I have a cousin on the West Coast who had no idea about the Tsunami until she logged onto Facebook. Her area has a commuity Tsunami alert system but it turns out they weren't in any danger this time around. It definitely deserves a tip of the hat to social media though.

I don't know how I'd react in a similar wildfire situation but I'd like to think that we'd be out of there before the evac order or highway closure came if there was that level of risk. You just can't predict what Mother Nature is going to do. How do those of you in wildfire territory deal with it. If you can see it or smell it, is it too close for comfort?

What is really critical in wildfire behavior is weather, so pay attention to that. The drier, hotter, and windier the ambient conditions, the more unpredictable the fire will be. This is especially ture with respect to wind. An increase in velocity and/or direction will cause a fire to spread faster than you can outrun it. A stiff breeze will push burning embers ahead of the flame front and start satellite fires in advance.

Fire managers do pay particular attention to fire weather, especially local conditions. So should you.

A fire line is not necessarily a guarantee of safety, whether natural or man made. Fires have been known to jump four lane freeways. But sometimes you can feel secure. i was on West Anacapa island, looking up the Ventura River valley at a horrendous fire that was threatening Ojai, fifteen miles inland. Since Anaccapa is fourteen miles out in the santa Barbara Channel, I thought "That should keep us safe." Even so, we got considerable ash fall from the fire, fortunately nicely cooled. Even at that distance, the sight of exploding pine trees was quite impressive.

That would be pretty scarey Hikermor! I honestly don't know how y'all live in areas that are prone to natural disasters. The rest of us, who just venture out there on excursions, need to commit this stuff to heart too though. Thanks for the insight!

When it's windy enough, even a small fire can travel.

Several years ago, a man started his trash fire just west of Interstate 5 in Rochester, WA. The wind blew it over the solid fence and into the strip of grass between the fence and the freeway. In between cars, the fire jumped the southbound lanes to the center divider, then jumped the northbound lanes and headed east through the barbed wire.

I don't know if the homeowner it was aiming for saw it coming, or if people on the freeway reported it, but they got it stopped about twenty feet from the house.

Yes, the trash-burner was cited for an untended fire. GOOD!

Sue

Why do people insist on putting themselves in even when fire is raging around them and "things are exploding"?! Dumba$$! But there was just "...no water. No cable." His friend was even more Darwinian in my books - "He's got a family to support."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2011/05/citizen-bytes---rory-landry---slave-lake-student.html

A guy I used to work with nearly burned down his house when the embers flew over his house and ignited the leaves he hadn't raked yet. The fire got caught in the swirling air behind the house and burned against the overall wind direction and toward the house.

A neighbor spotted it an called the FD. The Fire Department rolls up and he complains that he is safely burning his leaves on his property and that he won't put up with any of their complaints. Meanwhile the fire is advancing on the house where he can't see it.

The fireman finally just guns the engine past him as he shakes his fist and cusses. Only when the engine pulls up on the other side of the house and the firemen start hosing the fire down does he realize that they aren't after his burn barrel.

The fire advanced to within a couple of feet of the house and slightly melted some of his vinyl siding.

Sometimes it isn't burning that gets you. A friend had some rural property with his house on it. A tree fell and took out the power line feeding his house. This started a fire and it burned down a couple score acres and a couple of unoccupied trailers. It took a fire engine and a crew of forest service firefighters, mostly using crawler and plow, half a day and part of the night to contain it.

Legally, because of his to failure to remove the tree that endangered the power line, he could have been charged with the cost of fighting the fire and sued by the other homeowners for damage to their trailers and property. He sweated for about a year before the states attorney finally announced the state wouldn't ask for payment. After a few more years his attorney finally announced the private landowners couldn't sue.

He wasn't a rich man and the bills could have been $100,000 or more. It would have sunk him.

Re: the Slave Lake student

A college education might educate you, but it sure can't fix stupid!

Maybe the apocalypse will just eliminate all the prospective Darwin Award nominees? Could we be so lucky?

Sue

It's fascinating to read these one-on-one interviews. It's a good insight into the way people think and behave in a crisis. It's like an altered state of consciousness.

The current tally for this fire is 450 homes and businesses burned to the ground. I don't know if that includes the municipal buildings and churches that also burned. More buildings were damaged, but I haven't seen numbers yet. Nature hit this town pretty hard.

A follow-up story on the original evacuation of Slave Lake. The residents have been allowed to return but now they and the town government have to deal with the disposal of up to 4000 fridges and freezers that need to be recycled due to rotting food in them.

I know from 1st hand experience the damage, rotting food in a non powered fridge for weeks can do. As much as you clean, the smell never leaves and as is the case at Slave Lake, the fridge will need to be disposed of...

Officials grappling with waste, sanitation in Slave Lake

Post-wildfire cleanup begins in Slave Lake

Glad these folks have finally been allowed to return home. But the aftermath of a disaster and evacuation is the opposite of sexy -- it's a giant, smelly PITA, accompanied by enough paperwork and red tape to choke a horse.