Wildfire!

[Tunnelcat]

Although I didn't take this particular picture, this was what the scene looked like last Friday night around 10:00PM from my neighbor's back deck, which is right across the street from my house. Needless to say, even though our section of the neighborhood wasn't evacuated, it was damn scary to watch. The fire was only a mile from my house as the crow flies too. A couple of houses right next to the fire area had some slight fire damage, but no one lost any structures thankfully. The wind had been blowing at a pretty good pace from the NE all day and fortunately for me, the neighborhood and the firefighters, it died down during the evening, but not before it spread the fire downhill right up against some homes and apartments. We've had a record summer here with almost NO rain. Come to think of it, winter was mostly dry too.

[CUDA]

Ya feeling the air quality effects here in Oregon City. BAD

glad you're OK

[Tunnelcat]

The air is pretty bad down here with this little fire and that Oakridge fire south of us. Thankfully they've quit most of the grass field burning in the valley this time of year, or we'd sufficate. Time for winter now?

[Sirius]

Let's see if we can reverse that global warming for 6 months.

[sigma]

The fire was only a mile from my house as the crow flies too.

We had an even more amazing event. One winter day, five years ago, burned down the house of our neighbor who is (or rather was) at a distance of 10 meters ( ) from our house (we do not live in a country house in the winter, so we learned about this incident when we got a call the other neighbors). So, in our house just burst all the windows and melted siding, but no further damage was not. Maybe because our house made of bricks, but most likely was just frosty calm weather, otherwise the consequences would have been much more serious.

[Tunnelcat]

My house is covered with what's called synthetic stucco. It is NOT fireproof because under the thin layer of exterior vinyl-based stucco is inch thick Styrofoam over plywood sheathing. Get it near heat, it would first melt, then catch fire like gasoline. My house would become a giant torch. At least the roof tiles are made of concrete, which are fire proof. I do have a plant called "Arborvitae" planted along one side of the property and somewhat close to the house. That plant would go up like a match if a spark even came near it. If a really close fire ever got going, I'd have to fire up my chain saw, cut them down and drag them away from the house to keep them from setting the whole house on fire.

By the way, the Corvallis Fire Department calls this fire "human caused". They haven't said what type of human caused, but I'm guessing either someone threw a cigarette while walking their dog, or a homeless person's campfire got away from them. We have quite a few homeless people camping out in the woods up here. There are so many vagrants up here now that I don't go out walking on the trails by myself anymore.

[CUDA]

Get a Gun.



whoops wrong forum

[sigma]

If you are worried about fire safety, you can simply make an additional outer wall around the house of bricks with a thickness of half a brick. In addition, in the heat in the house will be noticeably cooler. In my opinion, it is quite simple, fast and low-cost solution to this problem. Maybe even add fireproof shutters on the windows.

Gun for a woman? In my opinion, it is too radical solution. Weapons must not only be able to use, but also to know in which cases it can be used, and what is not. If you use the wrong weapon, the same homeless burn at night or a car or a house. Better to have a dog. For example, a Rottweiler. I think you will be able to calm enough to walk with him anywhere, given your difficult conditions. In addition, the homeless, too, can be a dogs, and this is an excellent opportunity to find a common language and make friends.

[Tunnelcat]

sigma, I own a pistol and a shotgun. I can shoot both just fine and I always hit dead center what I aim at. If you were here, I'd challenge you to a target practice session and see who's more accurate. I can consistently put a small grouping of shots in any target's head area with my 9mm pistol.

[sigma]

Without a doubt, this is useful skills that give you confidence, but wait, you want to declare war on the homeless, or you want to walk freely in your area without a shotgun and body armor?

[Tunnelcat]

I don't have a license to carry a concealed gun in public sigma, nor do I want to declare war on the homeless either. I'd get a carry permit if I was serious about wandering around in the woods alone. Walking alone in desolate places is really a female concern by the way. Plus, we have wildlife here other than humans, like cougars and coyotes, looking for an easy snack.

Wow, it just got really smokey out today. It's so dark, it looks like clouds, but it's really smoke. There's another big fire burning somewhere close.

[sigma]

Cougars? Mamma mia! In the woods near my home are found mainly moose. Rarer to find deer, fox, hare. Most dangerous female boar with her piglets. But if her do not provoke any danger they do not represent. In an extreme case, just to make noise, shout or hit with a stick on the tree. Wild animals generally try to avoid humans. The only case of an attack on me was when feral dog bit my leg. But even after this incident I did not have thought to go into the woods with a gun. Although, of course, I always have a knife, lighter and a little food. In the woods just need a knife.
By the way, why did you go into the woods? I'm interested, because I go to the forest for mushrooms, wild raspberries and strawberries or catch a fish in a forest stream.

[CUDA]

We've got the 36pit fire about 20 miles from my place. No danger, but the smoke is causing repertory problems. Does make for some spectacular red sunrises

[sigma]

We've got the 36pit fire about 20 miles from my place. No danger, but the smoke is causing repertory problems. Does make for some spectacular red sunrises

In fact, around Moscow a lot of peat bogs. During very hot summers, half shrouded Moscow region acrid smoke from burning peat, which hurts the eyes and difficulty breathing. At the time, both in the villages in peat bogs situation much, much worse. Just imagine that you can just walk down the street and suddenly fall through the ground into the burning inferno to a depth of 3-5 meters. Because peat burns mostly underground, and while on the surface, you may not even feel that you are on a thin layer of earth, under which the burning bottomless abyss.

[Tunnelcat]

We've got the 36pit fire about 20 miles from my place. No danger, but the smoke is causing repertory problems. Does make for some spectacular red sunrises

ICK! You should have seen it down here last Monday. For some reason, smoke from that fire came south and centered itself right over Corvallis. You literally gagged when breathing the air and it was so dense, it looked like a blue fog had moved in. Then, 2 hours later, the wind changed and it was all gone.

sigma, the U.S. has got something similar to that in the town of Centralia, in the state of Pennsylvania, only it's anthracite coal that's burning underground and it's been going on since 1962. It caught fire when someone burned some trash above ground, which ignited an exposed coal seam. Everybody, except for 9 crazy people, had to move or get poisoned by the air or swallowed up by the hot ground.

http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technol ... today.html

But nothing beats that Darvsa gas fire in Derweze, Turkmenistan, also known as The Door to Hell.

[sigma]

In fact, it just looks terrible. It's just a burning natural methane. You can go there and remain unscathed. Peat fires are much more insidious. If you fall through the burning peat, your chances of survival are almost zero.

[Foil]

Yep. There's a coal seam not too far from me called "Burning Mountain" that's been burning since 1899.

[flip]

Wow TC, that aerial photo really shows how much of a close call it was for that one group of houses. Glad you were spared!

[Tunnelcat]

Well, they figured out who started the fire. A couple of teens, a 15 and a 16 year old, who were up in Chip Ross Park smoking marijuana. Apparently the younger one dared the older one to set the grass on fire when they were walking back home. Once he did it, they couldn't put it out. Idiots. The authorities figured it out who did it because one of the teens called in an anonymous 911 call and they were able to trace it back to him. There's a little poetic justice here because the older teen lives on the same street where the fire damaged one home, which just happened to be a nearby neighbor's. I'll bet people on that street aren't very happy about their neighbor's stoned teen brat starting the fire on a dare.