fires

The brush fires I previously mentioned, ignited over last weekend by lightning strikes, have turned into massive mountain-fire conflagrations. The town of Boulder Creek, which I visited on Sunday, was put under mandatory evacuation on Tuesday, and while at last report the town hadn't burned yet, the buildings at the redwoods state park just up the road from it had. Evacuations have now extended to nearly half the county, albeit the more wooded and less heavily settled half.

Over here in the valley on the other side of the mountains, the air has been smoky and murky for the last couple of days. The fire hasn't crossed the mountain crest, but it's completely uncontrolled due to the hot dry weather and the overextension of firefighting needs in lots of other similar fires elsewhere in the area. We're closer to the near edge of the fire than the far edge on the other side is.

If the fire does go over the mountain, could it then extend down into the urban flatlands which we're about 2 miles from the foothills edge of? That's happened a few times - it happened in the big Santa Rosa fire a couple years ago - and the magnitude here is unprecedented. And if an evacuation order is issued, how will people get out of this dense urban area, and where will they go? Still, when I go out in a bit for a little necessary grocery shopping prior to our regular pickup order, I think I'll fill up my car's fuel tank.