Smoke Rage

I can't imagine the bandana does him any good against the smoke, but maybe he wears it for bug protection in any case. All sorts of information and misinformation has been going around concerning air filtering. The Air Quality District points out that a filter quality of N-95 is required, with a fully sealing mask that forces all the air through the filter, in order to remove the microscopic particles that do the damage. Bandanas, medical masks, and common dust masks are useless for this purpose.


In the last few afternoons, water helicopters have flown back and forth taking loads of water from Lake Mendocino to drop on fires to the north. Bear in mind that these are big aircraft, and what look like beach balls at a distance actually carry very useful volumes of water.




A Little Lake Fire Protection District engine backs in to the main station, prepared to go the minute it's needed again.


I really feel for all the animals in this situation, because they can't escape the smoke either and don't have air-filtered shelter. These are a couple of llamas in Little Lake Valley on Thursday.


The main "Smoke Rage" post is over on my Willits Daily Photo blog.