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[Richard230]

I hear that a new fire broke out last night in California, near Highway 80 in the area where Don likes to ride between his homes. It is called the River Fire and is threatening the town of Colfax, which is being evacuated. The towns of Grass Valley and Auburn are being used as evacuation sites. Hopefully, this is not impacting one of Don's homes or anyone that he knows.

[Crissa]

It's way up the river and head East and North, away from Auburn.

Fast moving fires are becoming the norm, and they're pretty frightening.

-Crissa

[DonTom]

I hear that a new fire broke out last night in California, near Highway 80 in the area where Don likes to ride between his homes. It is called the River Fire and is threatening the town of Colfax, which is being evacuated. The towns of Grass Valley and Auburn are being used as evacuation sites. Hopefully, this is not impacting one of Don's homes or anyone that he knows.

Colfax is getting too close for comfort. But I just checked my Auburn house on my outside security cameras from here. All looks fine. And the AQI there is 32, so not too much smoke getting into Auburn so far.


Looks like Auburn will be the last area of CA  to burn down. All other wooded areas of CA must be burnt down by now.


When it gets hot in Auburn, I often take a swim in Rollings Lake which is in Colfax. I wonder what is left of that area.


-Don-  Reno, NV

[Curt]

One of my friends moved up to a gorgeous retirement home a couple years ago, south of Grass Valley off Dog Bar Rd, with 14 acres of hillside. He's currently evacuated and I'm crossing fingers for him.

[Richard230]

What I heard this afternoon is that Colfax has been evacuated, but there was no mention of the fire getting to it yet, but it apparently is getting close. They also said that I-80 was still open at Colfax, although smoky. Highway 174 was said to be closed.

That Dixie Fire is really a problem in Northern California. It has burned something like 322,000 acres so far and is only 32% contained. Last night it completely destroyed the downtown section of Greenville, which is located on Highway 89, northwest of Quincy. The fire is on its way toward the south shore of Lake Almanor and there is hope that the fire crews can stop it before it gets to the town of Chester, east of the Lake. These are all areas that I have been riding through during the past 20 years when BMW rallies have been held at the Plumas County fairgrounds in Quincy every September.

[DonTom]

One of my friends moved up to a gorgeous retirement home a couple years ago, south of Grass Valley off Dog Bar Rd, with 14 acres of hillside. He's currently evacuated and I'm crossing fingers for him.

Doggy Bar Road is getting kinda close to my place, it's in Christian Valley, just off of Dry Creek Road, Exit 124 on Hwy 80.  I often take a ride down Doggy Bar Road on my Zero SR.


-Don-  Reno, NV

[Richard230]

One of my friends moved up to a gorgeous retirement home a couple years ago, south of Grass Valley off Dog Bar Rd, with 14 acres of hillside. He's currently evacuated and I'm crossing fingers for him.

Doggy Bar Road is getting kinda close to my place, it's in Christian Valley, just off of Dry Creek Road, Exit 124 on Hwy 80.  I often take a ride down Doggy Bar Road on my Zero SR.


-Don-  Reno, NV

I hope Doggy Bar Road doesn't get toasted. With a name like that it needs to stick around. 

[ESokoloff]

Wild fires suck

Dodged the Woosley fire in 2018.
It came right up to the back yard.
Fortunately the winds were favorable & the HOA disks a defensible swath on all the back borders. 
I evacuated my DSR but left my 2003 BMW R1150RT (with 142k miles).

Scary morning (fire tore through the first night/morning).
Hoping to not have to deal with that EVER again. 

[Richard230]

Last night the news reported that fire crews are getting the River Fire under control and full containment is expected by next Friday. Unfortunately, over 80 homes have been destroyed so far. I-80 remains open in both directions.

But the Dixie Fire is still spreading. It is now closing in on 500K acres. It is now the second largest fire in California's history. Containment dropped yesterday from 35% to only 21% due to the size of the fire doubling within only a day or so. However, weather conditions are improving and fire fighters believe they can increase their containment lines again this week. Unfortunately, the town of Canyondam, north of Greenville, located at the southerly tip of Lake Almanor, has been added to the list of towns destroyed by the Dixie fire.

Meanwhile, northern California's electric utility, Pacific, Gas and Electric, believes that its equipment may have started the fire. If that is the case, that would ultimately likely leave the ratepayers on the hook for paying liability claims, which is not going to do anything good for electricity rates in the future.   

[DonTom]

Meanwhile, northern California's electric utility, Pacific, Gas and Electric, believes that its equipment may have started the fire.

Again, even after they do those fire safety outages?


-Don-  Reno, NV

[Richard230]

Meanwhile, northern California's electric utility, Pacific, Gas and Electric, believes that its equipment may have started the fire.

Again, even after they do those fire safety outages?


-Don-  Reno, NV

Yup. No fire safety outages so far this year. The politicians, including the Governor, are putting a lot of pressure on PG&E not to have them unless absolutely necessary. And so far this year they apparently haven't been necessary.    The only agency that has threatened blackouts is the outfit that manages the state's power grid and they are doing that because of the heatwaves in the west this year, not because of the risk of fires. 

[Crissa]

The equipment failure wasn't during a weather event.

-Crissa

[ESokoloff]

The equipment failure wasn't during a weather event.

-Crissa

No not weather related.
Even worse, maintenance related.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/07/dixie-fire-california-largest-spread

It’s now potentially deadly as of yesterday 8 individuals are unaccounted for.

A few weeks before the NorCal fires started breaking out, I observed several helicopters performing what appeared to be power line inspections potentially including private lines.
I’ve also seen SoCal Edison ground crews performing what appeared to be power line inspection/documentation work including private infrastructure (restaurant’s advertising sign in a Santa Monica mountain canyon).
Nice to see Edison being proactive.

Via Flight Radar 24 (aircraft tracking app), I’ve seen at least one of those above mentioned helicopters surveying the areas of the recent NorCal fires.
Perhaps a law firm has contracted them?

[Crissa]

They were already doing inspections.  PG&E said the fire season being two months early has meant that they weren't able to complete work in the time available.  Which aorta explains being about a month behind on this year's work if nature moved up the date.

-Crissa

[ESokoloff]

They were already doing inspections.  PG&E said the fire season being two months early has meant that they weren't able to complete work in the time available.  Which aorta explains being about a month behind on this year's work if nature moved up the date.

-Crissa

We’ll see about that.
Hopefully everyone including legislators are sick of excuses & will demand accountability.

https://www.redding.com/story/news/local/2021/08/06/did-pg-e-equipment-start-dixie-fire-california-wildfires/5514007001/