Caldor Fire explodes

[user120312]

Originally Posted by Sierra57

If they keep letting water out at the rate they are, we may see the old bridge some time in the fall.

Here's some drone footage of the old bridge published in 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpbU7fHcoR8
I have a feeling flooded auto/railroad bridge and tunnel explorers are going to have a bumper crop of experiences this year. Shasta is getting so low I might dive in myself next trip; every time I drive over the bridge I look down and am amazed. Then it's into the black of the various fire scars up there. Miles of black.

[Sierra57]

Originally Posted by Cali-Glock

I just got off the phone with my buddy who lives just off Caldor Road and who stayed up on the hill until yesterday.

I picked his brain about the start of the Fire.

Saturday 8/14: He personally called USFS Saturday about the fire and they told him not to worry.

Sunday 8/15: He called USFS on got a voice mail and left a message - they called him back Tuesday.

Monday 8/16: He and his wife walked down Caldor and there was one CalFire command vehicle. He spoke to the guy and asked what the deal was. He said the CalFire guy gave him a bit of a mini-rant about the CalFire/USFS politics and said something like "screw this political BS, in the morning I am going to bring in our crews and tractors and cut a huge line" -and went on to describe what he planned to do in the morning. Several hours later of course the fire blew up and through Grizzly.

My buddy also recounted the story about other locals talking to the USFS crews on Saturday or Sunday and asking why they were sitting in their trucks, and the crews told them they were told not to go down and fight the fire, but to wait until it got up to them.

I told him what was said at this evening's Caldor Fire Community meeting about CalFire/USFS cooperation and the claim they were working on scene on day one and my buddy lost it.

I started hearing stories like this after the Yosemite Rim Fire back in 2013, from a couple of friends who lived in the Groveland area. Of course these bureaucrat baztards are going to lie. Hundreds, maybe thousands of people who live in areas where there been wildfires know they are lying.

The question is, why are they doing this? By letting fires go until they blow up, they are deliberately risking peoples lives, property and livelyhoods. Tom McClintock is pissed at the USFS policy of let it burn, and needs to hear from people all up and down his congressional district. The idiots making these horrible decisions need to be held accountable and fired.

[Sierra57]

Originally Posted by user120312

Here's some drone footage of the old bridge published in 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpbU7fHcoR8
I have a feeling flooded auto/railroad bridge and tunnel explorers are going to have a bumper crop of experiences this year. Shasta is getting so low I might dive in myself next trip; every time I drive over the bridge I look down and am amazed. Then it's into the black of the various fire scars up there. Miles of black.

Neat stuff. I had forgotten the old bridge was out of the water in 2015. I wasn't living up here then, but a couple of my friends told me about it.

[Sierra57]

Originally Posted by Cup of Cheese

They're drawing the northern line at Wentworth Springs Road? Wow!

One of my cousins owns 9 cabins at Fallen Leaf. My brothers and I stayed at one about 5 weeks ago. I bet cousin is started to get worried and pissed and the way this fire is moving closer. When we were there, he and his wife were pissed about the Tamarack Fire that was burning to the south of them.

[Section 101]

Originally Posted by Cup of Cheese

They're drawing the northern line at Wentworth Springs Road? Wow!

Wentworth springs stops at union valley reservoir. Ice house road goes south.

[Jason_2111]

Originally Posted by Cali-Glock

Just finished a series of text with a firefighter friend (Amador County) who told me that understanding of how to read the structures damage status website was correct, and that it was indicating that it was not listed because it was outside the fire zone itself (it basically circled around me 3200 to 1700 feet with spot fires inside that perimeter) Whoo-hoo!!

I won't count all my chickens till this is over and I can see it with my own eyes, but I feel pretty good about it!!

If we both end up unscathed... I'm having you over for a BBQ.

Some things I forgot to mention in my earlier update (I was on my phone, for some reason Safari isn't letting me run Calguns)

1. The smoke was bad... it was like twilight (and not the sparkly vampires) up on Sly Park. The amount of ash on my property was disturbing... thankfully I had a hold-out neighbor go cut my sun-shade down. I did find a burnt leaf on my front steps... I saved it. I'm going to frame it as a reminder. The mid-day twilight reminded me of the oil fires in Kuwait... but my buddy assured me that "Smoke good, fire bad... if it's heavy smoke, it's not burning really hot".

