Glass Fire Burn Zone
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. It seems like every locale where I pedal a bicycle in California eventually burns down. From Redding to Venado to Berryessa to Bizz Johnson and more, I’ve lost track of the number of places I’ve pedaled that have subsequently been consumed by fire. Of course, that probably has little to do with me. The whole damn state always seems to be burning.
The Glass Fire (aka the Glass Incident, including the Shady Fire) rammed all that home again.
9 response to "Glass Fire Burn Zone"
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I remember keeping track of the Glass fire on the map the PD provided.
Using the Montecito/Calistoga intersection as a reference point I knew your neighborhood had to be close by. And that fire (obviously) came damned close to the homes east of there, and your photos showed just how damned close!!
Fire in the Medicine Bow mountains of Wyoming is consuming areas we are familiar with as well.
No idea what the answer is . . . .
Im wondering if home (fire) insurance in CA is going to follow Earthquake insurance and become too expensive for most to afford.
Current map of wildfires in the US:
https://www.fireweatheravalanche.org/fire/
In terms of insurance, the biggest worry is — as has happened to many others — it will be cancelled and no one will be willing to insure homes right along the WUI (wildland – urban interface).
Yes, and it’s even tougher to take when the fire is human-caused. That is a whole lot to process and take in and I send many mental health hugs. The second and third-largest fires in Colorado history (in 2012 and this year) have pretty much burned through all the special places we used to hike, backpack, ride, camp, etc back in my college days. I am sad for my good friend’s daughter, who will never know the forest and those beautiful mtn trails as we did.
And, I have to believe, this is a big and immediate impact of global climate change. Right now we can see places and activities we took for granted during our lifetimes will be unavailable to our children and grandchildren.
I hate Covid and I hate forest fires. (I hate a lot of other bad stuff too, but those recent news events are at the top of my mind right now. I appreciate yours and Emily’s reminiscences of beautiful places consumed by fire. You really did well in putting a personal spin on something most of us only see from afar.
Aside from the AQI of 493 I experienced in Spokane last month I can’t say I’ve ever actually been threatened by wildfires, but I recently learned I have suffered a different kind of loss due to a California fire. I think the Mojave Desert might be my favorite little section of the U.S., but I KNOW that my favorite campsite of all-time was a dispersed site in the rugged backcountry of the Mojave National Preserve not too far from Cima, CA. It was set among millions of Joshua Trees and several spectacular desert mountains.
(Okay, I didn’t think my reply was that long, but I guess it was because it won’t post. I erased half of it and will re-write it in a separate reply.)
(PART TWO) My buddy and I discovered the the site by accident while on our trip to Death Valley and we remembered it so fondly that we searched for it again on our second trip to that great national park a decade later. (The one where we survived a flash flood in Echo Canyon.) Each of us has revisited that site separately in the years since then.
A couple of weeks ago, he e-mailed to tell me that OUR site was decimated by fire. I was crushed.
Amen. It has been a rough damn year all around, but unfortunately we probably shouldn’t view it as an anomaly. Rather, it’s just the beginning of what is likely to become ever faster and more dramatic shifts in life on planet Earth. “Grandpa, is it true that you used to be able to go for a bicycle ride outdoors? Wearing just shorts and t-shirt, and without protective gear and anti-virus helmet?”
I always felt bad for the victims of fires every year in California and elsewhere in the west, but this year it hit pretty close. The Beachie Creek Fire in Oregon came to within 8 miles of town and we were the lucky ones. Many other nearby towns were destroyed. We endured a week-long evacuation and air quality in the 500s for a week or 2 as well, but got to keep our house. So I have a new understanding of how people are impacted every fire season.
Glad to hear you made it safely through the fire. No fun to evacuate for an uncertain period of time while not knowing exactly what happened to your house. I’m sure it was a relief to return home and find it safe and sound.