When a fire pops up a mile from your house...

[TH2002]

The pictures speak for themselves.

A small brush fire popped up out of nowhere today about a mile west of my house. Thankfully the fire crews over here do great work and quickly contained the blaze.

We do have a history of bad fires around here (1980, 2003, 2013 and 2020 just to name some) at least we haven't lost our house yet.

Stay safe and weather-aware everyone!

 

[StormStalker]

I hope they get put out soon and there is no property damage! Some beautiful country out there as well. Thanks for sharing the photo.

 

[TH2002]

I hope they get put out soon and there is no property damage! Some beautiful country out there as well. Thanks for sharing the photo.

I do not know if there was any property damage (like you said let's hope there was none) but as you can see in the second photo the fire crews worked fast. I also don't know the cause and CAL FIRE doesn't even seem to have the fire listed on their website yet.

 

[TH2002]

Update: So I now know the cause. A vehicle fire on the 15 Freeway spread to nearby brush. The fire scorched 40 acres and one firefighter was injured, but thankfully no deaths and the fire was contained within a few hours.

The fire was named after my town of Devore.

 

[Jacob]

Glad they got it contained pretty quickly. I was looking at moving to the western US a few years ago (Idaho area), having a true fire season is such a foreign concept to most of the people on this board, as we don't really have that barring major drought conditions in the eastern US.

 

[TH2002]

Glad they got it contained pretty quickly. I was looking at moving to the western US a few years ago (Idaho area), having a true fire season is such a foreign concept to most of the people on this board, as we don't really have that barring major drought conditions in the eastern US.

Fire season, quakes, droughts with extreme heat, snow and even occasional tornadoes are all just part of life over here! If anything you could say we experience weather similar to the Midwest (at least in my town in the foothills) just with more recurring droughts and less tornadoes probably.

 

[warneagle]

Glad they got it contained pretty quickly. I was looking at moving to the western US a few years ago (Idaho area), having a true fire season is such a foreign concept to most of the people on this board, as we don't really have that barring major drought conditions in the eastern US.

I don't know about other people, but give me tornadoes and hurricanes over earthquakes and fires any day. I experienced one (weak) earthquake when I was living in Germany and that was more than enough for me.

 

[TH2002]

I don't know about other people, but give me tornadoes and hurricanes over earthquakes and fires any day. I experienced one (weak) earthquake when I was living in Germany and that was more than enough for me.

If I'm being honest I'd probably take tornadoes too. Our town is not far at all from the San Andreas Fault so if it ever slips again one day we're pretty much effed. But an earthquake on ths Puente Hills Fault would spare us from the worst but would be far deadlier overall. Mainly because the SAF is strike-slip and Puente Hills is a thrust fault.

Earthquakes and fires alone are bad enough, but I can't even imagine living in the Pacific NW where they have to deal with the volcanoes ON TOP of earthquakes and wildfires.

 

[TH2002]

Largest earthquakes I remeber feeling are Chino Hills 08 and Ridgecrest 2019. Both felt considerably where I live but little damage over here. On the other hand my dad was near LA when the Northridge earthquake hit in 1994 and there was considerable damage where he was.

 

[bjdeming]

Glad they got it contained pretty quickly. I was looking at moving to the western US a few years ago (Idaho area), having a true fire season is such a foreign concept to most of the people on this board, as we don't really have that barring major drought conditions in the eastern US.

Please don't let it discourage you! You will be among people who have lived with it all their lives: a fire evacuation, to them/us, is the equivalent of a hurricane evacuation on the Gulf Coast, but less frequent, I think.

Does it really matter if everything's lost to water or flames? You still lose everything.

It's necessary here to be a little more proactive (these tips are good anywhere), and aware, able to clear out before official evacs are called and move fast: wildfires are a lot more speedy than the weather sometimes.

Don't know about Idaho, but I've been in west central Oregon for seven years and last year's Labor Day fires were beyond anything I've seen here, enhanced by that cold weather system that dropped down from Canada, setting up strong winds through the passes. Most fire seasons thus far have been smaller, just the same grim thing that comes each year like hurricane season or Dixie's two tornado seasons. California does have it worse annually, I think.

And from what's going on so far this year, it's likely gonna be another bad one for much of the West.

I got a kick out of some of the comments in this thread. Just for the record, tornadoes terrify me (and other severe weather in Alabama can be scary, too!). Give me volcanoes any day!

Earthquakes can be more serious, especially if the "really big one" ever hits in our lifetime. But so far, the strongest earthquake I've experienced was a M3-something, while living in upstate New York in the early 1980s. It was centered in New Hampshire, sounded like a truck going by, and a cabinet door opened (very flimsy building); no damage, though.

They can happen anywhere.

Salem, north of us, is at a higher overall risk per FEMA's new map, but that's because of weather events as well as earthquakes. And volcanoes aren't that much of a risk, though still present (eruptions happen so rarely).

Didn't check out California or Idaho.