2. They set up a retardant filling station for the choppers at that old poultry farm on Pleasant Valley road... the one with the horses on the gate. I saw choppers come in, drop a hose, suck up more pink snot, then bolt out. While getting my ammo out, we heard choppers about every 3 to 4 minutes... those guys made a hell of a lot of round trips. Suck, fly, dump, fly, suck, repeat. A check of the flight radar showed them bombing my hot spot.... a great relief.

3. That pink snot was also manually sprayed all along Sly Park on the telephone poles, big trees, etc. Good thinking.

4. A little web research shows that this stuff is nasty... it causes cancer, nuerological issues, etc. If your property has been bombed... you might want to reconsider eating tomatoes out of the garden for a while. (still beats a burnt out husk where your house used to be).

5. Next-door is reporting a new fire on Mosquito Road & Highland. So far only one website I've been able to find shows it... no other information... nothing on satellite. This freaks me out a-new, since I'm pretty close by in my buddy's evac house looking down a really big gorge full of nice dry trees. I really don't want to lug all of this crap to a new location.

6. I need a bigger truck, with a big trailer. I think this experience will convince Mrs. 2111 that such a purchase is a wise thing in the future.

7. There's a new waitress at Bricks... can't remember her name, but she's hot. Being able to relax enough to actually eat something was nice... I've dropped 10 pounds so far. New diet plan?

8. I've got a buddy up in the area as a hold-out. He's keeping an eye out for looters and such... should any enter my area, they won't have a good day.

[user120312]

If homeowners wish to pre-treat their own properties with decent residual effect, Phos-Chek is available in small quantities though I believe it's not pretty pink like the airdropped stuff, I would imagine the pink is a colorant so they can see what they've done.

Here's the SDS:
https://images.thdstatic.com/catalog...5b8a2140fa.pdf
Home Depot sells it for about 30 bucks a gallon and that makes about five gallons of spray at an application rate of 100sq/ft per gallon.

I noted the other day Juan Browne did a little episode on this at a friend's home which survived the River Fire and outlined the measures the owner had performed, including spraying the product, to make the property fire-resistant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiUHjtLSZZ8

[Bainter1212]

Originally Posted by Jason_2111

If we both end up unscathed... I'm having you over for a BBQ.

Some things I forgot to mention in my earlier update (I was on my phone, for some reason Safari isn't letting me run Calguns)

1. The smoke was bad... it was like twilight (and not the sparkly vampires) up on Sly Park. The amount of ash on my property was disturbing... thankfully I had a hold-out neighbor go cut my sun-shade down. I did find a burnt leaf on my front steps... I saved it. I'm going to frame it as a reminder. The mid-day twilight reminded me of the oil fires in Kuwait... but my buddy assured me that "Smoke good, fire bad... if it's heavy smoke, it's not burning really hot".

2. They set up a retardant filling station for the choppers at that old poultry farm on Pleasant Valley road... the one with the horses on the gate. I saw choppers come in, drop a hose, suck up more pink snot, then bolt out. While getting my ammo out, we heard choppers about every 3 to 4 minutes... those guys made a hell of a lot of round trips. Suck, fly, dump, fly, suck, repeat. A check of the flight radar showed them bombing my hot spot.... a great relief.

3. That pink snot was also manually sprayed all along Sly Park on the telephone poles, big trees, etc. Good thinking.

4. A little web research shows that this stuff is nasty... it causes cancer, nuerological issues, etc. If your property has been bombed... you might want to reconsider eating tomatoes out of the garden for a while. (still beats a burnt out husk where your house used to be).

5. Next-door is reporting a new fire on Mosquito Road & Highland. So far only one website I've been able to find shows it... no other information... nothing on satellite. This freaks me out a-new, since I'm pretty close by in my buddy's evac house looking down a really big gorge full of nice dry trees. I really don't want to lug all of this crap to a new location.

6. I need a bigger truck, with a big trailer. I think this experience will convince Mrs. 2111 that such a purchase is a wise thing in the future.

7. There's a new waitress at Bricks... can't remember her name, but she's hot. Being able to relax enough to actually eat something was nice... I've dropped 10 pounds so far. New diet plan?

8. I've got a buddy up in the area as a hold-out. He's keeping an eye out for looters and such... should any enter my area, they won't have a good day.

The trailer idea has been knocking around my head for awhile.
I think that a decent sized triple axle dump trailer would be best all-around (unless you have livestock). You can haul any type of debris or landscaping material, you can load up your quads, sxs, or even a skidsteer. You can build up the sides with 2x4s and move your household with it......
Really the jack-of-all-trades when it comes to moving stuff.

