Prayers for Camp fire victims

[Shabumi]

Please send your thoughts and prayers to all those effected by the Camp fire, California's deadliest wildfire. 56 dead, nearly 300 still missing. Fire so hot it's burning the bones. They have to rely on cadaver dogs and are testing the ashes where they signal to try and confirm deaths. The town of Paradise is all but destroyed. I'll be sending extra prayers for those who have lost, or are still missing loved ones.

[Charles R. Stevens]

I will bend the knee and ring the anvil for the victims, both two legged and 4. 

[Daswulf]

Been praying for those affected. Continued. 

[Glenn]

Should not matter the cause, be it fire, wind, water, or loss of life, each time there is a need, the friends, family, and those affected are added to the list.

[Frosty]

I've been praying since I heard. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley and remember flames ringing us on the mountain ridges. This one was horrific. Tinder dry, 80s and 90s Santa Ana winds pushing 50 mph. gusting to 70. That means the fire front was moving around 40-60 mph. embers were being blown up to 2 miles. Without warning there's little chance of escape. Survivors from Paradise said they only had minutes to get out, everybody interviewed said they just gathered everybody and ran for their cars.

I watched a firestorm in the Mat Su Valley in '95, the Miller's Reach fire. We were doing a demo at the Ren Faire on Anchorage's hillside and had a clear view across the inlet. Flame devils, firenados what ever they're calling them now, were blowing burning trees a few hundred feet in the air and hundreds of yards down wind. No fatalities but almost 500 homes burned.

It was the grimmest ren faire I've ever been to. People were working so hard to have a good time, many were evacuees and LORD did they try to have fun. But if you looked north, towards the towering smoke plumes and walls of flame you risked not being able to turn away. I can't imagine what it must have been like in Paradise, puny humans running while Satan danced in the forest around them.

On the up side, according to the news I see, about 200 of the missing from Paradise have been located. A story on NBC tonight was about a group of neighbors pooling resources and managing to save their homes. Then they found out a number of people had escaped into Lake Sherman and were on an island and hypothermic. Alive but needing help. The families got their canoes and went out after them rescuing one 90+ year old man in dire straits. They opened their homes to the survivors till EMS got their and folk could be transported to shelters and hospitals. All are in good condition and recovering as of the report.

I know it's not much but given a chance people pull together and do amazing things. I expect to see stories of epic heroism and down to earth helping just crying on each other is help.

So yes I'm praying for them all. Especially for the folk searching for remains, that has to be soul wrenching work. The survivors will be burdened by survivor guilt maybe the rest of their lives and the kids. 

I've got to stop thinking about it, I have friends and family in most of the fire areas. Folks are checking in on one of the FB pages when they can connect.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Shabumi]

It has been horrible watching this unfold so close to home. The latest numbers I saw were 350 found safe, but the missing more than doubled to 630 and they expect it to climb as this was an incomplete count of the current missing/found persons filed. At least the winds shouldn't pick up for a few days so they should be able to get some more containment. Unfortunately no wind also means no smoke dispersal. Some places around here have smoke so thick the visibility is down to ¾ mile, and it's reduced the daytime highs so Lake Tahoe, which is above the smoke at 6300' elevation has higher daytime temps than Sacramento at 30' elevation

[Frosty]

Seems all the numbers are climbing. I'm hoping more will be found when cell service starts coming back online. My parents built a place on a hill above Lake Davis with a view that included Portola. Beautiful country but we'd watch lightning storms on the mountain tops almost daily. I always worried about forest fires while they lived there. 

Wind is a mixed blessing as you note. Nothing good about a fire like that, even if the Ponderosa and Lodgepole need fire to release seeds from their cones. Fire may be natural and necessary but not like these.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Glenn]

I have received word that several IForgeIron members are fighting the fires in California. They say that the temperatures are over 100*F and hotter as you get closer to the fires. Some hot spots are close to 1000*F which incinerates everything in those areas. Some firefighters are working 48 hours and more before they get relieved. Firefighters and people have come from all over the United States, Canada, and the world to fight this fire.

The comment was made that there is total destruction for as far as the eye can see. High temperatures and high winds are pushing the fire that engulfs and destroys everything in its path.The fire is not slowing down. There are those that are trying to stay ahead of the fire and evacuate people from their homes before the fire gets there. Saving lives is more important than the fire.

Rain was suggested as the only answer. The request has been made for prayers to help put this fire out.

