Oregon Wildfires
Smoke across the west coast, Oregon Wildfires 1 million acres burned, Phoenix, Talent, Blue River, Vida, Lyons, Gates, Detroit, Molalla, Estacada, Lincoln City
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Produced by Billy Newman and Marina Hansen
I am Billy Newman, a photographer and creative director that has served clients in the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii for 10 years. I am an author, digital publisher, and Oregon travel guide. I have worked with businesses and individuals to create a portfolio of commercial photography. The images have been placed within billboard, print, and digital campaigns including Travel Oregon, Airbnb, Chevrolet and Guaranty RV.
My photographs often incorporate outdoor landscape environments with strong elements of light, weather, and sky. Through my work, I have published several books of photographs that further explore my connection to natural places.
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156 Billy Newman Photo podcast mixdown Oregon Wildfires
Hello, and thank you very much for listening to this episode of The Billy Newman photo podcast, recorded for the second week of September 2020. Thanks a lot for listening to this podcast. If you’re in the northwest or anywhere on the west coast, and if you’re probably anywhere in America, I’m sure you’ve heard about the wildfires that are going on here in Oregon. And if you’re on the west coast, as west of the Cascades, I’m sure you’ve been inundated with smoke for the last week or so, just about like most of this last week, I think since, like Labor Day, it’s been pretty intense here. It’s been just smoke all through the valley. And I think smoke all the way down to California. Now, I guess I was just reading that there’s smoke that’s now Kind of pushed out all the way to Michigan. I think a scene and satellite photos are really interesting satellite imagery. I don’t know if you guys have been able to see that. There are also some like time-lapse captures of the satellite imagery. And it’s really interesting to Kind of see the changes and how the weather was working during the period of time with those wildfires took off. But as a quick rundown, I’m sure there have been better, better news outlets than I am to give you the rundown of the facts of the fires. But yeah, it seems like it’s a historic amount of burn. And just a couple of days. I think they’ve mentioned that it’s now more than 1 million acres have burned, and wildfires created. I think just this week, but I think it’s for like the Oregon year-to-date amount. I think they mentioned 2 million acres of burned in California this year. pretty significant burns. I think that’s at least for Oregon. I think it was double the amount that they had expected for this year was interesting is that it’s all occurred so late. I think I was even captured talking on a podcast about a month ago or so that I was surprised not to see more smoke in the year this year as we were Kind of fortunate to not see, you know, some kind of fire complex build-up somewhere in Oregon, there’s always been some circumstances that when you get out to Eastern Oregon, you see smoke in the air on the horizon, you figure it’s come from somewhere a lot of the time, like when I was growing up, it came from the southern Oregon area, this is used to seem to catch fire every couple of years. Or it was, you know, somewhere, someplace up in the Cascades, you know, Kind of a remote location is somewhere up in like northeast Oregon that was burning. There’s been a few fires every year. But they seem to be like more remote locations. And they seem to start, you know, sometime in late June or early July. And they Kind of carry on through the year. But by this time of year, you know, but by September by Labor Day, right? You think it’s it’s Kind of shifted into the rainy season, and you’re Kind of done with the fires. But for those that have already started, you know, at least like significant burns and problems like that. So I was really surprised to Kind of see it shift over like that. But I remember getting the emergency alert on my phone while the skies were still clear. And I think that was on. Was it like Labor Day on Monday, and I have a weird emergency alert for fire. And like easterly wind, I think that’s what they were talking about too. And that’s really I think what was significant about it, and what might be under looked a little bit and some of them thought it is reasonable to assume that this is an expression of climate change, it’s a little bit of a soft answer to just Kind of claim that this is just a part of climate change generally. And it’s Kind of interesting how they do those things. But it’s interesting to talk about some of the specifics of how we help some of the things have changed over the last couple 100 years, and it has become more of a dry climate in the northwest than I had been, I think before the 1830s I think if you look back to like the historical record or like this weather records that they keep, like hear about like, like Lewis and Clark coming over, stay in it, you know, up along the Columbia nude record the number of rainy days that the season and it was just you know, like a wild amount of rain that they had all the time. And