OT: Fire

I was away when this was posted, as well as most of the week after. What happened? That is one of the least encouraging images I've seen.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/613701#Comment_613701

The fire is the largest in state history. It's contained on the east side (where my old home is). But a new fire started yesterday on the west side of the fire, closing a highway and burning some homes. It is between two towns they managed to save the first time. There was a dry lightning storm over the area last night so anxious to see the updated report. In my 2nd year of high school we had a dry lightning storm that started over a hundred fires in the county. My poor Dad was legally required to be at three of them at the same time.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/613703#Comment_613703

scale north to south ~ 70 kilometers

east to west ~ 45 kilometers

Bruce Dunning

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/613705#Comment_613705

That is massive! Hard to imagine.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/613706#Comment_613706

a before view:

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/613720#Comment_613720

Another way to put it in perspective. The largest town in the county has a population of just under 5,000. There are currently more than 3,000 fire personnel in the county.

Dan Cleghorn

My son is fighting the Rising Eagle Fire. The massive storms yesterday started more fires. Prayers appreciated.

https://www.facebook.com/lists/10202657978438218

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/613829#Comment_613829

I'll include him in our prayers.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/613703#Comment_613703

So your former home is in that 'hole' in the middle, and still there, and the fire directly around it has died out? Less than one field away from the looks of that first image? You call it "my high school home"; I assume that means it's not your family's any more?

dry lightning storm

Don't think I've heard of such before. I used to live in an area with an absurd amount of lightening strikes, but I don't remember any without rain. Nor any in connection with a storm.

My poor Dad was legally required to be at three of them at the same time.

Haven't heard that we have any such requirements either.

We do have our own 5*5 km fire about an hour from here, though. When I first read about it I was worried about our only male monastery, but it seems like a safe distance (at least until one reads your figures...). Strictly forest so far, no houses burnt. Just 90 cows moved further from the fire and closer to the wolves, and a field ploughed up. Hope it stays that way. I pass by that farm once or twice a year, and I know the priests in that parish; they've had trouble enough lately.

Oh, no, they just posted an update. It's now 10*10 km. That's four times bigger than this morning, when they thought they had it relatively contained! Still no injuries or burnt houses, thankfully, and it's moving away from the monastery, but it's beginning to look bad for that farm.

I've had enough of fires this year! A friend's church now looks like this. Or actually more like this by now. Last Mass Ash Wednesday...

I'll keep praying for everyone affected.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/613861#Comment_613861

I assume that means it's not your family's any more?

Correct, Dad started out in Southern Washington where his grandfathers homesteaded. When I was young literally 2/3 of the county was owned by relatives - many related multiple ways. But there was no room for Dad to expand his herd so we ended up in the Okanogan where he ran about 500 head of cattle. When he retired to run about 60 head on contiguous property he went back to the family site.Because of my age at the time, I think of the Okanogan house as "home". It and our closest neighbors are still standing but most of the house on my school bus route burned - 150+ houses in all. As you can tell from the pictures it's not heavily populated - cattle, orchards and tourists.

I used to live in an area with an absurd amount of lightening strikes, but I don't remember any without rain

I hear that if you go high enough in the atmosphere, it is raining ... but the air is so dry none makes it to the ground.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/613946#Comment_613946

We could use some prayers here. While considerably smaller than MJ's fire, this is now the largest fire in modern Swedish history. It was extremely hot and dry yesterday with strong winds, and they lost almost all control of it. And the water bombers that should have arrived from Italy are more than 24 hours delayed, and still stuck in Poland. It's now close to villages and towns in almost all directions. 1 dead, at least a thousand evacuated, many thousand fearing evacuation today. Farmers struggling to get their animals to safety before they're ordered to abandon them. Impossible to get a picture of how many houses have been lost, but I imagine that most outlying ones that now get in the way are doomed. Also no news about the evacuated World Heritage site that's only 1-2 km from where the dead man was found. Lots of rain all around, but none where it's most needed.

Bruce Dunning

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/614343#Comment_614343

We could use some prayers here.

I've been praying for the fires in the western US for a while now. Thanks for sharing about your situation as I will pray for your situation too. I can't imagine the stress of not knowing what will happen next or the sorrow of loss from a fire.

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/614343#Comment_614343

Wow. Water tankers have to fly in from Italy! Usually we have to wait maybe 20 minutes for the first tankers, plus we have to keep our ponds with water in them (AZ used to have a natural lake a few decades back; else all man-made).

The Swedish fire sounds more serious. Many of the western US fires are in marginal areas (where grassland switches to forest) that attract folks but can 'switch sides' quickly. We've now been burned out on 2 sides; 2 more to go. South of us, 19 fire-fighters died in a few minutes time, but going back and re-tracing, it was all marginal land, but the houses needed saving.

We used to visit Moses Lake a lot (central Washington, east of the large fire) many moons back. JAL did their training there. But even then the area was hot, hot, hot. Further east around Lewiston (my father's growing up area), it's hotter than AZ sometimes. Not good. At all.

Dylan Rondeau

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/614371#Comment_614371

I used to work as a dispatcher for the National Park Fire Service in Western WA,, and every summer we'd send our chief and several firefighters out to Winthrop to fight the fires that pop up frequently. I can only imagine how hard it is for everyone there now. My prayers are also with everyone fighting these fires, in WA, AZ, or Sweden. It's rough, dangerous work and the world is truly blessed to have brave people willing to try and contain these fires.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/614371#Comment_614371

We have helicopters, but most of them only take 500 liters. The planes are supposed to take 5000. Seems we had one on trial long ago, but it was considered too expensive to keep. And most of our large military helicopters haven't been used for years, since we hardly have a military any more.

There are now two on the way from France as well, and a couple more on alert in Spain, but none seem to be here yet. In fact, they now say the Italian planes may still be in Italy, and not in Poland at all. I do hope someone knows what's going on, because they're sure not communicating it very well...

We're not very used to this kind of thing. Sweden probably has one of the lowest natural disaster rates in the world. Most of what we read about in other countries (volcanos, earth quakes, hurricanes, ice storms, tsunamis...) simply don't happen here. Add to that that we haven't been at war for 199 years, and, well, our preparedness for disaster isn't necessarily what is should be. Though, ironically, we're pretty good at responding to other countries' disasters. We've got much more practice in that.

Thanks to those of you who pray.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/614343#Comment_614343

We could use some prayers here. While considerably smaller than MJ's fire, this is now the largest fire in modern Swedish history.

Sweden's fire will definitely be in our prayers. Your situation actually sounds more dire.

Praying...

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/614489#Comment_614489

I'm about 200 miles east of the fires & can tell how bad they are from our poor air quality. Lots of smoke even this far away.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/614490#Comment_614490

from our poor air quality. Lots of smoke even this far away.

But for those who don't know, this makes for spectacular sunsets ...

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/614496#Comment_614496

from our poor air quality. Lots of smoke even this far away.

But for those who don't know, this makes for spectacular sunsets ...

Yep.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/614490#Comment_614490

They claim to smell our fire more than a 1000 km north of it. I must be very lucky with the winds. I haven't smelt a thing yet, and I'm much closer.

At least the French planes have now landed, though too late to do any work today. And it's raining heavily just east of the fire, perhaps even a small amount on it.