Fire Season

RoyalRaccoon · July 2010

It's fire season in Cali. The hot weather really drys everything out, and then the thunder/lightning storms roll in and set everything on fire. We've had various fires on the news this week, and apparently we had 3 local fires today. What sucks is that I was bathing my WHITE dogs without realizing there were local fires...I felt like banging my head against the wall when I saw the falling ash as I let them out to potty, AND THEN IT STARTED TO RAIN! Ash + water + white dog = worse. combination. ever.(past experiences)! I felt bad for them. They were locked inside all day due to the heat, and then they only had a few minutes to potty, before I had to rush them back inside.....I'm not looking forward to hosing down the cement tomorrow. Also, there is a slight chance the fires could knock out my internet, so if I expectantly go MIA, you now know the most likely reason. I think there won't be a problem, but you never know when you live in fire country.

molly6173 · July 2010

Well, I've never lived in fire country or been near it, but I can assume its not the best, especially with white dogs. But, I hope it soon does get better for you

Mo :)

reina__ · July 2010

I live in fire country as well.. I'm up in BC, Canada. There are fires here all the time in the summer. In like, 2004, before I lived here, there was this gigantic fire that covered like a 200-mile radius and it was all started by a cigarette butt! So many homes were lost, and so many mountains are covered in trees that look like a porcupine now. It's freaky.. I don't remember getting crazy ash like that but I remember once in the morning the sky was so full of smoke that when the sun came up over the mountains it didn't even light up the sky. All you could see was a small pinkish orange circle, and that was from a fire about an hour away. Here's a pic of the fire in my city a few years ago: <img src="http://image60.webshots.com/160/8/77/59/411187759AOBOMZ_ph.jpg"; alt="http://image60.webshots.com/160/8/77/59/411187759AOBOMZ_ph.jpg"; class="bb-image" /> There are houses surrounding that hill.. it was so freaky.

Hope you'll be okay SushiMama.

RoyalRaccoon · July 2010

Yesterday wasn't crazy ash, but it was enough to make a noticeable layer on top of our pool(which we'll have to clean). I think the only reason we got any ash was because they were local. My chest is a little sore and I have horrible allergies today(woke up sneezing like crazy), because I'm sensitive to smoke, but I'll be fine. My brother has asthma so I'm worried about him, but he never seems to be effected by smoke as bad as I am(I don't have asthma). I've been in Cali my whole life, but I don't remember all our bad years; however, 2007 was the worst I remember. We live in an area that put us right in the center of most of the big October fires(even though some were hours away), so we were getting hit by the ash pretty bad, because no matter which way the Santa Ana winds blew, we got ash.

<a href= wrote:

The October 2007 California wildfires were a series of wildfires that began burning across Southern California on October 20. At least 1,500 homes were destroyed and over 500,000 acres (2,000 km², or about 770 mi²) of land burned from Santa Barbara County to the U.S.â€“Mexico border. Nine people died as a direct result of the fires; 85 others were injured, including at least 61 firefighters. The raging fire was visible from space.

<img src="http://i24.tinypic.com/2vkng1v.png"; alt="http://i24.tinypic.com/2vkng1v.png"; class="bb-image" /> Taken by me, in October 2007 from my backyard at about 3pm. The above sounds like what you saw with the fire near you. It's so surreal. At least you weren't living there when the big fire happened. Big fires are horrible. I can't stand when people flick cigarette butts! Seriously, fires start up by roads and freeways all the time because people think it's okay to flick them out of their windows. It's disgusting, and ridiculous that they can't get themselves an ashtray if they really need to smoke that bad. California is also targeted by arsonists a lot. Arsonists belong in jail or some sort of facility where they are strictly monitored. It seems like every couple years it's "cause of -insert name- fire was an arsonist." Thanks for the replies and concern~ I really appreciate it.

EpikLove · July 2010

Ugh, I remember 2007 and all the ash. -__- Like Sushi, I've been living in SoCal my whole life. o: But I haven't heard about the fires you mentioned yet, Sushi. ): I think it's cuhs I don't live in the wildfire area, really. d: Eh, I hate fire season in California. Sometimes the ash reaches all the way to where I live. d;

RoyalRaccoon · July 2010

BlueIsis wrote:

Ugh, I remember 2007 and all the ash. -__- Like Sushi, I've been living in SoCal my whole life. o: But I haven't heard about the fires you mentioned yet, Sushi. ): I think it's cuhs I don't live in the wildfire area, really. d: Eh, I hate fire season in California. Sometimes the ash reaches all the way to where I live. d;

That's right, I remember you saying you lived in Cali. Riverside county. I think all, if not most, were started due to the lightning storm on Thursday. <a href="http://www.pe.com/localnews/hemet/stories/PE_News_Local_D_blazes17.4d6bbf4.html"; target="_blank" class="bb-url">http://www.pe.com/localnews/hemet/stories/PE_News_Local_D_blazes17.4d6bbf4.html</a>;

SirPopcorn · July 2010

Ick I too, know how you feel, though it's currently not our fire season >.> The amount of bush fires we get around Christmas it's ridiculous -.o It's like they wait till then to cause havoc ;-; We get backburning done often to try and prevent the fires as I live in mountain bushland but they always find a way through $:\$ In 2000, Christmas eve or day I can't remember, there was a massive bushfire less than 1km away from my house on a main road.. I hardly remember it being so young and all but I don't think any houses were lost luckily.. the road was closed for ages though x.o The bushland didn't fully grow back for a couple of years.. if you looks closely today you can still see some burnt tree's around. Then there were the Victorian bushfires either last year or the one before that made international headlines.. over 100 lives lost and many many more houses >.< You can't live in Australia without knowing about or experiencing bushfires.. :? I don't have any pictures of ash clouds... but I do have one of last years dust storm >.> Blew in from central deserts and covered all of Sydney in orange.. waking up to it you thought the world was ending! <img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss170/clozobozo/Photo100.jpg"; alt="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss170/clozobozo/Photo100.jpg"; class="bb-image" /> [/random] :P

RoyalRaccoon · July 2010

100 lives! Oh, that's horrible!! I don't know if we've had a fire that claimed that many lives. Fire season around Christmas...that really sucks too.

