So. I drove back through Anderson Valley, yesterday, through Boonville, and into Sonoma County, through Cloverdale south to Rohnert Park where I had an interview at KRCB, a Sonoma county NPR station. Otherwise, I wouldn't have made the drive. The smoke would have kept me in. Air pollution is two to three times the amount considered safe by federal standards.
"All of Northern California is being impacted by severely degraded air quality," said Lake County health officer Karen Tait. "Residents should be prepared to stay indoors and avoid vigorous physical activity."
It's definitely bad across Highway 128 and down into Sonoma County. I hear it's bad all the way to and through the Bay Area. The smoke makes your eyes water and your throat scratchy. It smells like a distant campfire. The skies are strangely white, yellow white; they look poisonous and they are. There are particulates in the air that can get into your lungs and cause problems over time. Smoke covers most of the state and as a result Ozone levels have reached code red. The most disturbing aspect of all this is that at the moment the fires are still growing. We're hearing things like 5% containment. It's only going to get worse. They're predicting bad air for at least a week.
Highway 128 was fairly empty of traffic. We did see a few fire trucks moving about, but one of oddities of this particular situation is that lots of us are "sheltering in place," which is what they're telling everyone who doesn't have to evacuate to do. Lay low, keep doors and windows closed, run your air conditioner if you have one. Ukiah has some power outages that remain unexplained. There were also outages down the coast near Point Arena. I don't know if they've been fixed. Up the coast, north of Westport, where I have friends, there's a fire burning toward the coast. The whole town of Leggett, which is at the junction of Highway 1 and 101, is under evacuation warning. The fire there is moving from the east. The community of Comptche, just inland from where I am, seems to be caught between the two biggest fires in Mendocino County. Roads aren't blocked in the area, but those who haven't evacuated must be feeling hemmed in.
As of last night:
Nearly 1,500 firefighters are now on the lines in Mendocino and Lake counties, working to stem the spread of scores of wildfires that have consumed 35,000 acres and pose growing threats to rural residents and communities. According to the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, over 100,000 acres in Northern California were affected in over 1,024 fires.
1024 fires? I can't wrap my head around that at all. It's impossible to grasp. Here in Mendocino we have 915 firefighters. I found this report, coming from further north, which points to the fact, that already the people on the lines, the folks trying to stop these fires, are overwhelmed and lack necessary resources. Unfortunately, this seems to be the case all across the state.
There's also this report from Reuters, again from yesterday:
The National Guard (or what's left of it) has been called out. I don't think they've arrived on the scene yet, though, and there's a battle all over the state for where the stretched resources will go. The tragedy in all this, of course, is that we're losing some of the most beautiful country in the state. There's a huge fire burning near Big Sur, which has to be one of the most spectacular places on the planet. Because it's big, and threatening homes, it's moved to the top of the priority list, which means that Mendocino has moved down list, at least for the moment. There's a kind of insanity about all this, as the fires that don't get attention, because they're not causing threat to homes and structures, grow until they are, and then get attention. Triaging fire is like triaging dozens of people all bleeding to death. You can't, there is no way to declare an unattended fire in drought-stricken wilderness stable. It grows, gets worse by the minute.
That's why the time it's taking to get resources into the state is devastating. As I said in my previous dairy, this is a disaster being exacerbated by mismanagement at the federal level. The Bush administration has drug its feet:
One of the biggest problems firefighters are facing is that there are 300 vacant positions and a shortage of fire engines at the U.S. Forest Service.
"The department has assured me that by fire season, all these positions would be filled. We are into fire season, they are not filled, and that's a real problem," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
Here's an environmental site (Red Green and Blue) reporting in from further north:
Of course, the priority for resources has been homes and life, and I commend the job the firefighters are doing, but why did it take our governor three days to declare a state of emergency from the fires? Does he not work on the weekends during a natural disaster? Why do we have skeleton crews? The most apparent lack of support is air support. We are lucky if one plane or helicopter shows up for an hour to fight one fire out of 80 in our smoldering community.
Jennifer Lance (Red Green and Blue's blogger) has friends in Mendocino who:
were told by CDF, "We have so many fires, you are on your own." YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN! Five days later, there has still not been any agency to help with their fire; however, the BLM showed up to tell them to stop using private bulldozers to put fire lines in around the blaze on public land. They were told they would be arrested; they didn’t listen and protected their homes on their own.
Lance goes on to say that so far all efforts to get further aid have been met with concern, but regrets: There are no additional resources available. She quotes locals in Trinity begging for assistance:
After five days, there are still few if any resources on any of the eighteen or so fires threatening our home and business, and the homes of our eight to ten other neighbors. All told there are about ten houses, one commercial building, our winery, numerous barns and outbuildings (probably about 25) and historic ranches that are being threatened. After we called 911 on Friday afternoon, a spotter plane flew over Friday night, but since then no planes or helicopters have worked on any of the eighteen fires near us...
Firefighter Blog is reporting that:
The State of California is in the midst of the worst wildfire crisis in modern state history. More than 900 wildland fires are burning, many unstaffed. Incident commanders are making do with skeleton crews in most cases.
It's also very difficult to get up-to-date information, everything is kind of yesterday's news. I'm tuned in to KOZT, our local radio station. There are all sorts of links to emergency information on their website and they're updating as fast as they get things. I've heard the news guy, Joe Regelski, say that it has literally taken "arm twisting" to get CAL FIRE to establish a 24 hour media center for reporters. Today's the first day of access and at 9am, after numerous phone calls, he's still waiting for this morning's update—meaning any new information. They're telling him they won't have anything until after 10am.
So far this morning, the only new info we've had is that Orr Springs Road has been closed, raising the question that got raised and answered in the comment section of my previous diary, and that is, is the Orr Springs Resort surviving? Are the redwoods in Montgomery woods burning? Hopefully, this small bit of "good news" is still holding today.
"Just received word by email from my brother. Orr Hot Springs survived due to the diligence of fire fighters working through the night keeping the fire from jumping the road into the historic resort." (by GayHillbilly on Wed Jun 25, 2008 at 12:29:10 PM PDT)
The local Ukiah paper reported on the same area Tuesday:
"A cherished natural resource in Mendocino County, the old growth redwood preserve is on the edge of fires burning along Orr Springs Road, especially in the Running Springs Road area. Just up the road from Montgomery Woods, Orr Springs Hot Springs resort has been evacuated."
For those in the area, the Cal Fire Public Information phone number is (707) 467-6426. Firefighter Blog has maps and info. The weather prediction: "haze and smoke" and there may be further lightening storms this weekend.
I will update as I learn new information, and I hope anyone else with information will contribute comments.
UPDATE 10AM: The Flynn Creek evacuation warning has been lifted. That's very good news. The current estimation of burned acreage in Mendocino County is about 25,000 square acres.
UPDATE 2 PMI just heard that Montgomery Woods is closed, but not burned. So far, so good.