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California wildfires

graz_lag

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With all the information technologies available nowadays, how's it possible that can 42 poor people die in wildfires ? :mad:
I mean - it is not an event that happens suddenly, it's been around since days ...
RIP to these poor people ...
 

esm

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Quite a few of those deaths are from earlier days of the fire, but getting to the bodies has been hard since the priority is on containment right now, which is going very slowly. The death toll is expected to keep going up as they're able to cover more ground.

It's tough to really grasp how quickly this fire moved:
There was very little time to evacuate for a lot of people, and it's hard for people to believe their entire town will disappear overnight. Plus, at least Paradise was a bit of a retirement community; one of the more affordable places to live in northern California. People with mobility issues couldn't just get out of the way. :(

I live in the bay area, and the smoke from the fire has been choking all of us for a week now. People aren't kidding when they say we've never seen anything like this before.
 
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graz_lag

graz_lag

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Quite a few of those deaths are from earlier days of the fire, but getting to the bodies has been hard since the priority is on containment right now, which is going very slowly. The death toll is expected to keep going up as they're able to cover more ground.

It's tough to really grasp how quickly this fire moved:
There was very little time to evacuate for a lot of people, and it's hard for people to believe their entire town will disappear overnight. Plus, at least Paradise was a bit of a retirement community; one of the more affordable places to live in northern California. People with mobility issues couldn't just get out of the way. :(

I live in the bay area, and the smoke from the fire has been choking all of us for a week now. People aren't kidding when they say we've never seen anything like this before.

:( Terrific scenario, indeed :(
 

dc655321

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Of course length != area, but in terms of some context - one football field per second in length is 200 mph (320 kph).

Tough to get out of the way... :-(
 

amirm

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I lived in SF Bay Area during the Berkeley fires. It is amazing how everything blazes up with those dry Eucalyptus trees/dry vegetation. Stories of how quickly it trapped people and sucked the oxygen out due to intense temps were incredible.

Hope we get some early rains to help.

It is such a horrible way to die. Can't even imagine what it would have been like for the victims and their families.
 

Darwin

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With all the information technologies available nowadays, how's it possible that can 42 poor people die in wildfires ? :mad:
I mean - it is not an event that happens suddenly, it's been around since days ...
RIP to these poor people ...

Wrong. Every article out there talks about how suddenly and quickly it happens.
 

Wombat

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The sometimes unpredictability of fires leads some people to underestimate the risk in their circumstance.

I have had my car packed and ready to go with family, documents and photos , waiting for the order to leave. The wind changed and our home was spared. This is not always what happens. It certainly changed my thinking about material possessions - in life-terms they mostly have little value.

If you can't find your pets it is probably because they have already done what you should be doing. Don't spend much time looking for them.

Follow the advice of the authorities as they are the most informed. Getting out even sooner adds to safety.
 
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invaderzim

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With all the information technologies available nowadays, how's it possible that can 42 poor people die in wildfires ? :mad:
I mean - it is not an event that happens suddenly, it's been around since days ...
RIP to these poor people ...

Unfortunately, fires like these sweep through really fast. There were strong winds that drove the fire through a valley which was also one just a couple roads out of the town. The time between the fire starting and being completely out of control was very short. The death count is climbing just because they are able to go back into the town and search for bodies, not because people are continuing to die. The people that were killed died in the first moments of the fire. Some people ended up getting out with nothing but what they were wearing at the time. They didn't even pause to get their wallets. Compounding that a lot of the missing people were elderly and some of those had serious mobility issues.
Traffic got bad enough that some had to abandon their cars and run away from the fire. Towns like Paradise, which was wiped out by the Camp Fire, have a limited number of roads in and out. There are pictures people took from their cars as they inched out of town of buildings burning on both sides of the road and stories of rubber window moldings starting to melt while the people drove.
 
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graz_lag

graz_lag

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Unfortunately, fires like these sweep through really fast. There were strong winds that drove the fire through a valley which was also one just a couple roads out of the town. The time between the fire starting and being completely out of control was very short. The death count is climbing just because they are able to go back into the town and search for bodies, not because people are continuing to die. The people that were killed died in the first moments of the fire. Some people ended up getting out with nothing but what they were wearing at the time. They didn't even pause to get their wallets. Compounding that a lot of the missing people were elderly and some of those had serious mobility issues.
Traffic got bad enough that some had to abandon their cars and run away from the fire. Towns like Paradise, which was wiped out by the Camp Fire, have a limited number of roads in and out. There are pictures people took from their cars as they inched out of town of buildings burning on both sides of the road and stories of rubber window moldings starting to melt while the people drove.

What a terrible scenario the one you just described, my goodness ...
 

amirm

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There are pictures people took from their cars as they inched out of town of buildings burning on both sides of the road and stories of rubber window moldings starting to melt while the people drove.
Wow! How scary that must have been.
 

invaderzim

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My heart is breaking as they announce the list of missing people is now over 600.

The comments at the bottom of one of the news stories on the missing are hundreds of people looking for their loved ones, asking anyone with information to contact them. There were a lot of elderly people that retired there and all the comments I read were people looking for elderly relatives.
 

Wombat

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My heart is breaking as they announce the list of missing people is now over 600.

The comments at the bottom of one of the news stories on the missing are hundreds of people looking for their loved ones, asking anyone with information to contact them. There were a lot of elderly people that retired there and all the comments I read were people looking for elderly relatives.

So tragic.
 
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