Guest guest Posted July 10, 2008 Report Share Posted July 10, 2008 its just been a horrendous fire season it started early..and, it's not gonna end til the rains..when? october? november? gonna be a looooong summer 50 homes destroyed in Butte County blaze Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, July 10, 2008 California Wildfires Photo Gallery: CA conflagration Fire threatens Paradise again (7/09) As fire approaches monastery, monks stay behind (7/09) Smoke keeps region cooler (7/09) Oakland Hills, 17 years later (7/09) UPDATES Smoke Density: WunderMap Fire: CA forestry dept. USGS fire map BACKGROUND Living in a fire zone (7/09) State under-budgeted funds (7/04) Life at Big Sur (7/07) -- (07-10) 00:12 PDT Paradise, Butte County -- Tamara Roberts sent an e-mail to a relative on Monday, assuring her that this mountain community of 26,000 people along the Feather River had survived its latest brush with wildfire. " We're safe, " Roberts wrote. But in the middle of the night, winds shifted, and the blaze exploded anew. Flames jumped containment lines, and on Tuesday morning, Roberts fled from her home. The Butte Lightning Complex Fire, which had burned only two homes since it was sparked by lightning June 21, destroyed 48 more that day. By Wednesday, 10,000 people had been evacuated, including a third of the town of Paradise and its only hospital, and the blaze threatened 3,800 homes. Firefighters were trying to keep flames from leaping west over the Feather River and into a town that lost 74 homes to a wildfire last month. Only three days ago, the latest fire seemed under control. Then, in the words of firefighters, the blaze " blew up, " jumping containment lines. It raced through Concow, a community east of Paradise and about 22 miles north of Oroville. " It was dangerous, " said Battalion Chief Mike Brown of the state fire agency, who directed the ensuing nine-hour firefight from a meadow. Firefighters had been trying to burn away vegetation near the town in a last-ditch effort to save homes, but that operation was halted at 11 p.m. Monday, said Mike Mohler, a spokesman for the state fire agency. Winds topping 40 mph pushed flames west, down hills thick with dry brush and oak and pine trees, toward Concow. " We knew the winds were coming, but we thought we had it buttoned up, " Mohler said. " It's discouraging for it to blow up like that. " By early Tuesday morning, hundreds of people had been evacuated. By 3 a.m., Mohler said, the fire had grown " like somebody had turned on a light switch. " Burning embers - pinecones and bark chunks as big as baseballs - were thrown a quarter of a mile ahead of the primary wall of flames, creating spot fires. " You can't see out a quarter mile, " Brown said. " When you find the new fire, it's already a big fire. " Crew safer in house Firefighters desperately cleared debris from roofs and gutters, set landscaping ablaze and cut away wood decks with chain saws to try to save homes. At one point, nearly a dozen firefighters were trapped by advancing flames and had to take cover inside a home they were trying to save, Brown said. " That was the last, best alternative, " Brown said. " That's an example of the unpredictability of the fire. You'd think you would be safer outdoors. " When the fire edged by, the crews emerged and attacked the flames again, saving the home and avoiding injury. The fire leveled a circle of mobile homes along Concow Road, leaving only a single orange and white trailer intact - its survival inexplicable as it stood surrounded by unrecognizable ash and debris. Flames tore through the private Camelot subdivision as well, where the only recognizable items remaining at one site were an air-conditioning unit, a water heater, a metal tool cabinet and a dish rack full of colored plates and mugs. A large oak tree out front had fallen and burned. Nearby, Bob Modell had refused to leave when county sheriff's deputies drove through Camelot at 2 a.m. Tuesday, barking evacuation orders through loudspeakers. The 57-year-old Caltrans land surveyor stayed to save his barn-red A-frame, where he and his wife, Helena, have lived for 18 years. His wife fled with the couple's two dogs, three cats and two birds, but Modell stayed and put out hot spots near his home all night with a series of garden hoses hooked up to a well and a generator. " The fire was coming straight down the hill. I stopped it at the fence, " he said. " This is the end of the fire. " Modell said he was able to save a neighbor's house as well, even as the surrounding grass and trees were scorched. He acknowledged the risk he took, but he said he felt he had no choice if he wanted to save his home. " I love it here and I don't want to live anywhere else, " he said. Life in Paradise is also