The fires in Oregon....... by me.......V

[Ponce]

Woke up this morning to the smell of something burning, got up to chech in my house and in the outside... nothing...looked outside and there was smoke all over the place.....as time went by the smoke was getting worse and right now is still getting worse......seven big fire in my area with heavy smoke that wont let me see beyond a mile with wind blowind around fifteen MPH.........correction 20-25 MPH with the gust of wind.............already checked out Ponce's fire department and everything is working A OK..........100 feet of 1.5 water hose with 18 HP honda engine (lot of power) and with my two water tanks full.......2,500 and 550 black tanks. Better sleep with one ear open tonight.

V

[JohnQPublic]

Woke up this morning to the smell of something burning, got up to chech in my house and in the outside... nothing...looked outside and there was smoke all over the place.....as time went by the smoke was getting worse and right now is still getting worse......seven big fire in my area with heavy smoke that wont let me see beyond a mile with wind blowind around fifteen MPH.........correction 20-25 MPH with the gust of wind.............already checked out Ponce's fire department and everything is working A OK..........100 feet of 1.5 water hose with 18 HP honda engine (lot of power) and with my two water tanks full.......2,500 and 550 black tanks. Better sleep with one ear open tonight.

V

I was just in Oregon (Mackenzie River area) for vacation. Beautiful country.

[madfranks]

We just had some crazy wildfires here in colorado, over 400 homes lost. I hope for your sake the fire doesn't get any closer and your air clears up. Smoke inhalation isn't good for you.

[Ponce]

Tood my dog out for a walk with my head light.....at first I thought that it was snowing (What the hell?) but then I knew that it was ashes from the fire hahahahahhah...........I was about half a mile from the house and I saw the shinny red eyes of a small animal....well, it was my cat......first time that she has followed me outside the property.......nowdays everything is weird about this world.

V

[Serpo]

we have had that in OZ ,ash fouls up the water tank and in a shower it smells smoky.

At 3 pm one day it was pitch black and the cars had to drive with lights , often these fires are miles away but the smoke goes a long way, nicer sunsets.

we had 6 weeks of sheer terror one summer with a 100 km fire front up in the hills..............

[milehi]

Sit tight Ponce. Only bail if you have to. I live in a ponderosa pine forest and have frequent fires and evacuations. Post another prominent sign that reads "You loot, I shoot."

[Ponce]

milehi?......I am lucky in that there are very few trees in my property but I am surrounded by the forest...all the grass and junk around my home and other buildings have been cut out and with my private fire department equipment I will be able to put out any fires in my property, also have fire sprinklers on my roof..........bring it one.

V

[gunDriller]

it's good to meet the local fire operations manager - the guy who manages the firefighters - and to 'talk shop' with them.

but nothing beats Do it Yourself.

I finally removed the tree from the edge of my swimming pool and am in the process of removing a large raspberry bush.


besides a bunch of other cleaning i had to do, i am about to fill the pool up with water.

i have filter parts but i'm thinking, just to put in enough chlorine or salt so if the mosquito's lay eggs, nothing happens.

i got a bag of water softener, maybe that will be enough.


then i got a battery, a DC-AC converter, and a few powerful pumps, and a gas powered pump. so i can do a little bit of Do it Yourself firefighting.


however, i still feel vulnerable to wildfire.

the amount of fuel that is combusted during a size-able wildfire is comparable to a nuclear explosion.

kilotons of TNT /rating, vs. thousands of tons of dry wood - per square mile.


having seen a few fires up close, i am quite scared of them.

i was a witness to the Oakland Hills fire, that killed about 70 people. started out as a little wisp of smoke in the distance, then while i was standing on Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley, the fires were about 3 blocks away.

i saw that, i saw a few large fires in San Diego, and i saw the after-effects of a fire in Eastern Oregon, near Baker City. beautiful area for the people whose homes weren't burned down. one side of the road was like the moon, everything burned for tens of miles.

[Ponce]

Just came back from walking my dog, smoke is about 55% less than yesterday and now it smells more like wood rather than like rubber like it was yesterday.......time will tell.

V

[palani]

"You loot, I shoot."
You might as well add below that "I shovel too" because that sign gives an indication of a predisposed intent to commit violence and you surely would not like evidence to turn up.

[old steel]

Be safe Ponce don't try to second guess the fires. If i see a large plume of smoke on the horizon i will know the fire has claimed your toilet paper stash.

[Ponce]

Geeeeeeeee Gosh, thanks for nothing.....actually the fire in 92 was only five miles from me while this one here is around 25.

http://www.nwccweb.us/information/firemap.aspx

V

[gunDriller]

You might as well add below that "I shovel too" because that sign gives an indication of a predisposed intent to commit violence and you surely would not like evidence to turn up.

maybe burglars should be given a choice.

chipper-shredder vs. cremation vs. becoming dog food.


speaking of cremation - back to the subject of wildfires.

that is one of the few valid functions of government, i think - the fire-fighters, that is.

[Ponce]

Well, here I can see mybe 50 feet before hase (hase?) starts and in the big town you can see maybe 1/2 a block, the fire is supposed to be "contained" but people say that is getting worse....

V

[Ponce]

If we didn't have so many burglaries in this are I would leave town for a few days.....friaking smoke is getting ot me now, eyes watering all the time and breating is becoming hard......yuckkkkkkkkkkkk. It looks like it is going to get dark in half an hour, the sun in only an orange disk in the sky.

V

[madfranks]

If we didn't have so many burglaries in this are I would leave town for a few days.....friaking smoke is getting ot me now, eyes watering all the time and breating is becoming hard......yuckkkkkkkkkkkk. It looks like it is going to get dark in half an hour, the sun in only an orange disk in the sky.

V

Shit... take care of yourself Ponce. I will tell you from the very recent fires in my area there were many burglaries and robberies of the homes in the evacuation zone, but on the other hand smoke inhalation is a bigger killer than the fires themselves. Stay indoors, do your best to breathe filtered air as much as you can and wait it out. I wish I could be up there to help you.

[Ponce]

Just got back from the fire department, about five miles from me.......I was using a tank of oxigen for a while and I wasen't the only one.....feeling better now but the smell in my nose is very heavy.........don't worry Franks, your hero wont die today hahahahahahahahaah.

V

[JohnQPublic]

Keep healthy, Ponce. We had a huge fire here a few years back, smoke for days. We came within an hour or so of evacuating our house. I walked up the street and watched them get it under control, and we did not leave.

[Ponce]

Back in eighty two we had the biggest one in US history and that one was closer to me than this one.....that was when I decided to create the Ponce firefiting in house forcer ahhahahahahahah....sprinklers on the roof the the rest of what I posted before. In case of a supper emergency I will place my most important document in my pick up and parked in the middle of my backyard, no wood around for about seventy five feet............and if it is a supper duper of an emergency I'll dive head first into one of my water tanks with dog under one arm and gata under the other one........planning ahead keeps you ahead.

V