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Wildfires burning up British Columbia

Started by Okanagan, July 15, 2017, 08:56:07 AM

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Okanagan

#20
It rained a little inland late yesterday and helped a little bit with the fires but lightening accompanying the rain started 32 more fires.  Last storm the lightening started over 100 of these current fires.

I drove 45 minutes east of here early this morning but still on the wet side, and yesterday's rain was enough to settle the dust in the open but powder dry dust fogged up in stretches of logging road under overhanging trees, so it wasn't much rain.   

Okanagan

#21
Update:

Air moving toward the coast has brought heavy smoke like overcast here in the Fraser River Valley.  As of July 28 there were officially 149 wildfires burning in BC, but last night seven new fires started along a highway near Kamloops, which closed the highway for awhile and the new fires are still burning.  The good sized town of Clinton was evacuated three days ago. 

My friend whose house burned is staying in a loaned old cabin.  All roads etc. west of Williams Lake are restricted to emergency vehicles. No mail, no phone service, food being provided by emergency services.  Locals who stayed are locked in and still fighting fires. 

I spoke with his son-in-law yesterday.  The SIL asked my friend what a person takes when he has only a short time to grab and go.  The wife took pictures.  He took his guns and his guitar.  The SIL said, "He's got his girl, his guns and his guitar. What more could a man want?"


nastygunz

The 3 GGG"s....sounds brutal out there.

code

The smoke here in Western Washington is making for some gorgeous sunsets and some tough breathing.
"One does not hunt in order to kill. On the contrary, one kills in order to have hunted." --Jose Ortega y Gasset

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Hawks Feather

Quote from: code on August 01, 2017, 10:33:51 PM
The smoke here in Western Washington is making for some gorgeous sunsets and some tough breathing.

Sunsets sound great while the not being able to breath doesn't.  I think I will have to pass on the sunset pics.

Jerry

Okanagan

After a full day of breathing it the smoke makes me feel lousy, like a low grade flu.   Old lungs or allergy type reaction.  Draggin my wagon today.

Today is the second full day of smoky air.  The weather forecast was for a new record high temp of 101F but it only got to 91.  I think that the heavy layer of smoke may be giving us enough shade to keep the temp lower.   :shrug:

FinsnFur

I dont even know what to say. I dont know what I would do. Does your AC filter any of it out?
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Okanagan

#28
Quote from: FinsnFur on August 02, 2017, 10:06:24 PM
I dont even know what to say. I dont know what I would do. Does your AC filter any of it out?

AC?  :rolleye: This is near coastal Canada.  Hardly anyone has AC, and this house has none.  Yesterday was the first day this year that we really needed AC.  It has only gotten a little above 80 a few times earlier this summer, and the time above 75 only lasted 2-4 hours on a given day.

Actually I bought a small in-room on wheels AC unit for my wife and she holes up with it in our small guest bedroom on any hot days.  It has a flex exhaust tube that vents outside but the intake is air from the room, so no filtering out smoke.  Weird amber-brown light all day.   Temps are dropping to mid 60's each night.  Just checked and it is 60 right now.  Fan blowing cool air in.  We cool the house, then button up and by the time the inside of the house gets too warm it is usually starting to cool down again outside.

Added:  Check out the photos of smoke in town in this news article from here.
http://www.abbynews.com/news/smokey-air-now-poses-a-high-health-risk-in-abbotsford/


Hawks Feather

That doesn't look good and a rating of 10 on a scale of 1 to 10 sounds even worse.  Hang in there.

Jerry

pitw

I say what I think not think what I say.


Okanagan

Visibility 3/4 mile at my house, looks like an overcast day.  Of more than 40,000 people evacuated, over 9,000 still can't go home.  25,000 people under evacuation alert. The state of emergency for British Columbia was extended yet again, this time till August 18.  Fire fighters have it down to 129 wildfires now.  Already it is the third worst burn season in terms of area burned in BC recorded history, but way worst in terms of fires near towns and dwellings.  And the worst month of fire season is ahead. 


Okanagan

#34
NH is a long way to go to a fire!  Thanks!

Since I've been updating this ongoing story will continue:  got an e-mail from my friend's daughter late last night saying that she and her husband were enroute in a 4x4 to try again to haul their trailer full of emergency gear to her parents.  Sounded like a half day trip was going to take at least two days, going WAY out of the way around fires (and there are relatively few roads in BC to take an alternate route).  They will pick up the trailer that was stranded at a friend's place on their last try, drive way east, then way north and then come back down south.  There are big fines just to be out there in fire restricted areas so I assume that they got some kind of permission slip.  Maybe they will run into some NH firefighters!

A few days ago I told her husband, SIL of the people who lost their house, that I would like to ride up with him if he had room next time he tried to get the trailer through.  His wife is going with him however and I'd not invite me either in that case.   They plan to stay several days and help start hauling away burned debris, prep to build again. 

FWIW my friend is one of those ultimate handy men.  He can and does fix most anything and is cheerful all of the time about it, with a wicked sly and dry humor.  He has ridden broncs, handled range cattle, been millwright for a big sawmill, trapped, driven snow plows, been a teacher, even gunsmithed a right hand safety for me on a Swede 6.5x55 -- and did it working with hand tools on a stump in his yard!  One of the best and calmly confident wilderness outdoorsmen I know.  Doggone I feel for him.  He would fit here and I must invite him to come around when he gets a computer again. 




nastygunz

Awful thing there! Okanagan,  where I'm from people pitch in and help people who need help, well it used to be that way anyways until all the flatlanders and Liberal Democrats came from the cities, theres still a few good old folk left though👍🙏

Okanagan

HEAVY smoke here today.  Saw a woman driving her car today with a surgical type face mask on. 

Prevailing winds off of the Pacific are supposed to return to normal on Friday and move the smoke east again. 

Hawks Feather

Quote from: Okanagan on August 09, 2017, 08:48:31 PM
HEAVY smoke here today.  Saw a woman driving her car today with a surgical type face mask on. 

Prevailing winds off of the Pacific are supposed to return to normal on Friday and move the smoke east again.

You need some good old fashion rain without lightning.

Jerry

Okanagan

#38
11 days of breathing smoke, quite heavy today again.  My chest and breathing tubes are building up some kind of mildly irritating stuff that I can feel inside my lungs and makes me cough more all of the time.  It was supposed to blow away today. Nada.  Showers a maybe for Sunday.  I don't ever remember fires just going on and on, like a military siege.

There is a big air show scheduled for this weekend, and I've heard some planes practicing but we can't see them.  We are used to watching the show from our deck, with the runway about a mile south of our hilltop and broadside to us.  The performing planes make a lot of their turns and approaches from over our house.  Smoke so heavy I wonder if they will cancel. 

As I typed, the Canadian Snowbird jet air show team started flying around. I didn't check the schedule but it looks to me like they are practicing rather than doing a full show.  They did a line abreast low pass over our house then zoomed straight up over the airshow grandstand and went straight up and over upside down to dive back at the ground.  About half way down they started their smoke trails and it was downright funny.  I got a glimpse of smoke at the start and then nothing, no smoke showed at all as they did their big compass burst in all directions.  Then they zoom up to regroup again high above the grandstand.  We could barely see the planes themselves, and only if I kept my eyes on them and did not look off for a second.  Airshow in a forest fire smoke cloud.

pitw

  The smoke from the BC fires is thick enough here on the Eastern side of Alberta that visibility is less than 1/2 a mile and worse at times.  This morning we couldn't tell if it was clear or not for clouds until it started raining.  We got 6/10ths and the smoke just hung there.  Weird as [L].
I say what I think not think what I say.