Fire Update

I just talked to my mother, and her house on Navarro Ridge is still there. The eastern half of the property has burned, and the fire breaks bulldozed yesterday are doing their job. Back burns on the grasslands and woodland understory have been effective, and there are tenders watching the ongoing smolders on that defense line. The CDF crews are now further out on the lands beyond, where the Navarro Fire still rages. The neighbors' house nearby is intact as well. They have been able to retrieve more from the house to take to storage on the coast.

The danger is not passed. Cinders float through the air, and wind conditions can change at any time. It may be days before the all clear is given. I can only imagine how altered the property is, a place of my life story for half a century, and my mother's for thirty years more than that. We knew the fire day would come eventually, and are so grateful to all the people out there fighting more than 130 fires in Mendocino county, started by an extraordinary lightning storm on Friday.

KZYX radio is the best source of local, updated information. As I type this, they announce that voluntary evacuation is recommended for Rancho Navarro, which is threatened by the same fire as my mother's place.

Some useful links have been posted on the Yahoo Groups Mendocino-BB:

http://geomac.usgs.gov/ (Click "wildfire mapping", zoom in on your
area, select "MODIS
satellite" from the bar on the right, and click refresh)

Satellite:
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/eka/satellite/ (Click "Northern California 1
KM visible")
When the clouds clear the smoke will be easier to see.

EDIT: A link I found at NASA Earth Observatory, click on the MODIS Rapid Response Team link to the twice daily satellite images for Northern California.