Tips for those Affected by Loss via the Fire

this came through on the Sonoma County Conscious Community Housing website:


passing this on: REPOSTING - pass along to people affected by the fire.
This came from a someone who was a victim of the 1991 fire:
"I'm reading up on the devastation of the Napa and Sonoma county fires. This is now the worst fire in the history of Northern California. Formerly the #1 (now comes 2nd) is the Oakland Hills fire in 1991. Unbeknownst to many except a few friends in my circle I, along with my 3 other UC Berkeley roomates, were victims of that 1991 fire when our apartment in the North side near the Caldecott Tunnel burned downed.
Reading this made me remember what I did back then to help fire victims such as myself. If you know anyone affected by the fire please advise them to:
(1) Contact their insurance companies. Most will cover hotel stays, apart from the usual coverage.
(2) Call their credit card companies and have the last 3-6 months of their purchases reimbursed back (get a police report that testifies you are a fire victim).
(3) If you are renting and are a minor, your parents' home insurance may cover your belongings (this is how I got my stuff reimbursed through my parent's home insurance even if they lived 300 miles away at that time).
(4) Call your chain retail stores and see what they can offer to fire victims (I remember GAP gave away free clothes to fire victims up to $500 per person...yes my roommates and I were like walking GAP ads bed literally that was all the clothes we had).
(5) Get as many resources and information as you can and keep passing the info around. You will see the kindness of strangers and the familial treatment of friends.
My prayers to anyone you know affected by this devastation."

I did about 80 days of controlled burns last year to help me deal with a situation similar to what Santa Rosa is facing now.

My experience is that water is great for keeping a fire from starting, but not very useful for putting out a fire once a large mass of fuel has started burning.

I have talked to a few people in the Santa Rosa area and gotten an update on the weather Wednesday afternoon - 12 to 13 miles per hour was the forecast. "Yes we are having wind gusts" was the word from one or 2 of the people I talked with about 3:30 Wednesday afternoon.

I am glad to hear that some people have acted on their own and are wetting down flammable areas of their homes, e.g. wood decks & flammable roof materials.

I am curious if there is any organized effort to build the fireline by having entire neighborhoods sprinkle vulnerable areas at the appropriate time, Wednesday night for example. I'm aware of the drought. But if there was ever a time to Sprinkle Water Consciously, this is it.


QUESTIONS -

Did the fire departments or private people do controlled burns during the early part of the day, when (Wed. Oct 11) humidity is slightly higher, and the wind is low ?

In the South and Western parts of Santa Rosa ? (places where embers from the ongoing flames in Bennett Valley, and Oakmont, might fall.)

When I do this myself (controlled burn under adverse conditions), I set up sprinklers for a 1/2 hour, and cordon off all 4 sides of a dry area I want to burn, with Wet. Obviously, timing is everything. That was safe to do this morning, but is not safe now.

One of the other things I have learned about fires is - those darned blue tarps you see all over rural and perhaps suburban American. Surprisingly flammable, up there with dry Scotch Broom and Gorse and Cedar. It relates to what happens when an ember lands on the tarp - it sticks and keeps burning.

At least with the woody materials the ember has a chance to bounce off and maybe not burn anything.

If you have any kind of plastic tarps on your property, I suggest moving them indoors during these fire conditions.

There was a backfire set on Wed. Here is the local paper story, it's brief.

https://24online.news/link/158638_ba...ast-santa-rosa

PRESS DEMOCRAT STAFF
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | October 11, 2017, 5:19PM
| Updated 4 hours ago.
Massive smoke plume from backlit fire rises over southeast Santa Rosa
A massive plume of smoke over southeast Santa Rosa late Wednesday afternoon was part of a firing operation to slow the spread of a fire threatening Bennett Valley, said Bennett Valley Battalion Chief Darren DeCarli

The operation was done above Annadel Heights. Firefighters have been working in the area all day attempting to get a solid containment line on that section of fire.

The plume of smoke rose over southeast Santa Rosa just before 5 p.m.

A large area of Trione-Annadel State Park’s 5,000 acres already has burned from the Nun fire since Sunday.

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/csp/me...YPE=image/jpeg