Anyway....good luck

[JagerDog]

FYI > 10K GVW for trailer requires a class A license.

[Jason_2111]

Originally Posted by Bainter1212

The trailer idea has been knocking around my head for awhile.
I think that a decent sized triple axle dump trailer would be best all-around (unless you have livestock). You can haul any type of debris or landscaping material, you can load up your quads, sxs, or even a skidsteer. You can build up the sides with 2x4s and move your household with it......
Really the jack-of-all-trades when it comes to moving stuff.

Anyway....good luck

Originally Posted by JagerDog

FYI > 10K GVW for trailer requires a class A license.

Good info to know, thanks guys!

[Cali-Glock]

Originally Posted by user120312

If homeowners wish to pre-treat their own properties with decent residual effect, Phos-Chek is available in small quantities though I believe it's not pretty pink like the airdropped stuff, I would imagine the pink is a colorant so they can see what they've done.

Here's the SDS:
https://images.thdstatic.com/catalog...5b8a2140fa.pdf
Home Depot sells it for about 30 bucks a gallon and that makes about five gallons of spray at an application rate of 100sq/ft per gallon.

I noted the other day Juan Browne did a little episode on this at a friend's home which survived the River Fire and outlined the measures the owner had performed, including spraying the product, to make the property fire-resistant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiUHjtLSZZ8

I watched about half of Juan Brown's video. I checked this out before, and from what I recall I figured offhand I would need a 55 gallon container and a professional mobile spray rig to be able to put out 250 or so gallons of retardant. Really I would want to put out more... and if I am investing the $$, I might as well have a lot more of the concentrate to treat some other properties as well...

Long story but about six years ago I was involved in helping set up a veg management operation that built up a couple of light wildland firefighting rigs for use in the field to fight very small fires while doing their operations. They were set up on new CrewCab F350s 4x4s with reinforced suspensions - the rigs themselves were a few bucks. My email archive no longer goes back that far - I'll try to dig up some photos of one of those rigs or the supplier/builder. My web searches are not being successful.

That prompted me to daydreaming about setting up my own deal and doing some back of a napkin math, and even with bargain basement build it was going to be a pretty penny. It is not like I don't have a dozen other things I need to do around the house and property that costs $$. I shrugged and said to myself it would be nice to have the money to set up a system like that.

[Cali-Glock]

Originally Posted by Jason_2111

If we both end up unscathed... I'm having you over for a BBQ.

Some things I forgot to mention in my earlier update (I was on my phone, for some reason Safari isn't letting me run Calguns)

1. The smoke was bad... it was like twilight (and not the sparkly vampires) up on Sly Park. The amount of ash on my property was disturbing... thankfully I had a hold-out neighbor go cut my sun-shade down. I did find a burnt leaf on my front steps... I saved it. I'm going to frame it as a reminder. The mid-day twilight reminded me of the oil fires in Kuwait... but my buddy assured me that "Smoke good, fire bad... if it's heavy smoke, it's not burning really hot".

2. They set up a retardant filling station for the choppers at that old poultry farm on Pleasant Valley road... the one with the horses on the gate. I saw choppers come in, drop a hose, suck up more pink snot, then bolt out. While getting my ammo out, we heard choppers about every 3 to 4 minutes... those guys made a hell of a lot of round trips. Suck, fly, dump, fly, suck, repeat. A check of the flight radar showed them bombing my hot spot.... a great relief.

3. That pink snot was also manually sprayed all along Sly Park on the telephone poles, big trees, etc. Good thinking.

4. A little web research shows that this stuff is nasty... it causes cancer, nuerological issues, etc. If your property has been bombed... you might want to reconsider eating tomatoes out of the garden for a while. (still beats a burnt out husk where your house used to be).

5. Next-door is reporting a new fire on Mosquito Road & Highland. So far only one website I've been able to find shows it... no other information... nothing on satellite. This freaks me out a-new, since I'm pretty close by in my buddy's evac house looking down a really big gorge full of nice dry trees. I really don't want to lug all of this crap to a new location.

6. I need a bigger truck, with a big trailer. I think this experience will convince Mrs. 2111 that such a purchase is a wise thing in the future.

7. There's a new waitress at Bricks... can't remember her name, but she's hot. Being able to relax enough to actually eat something was nice... I've dropped 10 pounds so far. New diet plan?

