As I write this on August 24, the Walbridge Fire and associated LNU Lighting Complex definitely isn’t contained, but as humidity has risen and winds have shifted to blow most of the fire back on itself it seems the worst may be behind us… Either way, with the winds shifting southerly we can’t see much other than smoke here in Alexander Valley now. We did have some days last week where our view of the smoke and air tankers bombing the fire were quite impressive. A pretty tough time for the community up here, with Kincade not even a year ago it’s sad to see some of the kids’ classmates go through evacuation again and some of our friends lose their homes.
August 18
I’m not sure when Walbridge officially started, as the lightning strikes around our area were mostly on August 16 and 17, but August 18 was the first time we could see the smoke from the fire.
August 19
It started to gather steam on August 19, which huge plumes of black smoke shooting into the sky and traveling all the way down to San Francisco. Friends in Healdsburg were reporting palm-sized leaves that were half burned landing in the street.
August 20
As the blaze increased in size and the northwesterly winds fanned its advance it received a lot more attention from state-controlled resources. August 20 marked the first day we saw any air attack, at one point there were four tankers and a spotter plane all visible from the house on their route into drop retardant. The 747 and DC-10 used for the effort were amazing to watch, they flew in from Sacramento International Airport and would enter their bombing route by flying directly over our house at a few hundred feet of elevation, nose up almost stalled, they made the windows shake!
We took a drive up Geysers Road for a better view from Alexander Mountain Estate. Such a path of destruction, so sad for all those homes destroyed…
August 21
The last day of northerly/northwesterly winds and our last day of clear skies as we looked to the blaze out west.
August 22
We rode some mountain biking trails in Mendocino on August 21, the wind shifted that day and we returned to a nuclear sunset but also a blanket of thick smoke in the valley. And that’s what we’re still enjoying today. Going to be that for a while, I have a feeling…
August 23
August 25
omygosh Sam youhave some spectactular photos here. As of this morning we hear this fire is 17% contained. That is really good news. We are setting out to The Sea Ranch today. Had planned to go last week but HWY 1 was closed at Jenner past the Myers grade do the Myers fire.
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What else is there to burn????