Robert Porter
Senior Master Sergeant
Well yes and no, considering several of those fires are the result or arson that makes them unnatural. But I take your point.
FOREST FIRES
- Thread starter fubar57
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- #122
fubar57
General
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
Stay safe
Crimea_River
Marshal
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.
N4521U
Colonel
Yes bay all means take care.
at6
1st Sergeant
Looks like we need to pray for all of you as well.
PWR4360-59B
Senior Airman
- 379
- May 27, 2008
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.
- Thread starter
- #130
fubar57
General
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.
- Thread starter
- #131
fubar57
General
GrauGeist
Generalfeldmarschall zur Luftschiff Abteilung
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.
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.
GrauGeist
Generalfeldmarschall zur Luftschiff Abteilung
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.
MiTasol
2nd Lieutenant
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.
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.
PWR4360-59B
Senior Airman
- 379
- May 27, 2008
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.
- Thread starter
- #137
fubar57
General
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.
Yikes! Stay safe!
Fuck, it seems the whole province is on fire!
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- #140
fubar57
General
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