uprooted, much as it was June 13 when the Humboldt Fire roared through the southern part of town. That blaze destroyed 74 homes and damaged 20 more, causing an estimated $8.5 million in damage. " These are people who have been evacuated several times in the last month, " said Cheri Patterson, a spokeswoman for Cal Fire. " This fire season has been really rough on this community. " Fire is coming to define the life of Butte County. The air is choked with smoke, the roads full of engines, the conversations laced with fear for what might come next. After fleeing her home in her trailer, Roberts parked at a church across town as her husband stood his ground at the couple's home. " We need it to rain, " said Roberts' husband, Seth, a teacher and sports coach at Paradise High School who is defying the evacuation order. " We need God to shower us with blessings. " On Wednesday, more evacuations were ordered, this time from the remote and rugged communities of Jarbo Gap, Yankee Hill and Big Bend along Highway 70, in an area where the 48 homes burned. As of Wednesday evening, the Butte fire had burned 49,000 acres and cost the state $37 million to battle. Fire likely to grow The fire was 45 percent contained or surrounded, but with a forecast of hot weather, dry conditions and gusty winds, fire officials expected it to grow. " We'll see if the box holds tonight, " Steve Maiero, a Contra Costa County battalion chief acting as a spokesman for fire officials, said Wednesday. Nearly 2,900 firefighters - who are expected to be visited by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today - are fighting the 14 fires that are part of the Butte Complex. At least one arrest has been made; as in the Basin Complex Fire at Big Sur, a resident tried to protect his home by lighting a back fire, officials said. The power of the fire in dry conditions was displayed on Tuesday morning, hours after Tamara Roberts typed her e-mail. Though the flames have so far been halted across the Feather River, residents and firefighters were worried about winds Wednesday night that were expected to gust up to 45 mph - the same kind of weather that pushed the fire over containment lines and into Concow. Seth Roberts said he planned to spend a second night sitting in the pale-yellow home he and his wife built 15 years ago, watching pine trees closer to the Feather River in case they catch fire. He has cleaned out his gutters, cut down branches near the house, and is occasionally pointing sprinklers at his roof to wet it down. E-mail Demian Bulwa at dbulwa. This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 10, 2008 Report Share Posted July 10, 2008  It's a shame Peter/Peter and I can't ship some of our rain out to you. We've had more than our fair share recently. Jo - fraggle vegan chat Thursday, July 10, 2008 6:13 PM the fires out here its just been a horrendous fire seasonit started early..and, it's not gonna end til the rains..when? october? november?gonna be a looooong summer50 homes destroyed in Butte County blazeDemian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff WriterThursday, July 10, 2008California WildfiresPhoto Gallery: CA conflagration Fire threatens Paradise again (7/09)As fire approaches monastery, monks stay behind (7/09)Smoke keeps region cooler (7/09)Oakland Hills, 17 years later (7/09)UPDATESSmoke Density: WunderMap Fire: CA forestry dept. USGS fire map BACKGROUNDLiving in a fire zone (7/09)State under-budgeted funds (7/04)Life at Big Sur (7/07)-------------------------(07-10) 00:12 PDT Paradise, Butte County -- Tamara Roberts sent an e-mail to a relative on Monday, assuring her that this mountain community of 26,000 people along the Feather River had survived its latest brush with wildfire."We're safe," Roberts wrote.But in the middle of the night, winds shifted, and the blaze exploded anew. Flames jumped containment lines, and on Tuesday morning, Roberts fled from her home.The Butte Lightning Complex Fire, which had burned only two homes since it was sparked by lightning June 21, destroyed 48 more that day. By Wednesday, 10,000 people had been evacuated, including a third of the town of Paradise and its only hospital, and the blaze threatened 3,800 homes. Firefighters were trying to keep flames from leaping west over the Feather River and into a town that lost 74 homes to a wildfire last month. Only three days ago, the latest fire seemed under control. Then, in the words of firefighters, the blaze "blew up," jumping containment lines. It raced through Concow, a community east of Paradise and about 22 miles north of Oroville."It was dangerous," said Battalion Chief Mike Brown of the state fire agency, who directed the ensuing nine-hour firefight from a meadow. Firefighters had been trying to burn away