Where there's smoke . . .

I have a friend who retired from the CDF (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, now known as CalFire).
He lives in Shasta County, close enough to the Carr Fire that he packed a "go bag."
He's been visiting the the Base Camp, located primarily at the Shasta District Fairgrounds¹ on an almost daily basis.
He has also visited some of the burnt areas and fire camps.
Then he reports, in plain language that anyone can understand, just what the fire is doing and what is being done to counter that in an objective manner.
There's no editorializing.

The situation is still really scary for some folks, just not as many as a week ago.
I have included a small example of his style.
This particular report from yesterday leaves out details from the fire.

And on a lighter note, A Fire Weather Geek has decided that the fire whirls that occurred on Thursday evening were of such magnitude that the term "fire whirl" did not adeqately describe  what happend so he officially declared we had experienced  a  Fire Tornado. Now Redding is the home of the Fire Tornado..I can se the City Council redesigning our City Flag...it now features the Sundial Bridge. We'll keep the bridge, but add a flaming whirling vortice above it. The Enterprise Hornets² will change their name to the  Enterprise Twisters. The Asphalt Cowboys³ will wear fire helmets and become the Hell Fighters.

The world of Wildland Firefighters is similar to the military in which we have slang  names for the other jobs and duties.
A Line Dog is someone who is a Fireline Supervisor be it a
 Strike Team or Task force leader, a Division Supervisor or an OPS Section Chief.

 A Crew Dog  is a member of a hand crew, including Hotshots. A Rotorhead works Helitack, an Engine slug  is on an Engine crew and Hydrant Hopper works for a Muni or Local Government fire Department. Members of the Command Staff are Fire Gods and the support staff in Fire Camp are called Juice Suckers ( in the old days CDF wouldn't buy soda or gatorade, only fruit juice or water ) . Welcome to my world.

There's a down home tough to his commentary that gives the reader confidence that there's no BS.
It's only facts, backed up by data, but translated into the common language.
I sure wish we had more of that.
Perhaps, later, I can re-post some more of his writing, provided I can find it.

¹The county fairground is located in the eastern part of the county, at McArthur. Shasta District Fair is a state fair.
² Local High School
³ Local civic promotion organization