King Fire in Northern California now at 70,944 acres; This is a HUGE FIRE and still growing...

I live in Eldorado county, its definitely getting alot crazier here. It was at 28,000 acres when I went to bed, thats a 1.5x increase over night. Its only at 5% containment, and is more then doubling every night. Plus if it jumps highway 50, it would get alot worse with all the houses on the other side. Hopeing it will settle down soon. Hasn't burned down any structures, and no one has died lets hope it stays that way..

breaking on the news that it has been ruled an arson, 37 yr old man being held on $10 million bail. what a daeshbag!

:daeshbag:

I actually saw it yesterday when I was in Granite Bay (Far eastern suburb of Sacramento). You can't understate how big it is. It literally looks like a nuclear bomb went off in the forest. Would be shocked if it doesn't grow a lot since CA is so dry. Biggest wildfire I've ever seen.

We have a family cabin near there. Its on the other side of the freeway. Have family living up there. I hope they can stop it.

I'm curious to understand why it burns so my much over night. wouldn't you think because of temperature reasons, it would explode durring the day not the night?

Maybe the winds pick up more at night?

Reno is getting the smoke pretty bad.

No recess for the kiddos.

Maybe the winds pick up more at night?

Reno is getting the smoke pretty bad.

No recess for the kiddos.

The BLM closed the Rubicon trail...

Looks like it's coming your way Tahoe.Man

Yeah it is probably the wind, didn't think about that
South lake isnt very smokey, but thats because we have tallac to guard us. Hopefully it wont climb

Edit: So I take that back, smoke just filled up Lake Tahoe

Last Edited by Tahoe.CA.Man on 09/19/2014 12:12 AM

You're right, thank you
It seems to be heading north east towards Tahoe city/Truckee

Fire is, or at least was, natural to California (and the entire Rocky Mountain Range and the Southwest) until they started fighting each and every fire, even naturally caused ones.

After 90 years of fire suppression the forest in those areas is no longer natural ... but has accumulated both an overabundance of lot of fuel, fuel that in days before fire suppression would have been burned in small localized fires over time, but has also changed the character of the plants and trees that inhabit those forests.

It is to be expected that when fires break out now, in those areas where massive fire suppression has been practiced for 90 years now, it is going to have the potential to grow more quickly and burn much hotter and more viciously than would have been the case in times past.

ALL western wilderness areas where massive fire suppression has been practiced are eventually going to burn, though it may take another 50 to 80 years for that to happen. Expect these HUGE and HOT fires to become a yearly occurance ... until the excess fuel is consumed.

Until a particular area is "cleared" by a massive forest fire I personally would not risk having an house or cabin in an area. Once it is cleared by a large fire ... then, if most of the excess fuel was burned, and only then would I finally consider building a structure on the land.

This fire is going to continue to grow for some time ... but the benefit of it, after it finally dies down, is that it will have "cleared" much of that area of excess fuel. Look to the Yellowstone Fire of 20+ years ago as an example of how a forest rebounds and creates a new vibrant forest once a major fire moves through an area where fire suppression has been practiced for decades.

Hopefully no one is injured fighting this fire ... and most structures can be saved. If one builds IN the forest, or adjacent to it though one always will have the risk of losing their structure to a forest fire.