Following the Auburn Fire
Yesterday afternoon, my dad called me. “I just rolled into Colfax and see a big fire out past your house. Looks far away, but you might want to check.” My brother-in-law, who had just arrived from Los Angeles, jumped into the car with me and we went to scout it out.
While driving there, I hadn’t found any info on the web about it, so I tweeted this: “Anybody know about the fire near Weimar/Colfax?”
Driving a bit further, we quickly saw that the fire was centered somewhere in the Christian Valley area, and returned back home to get more information. Thanks to some friends tweeting back and commenting on Facebook, we learned that the fire was actually on the Auburn end of Christian Valley, along Highway 49.
I set up a Twitter search for “Auburn fire” on TweetDeck, and between that and KCRA Channel 3′s excellent helicopter coverage, we were able to get a pretty accurate picture of what was happening. I was working the phones to talk with friends and family who were in the evacuation zone, and tried to share what I was finding out on Twitter. I’m still not positive, but as of right now, I haven’t heard of any of them losing homes or businesses. We’re thankful for that.
At one point, I tweeted KCRA’s map of the fire zone, by taking a quick picture of it with my BlackBerry. You can see it above.
I tried not to pass on information that wasn’t confirmed unless that fact was clear. At one point, a CalFire tweet was retweeted saying two firefighters had been lost, and the missing context was that this news was from the LA fire. I corrected it as quickly as I could, but it’s a good illustration of both the power and the limits of Twitter as a news source. I know that’s how I approach news on the Internet — you have to take everything you read with a grain of salt and consider the credibility of the source.
I was very glad to hear this morning that Calvary Chapel offered overnight shelter to fire victims. Apparently the two evac centers at Rock Creek and Auburn elementary schools were unavailable for this. Good to see our churches stepping up. I’ll be asking what role Sierra College has played in offering our facilities for emergency planning. (People with means can go to hotels, but those who live paycheck-to-paycheck and don’t have family in the area often have no options when they lose their homes.)
As it stands now, there are somewhere between 30 and 50 homes and businesses lost in this fire. I haven’t seen any confirmed reports of fatalities, but those take time to report. Early reports are strongly indicating arson, and there was word of a manhunt under way last night in the area between Meadow Vista and Christian Valley. I’m sure the full story will not be boring.
We can all be very thankful for the work of our firefighters, police officers and paramedics/EMTs for their heroic work yesterday. We’re proud of their service to our community.
Here’s a recap of some of the news coverage this morning:
- KCRA Channel 3 (they get my award for best coverage yesterday)
- Auburn Journal
- The Union
- Sacramento Bee
