I know people with kids 5 miles from Fire 2 (no idea what that is) complaining that they cannot BBQ outside due to the smoke. Both highly educated, well paid people that could take a month of vacation just about anywhere. But they are riding it out for some reason.

Then if you live by an airport with fire bombers you see them coming and going at a steady pace.

Then turn on the news or your cell phone to get the news.

Fires can go from 2000 acres to 20,000 in hours and are directed by the winds.

You really never know which way it is going to turn.

If it is heading toward homes etc. you are evacuated.

You know days - or at least hours - in advance that there is a wildfire in the area. The air smells like smoke from far away (I could smell the smoke from a fire in San Bernardino County, CA, in Las Vegas - more than an hour's drive away). If it's close, you can see the smoke and you feel it when you breathe.

TV and radio tell listeners and viewers often about danger areas, who should evacuate, which direction to evacuate, and so on. Unless you are very close to where an untended campfire got out of hand and suddenly set a whole forest on fire, they don't sneak up on you like a tornado.

My hometown had a fire horn system that was number codded. You could count the blasts before and after the pause, then check the card on the wall and know what valley was burning.

with flames visible just down the street. It happened so fast that the staff were putting patients into their own cars just to escape.

I've had some close calls with brush fires in my area and they can move faster than a car and change directions without warning. Only once did I actually start to evacuate when the smoke was so thick it was getting hard to see and breathe. I couldn't see where the flames were anymore, but ash and live embers were falling out of the air. I loaded the car with the fur people and a few, very few essentials, and headed out. By the time I reached the highway the radio was saying thefire was mostly out. I was a very frightening experience.

They are successful at times, so it encourages others. Some people, who live in the canyons and among the trees and shrub that will burn, will build swimming pools or install large tanks of water for the express purpose of potentially saving their home.

http://www.cbs8.com/story/25539251/jeff-checks-in-with-man-who-fought-to-save-his-home

http://www.cbs8.com/story/25545665/teen-saves-house-asks-homeowner-to-pay-it-forward


Sometimes they're successful. Sometimes they're not. Sometimes they die. Hard to cheer or fault them until we ourselves stand in their shoes.

I haven't heard those sirens since I left the Midwest for the PNDub.

there had not been sufficient warning for people to evacuate. I hope those who are missing are found.

Rather than sirens, you might use TV, radio, or cell phone alerts.