vegetation near the town in a last-ditch effort to save homes, but that operation was halted at 11 p.m. Monday, said Mike Mohler, a spokesman for the state fire agency.Winds topping 40 mph pushed flames west, down hills thick with dry brush and oak and pine trees, toward Concow."We knew the winds were coming, but we thought we had it buttoned up," Mohler said. "It's discouraging for it to blow up like that."By early Tuesday morning, hundreds of people had been evacuated. By 3 a.m., Mohler said, the fire had grown "like somebody had turned on a light switch." Burning embers - pinecones and bark chunks as big as baseballs - were thrown a quarter of a mile ahead of the primary wall of flames, creating spot fires. "You can't see out a quarter mile," Brown said. "When you find the new fire, it's already a big fire."Crew safer in houseFirefighters desperately cleared debris from roofs and gutters, set landscaping ablaze and cut away wood decks with chain saws to try to save homes. At one point, nearly a dozen firefighters were trapped by advancing flames and had to take cover inside a home they were trying to save, Brown said."That was the last, best alternative," Brown said. "That's an example of the unpredictability of the fire. You'd think you would be safer outdoors."When the fire edged by, the crews emerged and attacked the flames again, saving the home and avoiding injury.The fire leveled a circle of mobile homes along Concow Road, leaving only a single orange and white trailer intact - its survival inexplicable as it stood surrounded by unrecognizable ash and debris.Flames tore through the private Camelot subdivision as well, where the only recognizable items remaining at one site were an air-conditioning unit, a water heater, a metal tool cabinet and a dish rack full of colored plates and mugs. A large oak tree out front had fallen and burned.Nearby, Bob Modell had refused to leave when county sheriff's deputies drove through Camelot at 2 a.m. Tuesday, barking evacuation orders through loudspeakers. The 57-year-old Caltrans land surveyor stayed to save his barn-red A-frame, where he and his wife, Helena, have lived for 18 years.His wife fled with the couple's two dogs, three cats and two birds, but Modell stayed and put out hot spots near his home all night with a series of garden hoses hooked up to a well and a generator."The fire was coming straight down the hill. I stopped it at the fence," he said. "This is the end of the fire."Modell said he was able to save a neighbor's house as well, even as the surrounding grass and trees were scorched. He acknowledged the risk he took, but he said he felt he had no choice if he wanted to save his home."I love it here and I don't want to live anywhere else," he said.Life in Paradise is also uprooted, much as it was June 13 when the Humboldt Fire roared through the southern part of town. That blaze destroyed 74 homes and damaged 20 more, causing an estimated $8.5 million in damage."These are people who have been evacuated several times in the last month," said Cheri Patterson, a spokeswoman for Cal Fire. "This fire season has been really rough on this community."Fire is coming to define the life of Butte County. The air is choked with smoke, the roads full of engines, the conversations laced with fear for what might come next.After fleeing her home in her trailer, Roberts parked at a church across town as her husband stood his ground at the couple's home."We need it to rain," said Roberts' husband, Seth, a teacher and sports coach at Paradise High School who is defying the evacuation order. "We need God to shower us with blessings."On Wednesday, more evacuations were ordered, this time from the remote and rugged communities of Jarbo Gap, Yankee Hill and Big Bend along Highway 70, in an area where the 48 homes burned.As of Wednesday evening, the Butte fire had burned 49,000 acres and cost the state $37 million to battle.Fire likely to growThe fire was 45 percent contained or surrounded, but with a forecast of hot weather, dry conditions and gusty winds, fire officials expected it to grow."We'll see if the box holds tonight," Steve Maiero, a Contra Costa County battalion chief acting as a spokesman for fire officials, said Wednesday.Nearly 2,900 firefighters - who are expected to be visited by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today - are fighting the 14 fires that are part of the Butte Complex. At least one arrest has been made; as in the Basin Complex Fire at Big Sur, a resident tried to protect his home by lighting a back fire, officials said.The power of the fire in dry conditions was displayed on Tuesday morning, hours after Tamara Roberts typed her e-mail.Though the flames have so far been halted across the Feather River, residents and firefighters