San Francisco Metblogs » wildfires

Not enough SF firefighters sent to battle SoCal blaze?

Mark Pritchard — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:49:26 +0000

Eight firefighters from San Francisco were among those who traveled from northern to southern California to help out with the wildfires down there, but the head of SF’s firefighters’ union says he was “embarrassed” they couldn’t send more.

“We have 250 firefighters that are highly trained, and they want to be in the middle of the fight,” said union chief John Hanley.

A spokesperson for the SFFD said the city couldn’t spare more because “some rigs were out of service” and several crews were busy all weekend battling a warehouse blaze.

Disco inferno

Mark Pritchard — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:29:20 +0000

The Calif. Dept. of Forestry, in charge of fighting the hundreds of fires around the state, has posted a PDF of the major incidents as of this morning. An interactive Google Map is also available.

Meanwhile, the sky in the Bay Area cleared Sunday and yesterday. Today it’s overcast and foggy… And after last week’s horribly smoky conditions, now I don’t know if this overcast is part smoke or what.

One of the endangered spots is Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. They have a fire blog, Sitting with Fire; a feature in the L.A. Times a few days ago documented the outpost’s preparations for the worst. The resort-cum-monastery is closed at least until July 11.

Fires dull the skies

Mark Pritchard — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:39:36 +0000

The skies are smoggy over the Bay Area this morning, as a fire in Butte County — the northernmost of the pins on the map to the left — burns near Paradise. No, really, that’s the town‘s name. The area burned as recently as 2003, when over 200 dwellings went up in smoke.

Winds from the north, bringing warm, dry air from the high desert area of eastern Oregon, are driving the smoke into the Bay Area.

Meanwhile, the Martin Fire in Santa Cruz County is only 25% contained, but cool air from the nearby ocean is slowing its spread. It’s only about 600 acres in size, while the Humboldt Fire near Paradise has already burned more than 15,000 acres. View an interactive Google map of the Martin Fire on the SJ Mercury News website.

See the Calif. Dept. of Forestry Current Fire Incidents page for updates.