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| Messages 1 - 27 of total 27 in this topic |
Fritz
Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
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Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 22, 2010 - 09:54am PT
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We returned from three days climbing at City of Rocks late yesterday. This morning at 6:20 AM the phone was ringing. By the time I stumbled to it, our neighbor had left a message about a big fire coming toward us.
The fire was readily apparent through our windows!
Luckily, we live on the green and irrigated east-side of the Snake River in S. Idaho. The fire is on the desert side of the Snake to our west. This is the 4th big fire over there since we have lived here.
Very smoky here now.
The hope is that the wind doesn’t pick up and help the fire jump the river.
There are dry spots on this side of the river, including a good chunk of our “ranchette.”
Stay tuned for our smoky day of adventure!
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Charlie D.
Trad climber
Western Slope, Tahoe Sierra
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Aug 22, 2010 - 09:57am PT
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Scary, lightning caused?
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Aug 22, 2010 - 10:08am PT
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Scaaaarrrrryyy. Glad you guys are okay. Stay that way!
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Roman
Trad climber
Bostonia
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Aug 22, 2010 - 10:14am PT
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Break out the Pulaskis! Hope you don't get any spotting over the river. Otherwise great pics!
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
SoCal
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Aug 22, 2010 - 12:08pm PT
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Fritz. All the benefits of Los Angeles with none of the crowds.
Pictures from my house last year:
Stay safe and enjoy the cross country hiking once it is passed.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 22, 2010 - 12:15pm PT
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Thanks folks! Spider! Nice fire photos.
We have been over at our neighbors to the west, whose house has great river & fire views. They are in the headlights if the fire jumps the river, so they are a little nervous.
I'm going back to the neighbors to see what's happening! So far the fire crews are letting the fire run in our area. The obvious hope is that the river will stop the fire.
That didn't work when we had the last big fire a few years back. The fire jumped the Snake in a bunch of places.
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Roman
Trad climber
Bostonia
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Aug 22, 2010 - 12:24pm PT
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It looks like a clean line with little spotting. Kinda looks as if the fire is burning under a stable inversion. Hopefully it will just crawl around until its done its thing and the heavier fuels near the river won't even ignite.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Aug 22, 2010 - 12:25pm PT
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Dodged one young man. I arrive at COR tomorrow at about 3PM. There will be 4 for tacos in addition to you and your better half.
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Thorgon
Big Wall climber
Sedro Woolley, WA
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Aug 22, 2010 - 12:34pm PT
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Fritz, nothing burns like Bromus tectorum L., ahhh, Cheatgrass, Sage Brush and Russian Olives!
Keep an eye on that one for sure!
Thor
Donini "Da Man" at COR, wish I could go, please post a TR complete with fun pictures!
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Aug 22, 2010 - 12:40pm PT
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Ah Fritz-you aren't going to want any of those nurses returned are you?
Give me a good lead time if that is the case.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 22, 2010 - 02:23pm PT
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Thanks Guys! Guido: I will need at least one nurse after Donini is done with me.
Yes! The fire was backing into the wind, but it was working our way, and a northern finger was coming with the wind.
We could see several BLM engine trucks parked a mile away, near the north edge of the fire. The road down the west side of the river is one lane with no turn-arounds for a couple miles, so they were not going to come our way.
The "good guys" arrived at 10:25!
It was great fun to watch the copter fill his bucket, only 100 yards away.
After the copter started knocking down the fire coming towards us, a twin-engine retardant bomber made several passes on the north end of the fire.
Presently, another copter is working hot-spots and the BLM tanker trucks have arrived.
Reports are the fire is still running south, where eventually it will hit irrigated farmland. Probably lightning caused.
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Aug 22, 2010 - 05:01pm PT
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Glad you're safe, Fritz. . .
Hope it stays that way. . .
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Ezra Ellis
Trad climber
WA, & NC & Idaho
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Aug 22, 2010 - 05:27pm PT
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Fritz,
Hope your home makes it ok and it stays on the other side of the river!
Best
-e
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Fritz
Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 22, 2010 - 05:35pm PT
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"It ain't over until it's over!" How true! The helicopters went away, the fire flared back up and just burned to the edge of the Snake across from our property.
We have 4 local fire trucks waiting for the fire to jump the river and burn up our side, but it hasn't happened--------yet.
A fireman told me the fire, actually two fires, was over 100,000 acres in size and still growing rapidly.
We can see another part of the fire burning hot at least 5 miles north.
Photos to follow!
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Fritz
Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 22, 2010 - 06:58pm PT
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Jake M. Thanks for the copter ID. Ezra & SteveW: I appreciate the kind words.
About 2:00PM I wandered out our driveway to see what was happening, and realized our part of the fire was burning again. The helicopters had left and no fire crews were in sight.
I walked down to the paved county road and watched the fire, once again heading for our side of the river. After a while local fire crews started showing up, but the fire was untouchable from our position. No crews were working the other side of the river.
After a while I went back to our neighbors to share the fact that the local fire department was ready to attempt to save their home, if the fire jumped the river.
The fire backed down the slope toward the river slowly, with occasional "flare-ups."