were worried about winds Wednesday night that were expected to gust up to 45 mph - the same kind of weather that pushed the fire over containment lines and into Concow.Seth Roberts said he planned to spend a second night sitting in the pale-yellow home he and his wife built 15 years ago, watching pine trees closer to the Feather River in case they catch fire. He has cleaned out his gutters, cut down branches near the house, and is occasionally pointing sprinklers at his roof to wet it down.E-mail Demian Bulwa at dbulwa (AT) sfchronicle (DOT) com.This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco ChronicleWith the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 10, 2008 Report Share Posted July 10, 2008 Fraggle, Do you live near Paradise? I live in the town of Magalia above Paradise. I was at the hospital when they gave me a mask and told me "get out of here". There were closing down the cancer center! Now the whole hospital is empty, even the ER! I raced uphill and now my one property is under precautionary evacuation so I got my most important stuff out of there. I am about 3 blocks now from the edge of the evac zone. Two days ago it looked like a luner eclipse, all orange and dark. There is soot and char everywhere. In order to go down the mountain I will have to drive through a closed area. Last evacuation we were trapped at the bottom of the mountain for 3 days and unable to get home, totally homeless. We stayed 45 miles away with our 5 pets and 5 of us. We were lucky one husband was at home because he got our pets, meds, and got down the mountain to us. We had to go to Walmart the next day to get a change of clothes and stuff! Shelley H It is really a disaster here on the ridge. The fire is huge. Please wish us all luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 10, 2008 Report Share Posted July 10, 2008 wishing you luck Shelley! no, i reside down here in Oakland. used to do a fair bit of camping out past Paradise, out in Plumas until yesterday it's been very smokey down here tho. Seabreeze kicked in yesterday tho, and the temps have dropped out of the 90's and the haze is clearing. again, good luck! hope the fires burn out quickly Shelley Jul 10, 2008 12:02 PM Re:the fires out here Fraggle, Do you live near Paradise? I live in the town of Magalia above Paradise. I was at the hospital when they gave me a mask and told me "get out of here". There were closing down the cancer center! Now the whole hospital is empty, even the ER! I raced uphill and now my one property is under precautionary evacuation so I got my most important stuff out of there. I am about 3 blocks now from the edge of the evac zone. Two days ago it looked like a luner eclipse, all orange and dark. There is soot and char everywhere. In order to go down the mountain I will have to drive through a closed area. Last evacuation we were trapped at the bottom of the mountain for 3 days and unable to get home, totally homeless. We stayed 45 miles away with our 5 pets and 5 of us. We were lucky one husband was at home because he got our pets, meds, and got down the mountain to us. We had to go to Walmart the next day to get a change of clothes and stuff! Shelley H It is really a disaster here on the ridge. The fire is huge. Please wish us all luck! With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 15, 2008 Report Share Posted July 15, 2008 Wow man... Good luck to you and to all people in California, near to Paradise. Really! Edith Shelley <moondrop000 Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2008 4:02:03 PM Re:the fires out here Fraggle, Do you live near Paradise? I live in the town of Magalia above Paradise. I was at the hospital when they gave me a mask and told me "get out of here". There were closing down the cancer center! Now the whole hospital is empty, even the ER! I raced uphill and now my one property is under precautionary evacuation so I got my most important stuff out of there. I am about 3 blocks now from the edge of the evac zone. Two days ago it looked like a luner eclipse, all orange and dark. There is soot and char everywhere. In order to go down the mountain I will have to drive through a closed area. Last evacuation we were trapped at the bottom of the mountain for 3 days and unable to get home, totally homeless. We stayed 45 miles away with our 5 pets and 5 of us. We were lucky one husband was at home because he got our pets, meds, and got down the mountain to us. We had to go to Walmart the next day to get a change of clothes and stuff! Shelley H It is really a disaster here on the ridge. The fire is huge. Please wish us all luck! Canada Toolbar : Search from anywhere on the web and bookmark your favourite sites. Download it now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.