Modern Vespa

Just perused an article on the fires. Didn't look good, and when they're reporting "zero containment," it doesn't look too good for the weekend either.

Hope nobody here's affected.

A fraternity brother posted at 5:30am that he and his family was ok. That alerted me to the Los Angeles Fire. This one seems to be the worst of the bunch and is growing FAST!

I've been watching the fire near Yosemite grow exponentially per day. 3 days ago it was 1000 sq miles. Then it grew to 2000 and yesterday it was at 4900. Not sure what it's at today. I assume something like 6000-8000 but I'll have to look. Sorry the bigger story locally is all of the outages by Pacific Gas & Electric. That's the sexier story hogging the local media's attention.

I heard locally that in the foothills headed toward Lake Tahoe there's a fire this morning but it was a nonchalant type feeling from the newscasters compared to the PG&E story or the LA fire.

My town of West Sacramento had a small grass fire but was contained by the local Fire Department.

I hope anyone near any of these fires are ok. Roll call if you can.

I am in North Hills in the San Fernando Valley, just south of the Saddleridge fire. There was a strong smoke smell this morning, and smoke in the air on my way to work in Encino. Traffic was very light due to the freeway closures north of us.

We're not in the danger area, but it is close.

The fire is at the stage where it could get better or it could get worse almost suddenly.

Luckily we were just out of range of the possible black-out zone - by two blocks!

No fires here - but there was a small 40 acre one yesterday about four miles away.

Was a nice sunset flying into SFO tonight.

No problem here in Santa Cruz, about 75 miles south of San Francisco on the Pacific. PG&E did shut off the power to many neighborhoods. Mine wasn't one of them. I live a block from the water. There's just not a lot to catch fire. They did shut if off going up into the hills tho (about 3 miles inland from the Pacific). Most of it was turned back on last night about 10PM. We never understood why they were doing this in our area. Winds were predicted to be 7-10 mph. Pretty typical weather actually.

Anyway, not fires here.

Be safe!

Best
Miguel

Don't mention bush and forest fires to us Australians, because every year most of the country is ablaze with hundreds of houses lost, and tragically often human lives as well, not to mention wild creatures like Koalas and Wallabies. This year the fire season started very early because of the prolonged drought and the unseasonal heat.
No doubt it will rain in torrents sooner or later and then we complain about destructive flooding and the resulting costly clean up.
It has always been part of the 'cycle of life' in this part of the planet but no doubt many will blame it on the dreaded 'climate change'. Just ask Greta.

Same here as mpfrank. I'm up in north hills as well and it's got the campfire motif going.

I'm safe but the whole area is very very thick with smoke.

-g

BTW, North Hills is in the dead center of the San Fernando Valley. There is a rise in the middle, but nothing that could be characterized as a "hill", nor is it particularly "north".

Gotta love creative Southern California place naming.

I feel ok... but you never can be too sure.

Just found out my cousin and his family had evacuated until this morning from the Kincade fire in Northern CA. I thought they weren't affected by that one.

A friend was evacuated from the Getty fire and the school she taught at was shut down.

It seems like new fires a literally sparking up daily around the state.

More fires in LA... lots of schools' Halloween parades were canceled or taken indoors. Yesterday enroute home on the 5/710 the air smelled of soot and fire. Stay safe folks.

Up near Napa and our air is clear today with no wind. All subject to change...
Plan to get out a ride today and rode ~75 miles yesterday.

Stolen from Vespa Club of America's facebook feed:

You've no doubt heard of the wildfires that are sweeping across northern California destroying property and lives. #KincadeFires Vespa Club of America would like to recognize Revolution Moto in Santa Rosa, California who spent last week picking up the bikes of scooterists who have been evacuated and bringing them back to their shop in Santa Rosa for safe keeping. All at no cost! FREE RESCUE and STORAGE! Just because they feel that people who might lose everything shouldn't lose their beloved scooter too! This is what the scooter community is all about. Thank You @RevolutionMoto and owner Pete Surber! www.RevolutionMoto.com

Kudos toRevolution Moto

These guys are great. Good job Pete and crew. You guys are pretty cool for guys that ride automatic 4 strokes!

As an outsider and likely undesirable alien, I can sadly only sympathize with those who are losing their property and lives in these events. It is great to see the support for Vespa riders coming from the agents in the area.

As an aside, who is going to pay the carbon tax on all the carbon being released into the atmosphere?

PS - Where I live, rainfall is reducing year on year and is coming later and later. We normally have our first summer rains in early September. This year the first rains came in November and only 2" at that.

My heart goes out to all the people and animals displaced from the fires and their loss. It's truly awful.

My home isn't typically near the fire danger. But last Friday, Nov 1st, there was even a fire in my neighborhood on the east side at an Atwater Village Recycling center. I was riding home towards the smoke. They got it contained but embers continued to burn the next morning. The smell of fire and burnt plastic filled the air through Saturday, it is much better today.

Thanks to all the hero fire fighters that have been working so hard lately all over California!