General Chat

There are horrendous wildfires from California north through Oregon and Washington State, and the smoke is now travelling up into BC.

The crescent moon early this morning was orange, and the sun has just been an orangey-red ball showing through a thick haze that has got worse through the day. It's almost 6:30 pm now and it looks like a gloomy November day outside, except that there is this strange colour to it. We've had to have lights on in the house most of the day.

I think it's thicker than when we had the major fires here in BC a couple of years ago

Heaven alone knows what is going on below the line. The Oregon Governor issued warnings this morning that there might be many deaths as small towns have been totally destroyed.

A large part of the problem is that the forests of the Cascade Mountains have not been allowed to have the small occasional fire that cleared the undergrowth for many many years, plus many small towns (5,000 people or less) have sprung up as logging has taken place or people have moved out of the big cities.

There have not been any real large wild fires in these areas, so there is a huge amount of material to be burnt, even though the area is officially classified as Coastal Temperate Rain Forest, as is the coastal area of BC.

Sylvia, from what I've seen on TV it looks a whole lot worse than anything I have experienced - you know where.

I remember the accompanying smell that goes with wildfires on a large scale. Horrendous how the smell and effects travel for miles.

Is there any good reason why controlled scrub fires have not been allowed? They are, I believe, necessary, even in the dryest weather.

I recall how good it was to sit in the viewing car with a docent on the train travelling from Seattle through the Cascades to (almost) San Francisco and, now, some of those small towns may well be lost. Even worse, the death count when it is all over may be horrendous.

May heavy, continuous rain (without lightning) come soon to the whole west coast and bring relief to all of you. Your firefighters must be plumb-tuckered after all this time and it must feel like a siege to many of you.

Sylvia, my sister lives near Calgary, on the other side of the Rockies. She said a couple of days ago that they could see the orange glow above the mountains, but so far they weren't affected.

My niece lives near Vancouver and, like you, has had lights on and is keeping the windows shut because of the smell. So far, she is OK.

Sylvia we have seen the fires on the news and know they are horrendous but had not realised that the effects will have travelled to your area. How horrible for everyone, mostlt of course to the poor people living in the danger area. As Joylouise says let's hope for some torrential rain to help douse them. Thinking of you <3

My Cousin lives in Corvallis, Oregon. My avatar is a picture she took from her window looking east at 8 in the morning! People have their house lights on as the smoke is so thick it has blotted out the sun leaving a very eerie orange and yellow sky! Scary times for them out there <3

The si,tuation looks dreadful Sylvia. So much for the climate change deniers.

Just been doing the usual Sunday messaging with my sister who lives in Abbotsford BC and she was saying had been 30 all week and she had been sitting out on her patio
Today is the thick smoke and bad air quality and she sent me over a phone photo from her lounge showing it looking like a November day
She said the smell is choking too and folks have been advised to stay indoors

Today is even worse ........ the air quality in BC is the second-worse in the WORLD!

I can't even see the sun, although there is an eerie grey-orange tinge to everything.

JoyL .............. yes, there is a reason for the stopping the controlled burning, or even attempting to prevent the small natural annual fires.

You may have heard of Smokey the Bear? He was a real black bear cub found up a tree quite badly burned on his paws and legs after a forest fire in New Mexico in 1950. He was rescued and then lived in a zoo, and given the name Smokey Bear. The US Forest Service decided to use him as the symbol to stop wild fires in a campaign which had begun originally 5 or 6 years earlier.

The campaign used Smokey to say that campers and others using the forests and back country should take great care with campfires, cigarettes etc etc to prevent wild fires starting ........... seems a good idea??

That gradually developed into banning of any controlled burning OR clearing of the debris on forest floors as powers-that-be thought that it was unnecessary (not to mention that others said fires were bad for the forest industry!). So it was said that banning all burning and clearing was only for the good.

Generations of children in the US have been raised with Smokey telling them to teach their parents this.

The result of course was that when a wild fire did begin, it was much much worse as there was so much fuel. It doesn't matter much whether the cause is a campfire left burning or not put out properly, a cigarette butt thrown away, sparks or heat on dry grass from the engine and under parts of an ATV or chain saw, or a natural cause sch as lightening .............. the resulting fires were worse than before.

Climate change is just making matters even worse.

Canadian provinces all now seem to have regulations regarding a minimum distance having to be cleared of trees and shrubs, and kept clean of debris, around individual houses built in forests and the back country. We had to clear a minimum of 15' and preferably 30' around the cabin that we had. BC, and I think other provinces, now also require about a minimum 30' clearance around the margins of villages and small towns and forest.

Looking at some of the pictures of the fires, and remembering what we've seen in the past when in Oregon, Washington and California ............. those clearances don't seem to be required in the US.

If you build a log cabin, or really any kind of house, under the trees for shelter and "peace and quiet", then burning trees will be far too close. Add to that the dryness cause by climate change and the fact that candling occurs in many conifers, and these are often largely conifer forests, and there isn't much chance.

Candling is when flames reach to the tops of a conifer tree then spread by sparks leaping from tree top to tree top.

Candling is exactly what happened in the Dandenongs, Sylvia, as you will know.

CFAs there handle a lot of smaller bush fires but the city brigade is called out to the bigger ones. My friend's son was one of those who slept by the roadside the last time. He did not see his family for several days.

Your west coast fires are much wider-spread this time around I think. It must be a nightmare for everyone involved, public and emergency services. The clean-up will be horrible for they will not know what they'll find when they turn around.

Stay safe, Sylvia.

Such a terrible loss of lives, homes, wildlife and landscapes. Those places can never be the same and will take a very long time to be made habitable again. Families losing their pasts, their mementos, and their neighbourhoods, it must take strength to recover from all that.

I am sorry many people are struggling with the smoke and ash in the air. Take care everyone

Lizxx