# FOREST FIRES



## fubar57 (Jul 12, 2014)

Just a bit ago, a forest fire started behind the mountains to the East of us, roughly 3.5 miles/5.5kms away. Not sure how it started yet. I'll keep you posted. It's a lousy photo as there is a lot of haze from a very large forest fire near Tumbler Ridge.







Yellow pin marks approximate location






Geo

_EDIT:_ Replaced photo

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## GrauGeist (Jul 12, 2014)

We have a serious forest fire going about a dozen miles west of town here, started by lightning Thursday night. Their best estimate at the moment is less than 10% contained.

Hopefully your fire will be knocked down soon, and won't cause any harm to life or property!


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## vikingBerserker (Jul 12, 2014)

Yikes!


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## fubar57 (Jul 12, 2014)

Picking up steam..






Geo


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## Vic Balshaw (Jul 12, 2014)

Our thought go out to you guys, fires seem to be the modern day hazard around the world and sadly very costly in life and property, not to mention the environment.


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## fubar57 (Jul 12, 2014)

Just heard from a reliable source(my daughter) the fire at this time is 8 hectares, about 12 square city blocks.

Geo


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## GrauGeist (Jul 12, 2014)

We should make this the official Forest Fire (and brush fire) report thread...


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## Shinpachi (Jul 12, 2014)

Take care, Geo.


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## at6 (Jul 12, 2014)

My prayers for your safety and hope that your homes aren't threatened


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## fubar57 (Jul 12, 2014)

Thanks for your thoughts guys. The wind is from the [email protected](right to left in the photo) so it should stay behind the mountain. The fire, according to All Current Wildfires - Wildfire Management Branch - Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations - Province of British Columbia says the fire is now 40 hectares in size. This is the actual location according to the site and I wasn't far off.






Had the fire been South of town, there would be more concern as there is only one way out of our little burg until you get about 11 clicks South. The latest photo.






Geo


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## fubar57 (Jul 13, 2014)

Last post before dark...






...This started rolling in about half an hour ago, looking west. Smoke from the Ingenika fire about 121 miles/195kms N.E. from here about 3000 hectares in size.






So this is where we are; 1) Ingenika fire, 2) Tumbler Ridge fire and 3) our fire...






...as I was typing, a Convair 580 bomber from Prince George flew by...






...the smell of smoke is in the air.

Geo

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## Wayne Little (Jul 13, 2014)

Take care one and all....


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## fubar57 (Jul 13, 2014)

As of this morning, the fire is 75% contained, lots of smoke in the air. Here's what B.C. has been through this year with two more months to go...






...I'm in the P.G. district. Just thought I would throw this in as well, stats for B.C....







Geo

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## fubar57 (Jul 13, 2014)

The sun is heightening the effect of the smoke but still pretty smoky...






Geo


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## Torch (Jul 13, 2014)

I hate those things,had my fill in Colorado. Found the best way to pack alot is lay a blanket down,put stuff on top of it and each person holds a corner. You can then lift it all into a trailer,pu bed or suv,saves multiple trips. Also bough a fire proof safe. Good luck...


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## fubar57 (Jul 13, 2014)

GrauGeist said:


> We have a serious forest fire going about a dozen miles west of town here, started by lightning Thursday night. Their best estimate at the moment is less than 10% contained.
> 
> Hopefully your fire will be knocked down soon, and won't cause any harm to life or property!



Wow, just reading about your fire. Stay safe Dave.

Geo


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## Crimea_River (Jul 13, 2014)

Stay safe guys. Hoping you all remain unaffected.


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## GrauGeist (Jul 13, 2014)

fubar57 said:


> Wow, just reading about your fire. Stay safe Dave.
> 
> Geo


Thanks, yeah, the prevailing winds (currently) are keeping it away from the city of Redding, but it's consumed nearly a dozen homes/buildings and has grown to over 3,000 acres with no projected time of containment at this point in time.


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## Lucky13 (Jul 13, 2014)

Stay safe and sound guys!


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## Gnomey (Jul 13, 2014)

Yikes! Stay safe Geo.


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## fubar57 (Jul 13, 2014)

Thanks Jan, Andy and Dr. Gnomey. Winds from the south 17, gusting to 30kph and a temp. of 33°C is not good. A few hours ago there was no smoke and I thought it was controlled and now this...







Geo

_EDIT:_ Just found this update on the B.C. Wildfire website...






An "Interface Fire" is a fire that put communities and people at risk

Geo


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## Wildcat (Jul 14, 2014)

Bush fires suck, stay safe guys.


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## fubar57 (Jul 14, 2014)

Thanks Andy. Updated an hour ago..






...as I type, a second helo with a sling(probably gear for an isolated fire as Ingenika has a runway) has headed north. The wife heard there was a fire around the Mugahaw, which is just north of town.

Geo


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## fubar57 (Jul 14, 2014)

Update to the new fire, about 11.5kms/7 miles north of here. 











A) old fire B) new fire. No info from B.C. Wildfire yet.

Geo


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## fubar57 (Jul 14, 2014)

Ok, so I didn't know this started 2 days ago. From the BC Wildfire site...






Geo

_EDIT:_ Tried the Panorama(Photosynth) camera on my phone to show the distance between the two fires.


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## GrauGeist (Jul 14, 2014)

Lightning can start delayed fires simply by a strike smoldering for several days before flaring up...it makes it really hard to fight lightning fires because it can throw off your attack projection.

