FOREST FIRES

[Crimea_River]

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

 

[fubar57]

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........

 

[michael rauls]

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 508243View 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.

 

[GrauGeist]

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?

 

[Wayne Little]

not good at all....

 

[michael rauls]

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.

 

[Gnomey]

Yikes! Really puts in perspective!

 

[PWR4360-59B]

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.

 

[fubar57]

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

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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.

 

[PWR4360-59B]

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.

 

[Torch]

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

 

[at6]

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

 

[fubar57]

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

 

[GrauGeist]

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.

 

[fubar57]

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

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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

 

[GrauGeist]

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...

 

[Crimea_River]

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

 

[fubar57]

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

 

[GrauGeist]

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

 

[fubar57]

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