I think that that that had existed and occurred up into like the 1820s and 30s. And they recorded a pretty significant drop off in the amount of rainfall that was occurring in the area. And I think that that was sort of thing that had happened for what about 500 years is that really talk about like that little ice age that Kind of came on In his little ice age, yeah, I think it was, yeah, the Little Ice Age that came on, like at the end of the Renaissance or something like that, before the Renaissance Is that what it was maybe got warmer than I’m probably mixing it up. But whatever Kind of weather change it was, I think it was recorded for a couple of 100 years, and then it sort of started to lay off. And so on the West Coast over here, I think it started to become a bit more of an arid. Well, not arid climate. But I think just the amount of precipitation per year dropped by a pretty strong amount; I think there was like a little bit of a weather change that had happened; I’m not sure how to what degree that that pace has continued. And then to what degree the manmade climate change issue has increased the ramp-up of that issue, as it’s changed the weather patterns over the hundreds of years that it’s been occurring. But what’s interesting about this moment and this event is that the winds, normally in the West Coast area here, come off the Pacific and then blow eastward. A westerly wind that blows toward the east, and Kind of pushes, you know, just Kind of pushes over the United States. And then off to the side, Okay, I see that through the winter, as every week, every three days, there’s sort of some, some high and low-pressure system that sort of cycle of the Pacific Ocean and then blow over the West Coast. And then off, off across the country. And I think, like a lot of time, I think in the wintertime, they call like the Pineapple Express you remember like, like the expression that the movie that had come out a long time ago with like where the West Coast, he gets a lot of rainstorms in the winter, like the Kind of come off the Pacific Ocean, they go over Hawaii or out in the Hawaii area, and then swoop back over from a westerly position and then blowback over the West Coast here. What was interesting about this moment, this position, is that we had like a really strong wind from the east really living here for 30 years now. It’s really pretty strange to have a strong wind blowing from the east. It’s very rare. And so I think I’m not really quite sure what conditions happened to cause that. But I think it was some higher pressure system that was coming down out of Canada. And I think that when mixed with the cold, I think of the colder air like lower pressure system over here. I think there’s a lot of when that started to blow through. But I guess Monday it was just like, a record amount of wind. I’m not really sure that because it was hot. It was hot the whole day. It was like, you know, 91 degrees that day. And I remember hearing, like, in Eugene, there’s a bunch of trees that got knocked over. I think on the University of Oregon campus; there’s a big, big branch of a tree that hung out over the courtyard there. That broke off, and I think it was in the way. I recognize some spots from when I was living in Eugene, have a couple of areas in new, I suppose with trees I’d walked by in the past that it snapped and then fallen off against the buildings. They’re just in the downtown area. So I think they got hit pretty hard with a windstorm. I didn’t notice where I am. My family in Southern Oregon definitely mentioned that though I said it was uniquely an unusually strong winds are blowing out of the east on a really hard day. And I think that you know, it’s strange to think, but I think that that just that simple change or that blonde from the east over across the dry land probably be in a drier amount of air and then now pushing on fires that had already existed now in a different direction. I think just really, and I don’t know, made for a pretty strange and Kind of unique set of circumstances that would create this many burns in such a short amount of time. Just thinking about well, there’s no cash assembly phase; it’s almost hard to keep track of. I probably won’t be a comprehensive list of all the information out there about the fires, but I thought it’d be kind of interesting to just Kind of talk about and do a little rundown of stuff. I think there was a fire in the talent Phoenix area. I woke up to hear about that the next day, but that was pretty interesting. You know, being a person that had grown up in Southern Oregon. I know the Medford area and the talent Phoenix Ashland area pretty well. First I’d heard Yeah, it was a fire that was in Asheville, and I guess it started in Ashland and then had immersions do some other areas as it moved. I guess north of the I five corridor, and I think Kind of fall in a creek. Is it the Alameda Creek I’m not sure? But I think following the I five corridor up toward Medford and it really looked significant. And now seeing some of the damage of some of the whole areas that were burned out. It’s It’s surprising to see the amount of damage that can happen and burn through and then you know, just be gone. I guess it’s like all the fuels are gone. But it’s like man, those