FOREST FIRES

[fubar57]

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

 

[Wildcat]

Bush fires suck, stay safe guys.

 

[fubar57]

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

 

[fubar57]

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

 

[fubar57]

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.

 

[GrauGeist]

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

 

[fubar57]

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.

 

[GrauGeist]

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.

 

[michaelmaltby]

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

 

[Torch]

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

 

[GrauGeist]

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.

 

[GrauGeist]

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

 

[Shinpachi]

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

 

[fubar57]

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

 

[Airframes]

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.

 

[fubar57]

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

 

[GrauGeist]

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:

 

[GrauGeist]

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:

 

[fubar57]

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

 

[GrauGeist]

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.