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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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yeah, the names
Rim (of the world)
Butts (road)
looks as if Butts Fire is moving NE away from towns/villages. Just a very few ranches are in it's path. So far
Our local CalFire chief was at our firesafe council meeting last night.
They're really not looking forward to July 4th with the extremely low fuel moisture.
Cal Fire, CHP, State Park and Regional Open Space LEOs are going to be all over the SCruz mtns starting about 3 PM. They've already marked for 4th of July closure dozens of roadside turnouts along the county roads going up to Skyline Ridge (such as Page Mill Rd)
If you're coming up this way for the great fireworks views......you know what to do and not do.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Thought I would post my neighborhood fire from the Idaho Owyhee Desert Fire-ecosystem. It is the second of the year within a mile of where we live.
Another close call with a fire on the west-side of the Snake River this evening. A neighbor called about 5:30PM with the news, then I took these photos over the next two hours.
The fire is now under control, thanks to the efforts of our Choss Creek & Bliss firecrews, and some BLM folks. To my surprise, no air resources were employed.
However, the boldness of our firefighters stopped the fire. Great job folks. We really like and respect what you do! Thank you!
The fire is pretty much out now with a swarm of fire crews working to mop it up.
Just another day in a fire eco-system.
A single-engine aerial tanker is now flying around the fire looking for a place to drop a load of fire retardant. The fire is all but out, and the winds have dropped from 15-20 mph to near calm, although the temps are still at about 100 F.
I guess the pilot needs some Federal money for his fire-fighting efforts.
I am impressed! The fire crews fought the fire like in the good old days of the late 1960's, when I put myself through college working summers for Forest Service Fire Crews.
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apogee
climber
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
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There's a fire in the San Jacinto wilderness (near Idyllwild) that started yesterday...called the 'Cornell Peak' fire....apparently started by a lost hiker, who started a 'signal fire'...
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JOEY.F
Gym climber
It's not rocket surgery
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Yes the Butts fire looks still to be only 30 pct contained.
And meanwhile,
Under smokey skies in almost as dry Sonoma County the vets are still selling.
Just do not understand this...
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Our CalFire district chief was very unhappy that Gilroy and Watsonville both still allow "safe and sane" fireworks (oxymoron anyone?)
Both towns, especially Gilroy have dry grassy hills and forests coming to the edge of town.
Brilliant!
We'll be in SF for the day and evening watching fireworks over the Bay with friends. Hope my place is still intact when we get home.
Butts fire now 4300 acres and still only 30% contained. Notice the great leap to the North due to spotting. Something like 1/2 mile.
Looks as if it's cooling off.
clarification: "contained" in CalFire speak means a fire line all the way around a fire. Sometimes containment isn't reached until the fire is mostly burnt out.
It's not "out" until there are no, none, zero, zilch "smokes". The Rim fire was still not out last year two weeks after it was 100% contained.
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bergbryce
climber
East Bay, CA
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Driving back to the bay on 80 this evening.
Apologies for photo quality. The fire was easily visible from the freeway.
If the news reports last night of the half dozen plus small conflagrations are any indication, it's going to be a long summer.
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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A large number of small fires today. None of the new ones particularly large, at least so far.
On Saturday there was about the most unusual fire ever.
Guy and wife drive Mercedes SUV up to Castle Rock. On approach, the Merc overheats. Guy parks it on the roadside parking and goes hiking with wife. Reasonably expecting to return later to a useful vehicle.
No such luck. Sometime after it had been left behind, the car self-immolated, burned to a hollow shell and torched the car next to it.
Guy and wife return while CalFire is still putting down the flames.
So if you come up to Castle Rock before the next big rain, don't be surprised by the huge scorch on the side of the ditch.
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Radish
Trad climber
SeKi, California
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Jul 11, 2014 - 02:54pm PT
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Forest Service has a nice column showing in the Domelands today!
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jul 11, 2014 - 03:07pm PT
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Ron, I'm not out to start something but isn't early July a little early to
say it is a 'dead' fire year? Isn't the driest part of the year yet to come?