houses were there and they are not there and it was just all Kind of pushed by the amount of oxygen was coming in from those really strong easterly winds. The really dry conditions. It’s probably been, you know, 100 days since we have have had rainfall up here. And I’m sure other another number of other issues that have Kind of occurred with it, but it’s interesting about this Phoenix talent fires it just sort of shows outside of outside of forestry conditions or you know problems either with the management of old timber or doing doing controlled burns or whatever it might be the talent Phoenix fire is really an area that’s just as you see many pretty civilized you know, it’s a pretty normal, you know, Park area, all Mariya it’s pretty populated area, it’s not out in a national forest system that maybe would have been mismanaged or a wilderness area where they weren’t able to go in set up roads or you know, fire lines in the same way that they would have in another area. So in this this talent Phoenix fire what you really get to recognize is just the amount of bad conditions that the fire was able to grow in or you will I guess positive conditions for the fire stick but bad bad for our whole population of the town the talent Phoenix fires part of it and then I think there’s another fire that’s I think even bigger that was spotted I think, you know, like heat rises hot air rises with hot coals and flames and sparks and stuff as you can imagine from the campfires and stuff rise up in that heat and then blow over in a big fire like what we had started to experience national talent Phoenix I think there was some some sparks that had gone over the hillside like a travel like a long way along with the smoke dropped in and started another fire over the shady Cove area and that is now burned a significant amount of land maybe I maybe have this mixed up or something but but i think i think we’ve also now arrested a person in connection with the talent Phoenix fire as who a person who was starting was starting a set of fires around houses. His weird story, I don’t have all the facts on that. It seems like it would have been I think it was a person who probably lived on the street, unsure of how they’ve got the motivation to perform those actions. I don’t know if it was just a chaos move or if they were like an asset of someone else who was trying to organize it more but yeah, it’s just seems like such a weird, weird idea. I guess a fire it already started. But those two quickly merged and then continue to burn through talent Phoenix and South Medford I think I know some people that that had to evacuate their houses, I suppose. Like the regions are probably still safer. Okay. But I think that, but yeah, there’s a large number of people that had to evacuate from that fire location also a lot of people in the Shady Cove area that had evacuated from their houses that’s pretty crazy. And I think they’re still still dealing with that I think they were able to get some of it contained. But I think there’s still amounts of it that are not contained and it’s still just down down so yeah, wild amount of smoke down there really happy that more fires didn’t pop off in the hillsides of stuff there you know, like there’s a lot of land kind of in the skews as you get south of Ashland on my five as you go up there and surprise some of that stuff didn’t get caught on fire too but interesting though Yeah. If there’s like an arsonist started the started a couple of these fires here in the Phoenix area that that’s pretty wild. And yeah, crazy conditions the wind and the hot weather and the lack of rain that the probably just really allergy I mean, just obviously I guess like self evidently now. It was pretty bad conditions. And definitely fire spread quickly. So I’m not really sure about the rest of the information about the tower Phoenix fire, but there’s still Kind of more stuff coming out all the time. I’m not sure but the damage assessor when people are going to get back to the houses to see what’s there and what’s not there. But for places that were taken out, it’s pretty significant. really surprising. I woke up to find out the news. I was by the time Phoenix talent were already gone. So like a tune into a live stream of a newscast down there. kayo bi channel five, and I was watching the NBC stream. I think it’s a new stream, NBC. It was a girl who was out there she had a tripod set up for a man on the street, I guess person on the street interview and they were at up a Burger King, Burger King Size in the back. And beside her where the burger king should be his smoldering rubble. And that was the visual that they gave us. She tilted the tripod around and viewed I think this smoke coming off the creek which was pretty heavily burned and then I think I saw like another I think video that was I was going around on Twitter that had been posted of someone kind of panning across the creek and tree line and it was just engulfed in flames as it was Kind of spreading up and traveling pretty quickly down toward toward downtown South Medford. Well, so yeah, that’s all pretty crazy now. That’s nothing moving on. Well, I mean, that’s, that’s a pretty significant one. That’s Kind of why I led with that one. There’s probably no order for me right now. But