I'm John Batchelor, and I welcome my friend and colleague of many years,

Smokechumper Bliss.

Jeff Bliss is Pacific Watch, and we're going to begin with the lesson that I need about how fast the wildfires

of California move, California all up and down the west coast. There were instances these last

days where I was able to observe the wildfires from space because of the satellite images.

One was on an island, I believe, off the coast of California.

The one I'm most keen on, Jeff has sent me photographs because there are family members in the area,

and there's a hillside behind the houses.

It's Southern California.

It's beautiful blue sky and sunny with trees growing

and everybody living well.

Except Jeff tells me at one point,

the wildfire that was on the other side of the hill

crested the slope right out back of the house.

And the firefighters and the airplanes that put retardant on the firework

were trying to hold it off from sweeping down into the settlement where the houses are. And at this point,

looking at it from ground level, my goodness, Jeff, when that crested the hill, what were the

choices at that point? How long, if it kept coming, how long did everybody have in those houses to

get out? Good day to you, Jeff. Good day, John. So the people who were at the

bottom of that hill, they didn't have much time. They had been evacuated already. But my,

my in-laws who lived down that same street where the, you know, the photos came from them,

they got warning. They got out. They went to another relative's house not too far away in the city.

...