Mt Whitney Zone Forums The Chat Room Junction Fire

Oakhurst...

1,200 acres so far.

Fire is danger close.

Hoping for no wind or if there is wind, no shift to the south and east or we're Foxtrot Kilo Tango.

Family is safe.

Ready for evac if necessary.

BTW, the Cal Fire "ballet in the sky" last night (08-18-14) was spectacular. Seeing the DC-10 drop fire retardant was a sigh of relief for the community. You also could hear the cheers from the residents.

We were wondering how you were doing, + @ti2d. Glad you are ok.

We saw the atomic-bomb-sized plume and cloud yesterday afternoon.

Junction fire online map link.
http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.ph...o,MODIS_thermal

Click the "About this map" link for the map key. The small red dots are the MODIS data showing areas that have burned in the last 24 hours.

Note that the wind data (from NOAA) is always 3 hours old.

The fire data shown on the map comes from a GIS server run by http://www.geomac.gov/about.shtml

If the GeoMAC server ever has perimeter data for this fire then that perimeter will appear on the map.

Yet another fire in Oakhurst on September 14, 2014...

Courtney Fire...

Courtney Lane is a couple hundred yards away from my backyard...We live between the ends of Birch Circle and Mountain Lakes Road.

Everyone safe...and so is our home.

However, a couple of our friends lost their homes.

Oakhurst Strong...

Yeow!! How close to your house did the fire come?

So glad you weren't hit.

A couple hundred yards.

It was windy Sunday afternoon and the greatest concern was a wind shift blowing the fire in our direction.

Our road was spared.

Uncle Tommy got the order to evac but ignored it. He went up on the roof of his home and started watering it down as well as the perimeter around the home. While loading up his trailer to pack some valuables, he twisted his ankle.

He and his family are safe and okay and so is his home.

Across the road from his house, it was a different story...

The beautiful drive from our house to The Forks at Bass Lake is no more. The apple orchard was spared.

Every July 4th we would go to Pine Drive, park our car, and walk to the large exposed granite rock and watch the fireworks at Bass Lake...the trees and vegetation are charred sticks.

Residents were allowed to return to what was left yesterday. Some sad or teary faces, but some were smiling.

Rise, fall down, rise again.

Oakhurst Strong.

Terrifying fire

Photo gallery

Gary, so sorry to hear that but happy to hear you guys were spared.

Happy you guys blokes remained unscathed. To see all that work go up in smoke would have been very painful.

However, officials have a juvenile suspected of intentionally starting 13 arson fires in the Oakhurst area over the past several months.

They will pay...

I hope they enjoy the rest of their lives behind bars...

A "waste of life" will now lead a "wasted life"...

They will need to learn to walk with their butts against the prison walls and in the shower if you know what I mean.

I am reminded of the song, "Beer for My Horses," by Toby Keith and Willie Nelson...

Our local fire, the King Fire , was also started by an arson suspect

I and my friends have been following all the fires. The top stories on tv, radio news in So Cal are the fires. Happy to hear Gary and his family are safe and their home too. I used to have friends who lived in or near Weed, that fire was also caused by arson. The food and homes of the animals have also been destroyed. Maybe it's time to start planting berries and other vegetation to help the animals and tokeep the soil from eroding WHEN the rains fall again some day.

The fire in the hills at Santiago Canyon, about 20 miles from where I live was started by sheet metal in the sun getting hot enough to ignite dry brush.

Chronic mega-fires, extreme drought, Santa Ana winds, mudslides, earthquakes - makes me think our tornadoes, floods, and the occasional hurricane are pretty mild by comparison. Hurricanes are an ugly business (I've ridden three out in my lifetime), but the average tornado really only seriously impacts a small percentage of an area's population - although they scare the living hell out of everyone when the sirens go off.

Forest fires just confound me. They are constantly an issue in the west, which is mostly desert and high desert, but rarely in the forested east or south. There's probably some elementary factor I'm missing that explains the disparity. I suppose winds play a big part. Even during the 1000-year drought we experienced a few years ago, things never got dry enough for fires of any consequence to break out, although it was a concern since this is some of the most densly-forested land in the country. Florida, much less densly forested, had some serious multi-day blazes though. Go figure.

Good thoughts to all affected by these fires. And I agree with Gary (us Garys gotta stick together) - the arsonists that start these massive blazes need a heavy dose of hard time. Fire up your own cell mattress and see how it feels . . .

I suggest an old navy punishment called "20-20." A bucket of sand taken 20 yards and dumped. Walk 20 back to the hole you just made and fill another bucket of sand and walk twenty yards and dump it. Twenty times. Then, while standing and facing that hill of sand you just built, you fill a bucket of sand, walk those 20 yards back and fill up the hole until filled. Repeat the process for nine straight hours in any clime. This system worked. You never got in trouble again.

Only, for our little arsonist friends, you do this for 16 hours for the rest of your lives. You get 10 minutes each to eat your three "hots." That leaves you with seven and one-half hours of "cot" time. What you do with the cot time? Other than certain bodily functions, hope your conscience allows you to sleep.

The Courtney Fire is 100% contained. The rebuilding process in underway. The Oakhurst community gives thanks to the Madera County Sheriffs, California Highway Patrol, and Cal Fire. Also, Pacific Gas & Electric, the unsung heroes in all of this, deserve a hearty thanks restoring power to our area so quickly. Some of our first responders had family affected by this tragedy.

A lifetime of memories of all of those families displaced by this tragedy are erased forever.

One bitter memory remains...September 14. We will never forget this day.

The resolve is to rebuild one day at a time. Wounds do heal, but the scars remain. We will prevail as a community. We will make new memories. Time.

Country folks can survive...

Oakhurst Strong.