Paradise California Is No More

Bloody Hell. Just seen this on The BBC News.

The town of Paradise California, home to 26,000 residents has been completely burnt to the ground. There is nothing left standing.

There have been casualties and deaths, but most got out.

Thousands of people were evacuated from Paradise, home to 26,000 people, including from schools and hospitals. "There's nothing left standing," said Scott Maclean, the state's forestry and fire protection spokesman

www.bbc.co.uk...

Lets hope these fires abate as soon as possible, and there are no further casualties.

a reply to: alldaylong

The winds are forecasted to die down tonight around 6pm.

Hopefully that will quell the spread

a reply to: alldaylong

Driven by hot desert winds, the wildfire raced into Paradise, devouring the equivalent of 80 football pitches a minute.

The town sits on a ridge and the few roads out quickly became clogged with traffic as 27,000 people tried to flee, many driving through walls of flame.

Some motorists abandoned their cars and ran for their lives with children and pets in their arms.

"Football pitch" is apparently what most of the rest of the English speaking world calls a soccer field. If I'm not mistaken it's basically the same length as an American football field.

Sounds like the town was overtaken rapidly. Let's hope there aren't people who were trapped and perished in the flames/smoke.

At least five people are confirmed dead. All of them were found in their cars on a single street, apparently overcome by fire.

I have read 15 dead.
sacramento.cbslocal.com...

This is fire country and what happens.

I know every year when there are tornados or hurricanes there are people who can't understand why people bother with living there. I could say the same about places like this, but as tragic as this is, and we get these stories year after year, people will come back and rebuild.

originally posted by: ketsuko
This is fire country and what happens.

I know every year when there are tornados or hurricanes there are people who can't understand why people bother with living there. I could say the same about places like this, but as tragic as this is, and we get these stories year after year, people will come back and rebuild.

There is a drought things are not as usual, i lived in Paradise for years and outside orville over 20 years and never saw any fires but one small one in paradise.
oregon and Ca and Wa are all dry and windy right now and I am hoping our wells don't dry up even along the coast they have been getting low.

a reply to: ketsuko

I have deep roots in this region and understand it was the natives (Maidu) practice to burn out large areas of underbrush, leaving park-like forests that at once shaped hunting grounds to their needs, reduced the impact of wildfire on human activities, and rejuvenated the soil.

It is said that they inhabited the lands for thousands of years so it's no wonder they knew how to work it. It's too bad the native practices weren't continued on a wider basis. Lots of people living up in the foothills are diligent about creating firebreaks on their property; sadly they are only dependable to a point. Those are dense forests of hot, long-burning manzanita and super pitchy "sugar pines". Talk about a tinderbox. (Citing experience: We lost our grandparent's house on the other side of the hill from Paradise in a fire a couple years ago and the house had what was considered "overkill" for a firebreak.)

Purely as an aside, this must be an especially hard blow as it comes on the heels of the spillway failure on the dam nearby in Oroville. It's an economically-depressed region as it is but to see the infrastructure literally crumbling, and entire communities consumed by fire, I know I'd be looking for a way out. Sad to see it suffer like this.

a reply to: SeaWorthy

Did you hear about the canyon fire up in Feather Falls a couple years ago?

Wow. I remember Paradise Cal. Gorgeous, green, lush, quaint. But that was years ago when. It was really a heavenly place. A Paradise. It was prime location for people to retire to or to just get away from the rat race for an easier environment.
Two friends from my work days retired there and I was so jealous. No more though.

a reply to: alldaylong

The entire city of Malibu is also under evacuation order. The whole city.

a reply to: theantediluvian

Sadly there are already reports of fatalities. The fire department was plowing abandoned cars out of the way to get in. But they were unable to save anything.

originally posted by: alldaylong
Bloody Hell. Just seen this on The BBC News.

The town of Paradise California, home to 26,000 residents has been completely burnt to the ground. There is nothing left standing.

There have been casualties and deaths, but most got out.

Thousands of people were evacuated from Paradise, home to 26,000 people, including from schools and hospitals. "There's nothing left standing," said Scott Maclean, the state's forestry and fire protection spokesman

www.bbc.co.uk...

Lets hope these fires abate as soon as possible, and there are no further casualties.

To everyone who has been effected by this, especially to the family of those poor souls who didn't make it, my heart goes out to you

Hate the Beeb but watching it right now. It's horrible, it looks like a scene from Fallout 4. Watch the papers make coy plays on the word Paradise in their headlines.
.

There's a voluntary evacuation order for Pt. Mugu because of fires near the base, and the air tankers have been running constantly out of Fox Field in Lancaster. Everything from the small CalFire birds to the 747 has been constantly on the go.

originally posted by: SeaWorthy

originally posted by: ketsuko
This is fire country and what happens.

I know every year when there are tornados or hurricanes there are people who can't understand why people bother with living there. I could say the same about places like this, but as tragic as this is, and we get these stories year after year, people will come back and rebuild.

There is a drought things are not as usual, i lived in Paradise for years and outside orville over 20 years and never saw any fires but one small one in paradise.
oregon and Ca and Wa are all dry and windy right now and I am hoping our wells don't dry up even along the coast they have been getting low.

That topography is causing Desert to exist from Cali to Chile. It is so normal to have droughts on the western side of the Mtn's that "Death Valley" got its name in the 1800's.

originally posted by: SeaWorthy

originally posted by: ketsuko
This is fire country and what happens.

I know every year when there are tornados or hurricanes there are people who can't understand why people bother with living there. I could say the same about places like this, but as tragic as this is, and we get these stories year after year, people will come back and rebuild.

There is a drought things are not as usual, i lived in Paradise for years and outside orville over 20 years and never saw any fires but one small one in paradise.
oregon and Ca and Wa are all dry and windy right now and I am hoping our wells don't dry up even along the coast they have been getting low.

Even that is normal. That is a semi-arid climate. It has cycles of drought as part of its normal state of being. Why do you think so much of the eco-system depends on fire for its propagation?

a reply to: DictionaryOfExcuses

Preservationist practice forbids the clearing of dead undergrowth, so it builds up and creates a layer of tinder just waiting to be burned in conflagrations like this.

The natives were wise. It's wisdom we've lost.

The thing is, from I'm told from people in the town was, there was no warning. People had to call the FD to get any kind of info.