8. I've got a buddy up in the area as a hold-out. He's keeping an eye out for looters and such... should any enter my area, they won't have a good day.

I am glad you were able to get in and rescue your .22LR hoard!!!

I have not checked any of the fire updates yet.

[user120312]

Yeah, startup for a good sized property could be steep. Those of us who've been in the game for decades and have built the equipment up slowly over time, not so daunting, and I'll bet one could home brew some good fire retardant themselves. It's easy enough to test, spray, let sit, apply heat, see what happens.

I've got a PTO attachment that takes a horizontal 55 with a ag spray pump on it, mostly for spraying that other carcinogen, glyphosate, though lately I just hit the weeds with the flail mower. Thank goodness that era is over in Oregon, just a bit of pruning here and there.
When I looked at property up near Lake Almanor and into Modoc County, fire was on my mind; all it takes is driving through miles of black to see how it changes things in an instant and can be largely out of our control. Beautiful country though, otherwise.

TBH, if in a mountain neighborhood in such circumstances, I'd likely pick up and maintain a used fire engine; for someone with the background they're not too difficult to maintain and are really flexible in fighting small fires. Our local area has a volunteer FD, thank goodness, else help would be an hour or more away. I guess they don't get called much because the tsunami (old air raid) siren is what calls them and I rarely hear it.

Back on the Caldor Fire, it appears to be steadily marching east and GOES has it pretty much getting into Strawberry but I haven't checked ground reports. On the west, it appears Sly Park Road is holding though all current infrared still show heat blooms impacting the easterly side of it. With the wind blowing to the west this morning, I hope that holds.

The east and southeast flanks appear to be burning steadily into unburned areas and I'll bet that'll continue until it runs out of fuel in the timberline.

Here's the directory for this morning's run of CalFire products:
https://ftp.wildfire.gov/public/inci...ucts/20210826/

[Spyder]

It's looking very bad for the next few days. Lots of high winds, traffic in S. Tahoe is getting out of hand with people getting out, evac orders went out for expanded areas, and all around general bad potential. I hope the current dozer lines stop it.

[Section 101]

Originally Posted by Spyder

It's looking very bad for the next few days. Lots of high winds, traffic in S. Tahoe is getting out of hand with people getting out, evac orders went out for expanded areas, and all around general bad potential. I hope the current dozer lines stop it.

Not looking good. Desolation has no toads. Looks like it will also move along through sierra at Tahoe up to echo summit.

[otteray]

Originally Posted by Spyder

It's looking very bad for the next few days. Lots of high winds, traffic in S. Tahoe is getting out of hand with people getting out, evac orders went out for expanded areas, and all around general bad potential. I hope the current dozer lines stop it.

Yikes; that's worrisome. At the update last evening, the CalFire meteorologist said grfeatly diminished winds through the weekend, leading to lower temps under the smoke clouds..
My second home is a few miles from the evac warning area, in Tahoma, Westshore Tahoe. My boat is there too; but too much smoke and not worth the risk of getting trapped in a sudden exodus on the one way out to Truckee. I'm glad that some of my neighbors and I had recently trimmed trees up and cleared pine needles.

[Jason_2111]

I really need to get out of the habit of looking at the satellite imagery first thing in the morning before I'm fully awake. Before I realize the map is not accurate (it's accurate for what it is, not how I'm using it). Dang thing shows fire a couple of hundred feet away, but my hold-out buddy doesn't see any flames.

Apparently they started yet another controlled burn off of sly park... This one closer. I wish they'd stop playing with this damn thing and put it out... There are other ways to clear forest besides risking a ton of homes.

One tiny oops and the freedom bunker burns.

[Cali-Glock]

Originally Posted by Jason_2111

I really need to get out of the habit of looking at the satellite imagery first thing in the morning before I'm fully awake. Before I realize the map is not accurate (it's accurate for what it is, not how I'm using it). Dang thing shows fire a couple of hundred feet away, but my hold-out buddy doesn't see any flames.

Apparently they started yet another controlled burn off of sly park... This one closer. I wish they'd stop playing with this damn thing and put it out... There are other ways to clear forest besides risking a ton of homes.

One tiny oops and the freedom bunker burns.

Facebook blew up last night with people in Pleasant Valley posting photos of the fire as it pushed it's way south from Sly Park.

The maps this morning don't look as bad as I thought they might be.

[Jason_2111]

Bad news... While the bulldozer line along sly park is holding... Last night a new fire popped up on the other side of the line to the south and west, and is up to 18 acres. The smoke is too thick for aircraft, so there's ground crew hitting it. This is bad.

