Hover through the fog and filthy air.

[rejectomorph]

A fire truck from Monterey County just cruised up my block and back down. Then it headed east, following the path of the other fire trucks which have passed along the road leading toward the canyon. I haven't been down there to see the firebreak they bulldozed last night. I don't know how much clearing they could do in so short a time in what is essentially solid forest, because it would take a long time to bring down and haul away enough big pines to create a strip much wider than a city street. There are a few open fields inside the town which could be cleared of brush, and those could be decent firebreaks, but they would not be continuous, and a line so far from the canyon would doom dozens of houses along the very edge of town.

But as far as I know the fire is still east of the river and a couple of miles north of the nearest buildings in town. The north winds expected last night never got very strong so the fire has moved only a little way south from where it was yesterday. That also means the smoke didn't dissipate as much as expected either. I opened the windows before midnight, as the outdoor air was then no fouler than the indoor air, but it got pretty thick again this morning so I had to close the place up again. Most likely the smell had gotten into everything in the house and will be with us for weeks after the fires are out. Should the house survive, maybe it would be a good idea to get the drapes and carpets cleaned, at least.

I do not recommend fire as a cleansing agent. It stinks.

---

Edit: The town is doing a pretty good job of keeping its website updated.

Yay Internetz.

Comments

[carbonunit.livejournal.com]

Sounds a bit dicey. Good luck, hope they put it out soon.

You don't need to remove the trees for the firebreak to work, as long as they are not sticking up in the air they will retard the progress of the fire.

The best thing you could do right now is to clean out your gutters, and perhaps plug the downpipes and fill them with water.

[rejectomorph]

The local forest is mostly highly resinous pines, which are like torches waiting to be lit. The trees occupy fairly steep slopes for quite some distance from the river— more than a quarter mile in most places. The bulldozers won't have access to a large percentage of those. If the fire crosses the river it would make rapid progress up those slopes.

Once a fire reached the top of the canyon it would slow down a bit, of course, and there's about half a mile between us and the rim— but I expect the whole neighborhood would be evacuated long before it got that far.

Given the amount apparatus they've brought in (Monterey County is a couple of hundred miles from here, and it's not the only place sending fire trucks), I'm actually less worried about the fire itself than I am about potential evacuation, which would be a huge project since I'd have two semi-mobile old people to deal with. Luckily, we've got relatives in the valley we could stay with, so we wouldn't have to deal with an evacuation center.

Heh. I just had an image of a bunch of displaced cats and squirrels and raccoons climbing onto my roof to drink from the rain gutters.

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

i'll be devoutly hoping they get a handle on the fire soon. that must be anxiety-inducing in the extreme.

[rejectomorph]

Thanks. They actually aren't expecting this particular fire to be controlled until the second week of July. As long as it stays on the other side of the river they probably won't put a lot of resources into extinguishing it— not while there are still hundreds of other fires burning in the region. At this time, whether the fire crosses the river or not depends mostly on the amount of wind we get.

Ironically, the fire would be easier to fight on this side of the river because the land is much less rugged. Plus, there are lots of paved roads for the equipment and plenty of fire hydrants over here. It's just that we'd all have to leave and get out of their way. I'd rather not have to deal with evacuating— and we'd only be going down to the valley where we'd still have to be breathing smoke. If I could evacuate to San Francisco I'd go now. But then I'd probably never want to come back.

[hyperina.livejournal.com]

Second week of July? Yikes, cubed! I don't know what to say -- my heart goes out to you, good luck.

[rejectomorph]

Thanks.

When you go out to sniff the air tonight, and for the next couple of weeks, if you smell something burning it's probably Northern California.