the Blue River vitta area is now wiped out, I think, pretty totally is what I hear still pretty locked off. That’s on highway 126 as you’re leaving Eugene going out to Springfield. And I think that’s sort of like the North route that you would take over and out there plenty of times past that area. I think that’s like a pie around like the cougar reservoir and the hot springs that are out there. I’m not sure if that caught on fire. I know that there’s a covered bridge that’s up there. I believe there’s a few covered bridges. And I believe that it’s that maybe that one or two of them may have been lost. This is probably no-no and I don’t know I think I was going off of an earlier report that was mentioning that they projected that they would lose all the covered bridges however, I did see a picture where I think that that that one covered bridge you pass on highway 26 as you’re driving up past Blue River and vieta I think that one’s still is there that one was spared which is great but there was burns heavily on both sides of the river along the Mackenzie River in that valley there and just made a lot of significant burning all through that section. I’m interested to try and find out and see a better and more clear visual of the damage that’s occurred out there I think it’s it’s also Kind of confusing there’s still like a lot of haze literally like there’s just still so much smoke and concrete all you see is just wreckage and it’s almost unrecognizable. It’s Kind of weird, you know, your mind gets in there it’s like I I don’t recognize that, you know, you see a picture of some area reported to be like a boat ramp or a lodge or something or you know, some someone’s house or car lot or something out there. And I think I probably driven past it. And I went 26 some time in the past but totally unrecognizable in the haze and the smoke of just a burned-out area you see just Kind of curled wreckage that looks like of cars that got caught on fire. And bikes are those chairs, materials, whatever, whatever was able to still stand But really most everything is just wiped to the ground as it was for a house. So yeah, Blue River. And a lot of a lot of that areas is wiped out pretty heavily. I think maybe Mackenzie bridge, got out of it. Okay, but I think there’s a lot of damage out there and pass that area. And it’s a real shame that happened right through there. I think I was also here to that for all of these where the trees got really heavily burned out along the sides of the highway. I think they’re gonna have to cut a lot of that timber down. And I guess because those trees become unstable as they burned out into the core, and then they’ll topple over in the wintertime as snow comes down as also hearing that there’s going to be an increased risk of mudslides through the winter season now, as we’ve had a significant burn a lot of exposed land and ash and stuff is going to get wet and then I guess breakaway and come down here. There’s like a risk of mudslides after big forest fires like that, especially on the steep draws and right where there’s a bunch of highway traffic. Nice. Yeah, we haven’t really had that Kind of experience before. Like I was thinking about the biscuit complex fire on the calamy ops as wilderness that occurred first in 2002. While these firsts for me, I think there’s fires in the past are out there, but a real significant portion of that whole forest area burned in 2002. I think I was probably in eighth grade or something like that. And that was a big fire. I think that burned for the whole summer I saw that and the sky and that was out in the wilderness areas are pretty distant out. I think I was saying that in the calamity opsis wilderness, it would be like west of cave junction, that area in South West, Oregon. And I can see that see it really clear in the sky all through the summer for 2002. Down there in Southern Oregon. And then I think later in 2013. There was also another fire hour maybe just a couple years ago now. There was another really significant fire out on the the other section of the calamity offices that had not burned the first time in 2002. And I think that also burned and that was a really significant significant fire to the thing. They fought that for months. I think it burned for a long time. I think it spread for a long time. And that I think finally grew to somewhere around a million acres or something like that. It was a really significant and large area that burned. Now it really interesting just in a day. I think they talked for the last like four days or something like we’ve reached Are our mounts of like a million acres burned some of those fires had been going I guess since like the middle of August, and they’ve just been Kind of progressing slowly then with this significant weather change the easterly winds coming coming off the I guess the dry middle of the country land dad just lit those fires change the wind and now we’re in the situation that we see ourselves in now. So Blue River fire talked about that one a bit just a little bit man a lot of wild stories out of that one a lot a lot of significant damage a lot of stuff that we’re gonna notice for a long time. Now further north as we Kind of go up outside of the Salem area in the I think the cncm River Canyon area