Looks like it's keeping it's distance from your town, hopefully it'll stay that way.

Our fire here has jumped the containment lines and has grown to over 4,700 acers and now they have no idea how long it will take to contain. Also turns out it was not started by lightning, but by a guy driving supplies in to his illegal pot garden.

Here's local coverage of the fire: Crews struggle to contain Bully Fire; suspect makes bail | Home - Home


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## fubar57 (Jul 14, 2014)

Friendly looking chap with an appropriate name in more ways than one. Some rugged terrain the fire fighters have to work in. The wind here is from the south so we have that going for us.


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## GrauGeist (Jul 14, 2014)

That report was several days old, and as of this afternoon, the wind has shifted and it's driving the fire to the east...right toward town here.

There is several miles between us and the fire, but there's a few little communities and quite a few remote homes in that area.


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## michaelmaltby (Jul 14, 2014)

saw a picture of one of these on the TV news tonight ... coverage of your area Geo. Seems very practical.


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## Torch (Jul 15, 2014)

looks like a scene from Disney's Planes!!!


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## GrauGeist (Jul 15, 2014)

A morre recent update on our fire, it's grown to 6,800 acres still with no sign of containment. The weather is not helping the fire crews at all. Evacuations persist as Bully Fire grows Tuesday - Story

Unfortunately, we don't have the cool Canadian water-bombers, we have helicopters along with P-3 Orions, S-2 Trackers and P-2V Neptunes for our fixed-wing air attack.

Hope your firefighters are making progress on your fires, Geo and the folks in that area area safe and out of harm's way.


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## GrauGeist (Jul 15, 2014)

Awesome, I click "post" once and get a double post...


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## Shinpachi (Jul 16, 2014)

I experienced the same a few weeks ago, GG.
I thought I had clicked twice or my mouse broken.


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## fubar57 (Jul 16, 2014)

Shame about the evacuations but hopefully things will get better quickly. Here the fires have slightly grown. The weather forecast is for cooler temps. and rain for the next 4 days but lightning is called for on Thursday. A small fire broke out on Cemetery Road, 2kms south of town but was quickly contained. This is one that would have been of concern as it would have blocked the only way in or out of town.









Geo


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## Airframes (Jul 16, 2014)

I hope the fires can be knocked down without too much damage and loss of property or life. And a big 'well done' to the fire crews - they do a very tough job in an even tougher environment.


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## fubar57 (Jul 16, 2014)

That they do Terry. I've fought two fires and aside from the terrain, heat and flying particles, it's also a dawn to dusk thing. Something else that doesn't happen too often but happened on my first fire, trees exploding from the intense heat. Sounds like a stick of powder going off. Anyhoo...on my way to camp and we passed three other fires, two within 10kms from camp. Forestry has the right to empress any one they need if they run out of resources .

Geo


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## GrauGeist (Aug 3, 2014)

We have several fires raging in the area caused by recent dry-lightning storms...

One to the north that is growing and threatening some small communities:





And a bigass complex that is completely out of control and threatening the city of Burney to the east...they just called out a pending evacuation order, it's that serious:


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## GrauGeist (Aug 3, 2014)

And just found out that one of our local fire crews survived a burnover...

The engine, E-15 from Station 1 here in Redding, didn't make it, however:





I know the engine well, like the vast majority of the area's public safety equipment...here's E-15 at the shop back in 2011:

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## fubar57 (Aug 3, 2014)

Hope everyone remains safe down there Dave. The fires here, that were close to town are out but there are still two within 50kms, one almost 50,000 hectares, 30% contained and the is 20,000 hectares, 0% contained.

Geo

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## GrauGeist (Aug 3, 2014)

Here's a video taken by one of the strike team members in the engine ahead of E-15 (burnt engine pictured above) as they were escaping the burnover...you'll hear during radio traffic that E-15 was directly behind this engine.

Just to add, the burnt engine (E-15, shown above) was not sitting when it was burnt...it (and it's 3 crew members) were driving through the fire to safety.

(I hope the video shows...if not, I'll figure something out)

**note** there is a little bit of "strong" language in a few places of the video....which is understandable, considering the circumstances.


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## bobbysocks (Aug 3, 2014)

glad everyone made it out safe. vehicles can be replaced....wild fires are a dicey business...especially ones of that magnitude. good luck out there...


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## GrauGeist (Aug 4, 2014)

They're bringing in the big guns, now...

View attachment Todd_Westlund_10529764_10203595935572302_395575096_n.mp4


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## fubar57 (Aug 4, 2014)

I wonder why they waited so long? and that is way more awesome than our twin prop jobbies. Is the video taken near you Dave?

Geo


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## GrauGeist (Aug 4, 2014)

They won't call in super tankers unless the fire reaches a certain size and/or proximity to habitation

As it happens, the fires are only several days old, but are growing at an alarming rate...this area where the supertanker video was shot, is about 5 minutes driving distance from the city of Burney, in eastern Shasta County, to the east where I am.

Burney is about 50 miles (80 km) away.


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## bobbysocks (Aug 4, 2014)

wow...that was awesome!


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## Gnomey (Aug 4, 2014)

Stay safe guys!


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## at6 (Aug 5, 2014)

Locally, we have the French fire burning with 12000 acres burned so far and only 20% containment. Was started by an illegal campfire left unattended. Do get to see some nice Neptunes taking off though.