This is what happens when I start thinking things are going to be ok.

Well, they were... But they keep lighting more "controlled burns", and then get surprised when "Oh wait, this is bad" happens.

[Jason_2111]

I went up there today to evac a holdout. Fortunately I remembered my p100 respirator... That smoke is terrible.
Good little statist CHP wouldn't let me go in a mile to pull out a guy with a car that wouldn't start.

Got me thinking... If/when they cone for our guns... It'll be this type of guy that won't hesitate to follow orders.

[spegull03]

I just realized this thread got moved, I just thought no one was posting about it anymore. Anyways I've been helping out at the large animal shelter in Plymouth which is rapidly filling, and the one in Placerville off Cold Springs is full. Horses/goats/sheep/pigs/chickens ***** a lot!

I bought P100's last year after being socked in from the lightning fires for a month, they are getting some use today that's for sure. Sending out prayers for you guys up there.

[user120312]

Took a look at the eastern GOES this afternoon and hmm, looks like Strawberry is being overrun right now and, on the southeastern flank, the fire is less than four miles from Kirkwood and appears to be moving steadily in that direction. From my recollection not much understory up there but a lot of standing dead and dying and if a crown fire gets going it could make a real mess in the whole Silver Lake/Kirkwood corridor. Winds appear to be blowing directly east.

[California_Deplorable]

Originally Posted by user120312

Took a look at the eastern GOES this afternoon and hmm, looks like Strawberry is being overrun right now and, on the southeastern flank, the fire is less than four miles from Kirkwood and appears to be moving steadily in that direction. From my recollection not much understory up there but a lot of standing dead and dying and if a crown fire gets going it could make a real mess in the whole Silver Lake/Kirkwood corridor. Winds appear to be blowing directly east.

I watched the calfire update from last night and they didnt seem very concerned about the fire in Division J and L around Kirkwood and Silver Lake. They said things were going well and the fire wasnt moving much.

It gets a lot rockier up there and less trees.

8/27 evening update:
https://youtu.be/n39plyVZniE

Just watched this evening's update above. Dozer lines are in on div L tied in to div J. Burn ops tonight on J.

https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/20...-100899f9bd9a/

[user120312]

Except around the lakes the 88 corridor is pretty sparsely populated in the fire path so any burning won't really affect the human population. Still a lot of timber up there that hasn't burned in decades, if not a century or more. The Hwy 50 corridor is far more concerning. Timber is more dense and there are a lot of structures in those canyons.

Looks like some further intrusions on Division D, Sly Park Road at Pleasant Valley Rd on the western flank....
https://sartopo.com/map.html#ll=38.6...2Cwxd_wgust-01
Comparing the satellite to the newly prepared map it ooks like it overran their dozer lines...
https://ftp.wildfire.gov/public/inci...24030_0828.pdf
The 8/28 maps are out now...
https://ftp.wildfire.gov/public/inci...ucts/20210828/

[Cali-Glock]

Aaahhhh snapdragons…

They are doing a great job of keeping the NW corner of the fire away from E-16, but it is getting pushed south… toward the SW corner. As someone else said - it looks like this ugly pincher is closing on us.

The NW corner was about 2 miles from the SW corner last night.

I have not measured it yet tonight, but it is closer this evening, plus burning east into the unburned area inside the mouth.

[user120312]

Looks like the southeastern flank is still climbing the hill, the southern edge of it is within a couple miles of 88 in the Silver Lake area, the moonscape should be impeding progress presently.




Meanwhile, the northeastern flank is marching steadily toward Fallen Leaf Lake.

[California_Deplorable]

Originally Posted by user120312

Looks like the southeastern flank is still climbing the hill, the southern edge of it is within a couple miles of 88 in the Silver Lake area, the moonscape should be impeding progress presently.




Meanwhile, the northeastern flank is marching steadily toward Fallen Leaf Lake.

Kind of looks like its been in the same spot west of Kirkwood for past few days. Hoping all those big granite rock faces are slowing it down some.

[Section 101]

They did a controlled burn behind the strawberry general store. A fire started on the south side of 50 behind the cabins.

