Tag: Wildfires

  • Harris and Newsome Visit Fire, Homeowners Unhappy

    Harris and Newsome Visit Fire, Homeowners Unhappy

    Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris and California governor Gavin Newsome visited fire stricken Fresno county this week for a photo op.

    While in the town of Auberry, the walked through the ashes of someone’s home. Turns out the homeowners family isn’t real happy the pair used the remains of their home as a political prop.

    Trampas Patten, the son of the homeowner took to Facebook to air his grievances.

    For the friends of mine that don’t recognize the fireplace in the background, that is what is left of my parents house! What has me really frustrated right now is the fact that these two politicians used my parents loss for a photo opportunity to push their political agenda! Political party wouldn’t have made a difference in this moment. Decent human beings that have character and class, wouldn’t air someone else’s misfortune on national television! Think about this when you go to the polls in a few weeks to vote. Look at this picture closely, imagine it is what is left of your hard work, hopes, dreams, place of sanctuary. Do you want this kind of leadership, using you and your loss for political gain?!

    For the record, my parents haven’t even been let back in yet themselves, to sort through what is left of their lives, but these two felt the need to go traipsing around my parents property without permission. I guess those property taxes my parents pay allow politicians to do this! Private property doesn’t exist in California anymore!

    https://facebook.com/trampas.patten/posts/1606171236213007

    Trampas’ sister Bailee weighed in as well;

    Dear Governor Newsom you don’t know me but I’m one of your CA citizens. That truck you are standing by is my dads work truck. He has had that thing for as long as I can remember. That land with all the rubble your standing next too, that’s my house I grew up in. You never got my parents permission to go on our property, nor did you ask if we needed help. What you did do is take my families loss and parade it all over social media and news networks to push your agenda.
    That agenda can wait, right now you should be caring about the families of this state. Thankfully this community is #mountainstrong and we will thrive.

    https://facebook.com/pixeldust17/posts/10221774420862106


    Of course Newsome and Harris couldn’t help but politicize the event. Both tried to place the blame for the fires on climate change. Newsome posted the following on twitter.

  • Wildfires Burn Across the West Coast

    Wildfires Burn Across the West Coast

    Wildfires continue to burn across California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado and Montana today. Hurricane-force winds and high temperatures kicked up wildfires across parts of the Pacific Northwest over the holiday weekend, burning hundreds of thousands of acres.

    In California, helicopters were needed to rescue more than 200 people trapped by the fast moving blazes over labor day weekend. An additional 164 were choppered out of Sierra National Forest today. The smoke from the California fires could be seen as far away as Las Vegas.

    Smoke fills the Vegas sky. Photo by Jo.

    In Washington, a wind driven fire destroyed most of the town of Malden in the eastern part of the state and forced evacuations in Oregon. A fire burning near Davenport, Washington, grew to 70,000 acres by Tuesday morning and was 0% contained, according to the Washington Department of Natural Resources. Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz said on Twitter that about 300,000 acres had burned so far. “As of this morning, we have 9 large fires,″ Franz tweeted on Tuesday. “We had 58 new wildfire starts in the last 24 hours.″


    In Oregon, thousands of people were without power as crews battled large fires in Clackamas County on Tuesday morning. Over 40,000 people south of Portland were without power. In Marion County, which includes the state capitol of Salem, a blaze prompted evacuation orders Tuesday in the western foothills of the Cascade Range.


    A fire near Red Feather Lakes, Colorado, more than tripled in size over the Labor Day weekend and had consumed almost 140 square miles by Monday afternoon as it moved through rugged terrain with lots of dead trees that had been killed by beetles, fire spokesperson Ronda Scholting said. The fire was only 4 percent contained. “You can’t stop it in that steep country,” she said.



    Montana officials hope a bout of cooler weather, with snow forecast, will help them tamp down the Bridger Foothills Fire burning in timber northeast of Bozeman. It started Friday and spread across more than 11 square miles (28 square kilometers) over the weekend amid warm and windy conditions. The BobCat Fire started last week southeast of Roundup and charred more than 46 square miles. It burned at least 10 structures and grew by several square miles Sunday.

  • 2 Million Acres Burned in California

    2 Million Acres Burned in California

    AP is reporting more than 2 million acres have burned in California so far this fire season.

    That is the largest area burned by wildfires since Cal Fire started keeping records in 1987, despite the fact several months remain in this year’s fire season. The previous record, 1.96 million acres, was set in 2018.

    The most dangerous part of the year is yet to come according to Lynne Tolmachoff, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.

    “It’s a little unnerving because September and October are historically our worst months for fires,” she said. “It’s usually hot, and the fuels really dry out. And we see more of our wind events.”



    Cal Fire said 14,800 firefighters are battling 23 major fires in the state. California has seen 900 wildfires since Aug. 15, many of them started by an intense series of thousands of lightning strikes. There have been eight fire deaths and more than 3,300 structures destroyed.

    On Saturday, rescuers in military helicopters airlifted 207 people to safety after flames trapped them in a wooded camping area northeast of Fresno.