A town about 50 miles from me is no more… 0_0
Middletown fire
They have evacuated some areas in my county. Luckly, I don’t think I’ll have to worry about more than smoke, but it is awfully smoky here today. 
The fire remains zero percent contained.
That’s not good.
Hopefully 50 miles should be enough to keep you safe though.
It’s been spreading at a terrible rate. In eight hours it grew from 500 acres to 25,000.
@Nabiki - Please, for our peace of mind, have an evacuation plan.
I do except that I need more cat carriers. I keep meaning to buy a few more. I have an emergency kit too.
You should have said something. ACC here often has carriers to give away - they are donations that they let pet owners have.
I wish I’d known!
The fire is 15% contained now. According to weather.com, we have a 60% chance of rain tonight/tomorrow, so I’m really, really hoping we get it!
If you do have to evacuate, get the hell out of there early. Don’t leave it to the last minute.
I really don’t think I need to worry about that, thank goodness! I’m keeping an eye on the news and such, though, just so I’m aware if things change.
The fire is about 35% contained now, and there are over 3000 people fighting it now. The rain last night helped, but not enough, and we’re expecting it to get into the 90’s again by this weekend.
I wish all of the best to those who have lost their homes, businesses, and/or pets in this disaster. Thankfully there has only been one death reported so far.
Man, at least our disasters just obliterate everything in a random drunkard’s walk over the period of half an hour or so. Last major forest fire in Indiana was 1964 and took out just over 2500 acres.
Sounds like you are almost out of it though, good luck.
2500 acres? That’s like a brush fire here. The 2007 fires in San Diego County burned 250,000 acres and the 2003 ones about 300,000.
We do a lot of controlled forestry, burns, cuts, and clears, and a drought might last 45 days or so. Plus the deer eat everything.
Kind of related:
Now that the eastern half of WA state has finally stopped burning, we can get on with the cleanup. Team Rubicon has called me, and I am answering. I will be taking leave from work for the next two weeks to do fire recovery.
It will be dirty, somewhat dangerous, and great fun. I’m pretty excited for this. Because I’m active duty with the National Guard, I can’t get called up for state active duty to fight fires as so many in our state have, but I can do this in a volunteer status. It’s the beginning of the fiscal year and work has no travel money anyway, so it’s the least worst time to go. It will cause problems (and I’ll miss Siglet Secundus’ 5th birthday), but not as many as normal.
Anyway, if you are so inclined and able to kick in a few bucks, our team fundraiser page is here. TR is a non-profit run by people used to making bricks without straw, so we try to make every dollar work for a living. Every bit helps.
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Have fun & be safe out there!
Tell Secundus that daddy is giving him several acres of forest.
And keep an eye out for animals caught in trees. You could find the next Smokey the Bear or Ricky Raccoon.
Aaaand then others just started popping into my head… Suzie Squirrel, Charlie Chipmunk. Billy Beaver, John Deer (hahaha)
Aaaaaahhhh, make it stop
[Pics or it didn’t happen][1].
I had a blast.
[1]: https://goo.gl/photos/i1aPUduxJ2By5L3U7
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Man, THAT’S the kind of stuff I signed up with the Guard to do.
Wish Rubicon had been around here, then.
My unit was not activated once in the 10 years I was in… Federal or State.
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I can’t be called up to state active duty because I’m already on active duty orders; they’d have to be cut and by policy they won’t do that short of Ragnarok, Mt Everest waking up, or the Cascadia Subduction Zone zipper quakes.
This was pretty awesome, though: all of the good stuff about deployments (mission, teamwork, good buddies) without any of the stupid (basically everything else) plus beer.
Seriously, there’s a budget line item for beer. We caught some flak from national for exceeding it dramatically, but we had to explain to them that you can’t get Region X results on PBR and Miller Lite; you need Region X fuel. [FEMA Region 10 is Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Most of the crew was from Portland or Seattle area. We are… picky.]
Anyway, best vacation ever. Highly recommend.
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