Napa fires

[Steve Grisetti]

Here's hoping Sidd Finch and our other community members in the Napa Valley area are well. Those fires look frightening!

Are you well, Sidd?

[sidd finch]

A very scary time right now. We are approx 90 miles from Napa, but early yesterday morning you could start smelling the smoke from the fire where we live. I went outside and the smoke smell was pretty strong. We have been watching the news and it is heartbreaking to see the destruction. Our thoughts and prayers are with them through this ordeal. Sidd

[RJ Johnston]

It smells like everybody all at once started burning wood in their fireplaces. Really bad air quality. Hope my cousin and her family are okay. They are right in the middle of Napa. All these fires starting about the same time is very suspicious.

[sidd finch]

It smells like everybody all at once started burning wood in their fireplaces. Really bad air quality

That is a good comparison. And the weird thing it was a pretty strong smell too for 90 miles away. I cannot imagine how smokey it must be in Napa.

Sidd

[sidd finch]

You know it’s serious when you see the world’s only 747 SuperTanker fly overhead.

Dubbed “the world’s biggest fire extinguisher,” this awesome aerial firefighting machine has been called in to help with ongoing efforts to deal with wildfires devastating parts of Northern California.

The modified Boeing 747 is capable of dropping nearly 20,000 gallons of fire retardant in one go, and earlier this week it made six flights in the space of a single day from Sacramento to affected areas in Napa and Sonoma counties around 40 miles north of San Francisco. Each flight lasted between 31 and 47 minutes.

Sidd

[momoffduty]

Stay safe Sidd! 90 miles doesn't seem too far away.

[sidd finch]

I never would have thought so until all the smoke pored in and I would have to agree with you.

News last night said that of the 5 fires burning almost all are at 50% contained. if you are interested in seeing some of the images of the inferno I provided the link below. In case you did not know Napa is one of the wine capitals of the world rivaling even the grand French wines. So the loss of life and property is pretty devastating.

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Wi ... 84303.html

Sidd

[Dave McElderry]

Those photographs are incredible. So, so sad. Please don't take this wrong, because I don't mean to make light of this in any way, but there's a strange beauty in those photographs that, if taken out of context, could be appreciated. Thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected.

[sidd finch]

there's a strange beauty in those photographs

I understand your comment and yes they are pretty amazing. They have been also showing some video of police driving through some of the neighborhoods while on fire and it is really eerie looking. Then they show the daylight picture of the entire neighborhood burnt to the ground and it is a sobering moment.

Sidd

[Chuck Engels]

We drove through Gatlinburg, TN after the Smoky Mountain fires last year, it was devastating to even look at. Good friends of ours lost everything in the fire and they had only been in their new home 5 days. They did not lose their lives, although it was close, and they are grateful for that. 14 people did lose their lives in that fire and 100's lost their homes and businesses.

The fires in California are much larger and I can't even imagine what it would be like. Are you still far enough away from the fires Sidd?