[Shabumi]

Frosty, I've only been to the Portola area once, but I remember it being very beautiful. I too enjoy watching the lightning storms, as long as the wet stuff comes with them. It gets really nerve racking when we get them without rain, on a "good" thunderstorm we'll get 80-100 strikes an hour in a very small area around here. Im in North Columbia, a little town with a population of 9, near Downieville. I think you said you'd been there on an old post, though I might be mistaken.

Glenn, thank you for your way with words. I tried to convey the severity of this inferno, but I never seem to be able to express the way I want when typing. You are absolutely right about lives being more important than the fire. California has burned long before we were here and will burn long after we're gone. The land will be fine. It's the lives we need to worry about. The firefighters, first responders and search teams are all heroes in my eyes. 

It looks like the prayers for rain were answered. The weather says rain on Wednesday and again early Friday and from the looks of it, they should be good soaking rains. This will REALLY help out the firefighting efforts.

[Glenn]

I have received word that the rains have started and firefighters are coming down off the mountain. Some area have fires are being stubborn but as the rains continue these should come under control. I am told to pass the word along that your prayers were and are appreciated, and to say thank you. 

[Frosty]

I had to look at a map, the real lightning shows were on Mt. Beckworth, talking to one of the volunteer fire fighters in town he said there probably hasn't been anything flammable on the top 1000' for a couple thousand years. I don't know how you'd count strikes it was so constant, more like a scary demonstration with a Tesla coil and Faraday cage. 

I have been through Nevada City and it's as beautiful as everything in the Sierras it just doesn't stick in my memory I do know I drove that patch of highway a number of times on vacation and made a point of stopping at every cafe with pickup trucks parked in front.

One year my folks hooked me up with the blacksmiths in Graeagle for "Railroad Days." The one person's name I remember is Mr. Fuller. Wonder why I can't recall his first name. The other funny thing was it was a mining company blacksmith shop not one of the many railroad shops and on Railroad days. 

I see it's starting to rain, hopefully a long slow soaker to take care of the underground smolders and not just slide all the top soil off the mountains. 

I'm going to keep praying for a while yet, its a couple months yet till rainy season there.

Frosty The Lucky.

[SLAG]

Frosty,

This is just a guess.

Seismometer for counting lightning strikes?

SLAG.

[Shabumi]

I believe Mr. Slag is correct about the seismometer, I remember one of the park rangers telling me about it when they stayed up at the fire lookout on top of the Black Buttes for the summer. She also told me that when a storm came in, she could deal with the flashing and vibrations, and wearing earplugs underneath noise canceling earmuffs for the sound, but she could never get used to the feeling of electricity everywhere. She'd have to shut the solar power system down, grab a lantern and sit in the Faraday cage in the middle of the lookout while lightning is striking the rods next to the lookout. Alot of times all through the night. Same kind of country as Mt. Beckworth with "bald" mountain tops and lots of strikes.

We did get a good rain so far. First rain of the season and we got 1.5" between Wednesday and Thursday. Today should drop quite a bit more, 3"-5" projected. Last I saw, the fire was 95% contained which is wonderful. Missing is back down to the 500s and dropping. Death toll has been rising slowly, 83 currently. ~15,000 homes, or ⅛ of all homes in Butte county have been destroyed. And I heard on the news that the smoke from this fire made it to, and was noticable in New York City yesterday. Though I'm not sure if I believe that one.

Frosty. I've always been too busy to attend Graeagles railroad days, it's always looked like so much fun. I enjoy going camping up there for the 4th of July, the surrounding lakes are amazing.

Even living here I've noticed that unless you stop to learn the history of Nevada City, it looks like any other gold rush town in California. We are very proud of our rich history though, like having the first Pelton wheel cast here. Some of it isn't the best thing to be proud of, like the invention of hydraulic mining. Good or bad, its our history, and we embrace it. In fact i think I'll show off some of our heavy metal history. 

This isn't the original, but this 12', 15 ton Pelton wheel was cast and assembled here in 1927. Moved to it's current location in 2001

This is a 21" gate valve used in a hydro mine from 1880 until the Sawyer decision in 1884 stop hydraulic mining. 1500 lbs, build in San Francisco by Joshua Hendy Works, used to regulate the water needed to blast away whole mountainsides...

...with this water cannon(monitor). Besides the 90° bends, these were built at the mine instead of being manufactured, so dating is tough for these.

And here's a 5 headed "power hammer"(stamp mill), used to crush the quartz ore to get to the gold