Posted by NorCal Dave on Tuesday, June 26, 2007 at 14:51:54 :
In Reply to: Willy-N !!! They need you --- posted by Mark S. on Tuesday, June 26, 2007 at 12:33:05 :
I was up there on Sunday and its ugly. Hwy 50 was closed when I came down, except for all the fire trucks headed up, about 50 of them about 6pm Sunday from all over Northern California. Sacramento, Davis, Bay Area. Only 4 hours after it started.
Took out 2500 acres and over 200 structures from 2:20 pm to 6am the following morning. There was so much smoke hanging in the basin, along with 300ft flame lengths, and severe eratic winds, that they could not arial attack. Basically the fire climbed into the canopy and it was all over.
There will be some criticism though, since they devoted all resources to save the old high school late in the afternoon, and left the neighborhoods to burn. Of course, I think much of them had burned already.
Its going to be a very long, dry, firey summer here in the west. Between it being dry; and all the bark beetle infestation; and the TRPA (Tahoe Regional Planning Agency) not allowing any tree to be removed; we expect more fires.
My hats off to the fire-fighters though. You can see that even they were scared by how fast this one went. Its not often you see a fire-fighter surprised.
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