the towns of Lions have gates and I think up through Detroit are pretty well burned and wiped out a lot of significant damage up there as well. Bennett through the Detroit area the Detroit Lakes Area heard about some people trying to get out of there and escape that and it sounded pretty harrowing even Lyons which is really quite close to this the Salem area it seems I think there’s some pretty pretty harrowing stories of people trying to leave or trying to get their family out and yeah, that sounds sounds pretty crazy up there. I don’t really understand the whole reality of of the fires and the situation and the results and the consequences of it. Yeah. Big vibe. I think that one’s connecting now with the fire that’s on the Clackamas side as it goes down toward esta Qaeda Malala. And as it comes into a section of my I suppose it’s not you know, it’s like almost like Oregon City and like Lagos where you go in that area put on notice as being you know, in a fire zone, I think I think it’s the way that the district works for how they set up their like regional fire map but but I think like areas as far north that are as far up toward Portland is like Oregon City were put on notice, I think level one notice of be ready to evacuate, but areas like Molalla as the Qaeda, few of those other towns that are out in that area out in those fields, and then as it goes up into the hills toward the Clackamas river got really significantly burned. And I think a lot of people have to leave for that. So that’s pretty wild. That one was like I think both the ones around like the Santiam River area and the Clackamas river area were both really pretty significant. And that’s going to be kind of a weird one to see the recovery from also also out in Lincoln city out in Lincoln City, Oregon, right on the coast on the one on one I think on like the north side of Lincoln city there was a forest fire that it started not sure if these that one was related to arson or not I think they they had mentioned or maybe there’s another smaller fire that I think was caught and put out that was that was from an arsonist or I don’t know if it’s an RS is maybe but but some some irresponsible behavior that was caught and put out like I’ve noticed, like some deliberate use of fireworks being reported. I’ve also noticed like a lot of reports that are saying that that’s that sound like grand scheme or organized conspiracy of something that’s going on which would you would think after your uni like it’s, it’s something that will cross your mind FTSE the amount of damage that occurred so quickly. It’s kinda interesting to see like the number of fires We’re sorry, but yeah, this Lincoln City Fire put a good section of the city of Lincoln City on notice to evacuate. Really, I think pretty scary. I think like there’s a level three go now notice for a significant amount of the Northern Lincoln City area. And then the South section, I think it was like oh, level two and level one alert to be ready to leave. So pretty spooky weekend. Yeah, man or like is like Labor Day, Labor Day week and the week following it just like a pretty pretty wild thing where Yeah, good conception of the the Cascade Mountains burned. And that’s where we’re getting the smoke that’s like sitting really heavily on us over here on the west coast. As you look at the satellite images, how it’s really pushed out, sort of strangely over the West Coast over the Pacific Ocean, you see this big swirl of brown smoke that used to be, you know, a million acres of Oregon timber and houses and everything else that that went up in smoke and then it’s now out over the Pacific Ocean swirling around and then I think it’s waiting for another pressure system or you know, another other weather system to move through. I think it’s gonna start pushing all that smoke back back over us and then back out toward the east as they are mixed in with the rest of the atmosphere over the rest of the time, but I think it should start Kind of blowing out maybe over this next week. kind of depends on how long this this weather pattern stays with. I suppose by the time this podcast comes out, we should already be seeing a bit of improvement and some more. Some more westerly wind blowing, I think it’s already Kind of shifted to be a little bit more westerly, but I think we’re supposed to be getting a little bit of a change, I think we’re supposed to get some clouds and some rain coming Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, a little bit, I think Kind of put in there, but I was looking to change the rain during the day have been at least a couple of those days, like a pretty high percentage chance that we’re gonna get some rainfall. So it’d be late probably, but at least we’ll be in the right direction of the Kind of stuff that will help the firefighters out there working right now help contain and put away the forest fire stuff that we’ve got going on. But, man, so I’m sure there’s a number of fires that I’ve missed talking about. I know there’s like another whole other set of complexes in California that have been really destructive, and really significant. I’m looking at the smoke and the fire damage of some of the areas that have been down there around like Lake Berryessa, Oroville. They’re like any other. There’s