OT – Hope our friends in California are safe from the fires

[Howe’s Hunter]

With my narrow scope of collecting, I know of only a few of the collectors in California, but as I see reports of the fires out of control and just getting worse, I hope all are safe. You are definitely in our thoughts...

[deadballera]

I am about 30 minutes from the fires in Auburn.

Definitely very scary for those in the immediate area. The fire has taken about 60 homes already. Possible cause was a cigarette thrown out.

It's really bad that something so stupid that could have been prevented like that can cause so much damage and life changing for those in the line of the fire.

[sealmark2]

I'm 10 miles from the fire and no, if does not look like a carless act but a power line problem. At least that was the report 40 minutes ago.

sealmark

[Chris-Counts]

I've lived in California most of my life, and at various times, I lived in some of its most fire-prone areas, like Big Sur. We've had some fires this year, but it's still nothing like what we experienced last summer, which was the worst on record. In response to the fire risk, I've gotten in the habit of putting most of my baseball memorabilia in safe deposit boxes. As for preventing wildfires, I've never seen that as an option. I agree that tossing a cigarette is a really dumb thing to do under any circumstances, but the landscape is genetically engineered to burn. Ask any California firefighter. If a human doesn't start a fire, eventually nature will with a lightning strike (which is how most of last year's fires started). To the contrary, I'm a big advocate of controlled burns. Either we burn the landscape when it's reasonably safe to burn it (in the winter or spring) or nature WILL burn it in the summer and fall, when it's far less safe to burn and many homes will be destroyed ...

[Exhibitman]

We're smokin' here in Burbank, and I mean that literally. I happen to be in a safe area in the flatlands but the big fire is one mountain range over and the whole area is blanketed in smoke most of the day. From a distance the tower of ash looks like a volcano's spew. You know how it feels to be downwind of a beach bonfire? That about sums it up. The stink is everywhere and some parts of the day even have ash fallout. It is worst in the morning when the wind blows the smoke over the area instead of to the north and east. I have the A/C on and a fan blowing too and I've been sneezing and watery eyed all day. My daughter has been having some asthma issues as well. It looks to be about a week before they can hope to have it under control, so for now all anyone can do is hope that pray that the wall of flame doesn't push hard down the range and into densely populated areas.

[Bill Stone]

I grew up on View Drive in Burbank , California which was right at the foothills . I can remember as a little kid holding the hose as we sprinkled the roof to reduce the chance of the house catching on fire from a stray spark. Hope eveyone pulls through this.