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## GrauGeist (Aug 5, 2014)

So you're down on the other end of the valley.

We actually have rain on the way from the east, hopefully it'll give the crews an edge on containment. The downside, is lightning and high winds may acompany the rain.

It'llbe interesting to see how this plays out.


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## at6 (Aug 5, 2014)

GrauGeist, I live in Fresno, the butt of many jokes. Went to Redding for a week in Sept. 1991. Have you checked out the Shasta Caverns? Found them to be interesting when I went.


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## fubar57 (Aug 5, 2014)

The amount of smoke in the air is still heavy, though the two fires around town are now out. Comparing the color of the mountains...










Geo


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## GrauGeist (Aug 5, 2014)

at6 said:


> GrauGeist, I live in Fresno, the butt of many jokes. Went to Redding for a week in Sept. 1991. Have you checked out the Shasta Caverns? Found them to be interesting when I went.


One of my Uncles retired from a U.S. Navy career and lived in Fresno for several years and yes, I have been a visitor to Shasta Caverns since I was a little kid...this whole region is dotted with really neat caves, actually.



fubar57 said:


> The amount of smoke in the air is still heavy, though the two fires around town are now out. Comparing the color of the mountains...
> 
> Geo


Glad to hear your fires are under control, we had rain last night and a little more again this morning, add to that the high humidity from the monsoonal moisture of this low pressure system that's in the area and fires are slowing down (banking). So is a huge boost to the fire crews!


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## GrauGeist (Aug 25, 2014)

Here we go again, guys!

This afternoon, a boat came off a trailer on Highway 299, triggering a fire on the edge of Weaverville, the county seat of Trinity County, about 45 miles west of me. While the proximity of the fire is of no threat to me, here in Redding, it is less than two miles from my Mom's house. As it stands, the fire is moving eastward, away from my Mom's place but it is encircling the historic town of Weaverville (gold rush era town, built in 1849). The fire has already consumed some newer homes, and is threatening the Trinity High School and the Sheriff's department as well as the town itself. Most of downtown Weaverville was built with bricks after it burnt down in 1859 (as most towns did back then) but there's alot of history there and in the surrounding areas all in jeopardy.

They sent in all sorts of assets this afternoon, including the DC-10 tanker but weren't able to stop the fire from growing. At last count, it was nearing 1,000 acres and growing fast.

Oregon fire destroys structure, causes school closings | Home - Home

Oregon Fire General Information


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## fubar57 (Aug 25, 2014)

Looks like it's been a bad year all over Dave. While things have calmed down around here, the BC government has brought in fire fighting experts from Ontario and Australia to deal with the rest of the provincial fires. There is still one fire north of me(#1 on the map in Post#11 that is still massive out of control and they say the only way it's going to go out is from the winter snowfall. Everyone stay safe down there.

Geo


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## Vic Balshaw (Aug 25, 2014)

Not good Dave, hope you Mum and all stay safe. As we know from down here, property can be rebuilt and the land recovers all be it slowly, but the pain, anguish, trauma and heaven forbid, the loss of life lives can be with you forever.


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## GrauGeist (Sep 15, 2014)

Almost 2 hours ago, a fire broke out on the outskirts of the city of Weed, 50 miles to the north of here. The fire is being driven by high winds and very low humidity and has covered well over 200 acres and growing rapidly. The fire has moved into town and has so far comsumed over 100 structures, most being well over 100 years old and date back to the Gold Rush era.

Residences, businesses and one of the lumber mills are burning. At this moment, they have no estimate of containment.


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## Vic Balshaw (Sep 15, 2014)

So sad to hear old historic buildings are destroyed. My heart goes out to those brave souls, fire-fighters, volunteers and the like who bust a gut and put themselves at risk to help contain these fires and hopefully save the day.


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## fubar57 (Jul 8, 2017)

A state of emergency has been declared in my province. The red dots are new fires that started over night due to lightning. The wife is on her way to visit daughter #2 in Kamloops. So far the main route there is closed in 3 locations so they are taking an alternate route. However, there are 9 fires along that highway...




​

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## Shinpachi (Jul 8, 2017)

Take care !

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## fubar57 (Jul 8, 2017)

138 fires started over night, so far 38,000 people have been evacuated. The small community of Cache Creek, pop. about 1000 is all but surrounded by fire. That area is grassland so with the winds the fire spreads very fast


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## Gnomey (Jul 8, 2017)

Yikes! Stay safe!


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## fubar57 (Jul 9, 2017)

They keep downgrading evacuees, GlobalTV had 38K in the morning, CBC went from 8K to 7K. Still a lot of people. The wife made it through OK on the alternate route which closed briefly shortly after they arrived in Kamloops. Fort Mcmurray, Alta., which itself was devastated by a wildfire last year has stepped in to help out...

Fort McMurray residents lend a helping hand to B.C. wildfire evacuees

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## Wayne Little (Jul 9, 2017)

Be safe man...you and your family....


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## fubar57 (Jul 11, 2017)

Update: close to 15K evacuated, 10K in Williams Lake on alert to move in a moments notice. More lightning in the forecast for tomorrow. The wife and son are heading back tomorrow, again using the alternate route...





​


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## Shortround6 (Jul 11, 2017)

That sucks. Hope there is no loss of life!


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## Old Wizard (Jul 11, 2017)




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## fubar57 (Jul 11, 2017)

Shortround6 said:


> That sucks. Hope there is no loss of life!



