#ranch fire

A firefighter gathers water from a pool on Aug. 4.

Guys... The Mendocino Complex has devastated many cities, many homes and many people's lives... Including @nixlynn ...

The walls that she and her brother were once raised within have now been rendered to nothing...

Her family is my family... They are dear to my heart and I can't express the degree of despair I feel for them...

Her aunt has started a go fund me in order to help them restore what they've lost... It won't bring the past... But it may help them to along their road to the recovery.

https://www.gofundme.com/5wcwdio

If you can, in any way possible, donate to their cause it would be immensely appreciate by myself, by Silver, by her family and by everyone who calls them dear.

Thank you from the bottom of my soul <')

Alex Schenck carries a water bucket while fighting to save his home from the Ranch Fire on Aug. 4.

An air tanker drops retardant on the Ranch Fire near Clearlake Oaks, California, on Aug. 5.

The precise moment a wildfire is triggered, and the circumstances of that precise moment, can sometimes be so ordinary. Ignoring the arson-caused wildfires, or the wildfires caused by snapped power lines, you and I can be going about our daily activities, innocently, when boom......we start it. In the case of the Ranch fire discussed in this New York Times story, a rancher was trying to shut down an underground wasp nest, when he created a spark by pounding on a stake. I recall another big fire caused by a person or a couple trying to start a stalled car that was hauling a trailer. And another started by not paying attention to the outdoor grill in the backyard. Or campfires. Yet, the conditions that led to the explosive wildfire were already there, because of drought or high winds or explosive spring growth of plants during a rainy season followed by the normal drying out in the summer. In this era of heightened opportunities for destructive wildfires, we just have to pay attention and be mindful of where we are, what we’re doing and what can happen. It can happen in Kansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Illinois, Colorado, California, Alberta, and so on.

Excerpt from this New York Times article:

“I smelled smoke, I turned around, and there it was,” Mr. Kile said in an interview on the porch of his barn-red, two-story home this week. Mr. Kile, who has not talked publicly about the fire before, referred to it as if it had been an apparition. “There was nothing I could do,” he said.

During a morning of chores on his ranch three hours north of San Francisco, he had spotted an underground wasp nest. He grabbed a metal stake and pounded it into the hole to try to seal it off, according to an investigation by California’s fire agency. He told investigators he was allergic to stings and wanted to plug the hole.

He was judged responsible for the fire, but not negligent. Under the heading of violations, the report says “Not Applicable.”

The ignition of the so-called Ranch Fire is a testament to the extreme fragility and volatility of the American West, fire experts say. California in particular is such a tinderbox that something as seemingly innocuous as hammering a stake into the ground can unleash an uncontrollable inferno.

California is on fire again! Or still! Whatever.

This was the sky today around 4 looking north.

Yes, that's a Bianca Del Rio book card from when I saw her on June 30. It was awesome.

But yeah that's the smoke. Above that was clear blue sky and a bright sun that's baking us at 100+ degrees for at least the last week (though it may be in the 80s next week? wtf)

Here's a picture of the ash on my car.

Click it and you can see it better. It was worse after sitting at my parents' for dinner out from under the tree in front of my mobile. But yeah, fat flakes falling on us. We are at least 15 miles away from these fires. And if you live somewhere this can happen, if your car gets ash on it from a fire, WASH IT or it could fuck up your paint job. Dont wait, and remember, commercial car washes are better for the planet than doing it at home!

Last, here's Mt. Konocti, our local pet volcano, surrounded in a shroud of smoke at about 8 PM. Sun set was about a half hour later. The smoke is above us, the air on the ground really clear compared to what it was when I went out this afternoon. This is looking almost due west, and the River fire is behind Konocti from my perspective.