6 miles north of Disneyland. I don't know where the ash was coming from.
 
Browneye said:
Was going to go for a bike ride yesterday as it finally cooled a bit - from 110/82 to 97/72. But the sky was orange and a LOT of ash dumped on the cars outside, so we stayed in. :rolleyes:
We are 6 miles north of Disneyland. I don't know where the ash was coming from.
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My guess is the fire by Yucaipa. Palm Springs area sky is practically dark. First pic is out my front door looking east towards the sun. Second pic is looking west towards San Diego.
 

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No ride for me today or probably tomorrow - western WA fires have put too much smoke and particulate in the air for my asthmatic lungs 😥.

We usually don't have this problem here on Whidbey Island, but these fires are in the Puget Sound area (in addition to some big ones east of the Cascades).

Rain would be good, but none on the horizon.
 
Sierratim said:
As predicted, PG&E just cut power to tens of thousands of homes, including ours, to help prevent wildfires during the growing winds coming over the Sierras, the Diablo winds.

Our flashlights were at the ready, emergency radios on, Go bag at the door. I think I'll finish my glass of cabernet and go to bed...I'll deal with the generator in the AM 'cause coffee...😎
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Good luck and hang in there!
 
Driving in to work today felt like the time change already happened. Our AQI is actually good to moderate but my nose and eyes say otherwise. Seems the smoke is trapped in a higher layer and causing our orange skies.
7B69443D-2C7C-4830-A9A2-95765FF7D815.jpeg
 
We drove down towards the Sacramento valley yesterday. With heavy smoke it looked liked a fogging winter day, but it was 95°F and very windy. On the drive home our headlights came on automatically at ~3PM with the sunlight being so dim.

It wasn't as bad at home, but windy with no power still...😕

New wildfires have been reported at popular mountain camps to the north and south of us. There's been no lightening so I'm thinking illegal weekend campfires that were not properly put out, then reignited by the high winds coming down the mountains.
 
Central Oregon and Washington are being hit hard as well.
 
Sierratim said:
Central Oregon and Washington are being hit hard as well.
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Well, yes. To the east of me multiple fire starts have merged into one 300k+ acre blaze in a little over 24 hours. Whole towns have been evacuated (interestingly, some of those towns have very high rates of confirmed covid cases, so I don't know how that is going to play out...). Air was chunky yesterday but is better today, mostly due to wind shifts.

One small town south of Spokane was roughly 80 percent destroyed by fires yesterday.
 
We got a little break in Palm Springs today. It was actually cool out this morning and most of the smoke is gone...
 

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Due to stiff east winds, which are unusual on the north coast of OR and caused a 14hr. power outage at the house due to downed trees, smoke from fires in the central region of the state have drifted into our hood creating a sepia toned scene. Hopefully the wind is changing direction this afternoon to blow it back.

smoke.jpg
 
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