So far no loss of life that I've heard of. In this news story is a short video of a couple evacuating through one of the fires...

'We entered this thick black cloud that was dark as night': B.C. couple film fiery escape


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## Shinpachi (Jul 11, 2017)

We have earthquakes with tsunami and your have wildfires. Not easy to live.
Take care again Geo with your family !

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## Crimea_River (Jul 15, 2017)

Have been away from Canadian news for a week Geo. Hope things are getting better.


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## fubar57 (Jul 15, 2017)

Still brutal Andy, over 17,000 evacuated and 17,000 on immediate evac standby. Thankfully no deaths.


British Columbia - CBC News


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## Crimea_River (Jul 16, 2017)

Wow thanks. Hopefully some rain will move in.


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## Wayne Little (Jul 16, 2017)

glad everyone is ok...


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## MiTasol (Jul 18, 2017)

fubar57 said:


> As of this morning, the fire is 75% contained, lots of smoke in the air. Here's what B.C. has been through this year with two more months to go...
> 
> View attachment 267220
> 
> ...



Good to see people caused fires are dropping year by year


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## fubar57 (Jul 18, 2017)

I can't find the story,(Internet really sucks in camp this week) but a helicopter pilot dropping water on one of the fires crashed. They rescued him and he immediately got into another one and continued fighting the fires

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## Robert Porter (Jul 18, 2017)

Yowsa! Glad everyone is safe for the moment, hope it stays that way!


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## fubar57 (Jul 18, 2017)

Finally got some internet, albeit briefly. I had to go to the second page of Google search to find a brief summary of the crash and despite what the wife and co-worker said, the pilot did crash but did not grab a second helo. He is fine with some slight injuries. There is a small window of hope allowing some of the 37000 evacuees to return home soon


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## Gnomey (Jul 18, 2017)

Good to hear the pilots safe.


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## fubar57 (Jul 19, 2017)

Still 140+ fires burning, some rain in the forecast but so is lightning. 38,000 still evacuated but some are returning home. The Canadian military has been brought, firefighters from across Canada and specialists from Australia. I crew-bossed 2 forest fires in the 80s and I know what these guys are going through. My holidays start in 2 weeks, heading to the coast so hopefully things will be contained


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## Robert Porter (Jul 19, 2017)

Lets hope they are contained with minimal loss of property and zero loss of life!


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## Crimea_River (Jul 20, 2017)

Smoke in my home town, some 500km away from the fires, is getting bad. Can't imagine what it would be like for those people in the thick of it.

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## Old Wizard (Jul 20, 2017)




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## fubar57 (Jul 23, 2017)

Several thousand of the 43,000+ evacuees have been told they can return home after 2 weeks. Many however will still be on evacuation notice. The main highway is still closed between Williams Lake and 100 Mile House with no estimated time of opening. More than 3,600 square kilometres of land have been scorched by 716 fires since April 1, 90 structures confirmed lost and thankfully no loss of human life

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## Crimea_River (Jul 23, 2017)

A credit to the authorities and to people with common sense to do the right thing.


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## fubar57 (Jul 23, 2017)

Agreed Andy, especially bringing in outside help and those communities that took in the evacuees. Prince George's population increased 12% and gave out around $400K in food vouchers. Here's a rough idea how much the fires have consumed to date

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## Airframes (Jul 23, 2017)

Heck, that's some area !!


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## Crimea_River (Jul 23, 2017)

Lucky it just missed Duxford!

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## fubar57 (Jul 23, 2017)

Coffee almost went out the nose there.......

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## Airframes (Jul 23, 2017)

Ah, so it wasn't clouds at 'Legends' - it was bl**dy smoke !!


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## Gnomey (Jul 23, 2017)

Sounds lik tehy are doing a good job on containing them. Glad to here there has been no loss of life.


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## Wayne Little (Jul 24, 2017)

Glad all is looking better....


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## fubar57 (Aug 15, 2017)

Hard to tell, but to date this year the wild fires have consumed 8,450 square kilometers with no end in sight. 8 more started last night

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## Wayne Little (Aug 16, 2017)

Bummer.....


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## vikingBerserker (Aug 16, 2017)

Good lord......


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## Robert Porter (Aug 16, 2017)

Good grief! That’s a lot of fires! I continue to hope that damage and injury to structures and people can be avoided or minimized.


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## fubar57 (Aug 16, 2017)

Here is something pathetic...

Several arsons reported in Williams Lake, weeks after wildfire evacuation

....that area is around one of the local reserves. Now this is a known fact as told to me when I worked for the Ministry of Forests. Inside the front office area there was a large map of districts range of service showing all fires they fought, each small red dot represented a fire. Around the indian reserves of Ingenika and Fort Ware the red dots were massive, probably 10 times the size of the others. When I asked the fire boss about it, all he said was two words..."red lightning". The day I went into a fire camp he took me aside and told me that if the fire went out too quickly there was a good chance the indigenous peoples would start another again. Fighting fires is how they make extra money in the summer. Sure enough, as I was flying out 10 days later another fire started up in Ingenika. The first major fire this year was called the Ashcroft Reserve Fire until the locals got upset about it and had the name changed. Arson is suspected


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## Robert Porter (Aug 16, 2017)

That is just sad...


