Where there’s smoke….
Yesterday, on my way to tutor an algebra student in Dublin, California, I saw a HUGE cloud of smoke over the eastern portion of Dublin that was so thick that I chose to drive through Pleasanton, AROUND any potential fire.
When I got home from tutoring, I looked up the fire online.
Another example of “military intelligence…?” 
The fire was started around 1:40 pm in the U.S. Army Reserve Parks Reserve Forces Training Area (mercifully shortened to “Camp Parks” by most of us who don’t like to create artificially long names so that we can shorten them to acronyms) when a smoke grenade was used in a military training exercise. Such things as smoke grenades or tear gas grenades produce their smoke or tear gas by COMBUSTION that releases the smoke or gas. (I always remember this when law enforcement surrounds a “suspect” in a “seige” operation, and they lob in tear gas, pretty much knowing full well that the canister will set the structure on fire.)
Much of the San Francisco Bay Area has been under a “Red Flag Warning” (also known as a Fire Weather Warning) meaning “…that conditions are ideal for wildland fire ignition, and rapid propagation.” You would think that the Army might have heard.
The fire burned about 170 acres near the Dublin Ranch neighborhood and forced the evacuation of 20 students at Quarry Lane School and two residents. The fire burned in the southeastern area of Camp Parks. No injuries were reported and no structures were damaged at the time of “containment” at 4:30 pm.
Or maybe not…. At 5 pm, firefighters were battling a grass fire that had burned about 70 acres close to the nearby Santa Rita Jail. Today there is no sign of smoke or fire, so it looks like the situation was handled.
Hopefully, the Army folks at Camp Parks have gained a greater respect for Red Flag Warnings.
More than 40 uncontained, active and large wildfires dot the U.S. map from Arizona to Washington state and Alaska, the White House said. About 17,800 people have been dispatched to the fires.
Steve Gage, assistant director of operations for the fire center, said they can’t fill all the requests for crews and equipment from the 48 fires that remain uncontained around the country.
In California, a wildfire on the outskirts of Yosemite National Park threatened more than 2,000 structures and forced the evacuation of camps and remote rural homes. In three days, the fire has surged to more than 15 square miles and has destroyed two residences and five outbuildings, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Jerry Snyder said.
-Bill at
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