You can't live in Australia without knowing about or experiencing bushfires.

lol, same for SoCal. It's like Earthquakes. We're used to them. I think I remember you(I think it was you) talking about that when I made an earthquake thread. You posted a picture of city buildings that were covered in the red dust. It's interesting to look at in pictures, but I bet is was quite miserable to experience it.

Troglin · July 2010

I hope the fires don't get too bad this year, especially for your area Sushi. Good luck with your dogs and good luck with the smoke/ash. ^^ I remember getting a bunch of ash when I lived there. My family called it "California snow", but we never brought our dog inside. I'd actually go outside to play in the ash. XD I don't remember much of the fires, just that a few came close to Oceanside and my school was closed, and I remember when Julian burned down. My older brother was actually driving around yesterday, and he said it looked like there was a fire off in the distance. I don't think that fire in Riverside Co. would be large enough to see from Vista? That just seems a bit far, perhaps. Drivers really need to stop flipping their butts out the window. It kind of amazes me that these people live in California, hear or see the fires, and they still don't care about tossing the cigarettes out. And, if they really must put their butts on the ground, they need to make sure they're fully out before doing so. People also aren't careful when it comes to car exhaust or matches near dry brush.

My younger brother once decided to play with matches and he burned a nice circle in our yard. I do have to say, at least the fires were naturally caused, though I suppose that still doesn't help much. It seems like at least half of California fires wouldn't have happened if people had actually been smarter and/or arsonists didn't find excitement in burning things.

As for earthquakes, that's one thing I loved about Cali. There's nothing out here in terms of fires or earthquakes, at least nothing that I've ever really heard of. The people out here freaked out over a small tremor that lasted maybe one second and was so light I didn't even know it was an earthquake. XD

SirPopcorn · July 2010

PrinceSushi wrote:

100 lives! Oh, that's horrible!! I don't know if we've had a fire that claimed that many lives. Fire season around Christmas...that really sucks too. 

You can't live in Australia without knowing about or experiencing bushfires.

 lol, same for SoCal. It's like Earthquakes. We're used to them. I think I remember you(I think it was you) talking about that when I made an earthquake thread. You posted a picture of city buildings that were covered in the red dust. It's interesting to look at in pictures, but I bet is was quite miserable to experience it.

I just looked it up; 173 people died as a result of the fires and 414 were injured. Over 1million acres burnt, 11,000 livestock killed and over 3,500 structures burnt. The worst loss Australia has ever had. It was probably me xD Where I was I didn't cop it as bad as the city did, and I got the day off school, but it was pretty nasty overall.

RoyalRaccoon · July 2010

Anastasia - Don't play in ash! At least not when it's falling. It's so bad to breath it in. lol, though...California snow....I'll have to start using that one. Yeah, I don't think he would have seen it. They were a fair size, but not that big. I think there are other fires going on as well, probably bigger ones. Maybe your brother saw a different one, or a small one. We had a local horse ranch catch on fire before the 4th of July holiday. It's just down the street, but they got it out in an hour, I think. Wasn't news worthy. I know!! Just a few weeks ago was 4th of July I was seriously contemplating how Californians could think at home fireworks were a good idea. They are illegal for a reason. Fire(any source) + California = bad. One day when their house burns up, or they have a friend/family member's house burn up, maybe they'll understand. More than half wouldn't happen if people weren't around, or at least if humans were more careful. Though many of California's ecosystems are prepared to handle fires, they are happening too frequently due to human activity, which is causing massive environmental damage. lol, earthquakes. I was watching a stand up special from Robin Williams the other day and he was talking about how Californians react to earthquakes(since he lives in Cali). Even my brother goes around going "Where's my 7.0!" I don't know if I ever want to experience a 7.0, but the smaller ones, 4.0 and lower, are fun. .clozobozo. - Wow. That's about twice the size of our 2007 fires, and a whole lot more casualties.

ChibiWerewolf · July 2010

I could never own a white long haired animal. xDD So pretty, but only if you keep them clean! In Illinois, it's been freaky. Thunderstorms have been burning down buildings.

You better not go MIA, I'll shift through the ashes to find you and your little dog!

RoyalRaccoon · July 2010

Chibi Werewolf wrote:

I could never own a white long haired animal. xDD So pretty, but only if you keep them clean! In Illinois, it's been freaky. Thunderstorms have been burning down buildings. You better not go MIA, I'll shift through the ashes to find you and your little dog!

I'm not a big fan of white dogs either, but somehow I ended up with 2(solid white, and mostly white and red merle). Prince is a dark cream, but he's shaved, so dirt isn't that noticeable. They are great dogs though. Don't worry, if I go MIA it's because the companies that supply the internet got damaged, not because my home was damaged. I think my home is safe, but the housing track is surrounded by big fields(one which burned not to long ago), so I never know.

I might need the Chibi search and rescue team.

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Fire Season

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