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## fubar57 (Aug 16, 2017)

B.C. officially surpasses worst wildfire season on record — and province isn't out of the woods yet


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## Old Wizard (Aug 16, 2017)

Bummer!


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## fubar57 (Aug 16, 2017)

Just found out that the main highway running through the province, Highway 97 was finally reopened after being closed since July 08


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## Robert Porter (Aug 16, 2017)

That is a LONG closure! I bet that put a hurt on lots of families and business.


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## pbehn (Aug 16, 2017)

If people weren't involved and tragically affected it is part of the circle of life of a forest. The giant redwood relies on fires as part of its reproductive cycle.

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## turbo (Aug 16, 2017)

I'm proud to say that 100 Australian front line firefighters and a similar number of support staff have gone over to BC to help out. I know Canadian firefighters have come here to help in the past, including the Black Saturday fires that killed 173 people.

And yes, some of those fires are started by arsonists which is a disgrace. We even had a case here of a volunteer firefighter setting fires so he could go out and fight his own fires.

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## Shortround6 (Aug 16, 2017)

The last is, unfortunately, a bit more common that you might think. The vast majority of volunteer fire fighters and contract firefighters are honest, caring, hard working people (of both sexes) who are appalled and ed when it happens. Well under a fraction of 1% giving others a bad name.

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## fubar57 (Aug 21, 2017)

This is going to end in no time soon...

Wildfires combine to create largest blaze in B.C.


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## Robert Porter (Aug 21, 2017)

That is more than a little scary!


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## Old Wizard (Aug 21, 2017)




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## fubar57 (Aug 21, 2017)

250 News | Wildfires Top Million Hectares Mark


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## Gnomey (Aug 21, 2017)

Real shame to see arson being involved as well. Some people are just the pits...


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## Wayne Little (Aug 22, 2017)

Don't like the sound of your news George...


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## vikingBerserker (Aug 23, 2017)

Dam..............


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## gumbyk (Aug 23, 2017)

turbo said:


> I'm proud to say that 100 Australian front line firefighters and a similar number of support staff have gone over to BC to help out. I know Canadian firefighters have come here to help in the past, including the Black Saturday fires that killed 173 people.
> 
> And yes, some of those fires are started by arsonists which is a disgrace. We even had a case here of a volunteer firefighter setting fires so he could go out and fight his own fires.



Just heard that there are 80 kiwis up there as well. We've had Canadians down here helping with fire fighting at times as well.

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## fubar57 (Aug 31, 2017)

An update from 16 days ago when the wildfire burned 8450 square kms.....now 12,310 square kms lost

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## Old Wizard (Sep 1, 2017)




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## Wayne Little (Sep 1, 2017)

Aw man......


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## Robert Porter (Sep 1, 2017)

That is massive!


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## Airframes (Sep 1, 2017)

It sure is !


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## Gnomey (Sep 1, 2017)

That is a huge amount of territory!


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## vikingBerserker (Sep 1, 2017)

Man, that's scary


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## fubar57 (Sep 15, 2017)

B.C.'s state of emergency to end at midnight Friday

There are still 153 wildfires burning.

B.C. wildfires map 2017: Current location of wildfires around the province

As of Sept. 13, 1254 wildfires had burned 1,192,834 hectares across the province

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## Robert Porter (Sep 15, 2017)

The US is no better. It is a bad year for North America.

National Interagency Fire Center

Daily statistics 9/15/17
Number of new large fires 10 States currently reporting large fires:
Number of active large fires
_Total number includes full suppression and resource managed fires.
Total does not include individual fires within complexes._ 66
California (9)
Idaho (5)
Montana (22)
Nevada (1)
New Mexico (1) 
Oregon (14)
South Dakota (2)
Texas (1) 
Utah (2)
Washington (8)
Wyoming (1)

Acres from active fires 1,708,661
Fires contained 11
Year-to-date statistics
2017 (1/1/17 - 9/15/17) Fires: 49,399 Acres: 8,378,990

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## michaelmaltby (Sep 16, 2017)

"... It is a bad year for North America."

No 'good' no 'bad' .... just nature. Maybe a bad year for _humans_ ... but that is another story.


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## Robert Porter (Sep 16, 2017)

Well yes and no, considering several of those fires are the result or arson that makes them unnatural. But I take your point.


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## fubar57 (Aug 16, 2018)

The provincial government declared a state of emergency today trying to deal with over 600 fires burning in the province. Five guys from our crew went home early to deal with evacuation alerts; one had to evacuate. This is now the 4th worst year for fires.





​Today is a clear sunny day. Compare the shot from four years when we were surrounded by 3 fires to today...




​There are no fires around us yet, the smoke could be coming from either Telegraph Cove or Fraser Lake

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## pbehn (Aug 16, 2018)

fubar57 said:


> The provincial government declared a state of emergency today trying to deal with over 600 fires burning in the province. Five guys from our crew went home early to deal with evacuation alerts; one had to evacuate. This is now the 4th worst year for fires.
> 
> View attachment 505769
> ​Today is a clear sunny day. Compare the shot from four years when we were surrounded by 3 fires to today...
> ...


Stay safe


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## Crimea_River (Aug 16, 2018)

Last two days here in Calgary the visibility has been under 3km due to the smoke. Staying indoors as much as possible with windows closed.

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## Shinpachi (Aug 17, 2018)

Take care, Geo.


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## N4521U (Aug 17, 2018)

Yes bay all means take care.


