Anyone hurting from the fires in California?? I'm not there but smell smoke even inside. It's burning my nose and eyes. Hope everyone's ok.
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
I would be so freaked out if I were in CA right now. I'm thinking about buying a respirator mask just in case we ever get fires here. I'm close to a national forest.
I hope you are safe!
Posted by Robin123 (Member # 9197) on :
Thanks for posting on the board about this, Farraday - this is HUUUGGGEEE!!! I read on the news that there are 23 fires going on all over CA, with firetrucks and crews coming in from several states to help. Too much for any one state to handle.
So many thousands of people having to evacuate. I can't even imagine what it would be like to have to evacuate suddenly in the middle of the night!
Right now everyone's working on getting them into homes if possible. Airbnb is coordinating free housing arrgts and I think other agencies are doing this too with anyone in the public who wants to offer housing. My sister is putting up relatives right now.
We alternate between clear air and smoky air here, I guess as the wind changes.
Sounds like you're closer to the fires than I am.
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
Hope you two stay safe!
I have friends who had to be evacuated in the middle of the night due to the flooding in Houston.
Posted by Robin123 (Member # 9197) on :
We're safe in SF - just smoky, hazy, with a beet-red sun!
Posted by farraday (Member # 21494) on :
They had to close schools yesterday because of smoke. I'm bunkered down in my room with air filters and fans so it's not bad. But I'd be in alot of hurt if I had to be evacuated.
We did have a scare last year and they told us to evacuate. But when they heard I was disabled, they parked a fire truck in our driveway. Later they had us cut down all the brush and dead trees. People came to help. I'm so thankful to be safe. Lymies are not up to being uprooted. That's why I'm concerned.
I started writing an evacuation plan. We have all photos in one place. We have lots of laundry baskets to load up stuff in. I also advise everyone to take a walk around video of their home.
If you are in CA you must be sure to cut away brush 100 feet, at least, around your house if you are in a rural area. Firemen said that they focus on the ones they can save and now we're on that list.
The added benefit is that those lousy ticks live in dead grasses and weeds. We used to walk through them. I was gardening a lot and probably got my bite there.
Deer were and are everywhere. They ate my roses, even up on my porch! I yelled at them "This is not a salad bar!" "Bambi go home!"to my daughter's amusement. They still sleep in our yard sometimes. I took photos of them to my LLMD. I wanted to be sure he'd believe me. I'd heard often that there was no Lyme in CA etc. He keeps my photos in my file!
There is a lot of Lyme in CA. Fires are an extreme way to get rid of ticks,however. I wonder if they can survive fires. Hope not.
(breaking up the post for easier reading for many here)
[ 10-14-2017, 03:09 PM: Message edited by: Robin123 ]
Posted by Robin123 (Member # 9197) on :
That's really neat that they parked a fire truck at your place!
That's what I was wondering about - there are lots of Lyme patients in the fire areas. Some of them were the early starters of the LymeDisease.org org. The president of LymeDisease.org lives in the area, but not right in the path of the fires.
The brush issue is all-important but not sure it could have made a difference with the high winds that kicked this off Sunday night. Downed power wires and blown transformers are still going to have embers blown about.
I do think, though as rebuilding occurs, everyone's going to be looking at where to allow vegetation. Too bad - it's been such an idyllic rustic area, especially in the fall!
No, I don't think ticks are going to survive fire, unless they got evacuated - Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
- A question was asked about ticks surviving forest fires. Yes, they can. Sigh. They are know to burrow deep into cool and moist moss in nooks and crannies of trees or ground covers to survive.
If a fire moves swiftly through, some places on some trees get by without even getting scorched.
Of course, they are more likely to find deep cover in well grown forests & with swift moving fires - maybe not so much opportunity in populated neighborhoods with trees that don't have as much moss or crevices (?) - or where the fire burns trees clear to the ground. But they can go deep and dark for some time.
And if they can't find some kind of protective quarters, they could be lost in the fire. But their instinct is to start burrowing when they sense the heat & smoke.
As well, they have been known to walk on top of a lightly crusted snow, even survive down to minus 17 degrees F. They have been found in Christmas trees that travel thousands of miles. -
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)