Wapsi Square Forum

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/15/us/california-wildfires/

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/ ... J720150914

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-m ... story.html

Ah, and a fatality as well. Its been related that the town of Middleton, CA, for example, is just gone; everything burned to the ground.

I terms of where this is taking place; If you where to drawn a straight line between Sacramento (inland) & the Fort Bragg/town of Mendocino to the Northwest (on the Coast) you pass right through the Lake District north of Napa (wine country) and the city of Ukiah, out on Highway 101, (which so far seems unaffected).

The insult to injury is we had a regional squall line type shower pass through on Monday (not really predicted) and have 'scheduled' rain coming though in a much bigger way tomorrow, Wed.

Here's hoping the expected third of an inch can do some good.

Yeah, this is bad. And, it's only the N'th bad fire, in a season full of bad fires, which probably won't end for another month yet.

Lots of families have lost homes that they've lived in for decades, with very little warning. The pictures of the fire storming through the towns and across the roads leave me surprised and grateful that more people didn't die.

Harbin Hot Springs is mostly gone. I have no doubt they'll rebuild (the springs themselves will have been OK) but the retreat's facilities have almost all been destroyed.

Lots of century-old (and older) oaks and other trees are now toast. It's going to take a long time for the forests and woods to recover.

Almost every online forum I'm on that has an "off-topic" area has had at least one discussion of large forest fires, burnt-down towns, and smoke in the air affecting vision and breathing, sometime in the past month.

A couple photos from Spokane. Top: Normal times. Note the very-wide white building in the center of the photo. I'm told it's 3/4 mile from the TV station where the photo was taken.

Bottom: Same location, almost the same direction, about August 21.