a lot of areas out there. I think they’re talking about 2 million acres. Others may be mentioned earlier, 2 million acres of burn damage this year recorded in 2020. I think that’s twice the average. Now here in Oregon, 1 million acres burned, which is a pretty significant amount. Also, if you Kind of think of maybe California being, you know, three, three times Oregon size or something you take, you know, three Oregon’s Kind of stacked each other seems like that’d be about what it would take to Kind of fill up the length of California on the Pacific coastline there. But the million acres man pretty quick to get to that number. I know we had some burns already this year, some other fires and stuff. But man that’s been like we have had this last week. So that was pretty crazy how quickly moved and really, really significantly, like how destructive it was, again, there’s acreages that burn but it seems like some of those have just been out in pretty pretty remote areas for a long time now, this is pretty significant is it being in a number of the highway, like the valley and river draws that are out there and also like the near near like the populated sections, I mean, Medford, the Springfield, Eugene area, the Salem area, and the Portland area, all experienced pretty significant fires right along their their highway that cuts up into the Cascades. And I guess we were pretty fortunate here in the Corvallis, Albany area to be spared. up outside of the you know, there wasn’t any fire up on that draw. So, at least in essence, like we’re a little bit further away from some of the significant heightened Red Alert circumstances that are going on right now. But yeah, it’d be a weird week for probably most people you know, I was looking at like one of the reports, and 10% of Oregon is forced to evacuate I think those numbers were a little bit off or stretched and then they kind of later came out and said, Oh, yeah, like the calculations probably really only around somewhere around 100,000 or maybe 150,000 people that were required to evacuate. And then I think it was probably around 500,000 people that were about to or were supposed to be on notice to get things ready to leave. I think it was if you if you can predict Clackamas. And Washington County or like is it started like Kind of skewed up toward toward Portland and a little closer to Salem. I think if if either of those districts went from Well, if they either dropped into a level level one alert of you, no gifts, get your stuff get ready to go. I think that would have been well into the 500,000 area. I guess just given as how concentrated the populations here in Oregon are toward the Portland area, the Salem and then the Eugene area and so it’s it’s all those areas were hit also with with I think all of Medford I think it was like you know, 80,000 people there, put on the list of female figures out and get ready to go somewhere. Every go to the fair. Everybody go to the Jackson County Fairgrounds, all 82,000 people I was reading another thing, classic Jackson County style. Everybody leave Jackson County go to the Jackson County Fairgrounds? Well, okay, it’s still pretty close to just about everything going on. But at least it’s at the north end of the Medford area, and it’s Kind of away from the shady Cove White City stuff that was going on, you can get out there, okay. And then there are 100 beds and some blankets and those will be kept for those people who are elderly or ill. And then your shelter that you receive is to lay on the ground. That was, I think a quote from one of the emergency response people is you can come and have a spot on the ground to lay, but hey, it’s shelter. And I thought Wait a second. That’s not shelter that’s laying on the ground. Hmm, so Kind of classic for Jackson County Emergency Response to, I guess, be overwhelmed, let’s say, and I’ll guess I grant him that during this time as a bunch of the town is destroyed. So it’s gonna be pretty wrecked for a long time and 2020 it’s great if one thing doesn’t do it to you another thing Well, good times here so yeah, September 2020 the fires in Oregon, just some of the information and experience and stuff that I’ve been having from here where I’ve been I’ve been trying to Kind of stay in so I had plans right like, you know, I can only talk about where I’m camping or where I’m traveling where I want to go and I Kind of wanted to do that on this one. I think I was gonna go out to the coast and then head down to California and I ended up Kind of scrapping all that stuff as it was very smoky and unhealthy to really go anyway, I thought about like Kind of trying to travel out east a little bit further really looking at the satellite map the smoke bath and air quality stuff just about everywhere out to Montana is affected to some degree I think it’s better in a lot of places but it’s not like a quick drive out and I’ll be I’ll be out of the blue skies maybe if I found a couple spots but it’s pretty far so I was gonna wait for this to Kind of pass or shift up a little bit to get a little bit more of a sense of what’s under control and what’s not and also there’s a lot of highways here that are closed down you know, like I mean there’s sections probably all over the state where there’s a section a highway