Are the Washington State Fires Affecting You? (KuruPrionz, Are You Okay?)

[Anderton]

I have friends and relatives in Washington state, and they've said that in some places, the smoke is pretty much unbearable, and although rare, evacuations are happening. Having not seen KuruPrionz around for a few days, I'm hoping he's just focused on playing music and not running from flames. 

 

Any other Washington staters here have anything to report?

[dmitch57]

I'm just north of Seattle. The closest fire is about 40 miles away. No evacuations have happened near here, but the air outside has been downright unhealthy all week. If you go outside it smells like your next-door neighbor has a brushfire in their yard. Everyone I know is pretty much hunkered down, inside. 

[KuruPrionz]

Hi Craig, thank you for the consideration and concern!!!!

I went to Santa Cruz to visit my brother for 8 days and arrived home late last night. 

Since there is no shortage of Mac laptops there, I left mine at home and put a list of contact passwords on a USB drive instead.

Only, I must have changed the MPN password so I could read everything but not log in. 

 

Thus, the unseemly disappearance. A friend sent me a photo of the smoke at it's worst, looked almost like Fresno fog (thick and dark). Her and her husband are fine, just sore lungs and stinging eyes. 

 

Yesterday (Friday) a friend was returning from a trip and texted me from Sea-Tac airport. He said it was raining hard. It rained hard up in Bellingham for a good long while and the smoke is cleared. Weather reports show rain likely for the next 10 days so we might be through this now. I inadvertently timed the trip very well indeed!!!

 

FWIW, after a year of living out in the beautiful forests in 2005, I moved into Bellingham, well away from forests. It would take a catastrophic event of Biblical proportions for a wildfire to reach me now. The summers have gotten a bit drier and seemingly longer so the next step is to look at getting an air filtration system and air conditioning for my condo. I already have a painters respirator with filter cartridges, I guess one could wear that when going out for groceries if it gets that bad. 

 

This is and will be ongoing. A few years back a significant chunk of British Columbia caught fire and burned (probably a lighting strike). At the same time, 25 million acres of Siberia burned. Winds brought a good amount of the lovely smoke our way. It sucked...

[Anderton]

Glad you're doing okay!! A best friend and mentor died in one of the California fires, and when I didn't see you here for a while, I also thought about Mike Rivers. Welcome back!

[NewImprov]

It was on and off smoky in the Oregon mid-Willamette valley for most of Sept/early Oct, we had a really weird weather pattern where we got winds consistently from the south-east for several weeks, usually we get winds from the coast every day that clears out the air. We finally got some rain last weekend, and are now having more typical fall weather.

 

I have friends who were in the outer evacuation zone for the fire in southern WA, east of Vancouver, I was ready to drive up and help them clear out, but the weather shifted and the evacuation order was lifted.

[KuruPrionz]

Not sure about the rest of the state but it's been raining on and off since I got home last Friday. 

The air is wet, and clean. Fall in Whatcom county, it has begun. Dark, gray and wet. 

[Ivan May]

My friend Katrina has a few friends and family members in Seattle who are being greatly affected by these fires.

[KuruPrionz]

5 hours ago, IMMusicRulz said:

My friend Katrina has a few friends and family members in Seattle who are being greatly affected by these fires.

If it isn't raining down there then the air will be very smoky indeed. I feel for them, it's not good since we must breathe air. It was really bad before I went to Santa Cruz CA to see my brother and luckily the rain has cleared it up - it's rain gin right now in fact.

 

I plan on buying an air purifier and an air conditioner as soon as possible. 

I'm in a small condo on the 1st floor with zero morning sun and only a brief time of afternoon sun before another building puts my place back in the shade. 

 

We are just starting to have wildfires caused in large part by much drier and longer summers, lighting strikes are a factor and one can never rule out careless people. 

The longer drier summers have been slowly escalating, each year is worse. Hard to say how long it will continue. A healthy forest burns every few years, the fuel on the ground is shallow and the fire zips right through it. When the accumulations are much higher, as they are now, then the larger, older trees catch on fire too and that is disastrous. 

 

Sudden Vally is a few miles east of here, the HOA rules do not allow tree removal except under specific circumstances so you have 6,000 people living in dense forest with massive volumes of fuel on the ground. I hope nothing ever happens but sadly it is probably inevitable. Did I mention that the roads are all private and many do not meet WA state codes for safety? It is sadly a disaster just waiting to happen. We are not prepared to deal with it at this point.