Petaluma airport closed

dayum that's just too close to my bro's territory. really awful situation all around.
 
It's hard to comprehend, even from afar. I talked with some friends out there and they were exhausted. Like shell shocked.
It's been an environmentally rough year.
 
eman1200 said:
dayum that's just too close to my bro's territory. really awful situation all around.
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Close to my bro's territory as well. He lost his 3 mil personal residence. When he saw the fires coming toward his home he decided to evacuate his cars to an area he had 2 houses he thought was safe; that area was called coffee park...lost 2 more homes there and the cars. My folks were evacuated a couple nights ago around 1 am. They drove about 4 miles down a 2 lane with fire on both sides of the road. They said even the bots dots in the middle of the road were on fire.
 
FORANE said:
Close to my bro's territory as well. He lost his 3 mil personal residence. When he saw the fires coming toward his home he decided to evacuate his cars to an area he had 2 houses he thought was safe; that area was called coffee park...lost 2 more homes there and the cars. My folks were evacuated a couple nights ago around 1 am. They drove about 4 miles down a 2 lane with fire on both sides of the road. They said even the bots dots in the middle of the road were on fire.
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My goodness. But sounds like everyone is ok?
 
I feel for those people. Bad deal. Bad, bad deal.
 
On the plus side, events like this tend to highlight the basic goodness of people. I spent some time in an evacuation shelter that was just getting started on Monday morning. There was no one really in charge yet but evacuees were streaming in. At the same time car loads of supplies were just showing up - food, water, blankets, games for kids, etc. Lots of others came to volunteer including about 40 guys from the local coast guard training center. Meanwhile, the bowling alley next door gave away free bowling to the kids. At this point, most messages from shelters are that they have plenty of supplies and volunteers.
 
:hairraise:

I'm on the other end of San Francisco Bay from the fire areas, but these events prompted me to get rid of the large accumulations of dead leaves that were next to my house.
 
Palmpilot said:
:hairraise:

I'm on the other end of San Francisco Bay from the fire areas, but these events prompted me to get rid of the large accumulations of dead leaves that were next to my house.
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where abouts? my bro is in san rafael and I'm trying to figure out if there's any real chance of this moving his way. thanks
 
eman1200 said:
where abouts? my bro is in san rafael and I'm trying to figure out if there's any real chance of this moving his way. thanks
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You can call or text these days ya know. Just saying. Or fly your Booney out there.;):D
 
mscard88 said:
You can call or text these days ya know. Just saying. Or fly your Booney out there.;):D
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yeah but I'll get a "don't worry, we're fine" even if their house was on fire. but I'll look into this texting thing you crazy kids are using these days.
 
eman1200 said:
yeah but I'll get a "don't worry, we're fine" even if their house was on fire. but I'll look into this texting thing you crazy kids are using these days.
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Yeah I see your point there, I'd probably respond the same way. Hope they're ok E.
 
eman1200 said:
where abouts? my bro is in san rafael and I'm trying to figure out if there's any real chance of this moving his way. thanks
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I'm in Mountain View, which is 50 miles away from the nearest fire, so it might seem that I'm safe, but given the magnitude of the disaster north of the bay, I'm sure there are lots of people who thought they were safe and turned out not to be. It was only an hour or two of work, and it became manifestly clear that it didn't make sense to leave an obvious fire hazard lying around like that.

San Rafael is only ten or twelve miles from the edge of the nearest fire TFR, so I don't know if we can assume that it is a safe area. :(

https://skyvector.com/?ll=38.14355751118032,-122.55706786756531&chart=301&zoom=2&fpl= KDVO undefined CA35

On the other hand, when you look at the proximity of Petaluma Airport, presumably they chose that as a base of operations because they thought it was unlikely to get overrun by the fires, so that may be a hopeful sign. Also, a local official was quoted as saying that Petaluma is not threatened.
 
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I'm in Alameda, also around 50 miles away, and there was ash falling in my neighborhood.

Yesterday on radarbox24.com I saw that there were DC-10s, MD-87s, C-130s and a 747 fighting the fires.
 
I guess Santa Rosa airport was too close? It seems maybe to be better suited for fire fighting operations. I wonder if they are closed too? They have scheduled regional airline flights there.
 
Both the DC10 and 747 tankers are flying out of McClellan. I see them making their rounds every day.
 
Dav8or said:
I guess Santa Rosa airport was too close? It seems maybe to be better suited for fire fighting operations. I wonder if they are closed too? They have scheduled regional airline flights there.
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Santa Rosa had canceled some flights earlier in the week but I haven’t heard of anything more recently. It may be that it was easier to close Petaluma altogether. And Petaluma is closer to the nuns fire in the Sonoma Valley.
 
Any update on the status at this point? Had a friend home burn in Santa Rosa.
 
I’m about 12 miles from the Redwood Valley / Potter Valley fires and have never seen anything like this. Even the Lake County fires of last year pale in comparison. Ukiah Airport is restricted and has a temporary tower. Visibility today in Ukiah was approximately 250 yards in smoke and haze. So many homes and ranches destroyed, it will be a slow and painful recovery process. There is an upside- community support and the outpouring of help from near and afar has been incredible. Some folks have lost everything and still find it within themselves to help others.
 
Local news is now reporting that the weather has started to cooperate and firefighters feel that they have turned the corner, but there is still a LOT of work to do.
 
By coincidence, I just noticed that the current google earth image of O69 is taken when the airport was closed and the runway is covered with helos.
 
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