[user120312]

I'm capturing images when doing daily checks and storing them on Imgur. The CalFire mapping directories are great resources for very detailed mapping of the daily fire progress. Also, one can zoom the SAR map to get individual MODIS/VIIRS data time snapshots. This sample from this morning shows both the GOES image timestamp and the MODIS/VIIRS timestamps.

https://sartopo.com/map.html#ll=38.6...2Cwxd_wgust-01
There's a legend on the map page which indicates the currency of the images. Generally, more red is more recent and in the case of GOES, that can be minutes recent since it updates multiple times an hour but is not nearly as accurate distance wise as the other methods.

Here's this morning's airops map:
https://ftp.wildfire.gov/public/inci...24030_0829.pdf

I noted the fire apparently overran the Division L dozer line. I'm watching Silver Lake because friends have a cabin there.

On the northeast flank, MODIS is showing some forward spotting into a ski area south of 50 plus further movement to the north and northeast...
https://sartopo.com/map.html#ll=38.7...2Cwxd_wgust-01
I linked this morning's images instead of posting them graphically to save forum real estate. The weather report has high country temps markedly cooling over the next week with lows in the Kirkwood area approaching freezing. Hopefully that spells some respite and slowing of the fire's progress.

[spegull03]

88 is now closed, and red flag warning starts Monday 11am through Tuesday night. Ugh

[Section 101]

15+ winds now. Looks like they may have containment around strawberry. The www.alertwildfire.org camera from sierra at tahoe shows the fire moving that way.

[Cali-Glock]

The 5pm Caldor Fire briefing was dire.

The good news:

• Protected Strawberry
• Protecting Sierra at Tahoe
• Overall kicking-butt at saving houses
• Fire-truck crews, Bulldozer crews, Hand crews are at Kirkwood prepping the area for the fire
• There was little wind today

The bad news:

• The fire kicked their butts today jumping dozer lines and moving steadily eastward
• Lots of wind predicted the next few days
• Lots of concern about significant fire movement in the next few days
• Mandatory and voluntary evacuations: Western-most parts of SLT, Highway 89 from 50 to Alpine County, more of Highway 88, 50, etc
• Some problematic areas in the west (some challenging portions even without wind and the possibility of the "western island" being at risk due to the wind)

This briefing was more sober than they have been in a few days.

4:30pm Evacuation Orders Press Release

[Cali-Glock]

8/29/2021 5:30PM

Code Red Notice

This is the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office with an emergency message for your area. There is currently a fire in your area that is under a Mandatory evacuation order. You must leave your residence immediately in a safe manner. Please follow Emergency personnel's directions. Area of Christmas Valley from Highway 89 south to the Alpine County / El Dorado County Line. Meyers, east as far as the Elks Club / Sawmill Roads. Pioneer Trail as far north as Elks Club. North Upper Truckee through to the intersection with Tahoe Mountain Road and Lake Tahoe Blvd. Please evacuate the area using eastbound Highway 50 to the State of Nevada

[Cali-Glock]

Photos from Silver Lake on Highway 88

[Cali-Glock]

Sierra at Tahoe 5:55pm (8/29/2021) http://www.alertwildfire.org/tahoe/i...ra=Axis-Sierra

[Cali-Glock]

Detailed fire/wind review and forecast:

[FatCity67]

Buddy patrolling mountain communities on loan from Local PD snapped this pic.

[Jason_2111]

Dang it. I'm down sick with covid, so I haven't been watching the progress... too much stress. I made the mistake of looking. It's in the "hundreds of yards" from my house.

Something I've noticed from the other day though when I went and pulled out my buddy, and got a good dose of the smoke: The respirator worked great, but I did pull it off for a bit to have a conversation with an a-hole CHP guy (rather than trying to shout through it).
Now I've got this big red ring of inflammation where the mask was.

My theory: Being all hot and sweaty wearing the respirator, my pores were wide open. The smoke has a certain amount of poison oak in it... this whole area is thick with the stuff. Enough got in, and then the mask rubbed it in... now I've got poison oak on my face.

I keep thinking of that scene from Blue Velvet with Dennis Hopper.... "Mommy! Mommy!"

Keeping fingers crossed for all of us... bad winds coming tomorrow, and the only thing the news is talking about is Tahoe.

[California_Deplorable]

Depressing. Thanks for the photos Cali-Glock.

[Cali-Glock]

CALDOR FIRE
INCIDENT UPDATE
Date: 8/29/2021 Time: 7:00 p.m

Updated & sent out 4:48pm
CAL FIRE NEWS RELEASE California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Originally released at 4:30pm)

Evacuation Maps (red=mandatory yellow=voluntary/warning)