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## at6 (Aug 17, 2018)

Looks like we need to pray for all of you as well.


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## Wurger (Aug 17, 2018)

With all here.


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## PWR4360-59B (Aug 17, 2018)

Kinda reminds me of typical engineering nowadays with some things. It seems what the old guys figured out years ago is now forgotin, in the old days they thinned the forests and had huge fire breaks for one. Then there is the on purpose lighting more fire, called back fires that many times get out of control. What is needed to fight fires is more heavy equipment and not just for cutting trails around the fire but then attacking it. Then some years ago all the good old fire planes where all grounded, what would be nice is to build some more old martin mars planes that can just self load by landing in a lake.


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## fubar57 (Aug 17, 2018)

Because of it's size the Mars is/was only able to use 114 lakes in BC which means it would have to travel long distance for some fires. While Williston Lake is the largest lake in BC and centrally located, it is a product of old time dam building: find a good long deep valley and flood it. There is a lot of wood floating around, dead heads and depending on lake level, submerged trees( a towboat was sunk in the '70s when a submerged tree let go and torpedoed it). BC isn't one of the flattest locations so heavy equipment use has its limitations. The main problem right now is the smoke, limiting safe air attack. One of the things that struck those of us who worked in the forest industry as odd was that when a large fire broke out, the "tree huggers" were no where to be found. They were more than willing to stand on the side of the road to block loggers from going to work to support their families but when it came time to actually save the forest, they were absent.

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## fubar57 (Aug 17, 2018)




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## GrauGeist (Aug 17, 2018)

Sorry to hear you guys are burning up there, too.

Our fire was whipped up by strong winds initially, then the inversion layer set down and created a choking fog for two weeks, severally limiting air attack.
Once the winds came ip again, they threw everything at it, including the Global Supertanker, which was instrumental in saving the town of Lewiston (at the western edge of the Carr) literally at the last moment - the fire had burned to within a quarter mile.
Currently, there's USFS Canadair CL-145s working on the northern edge of the Carr and a nearby fire, both being around Lake Shasta (where the Mars operated from back in the 2008 fires).

Stay safe, Geo - hoping you, your family and your friends remain out of harm's way.

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## GrauGeist (Aug 17, 2018)

PWR4360-59B said:


> Kinda reminds me of typical engineering nowadays with some things. It seems what the old guys figured out years ago is now forgotin, in the old days they thinned the forests and had huge fire breaks for one. Then there is the on purpose lighting more fire, called back fires that many times get out of control. What is needed to fight fires is more heavy equipment and not just for cutting trails around the fire but then attacking it. Then some years ago all the good old fire planes where all grounded, what would be nice is to build some more old martin mars planes that can just self load by landing in a lake.


Most of the west coast's forests are not allowed to be managed because of the environmental crusades in the late 1970's, which caused layer upon layer of injunctions against public agencies. Tis meant they cannot thin a forest, they cannot remove infested trees (either diseased or infested with the non-native Japanese borer beetle), they cannot remove snow-kill amd they cannot remove dead-stand (natural or fire-kill). Add to that, is the restriction of maintaining back roads on public land and we have the stage set for firestorms of such magnitude, they cannot be fought on a level that we're equipped to handle.

Just in California alone, there tens of millions of acres of forest and simple back-burns cannot do the work alone, plus there's just not enough manpower to do it all. Then, as explosive as the forests are, prescribed burns are getting out of control with a higher frequency these days, too.

In regards to the Mars, she only carries 7,200 gallons of water (water-gel mixed after scooping) and there's newer and more efficient aircraft online like the Global 747 (19,000 gallons), DC-10 (12,000 gallons), MD-87 (4,000 gallons), BAE-146 (3,000 gallons) and others. By the way, Coulson, who owns the two Martin JRM-3s, is preparing to put a Boeing 737-300 tanker into service (with several more in the works) - the 737 will carry 3,000 gallons.

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## Milosh (Aug 17, 2018)

fubar and GG, so true about the tree huggers.

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## MiTasol (Aug 18, 2018)

Australia is currently having a very early fire season - as in six months early. Large areas of New South Wales and southern Queensland are currently having bad fires and one fire bombing helicopter has already gone down in a fatal accident. 

For northern Queensland this is the beginning of our fire season which ends after the rains set in in December. My area has had 1 mm rain since July 1 and the Bureau of Meteorology are forecasting no rain until mid November. Our last real rain was March 5th and we have averaged only 10 mm per month since. Current daily highs are in the high 20s/low 30s Celsius. A local fire yesterday (man made) has injured cattle and totally destroyed all the stock feed for three adjoining farms.

It looks like this is going to be a bad year for fires world wide and all the blame will go on global warming instead of tree huggers and mother nature.

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## PWR4360-59B (Aug 22, 2018)

Yes good old locking up land, and illogic, they are johny on the spot to do a prescribed burn and let that get out of control. What ever happened to the talk of using left over forest debris as a biomass fuel source? It would be better for everything to use bulldozers and park out the forests in large areas. It would make for more food for animals and limit the forest fires and even save thousands of trees, it would help eliminate nasty bugs. It would leave tilled ground for saplings to more easily take root, make it easier for birds of prey to get their food, it would be a win win over more burning, and don't forget the fuel from all the debris.

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## fubar57 (Aug 22, 2018)

In front of me, the only blue sky we saw for about an hour. In the mirror, to the south, smoke from half a dozen fires. The dividing line was just above my truck.

