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I've been reading/watching various items about the current spate of wildfires.
Other people have said it better than I, but if you live in a potential fire zone, be prepared. Be extra prepared. If you can see forest from your house, have a evacuation plan.
But apparently some people really don't get it. Things like "Oh, the fire looked far enough away so I went on some errands and now my family is all burned up because I had the vehicle."
If you can see flames from your house, it's not a "safe distance", get the fuck out. Even if you haven't been ordered to evacuate, pack up, stay together, and plan where to go. Don't go "run errands" unless your whole household is with you, or has a second means of transport. You really don't want a call asking you to come quickly because the fire is at the back fence... or back door.
No one will call you an idiot if you leave before you have to. They'll nod knowingly and say "better safe than sorry!" If you are under a fire watch, but don't have to evacuate yet. Whatever you do, don't split the party (ala D&D). Run all the errands together with the essential papers and stuff in your trunk. Because winds change and fire watch becomes "get out now" in a very short time.
If you are in a fire area, keep your radio tuned to a station that handles emergency broadcasts, and have it on. Get a police scanner. If your power goes out in a fire zone, you need to already have batteries, and you might want to think about packing up and leaving. Sometimes the authorities are spread too thin to reach every house in time. (If you can hear flames, run like hell.)
Wildfire is unpredictable and dangerous. So many stories from this year and last year are of the sort "Suddenly everything was burning around us..." and far too many endings are tragic. (Older people found huddled near their door, burned up because they couldn't see their car for all the smoke, people caught under collapsing roofs, etc.)
If you can smell the smoke, be on alert, pay attention to whatever local media you can get. If you can see the flames, even if you think they are "miles away" or "a safe distance", you might want to get the fuck out.
Cal Fire has a lot of resources for emergency planning. So does the California Earthquake Authority (IIRC). In California, Oregon and Washington, those are our greatest disaster risks.
I live in the heart of a major city. I still have a fire evacuation plan, because my neighborhood is a bunch of old, dry, wooden houses. I used to live in Cupertino, near the Apple campus, and it was close to the WUI (Wildland Urban Interface). I could see forest from my home, but there was still a freeway between me and it. If you live in the WUI, try to get enrolled in whatever alerting or reverse 911 they have.
Your house can be rebuilt, stuff can be replaced. your family can't. Don't become a sob story, please.
Other people have said it better than I, but if you live in a potential fire zone, be prepared. Be extra prepared. If you can see forest from your house, have a evacuation plan.
But apparently some people really don't get it. Things like "Oh, the fire looked far enough away so I went on some errands and now my family is all burned up because I had the vehicle."
If you can see flames from your house, it's not a "safe distance", get the fuck out. Even if you haven't been ordered to evacuate, pack up, stay together, and plan where to go. Don't go "run errands" unless your whole household is with you, or has a second means of transport. You really don't want a call asking you to come quickly because the fire is at the back fence... or back door.
No one will call you an idiot if you leave before you have to. They'll nod knowingly and say "better safe than sorry!" If you are under a fire watch, but don't have to evacuate yet. Whatever you do, don't split the party (ala D&D). Run all the errands together with the essential papers and stuff in your trunk. Because winds change and fire watch becomes "get out now" in a very short time.
If you are in a fire area, keep your radio tuned to a station that handles emergency broadcasts, and have it on. Get a police scanner. If your power goes out in a fire zone, you need to already have batteries, and you might want to think about packing up and leaving. Sometimes the authorities are spread too thin to reach every house in time. (If you can hear flames, run like hell.)
Wildfire is unpredictable and dangerous. So many stories from this year and last year are of the sort "Suddenly everything was burning around us..." and far too many endings are tragic. (Older people found huddled near their door, burned up because they couldn't see their car for all the smoke, people caught under collapsing roofs, etc.)
If you can smell the smoke, be on alert, pay attention to whatever local media you can get. If you can see the flames, even if you think they are "miles away" or "a safe distance", you might want to get the fuck out.
Cal Fire has a lot of resources for emergency planning. So does the California Earthquake Authority (IIRC). In California, Oregon and Washington, those are our greatest disaster risks.
I live in the heart of a major city. I still have a fire evacuation plan, because my neighborhood is a bunch of old, dry, wooden houses. I used to live in Cupertino, near the Apple campus, and it was close to the WUI (Wildland Urban Interface). I could see forest from my home, but there was still a freeway between me and it. If you live in the WUI, try to get enrolled in whatever alerting or reverse 911 they have.
Your house can be rebuilt, stuff can be replaced. your family can't. Don't become a sob story, please.
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And this is from someone who isn't a coward about weather and natural disaster conditions: We stayed put in our house through the last two hurricanes here in Florida, I've driven through the Cascades during a blizzard (and nearly didn't make it through — even in a 4WD police vehicle with a hi-band radio,) and I've huddled in a travel trailer on a dark Ohio evening, while it rocked like hell as a tornado passed overhead (it was late, it was pitch dark outside, and we'd just arrived — we'd no idea where shelter was, much less time to get to it.) Wildfires are nasty, fast-moving, and downright evil in their deceptiveness regarding how they can move and change direction without warning. I've also seen and driven through their aftermath. No. No, indeed. Don't play around. Just get out, if there's any question of it coming anywhere near you. And for the Gods' sakes, take the household pets with you, and if you've livestock and can't trailer them out, tag them if you can, even if it's just nail polish on hooves or horns or tying waterproof luggage tags into manes and tails, and then turn them loose. Do not leave them penned-up, or closed-up in barns and stalls, unable to get out. To burn to death, horribly, simply because you don't want to deal with having to round them up again, or chance losing one or more, if the fire doesn't burn your place.
I currently live in small town (but quickly urbanizing) Florida. We have wildfires here, too, albeit less commonly and rarely so large as California and most of the Western states. You'd better believe that I know what to do, in case we get one burning close to our town, unlikely as it would be, these days, in Winter. (It would've been far more likely ten years ago, when I lived in this house previously.)
Luckily, my house is made of concrete block (built during a time when Floridians were dammed sensible about hurricane protection. Most of its windows are impact-rated glass, as well.) But the roof is wood and asphalt shingle construction, so I do need to be concerned about that. After all, no place is ever completely safe. It pays to remember that.
Be well, everyone.