Suddenly I saw something swimming the river. It was a mule deer buck getting away from the fire. He was across the river very quickly.
After most of the remaining riverside was burned, a helicopter came back and started dumping water. Then another showed up.
My neighbor and I agreed that they had dodged a bullet. I promised to do the "here's to cheating death" toast for them tonight.
After walking back to my house and doing a little busy work, I suddenly noticed a copter very close.
Dashed back out and decided he was just checking things out.
The worst is over, but we will have fire to watch tonight on the horizon.
On the bright side! Should be a great sunset tonight with all the smoke in the air!
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Brokedownclimber
Trad climber
Douglas, WY
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Aug 22, 2010 - 11:07pm PT
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Holy $hit Fritz!!
I must have missed this post earlier today. I was so bushed from working out at the gym that I went to bed early. Just got up to get a drink of aqua pura and check the weather forecast on the computer and, Holy $hit! There's Fritz in a panic for his home!!
Stay safe! Looks as though the worst is over, locally. The BLM crew may need to deal with some local "hot spots" though.
Up where I live, 2 of the neighbors have 4-WD ex-military-converted fire trucks parked on their ranches. If we get a lightning fire. we have to deal with it ourselves. If we wait too long, we are truly fuked.
Rodger
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Fritz
Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 22, 2010 - 11:10pm PT
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The sunset wasn't very good, but we have a fire "flare-up" again, with two helicopters working the "hot spots."
The setting sun showed more clouds of smoke to the northwest.
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Roman
Trad climber
Bostonia
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Aug 23, 2010 - 01:15am PT
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Fritz, I used to live in Nampa, ID (14 years ago) and remember the wildfires that regularly occurred there and to the west. It's only recently though that I got the certs I needed to get a job fighting wildland fires. These pics are really great as is the play by play. Thanks a ton for posting.
Ron Anderson, you are absolutely right that the line was backing in the pic. Thanks for pointing that out. I had overlooked that and that's a very important thing to notice.I'm new at analyzing fire behavior but trying to look at all I can.
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Brokedownclimber
Trad climber
Douglas, WY
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Aug 23, 2010 - 09:56am PT
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Crock-
I wasn't implying that I had to fight the fire alone; one neighbor, Eric D.,has one of the M35 converted fire trucks parked just 3 miles (by road) away. John S. has an M37 equipped with a water tanks and pump, also 3 miles away. Wyoming state law states that they can conscript every able-bodied male between ages 16 and 65 to be on the fire lines, need be...
The fires are usually out before I even knew they started. Another neighbor, Kevin H. , is State-trained as a "Fire Boss."
The comments by Rokjox have some merit--there IS a lot of money dished out during fire season--to fire crews, helicopter services, etc.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 23, 2010 - 10:35am PT
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We had some fire visible all night, and it was still burning north of here this morning. There isn't much area along the Snake River near here, left to burn.
I also have a long-ago Forest Service fire-fighting background. Two summers on helicopter fire-crews, and two-summers as a district grunt, during which time I did a little bit of everything, including fight fire.
So have no major disagreement with Rox's assertion:
I really don't understand why if your guys were worried about the fire, you didn't just cross the river and pick an end of a fire line and begin working to reduce the active line until you are left with a small contained area that would quickly burn itself out.
However getting to the fire by the one-lane road was difficult for two reasons.
1. A county sheriffs car blocking it, and allowing no-one in.
2. Fire trucks blocking it.
Rafting down river 2 miles from the closest put-in and attacking the fire commando-style didn't occur to us.
It seemed perfectly logical to me, that after the helicopters knocked the fire down the first time, that the BLM tanker crews would drive down and kill the remaining hot spots.
Turned out the BLM tanker crews were in high demand elsewhere. There were two rural fire district rigs over there, but they were under BLM command and were only to engage the fire to save structures on that side of the river.
So the fire burned on, while our local fire crews sit on our side of the river, hoping it would jump, so they could do something. Our very savy fire-chief was 40 miles away on the far side of the fire doing BLM work: so maybe that made the local crews less assertive.
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Brokedownclimber
Trad climber
Douglas, WY
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Aug 23, 2010 - 02:15pm PT
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Fritz-
Did you have to cancel your trip?
BDC
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Fritz
Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 23, 2010 - 02:35pm PT
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Thanks all for posting your thoughts.
Ron: I agree with your fire-insights.
Brokedown: No Way! The fire is all but out, and there is darn little left to burn over there, for many miles.
I am looking forward to black dust storms and black rain, until the Cheat Grass comes back this fall.
I'm going to go take my Donini-climbing-dose. Haven't had him hurt me climbing since the early 80's, when he was leading 5.12's and I was leading some easy 5.10's.
Now I'm leading 5.7's and---and----and---- he's still leading 5.12's.
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Brokedownclimber
Trad climber
Douglas, WY
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Aug 23, 2010 - 02:37pm PT
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Fritz-
Have at it! Climb hard, climb safe.
BDC
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Ezra Ellis
Trad climber
WA, & NC & Idaho
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Aug 23, 2010 - 11:34pm PT
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Fritz,
Have a great trip with Doninni,
You HAVE to post a photo TR 'bout the tooths!
-e
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