More on the Lightning Fires

Photo by Kim Sallaway last night-click to enlarge

The numerous Lightning Fires of June 2008 will go down in California history. Kim Sallaway, incredible local photographer, took pictures to commemorate the events.

He says, “There are plenty of choppers working the fires. However; there are not enough. The nearby Paradise Fire is quite large and only 5% controlled. I went down to the local staging area at the Eel River Conservation Camp last night at dusk to shoot some of the aerial circus as it landed for the night. At one time 4 helicopters were stacked up waiting to land next to the 2 already on the ground. Trucks were arriving from out of the area. Colma, South SF, Daly City, Oakland were represented by crews and trucks. It is scary. I watched as 2 big earth moving bulldozers and their teams headed out to the fires. Our local volunteer crews are on it, but these fires are widespread, and they need the help the pros bring to the situation.”

Kim Sallaway’s site has incredible photos from different events. I recommend spending some time browsing the pictures. They are history, art and news rolled into single images.

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12 Comments
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Violet
Guest
Violet
15 years ago

Thank you so much for carrying info on these fires. It has been frustrating getting news. It took CDF forever to update their site, and KMUD had very sporadic news until recently. The pictures are fabulous!

Staff
Member
15 years ago

I encourage anyone with information to post it here. I will try to fact check and follow up as much as possible. I’m especially interested in the two big Humboldt fires but am having trouble getting info.

Elaine
Guest
15 years ago

Kym, thank you for all the encouragement. I’ve updated my latest known information on my blog. So far, the house is safe, but the Rancho Navarro residential area may now be threatened by the Navarro Fire.

kaivalya
Guest
kaivalya
15 years ago

kym, I just got this snapshot – looks like this fire just really picked up. It’s hard to tell exactly where it is as it’s on the other side of the ridge.

Violet
Guest
Violet
15 years ago

It’s the Paradise Ridge fire and it really looks like it just kicked up from the wind. Lots of black smoke.

capdiamont
Guest
15 years ago

Kym, I don’t know if you saw it or not,(TS?) had an article how the rural firefighters are having a hard time getting certified, or DL’s to drive their equipment. They have to drive to the local DMV office or something like that. So it takes two people(one certified/dl) taking the time off to get things done.

kaivalya
Guest
kaivalya
15 years ago

Thanks Violet, that makes sense now.

Kim Sallaway
Guest
15 years ago

Thanks for the kind words Kym.
Can you imagine what it costs to fly that helicopter per day? The fuel trucks are bringing in the gas at 5 bucks a gallon and they are running very regularly. This is going to really hit the state’s budget in a bad way and fire season has only just begun!
May the Goddess protect the firefighters. Thanks for keeping news flowing Kym. I am enjoying seeing your photos!

To those folks who checked out my site for the first time, welcome to my world! Next week in SF the Pride Parade is happening. I just published a gallery of images from last year’s parade that contains a lot of really fun images of this event where 400,000 people go to be scene.
The navigation isn’t on the front page. Here is a link to it.

San Francisco Pride Slideshow Gallery

You need high speed to fully enjoy the slide show.

Ben
Guest
Ben
15 years ago

A Really good feature on the Ukiah Journal website is a thermal fire map of Mendocino County. I wish the Times Standard would do one for Humboldt.

two cents
Guest
two cents
15 years ago

kind of hard to read your blog- why’d ya pick these colors?…

Staff
Member
15 years ago

Elaine, I’m hoping that things are still alright.

Kaivalya and Violet, I love it when people can use this blog to talk to each other and help. Does either of you know if Paradise is still kicking up? I hear fire officials are worried about it reaching Shelter Cove eventually. But I haven’t got that from an official source.

Cap, I hadn’t heard that. I’ll go check out the article.

Kim, my husband, sons and I spent an hour a couple of weeks ago checking out photos from that slideshow. We loved it!

Ben, I wish the TS would do that to. I still haven’t figured out where the High fire is.

Two Cents, there were a lot of factors that went into the choice including the fact that photos show up better against dark but… you are right sometimes I have trouble reading it. Try highlighting and it usually gets much easier. I try to edit for ease of reading (changing fonts etc.) but lately I’ve been slammed trying to just get the info out and still take care of regular life and the quality of my blog has suffered.

Turkish Prawn
Guest
15 years ago

Damn! That’s one big bug!

Seriously though, take care out there. It’s been a long time since there’s been a wild fire in my neck of the woods. I can’t imagine what it’s like to live near.

Be safe.

Turkish Prawn