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## Gnomey (Aug 23, 2018)

Yikes! Stay safe!


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## Zipper730 (Aug 27, 2018)

fubar57 said:


> The provincial government declared a state of emergency today trying to deal with over 600 fires burning in the province. Five guys from our crew went home early to deal with evacuation alerts; one had to evacuate. This is now the 4th worst year for fires.
> 
> View attachment 505769​


Fuck, it seems the whole province is on fire!


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## fubar57 (Sep 2, 2018)

Last year a total of 12,164 square kilometers was burned in B.C. This year to date 12,984 square kilometers have been lost with over 500 fires still burning making this the worst year ever. On the left is last years map and on the right is the two years combined


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## Crimea_River (Sep 2, 2018)

A sad fact and hopefully it's not the "new normal".

Not sure if you caught this but it's an interesting perspective on the topic:

Fire ecologist explains why B.C.'s forest fires are so aggressive, and how we can try to change that

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## fubar57 (Sep 2, 2018)

Thanks for that Andy. Interesting how he describes how to prevent further fires; it's how it was done up until the 80s-90s and then those who I refuse to acknowledge raised their voices and the practice isn't done any more. Welcome to your future........

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## michael rauls (Sep 3, 2018)

fubar57 said:


> Last year a total of 12,164 square kilometers was burned in B.C. This year to date 12,984 square kilometers have been lost with over 500 fires still burning making this the worst year ever. On the left is last years map and on the right is the two years combined
> 
> View attachment 508243
> View attachment 508242​


Wow thats to bad. Been to British Columbia a few times when I was younger and it is truly beautiful country up there.


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## GrauGeist (Sep 3, 2018)

When I was a kid, my folks used to take me up to B.C., and I recall the endless tracts of forest and my favorite place was the Botanical gardens, which I think was in or near Vancouver?


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## Wayne Little (Sep 3, 2018)

not good at all....


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## michael rauls (Sep 3, 2018)

GrauGeist said:


> When I was a kid, my folks used to take me up to B.C., and I recall the endless tracts of forest and my favorite place was the Botanical gardens, which I think was in or near Vancouver?


 Small world as they say. My grandparents used to take me to Vancouver amongst many other places on the west coast every summer vacation( I mean it wasnt Vancouver every year but that was one of many possible destinations we frequented)
Anyway, I've been to those verry botanical gardens I'm pretty sure. By Richmond or Raymond? (been a long time)on the mainland side of the straight. Ya thats a great spot. As is the whole area.
Wish I had the time to vacation up there again now. About the most I can get time off for these days is e few days in the Sierras( about 3 1/2 hrs from here) but thats a great place to.


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## Gnomey (Sep 3, 2018)

Yikes! Really puts in perspective!


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## PWR4360-59B (Sep 4, 2018)

Proper forest management can be done by bulldozing, oh and such a dirty word to some. All the cleared biomass can be chipped and turned into fuel, just like was talked about some years ago. Dense forests should be parked out, selective logging, bulldozing and very large mile wide fire breaks, that are maintained with bulldozing.


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## fubar57 (Sep 4, 2018)

You don't seem to grasp B.C.s terrain, place a dozer here or a man for that matter....





​When I was building logging roads in the 70's it was a million dollars a mile through mountains. Imagine the cost of a mile wide fire break. Logging roads are not set up like city streets. They go from Point A on the highway to Point B, the end of the TFL. Try and imagine the time and cost of trying to build a road to a fire that is 100 miles away from the closest road. There is tons of selective logging throughout the province.

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## PWR4360-59B (Sep 6, 2018)

Million dollars a mile, yeah for all the restrictions etc. Eliminate the restrictions and with the proper size machine I could do a mile of road cleared in a day. Steep ground can be cleared with dozers, in the old days it was done a lot, they called it yoyo work. Fire break and fire fighting is not like building a spec road.


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## Torch (Sep 6, 2018)

Yeesh, Colorado is just starting to clear up a bit, been crap since spring. The recent rains have helped thou they bring hail and floods...Can't win


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## at6 (Sep 6, 2018)

Now there's a new fire just North of Redding burning out of control. Northern California just can't seem to get a break.


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## fubar57 (Sep 13, 2018)

We had snow in the northern half of the province yesterday and sub-zero temps. This helps a lot but as of today there are still 375 fires burning, 25 are fires of note which means they are still a danger to humans and property. A list of size and location with interactive map for those interested...
Active Wildfires


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## GrauGeist (Sep 13, 2018)

at6 said:


> Now there's a new fire just North of Redding burning out of control. Northern California just can't seem to get a break.


The Carr fire is dead, the Hirz fire, which started during the Carr, had grown to considerable size and then the Delta fire started between the Carr and the Hirz.
The old towns of Castella and Dunsmuir remain untouched, but are still under threat.

Sounds like Winter is coming early up there, Geo. That should help a bit...here, we haven't had rain since late spring and none is in the forecast until October.
Meanwhile, there's other serious fire burning in the state, like the Mendocino complex, which is now the largest in the state's history - the largest before that was the 1889 Santiago Canyon fire which was roughly 400,000 acres.


