Embers are the enemy

In what may be a first for Carson Valley, the fundraising website Gofundme has a digital billboard up at the base of Sunridge soliciting donations for the LA Fires. The site does charge a 2.9 percent fee plus 30 cents per donation. An optional tip feature that is included on the site can be confusing, according to news reports.

In what may be a first for Carson Valley, the fundraising website Gofundme has a digital billboard up at the base of Sunridge soliciting donations for the LA Fires. The site does charge a 2.9 percent fee plus 30 cents per donation. An optional tip feature that is included on the site can be confusing, according to news reports.

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The key danger in any wildfire are the hot embers blown in the wind ahead, starting spot fires miles from the main fire front.

During the Tamarack and Caldor fires, residents saw big pieces of ash and even one partially burned book page fall down in Gardnerville.

That ash was on fire at one point in its brief existence and fell in lots of places that sent the fires forward toward neighborhoods.

After the Caughlin Ranch Fire back in November 2011, Extension Professor Emerita JoAnne Skelly talked about the dangers of embers in her column.

“During a wildfire, thousands of embers can rain down on your roof and pelt the side of your home like hail during a storm,” she said. “If these embers become lodged in something easily ignited on or near your house, the home will be in jeopardy of burning.”

That’s what’s happening in Los Angeles in real time.

Embers blown by dry Santa Ana winds coming off the deserts are spreading flames through neighborhoods affecting residents who might otherwise believe they are safe from the fires that often plague areas next to wildlands.

But both the Tamarack and Caldor fires in 2021 started miles from where they ended up, driven by winds that consumed vegetation cured in drought conditions.

We’ve had a couple of winters bringing average to above average moisture to the mountains that surround Carson Valley. That’s a good thing, but it’s unlikely we’ll see a third average or better winter in a row. While those wettish winters helped keep the fires down for the last two years, they also provided moisture for new grass and brush in the wilderness.

We’re looking at another week of dry weather for January, though one good storm could make a big difference.

We wouldn’t wish the suffering a disaster like the LA fires on anyone because we know that it would only take a slight change of circumstance to put us in the same position.