His farm is near Yosemite where a horrible fire is raging out of control. Does anyone out in California know how he is doing?

It's difficult to tell from the CAL Fire map, but as of about 8:56 this morning, it looked like the fire front was just short of 1.5 miles west of him. Who knows where it is now.... The maybe good news is that there is a fire station close to him, less than about a mile away, so I would think that they would try to defend that, and if they do, then he might be okay.

(Oddly enough, his address shows as being within the bounds of Yosemite NP. At least, that's how I read the Google map. So that would be another reason for the firefighters to try to keep that fire back from his location.)

I'd imagine that he must be evacuated now, though. Even if he is in no immediate fire danger, he is more or less on a dead end road, so wisdom would say to get out of Dodge. Moreover, the air quality must be horrible.

I looked at the evacuation orders (as of this morning). If he isn't already evacuated (it's unclear if his road constitutes a "side road"), he will (or SHOULD be) soon. (If I were living there, I'd already be gone.)

I imagine the next update will be tomorrow (Tuesday) morning.

How terrible! I sure hope he /family are ok- and of course his iris he has worked so hard in hybridizing. I have been ordering from him for the past 3 years.

As of this morning's CAL Fire map, the fire is now about 1.25 mi from him.

It's really, really hard to read the CAL Fire map because the color overlays are so saturated, but it looks like he's now in a "Fire Evacuation" zone.

Tuesday evening 7:16 pm update. The Oak Fire is about 26% contained.

Doug's area is still under evacuation, but still unburnt.

It's hard to tell, but the fire front is anywhere between 1.25-1.5 miles away (irregular front, hard to read color overlaid CAL Fire map in order to compare it to a standard Google map).

Wed 8:09 am update:

The Oak Fire is 32% contained.

Doug's place is still under evacuation, and still unburnt. It doesn't look like the fire is much closer than last night, if at all.

Marilyn ~ Thank you for the update!

Yes,thank you, Marilyn.Please keep us updated.

thanks for the updates

Wed 8:05 PM update...

The Oak Fire is now 36% contained.

Doug's area is still unburnt, still evacuated. It's hard to tell, but I don't think the fire has gotten any closer to him (or if it has, not by much).

Good morning!

Today's update, as of 7:53 am:

The Oak Fire is now 39% contained.

Doug's area is still unburnt, but still evacuated.

Hope that they get the fire under control.

They seem to be getting there...

They definitely seem to be keeping it to the east side of Hwy 140 (which is good) and the eastern fire front doesn't seem to have progressed much (if any), also good. I have good feelings (well, at least I HOPE! ) that they'll be able to get this thing contained without too much more damage.

The bad side is that the weather there is in the mid-to-high 90s, at least for the next several days. It's got to be brutal fighting this thing.

Welcome to your Thursday night update!

The news is good!

As of 7:45 pm, the Oak Fire is now 42% contained.

Doug's area is still okay. In fact, his area has now changed from an evacuation order to a "Fire Advisement" , which means that he may be allowed back home. (However, he is right next to the boundary for evacuation order, so there is still a risk that he will have to evacuate again.)

So appreciate these news updates.

Thanks so much for the updates,Marilyn.

Friday morning 7:38 am update:

The fire containment is now at 45%. Progress may seem slow, but they are working in extremely steep, rugged terrain in above 90 temps.

Doug's area is still presently under "Fire Advisement".

Actually, it seems to me that CalFire has contained the Oak Fire very quickly in comparison to other fires in the past years.
Glad to hear that Doug's property has survived another fire.

I agree, Andrea.

There may be a lot of reasons involved here... First, I think they were able to get an early start. Hwy 140 is heavily traveled so probably somebody noticed the fire relatively early. Hwy 140 and the residential roads coming off of it give relatively easy access to the fire (as opposed to say a lightning strike in the middle of wilderness). There are at least two fire stations in the (broad) area, so that also probably helped give them a jump on the fire.

Then there are the incentives to squash it quickly: Proximity to the county seat (Mariposa) and the population cluster there is one reason. Then there's the close proximity to Yosemite - they're going to make every effort there, both for the park itself, and also all the tourism-related things (motels/inns/hotels/campgrounds/etc) that are spread out all over the area to the south of the park.

I'd be deliriously happy if this (and the one threatening the sequoias) were the only CA fires this summer, but October and possible rain is a long way off.