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## fubar57 (May 24, 2021)

A few kilometers north, Convair chemical bomber from Kamloops came in and made one drop a few hours ago. The volunteer fire department has just returned so it seems to be under control









​After we left the fire area we headed south of town to a gravel pit to get some pea gravel for the wife's flower beds; We had to wait until today as there was someone camping there over the long weekend. When we pulled in we noticed that the idiots had left their campfire burning so we poured some water and dirt over it

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## GrauGeist (May 24, 2021)

Good job, Geo - why, WHY do people do that?
We constantly have fires in the area due to abandoned camp fires, most of the time, they're knocked down before anything serious happens.
One exception, though, was the Hirz Fire back in 2018 - in the midst of the catastrophic Carr Fire and the Delta fire, idiots had a campfire going, despite repeated warnings posted everywhere about NO CAMPFIRES!
Lo and behold, their campfire got away from them and instantly turned into a conflagration, eventually linking the Carr Fire and Delta Fire.

This would be a great place if it weren't for humans...

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## Crimea_River (May 24, 2021)

Good stuff Geo and thanks. Don't need another summer like a couple of years ago here. Could hardly breathe.


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## fubar57 (Jul 3, 2021)

This is about 3 kilometres from the only way in and out of town. The only plus here is that the slight breeze is blowing the fire away from the highway


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## GrauGeist (Jul 3, 2021)

Here, we have the Salt Fire (15 miles north of Redding) and the Lava Fire (45 miles north of Redding), both have threatened towns and lives.
Union Pacific even sent in it's fire train to both save the railway and create a break.

Air tankers of all types have been parading overhead as Redding's airport (RDD) is a major airattack base for the region.

The attached photo is a returning tanker, about 800+ feet AGL over my property.

The other thing I'd like to share, is the arcgis fire map, which is fully customizable to your area and is real-time.
The link is my settings, but are easily modified to anyone's area.
https://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=df8bcc10430f48878b01c96e907a1fc3

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## fubar57 (Jul 3, 2021)

Wow....the west is really burning up. Here's a map from ArcGIS Web Application

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## GrauGeist (Jul 3, 2021)

This is my neck of the woods.
I'm just 45 miles south of the large fire incident marker at the top.

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## SaparotRob (Jul 4, 2021)

That’s frightening. How bad is the air quality?


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## Gnomey (Jul 4, 2021)

Stay safe guys!


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## N4521U (Jul 6, 2021)

GrauGeist said:


> This is my neck of the woods.
> I'm just 45 miles south of the large fire incident marker at the top.
> 
> View attachment 630868


Chrise almighty I used to live in Anderson and outside Yuba City.
CA is burning up!!!!!!!!


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## GrauGeist (Jul 7, 2021)

Here's a photo I grabbed on the 4th.

The Pyrocumulus in the foreground is from the Salt Fire (16 miles north of Redding), the Pyrocumulus in the background is from the Lava Fire, burning around and behind the base of Mount Shasta and is about 50 miles north of Redding.
Mount Shasta is obscured by the Pyrocumulus clouds, but they are almost 3 times the volcanoe's 14,180 foot height.

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## Thumpalumpacus (Jul 7, 2021)

GrauGeist said:


> This is my neck of the woods.
> I'm just 45 miles south of the large fire incident marker at the top.
> 
> View attachment 630868



Where are the winds? Are they pushing the fire towards you?

Anyone who lives in fire country should have papers in a metal box, and a bag of food and water ready to go. Tornado country, too.


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## GrauGeist (Jul 7, 2021)

Winds have been southerly, pushing the fires away from town, though the Lava Fire has consumed one town (90% lost) and the Salt Fire can't gain too much momentum as the area was destroyed by the Delta/Hirz fire back in '18, when the Carr Fire burned into Redding and the Camp fire annihilated the nearby city of Paradise.


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## fubar57 (Jul 10, 2021)

Fire just north of camp. Haven't found any info on it other than it is 6000+ hectares/1482 acres

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## nuuumannn (Jul 10, 2021)

Bush fires in Australia did this to the evening sky one night at work a few years ago...




Bush fire sky

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## GrauGeist (Jul 10, 2021)

fubar57 said:


> Fire just north of camp. Haven't found any info on it other than it is 6000+ hectares/1482 acres
> 
> View attachment 631823​


Did you look.it up on the argcis fire map?

If you locate the fire, click the fire icon on the map and it should display the incident name, time of discovery and current acreage involved.

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## fubar57 (Jul 15, 2021)

Sorry for the delay Dave, internet sucked in camp. There are three fires that joined together called the "Manson". What I was told was that isn't smoke but steam as they water-bombed the crap out of it. The next day it rained a crap load and we never saw any more smoke. Now this next photo isn't mine but the missus trying out her new Canon. No filters used, this was the actual colour of the sun. I've seen a lot of smoke coloured suns but never anything like this

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## GrauGeist (Jul 15, 2021)

She did a great job, Geo!
I have captured the sun through heavy smoke (plenty of opportunities here in NorCal) and have seen the various colors created by dense smoke, so I'm not surprised by the violet hue, but it is a remarkable capture.

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## Crimea_River (Jul 16, 2021)

Good shot. Pretty smoky here in Calgary again but suppose to clear with a wind shift tonight.


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## N4521U (Jul 20, 2021)

You guys are even getting one of our fire bombers to help!
Hoping everyone on the ground is able to survive all this.

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## GrauGeist (Aug 24, 2021)

Had to share this, a DC-10 on one of our local fires.
Pilot has 'nads of steel.





_(Photo credit: John Lindsey)_

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