California burning

[Rewind]

Twenty-one wildfires are raging throughout California today. Fifteen of those started in a 24-hour period. More than 1,500 homes and buildings have burned to the ground.

In the Napa area, fire destroyed two wineries and vineyards. In northern Santa Rosa, fire destroyed a school, a Kmart, a McDonald's, a mobile home park, strip malls, two luxury hotels and hundreds of homes and apartments. In the Anaheim Hills, fire destroyed a dozen million-dollar homes.

California has major fires every October, almost as though they're on a regular schedule. In October 2003, huge fires burned 472,000 acres near Ventura, San Bernardino and San Diego. The acreage burned in this year's fires may top that number.

Why do we pay our firefighters (and police officers and school teachers) so little while we pay actors and athletes so much? Somethin' ain't right!

13 dead, 150 missing as Northern California fires continue to rage

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/13-...=ansmsnnewds11

[Rewind]

The death toll has just been updated. There are now 15 dead and 200 missing. More than 20,000 homes, plus hospitals in Napa and Santa Rosa, have been evacuated.

[Rewind]

The New York Times has posted several before-and-after photos showing the destruction in Napa and Santa Rosa. The picture below shows what is left of the Signorello Estate winery.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...ps-photos.html

[Rewind]

The latest numbers from California: 17 fires still raging, 17 dead, and 3,500 homes and businesses destroyed. Yikes!

[Rewind]

The death toll in the Northern California fires is now 23. The biggest fire has burned 46,000 acres and is only 10% contained. Fires are approaching Calistoga and Geyserville and both towns are being evacuated. With the heat, the droughts and now the fires, the so-called "Golden State" is turning into the "Grey & Brown State."

[Rewind]

The two largest fires in Northern California will likely merge soon. More than 170,000 acres have burned. There are 23 dead, 180 injured and hundreds missing -- although many are not really "missing" but they remain in areas which now have no electricity and no cell phone service. Green Valley, Calistoga, Geyserville and portions of Sonoma and Fairfield have been evacuated. The causes of all these fires is still unknown.

[Rewind]

The news continues to gets worse. More than 191,000 acres have burned and the death toll is now 27. This is from the Washington Post:

"While authorities go from house to house, looking for hundreds of people who remain unaccounted for, cadaver dogs are also sniffing through the scorched rubble. Twenty-six people have died, more than half of them in Sonoma County alone. Collectively, the infernos that have erupted across the region since Sunday are the state’s deadliest wildfires since World War II, surpassing the 1991 Oakland Hills Fire that left 25 dead. 'We’ve found bodies that were almost completely intact; we’ve found bodies that are nothing more than ashes and bones,' Sonoma County Sheriff Robert Giordano said at a news conference Thursday."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.36624f1c8662

[Rewind]

The death toll in the Northern California fires is now 29. Four hundred are missing. Eight thousand firefighters are battling the blazes. Fires, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanos, droughts, famines, rising temperatures, riots, nuclear threats, terrorist attacks -- I'm afraid this old earth may not last much longer.

[Rewind]

The death toll is now 31. One of the many Santa Rosa homes destroyed by fire was a hillside home built in 1975 for Peanuts creator Charles Schulz and his wife. Charles died there in 2000. Jean, his widow, escaped the fire unharmed. The home of Craig Schulz, a son, was also destroyed. Good grief!

[Rewind]

The news gets worserer and worserer. The death toll in the Northern California fires is now 38. Several hundred are still missing. A hundred thousand people have been forced to evacuate. The fires have burned 214,000 acres, the equivalent of 334 square miles.