that shut down or where it’s impossible in some spot so it’s all I think pretty strange right now so it’s Kind of open for that all to settle down a little bit and for things to get figured out a little bit and then I was gonna try and take off again and maybe do do some more moving around them but yeah for the last couple days have been Kind of holding tight and narrowly trained to dry around much at all really specifically because the air quality you know I went I went down a couple days ago to run some errands and stopped to get a coffee a spot that I go to normally came up to the window It was early in the morning and came to the window it said closed due to air quality and I thought well I don’t blame them but yeah it’s like wow the fires all the smoke in town that particular I think when you look at the the air particulate it’s like Portland Oregon is the the number one worst air quality city in the world right now. I think above Jakarta and Indonesia above where is it is a Beijing? That’s better air quality. Somewhere in China has bad air quality, and apparently, I had hoped guys pretty bad, guys. I bet it sucks over there a lot of these days of the year. But yeah, I guess it’s supposed to be like the worst air quality in the world. If you look at the way that that scale goes instead of it’s been like up above 300 a lot. Yikes. Yeah, like in the extremely unhealthy ranges, the worst, worst smoke and like worst amount of smoke all over the West Coast that I’ve ever really remembered. or seen. I mean, there’s been a few days where the weather changed it was Kind of bad held the smoke low in the valley that normally been off for most of the summer but but held some smoke out really low in the valley in Southern Oregon, you could drive out of Southern Oregon, you know in a northern Oregon here and be fine be up in the sun and there’d be some smoke, but it wouldn’t be a big deal. But down there and so in Oregon now you could have visibility of, you know, a few 100 feet or something like a quarter mile or something like that if it was a good part of the day. But it was like that for a few days. And then finally the wind shifted and Kind of pulled up out of the valley and wasn’t socked in anymore. But But this Yeah, this is the most socked in and most Kind of long term stretch of heavy smoke that I’ve ever seen and met all over the West Coast like Canadian border down to California, smoked in weird weather. So I’m really hoping that it Kind of starts to figure itself out really happy that a bunch of people are out there trying to work on it stuff, so we’ll see if it starts to get better shift into a more controlled environment in the mid and later September. But appreciate you guys checking out this episode of the building Newman photo podcast I guess all all encompassing the forest fire situation that’s occurred last week, but thanks for Kind of listened to it. I know it’s Kind of law and facts and stuff. And I’m sure there’s a lot of better, better locations for you guys to find some of the specific details. I think I was getting some some good stuff out of the Oregonian. A lot of this specific small-town Kind of local papers have been difficult to get good information from like I was mentioned in like the Southern Oregon like the Medford paper not many good photos or videos or articles about things that are important and doesn’t really give you like a good sense of what was going on. Like I was like I think the mail Tribune or like I was mentioning the local NBC ABC and CBS affiliates there. Were doing local reporting on it. A lot of those stories really weren’t very good or weren’t well structured. And I think I Kind of left out some of the information that would have been good to have it. As part of an overview, some good specifics of information about developments of each case that are going on so you can Kind of get some more information from there. But, man, I’m sure everybody’s everyone’s attention has been glued to it for the last week. So I hope everybody is holding in there and doing okay, and man, I’m sorry if I may have actually like, actually evacuated and most people my family had to evacuate. It’s Kind of crazy. I think they’re okay, but man, we’re a couple weeks. So go to Billy Newman photo calm. If you want to check out some more information or get in contact with me. I think there’s a couple ways you can do it there. If you have any questions or comments about what we’ve been talking about, or you want to know more about some of the stuff that I’m up to, I put together a 360 video playlist that I think is available on YouTube, you can go straight there to youtube.com forward slash Billy Newman photo. Or you can go to my website. This is what I put together as a playlist link that’s there in the grid icons on that front page, you click on 360, it’ll take you to a playlist of 360 videos that we’re captured around Oregon. Kind of shown some landscape stuff and all that so yeah, collection of those videos put together curated up posted to the front page of the Billy Newman photo.com website. You can check it out there. Anyway, thanks a lot. All this information but the smoke by experience. Fires for the second week of September 2020 fishing everyone listening. I hope you guys have a great day. Bye