Heat, risk of fires, rip current pose danger in Bay Area this weekend

Ugh!

We are as unprepared for wildland fires as we were for Covid 19. Prevention and the creation of standby emergency response capability - not paper plans but people and equipment - are always underfunded because we believe it won't happen here.

WRONG! Sept and October are our highest wildland fire risk months.

The next big fire could very easily be on the Bay side of Skyline with thousands of homes that are NOT DEFENDABLE because they have happily been built in fuel rich areas (trees and brush) on narrow roads that will both impede evacuation and fire response. Many of those homes will be destroyed and hundreds of people will be trapped attempting to evacuation and may well perish.


Please be very careful with all fire sources(barbecues, lawn mowers, auto exhausts, etc.) and be prepared to evacuate. Have a go bag and a plan and don't wait to be told if you sense danger.

For anyone who thinks that "it can't happen here" on the flat lands of the peninsula look at this graphic video of the wind driven Alameda Drive Fire which started in north Ashland Or and destroyed most of the towns of Talent and Phoenix. Note the relatively light tree canopy - most of the fuel was the homes themselves.

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Former US Forest Service Smokejumper

The Glass Fire in Napa County reminds us that the fire season is not over and that even flat land areas are at great risk.

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When will our local elected and appointed officials realize that we have a crisis and that immediate action needs to be taken to reduce fuel loads, revise building codes, retrofit existing structures, develop realistic evacuation plans and upgrade our fire detection and suppression capabilities?

We have our collective heads buried in the sand.

This is why the areas between the Bay and Skyline would be very dangerous if there is a fire here - NONE of it has burned in over a century:

"Cal Fire records show that the Glass Fire roared through one of the last territories in that part of Sonoma County that had avoided fires for more than a century - making it rich in vegetation that helped fuel its rapid growth.

"While it did burn very rapidly because it had not burned in a long long time"

When vineyards, which are on relatively flat land or mildly sloped hillsides and have virtually no undergrowth or tree canopy, burn then why would anybody think that the Peninsula from the Bay to Skyline won't burn:

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All it takes is an ignition source, low humidity and winds blowing from the point of ignition towards any available fuel.

Thanks, Peter, for the reminder and information. We all do earthquake prep but seem to ignore the real possibility of fire.