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Jul 11, 2014 - 04:13pm PT
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Seems to be a trend of smaller fires this year- and, looking back at history i was involved in, the latter drought years of any dry period were typically like this.
It is due to a far lesser amount of small fuels, like grasses and small plants due to dryer winters and less moist springs of drought periods. Less fuel= less spread component..
geohistorically, that seems to be the case. karen ingram and other folks have found that most of the largest fires/fire seasons (depending on definition) seem to occur a season or two after a snowy winter due to the increased small fuel load.
and mega floods tend to correlate with drought years because most drought years are also warmer years, which means that snowpack can get catastrophically melted by unusually warm late winter/early spring storms.
but i wouldn't bet my ass on a casual fire season in the sierra, because we've also had other unusual conditions, i.e., historically unusual winds. and above treeline, we still have a century of overgrowth plus the remnants from that last wet winter a few seasons back.
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Flip Flop
Trad climber
Truckee, CA
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Jul 11, 2014 - 04:41pm PT
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Knowitall Runt Angerson will hurl insults at anyone who disputes him.
The statistics this year show that this years 24k acres to date is 50% higher than the 5 year average of 18k acres burned to date.
Authoritarianism defined! He really believes his own spew despite all factual evidence that he is constantly wrong. He doesn't like "statistics" or"science" or "facts" because they contradict his authority.
http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_stats?year=2014
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jul 14, 2014 - 10:10am PT
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That guy was a pot grower, the ecological scourge of NorCal.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Jul 14, 2014 - 10:19am PT
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Khanom is a Cali-centric bully! Nyah nyah! :0)
I got news for ya, Old GreeleyFriendly, the world's center ain't in Tuolumne County, nor in Mariposa County, but somewhere north of there.
Big Mike knows...
http://www.660news.com/2014/07/11/wildfire-season-in-alberta/
"MacDonnell said if you are out on an ATV make sure your exhaust is clean and if you are camping put out your fire."
Damn sure isn't in Nevada.
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Jul 14, 2014 - 02:38pm PT
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Two Santa Cruz/San Mateo county dozer crews were sent to the Bully fire in Shasta County this morning. That's a long way to be calling for that kind of help. It'll take them all afternoon and evening to get there.
One of my local CalFire crews returned last Friday from a week on the 6500 acre Monticello fire.
Pot grower or not, the Bully fire was started by a trail of sparks or something similar from a truck.
Don't underestimate the ability of a hot exhaust or catalytic converter, or a chainsaw or weed whacker to ignite hot extremely dry grasses and brush.
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the albatross
Gym climber
Flagstaff
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Jul 14, 2014 - 05:31pm PT
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Some uninformed person above wrote:
"Knowitall Runt Angerson will hurl insults at anyone who disputes him.
The statistics this year show that this years 24k acres to date is 50% higher than the 5 year average of 18k acres burned to date.
Authoritarianism defined! He really believes his own spew despite all factual evidence that he is constantly wrong. He doesn't like "statistics" or"science" or "facts" because they contradict his authority. "
I realize this person probably does not know the difference between a chainsaw and a weedwacker, and may not realize that there are other states besides California, but here are some interesting "statistics" from the National Interagency Fire Center:
Year-to-date statistics
2014 (1/1/14 - 7/14/14) Fires: 29,256 Acres: 1,042,816
2013 (1/1/13 - 7/14/13) Fires: 24,719 Acres: 2,001,596
2012 (1/1/12 - 7/14/12) Fires: 32,238 Acres: 3,554,411
2011 (1/1/11 - 7/14/11) Fires: 40,051 Acres: 5,812,728
2010 (1/1/10 - 7/14/10) Fires: 33,496 Acres: 1,679,327
2009 (1/1/09 - 7/14/09) Fires: 51,584 Acres: 2,425,934
2008 (1/1/08 - 7/14/08) Fires: 48,059 Acres: 3,173,833
2007 (1/1/07 - 7/14/07) Fires: 51,334 Acres: 2,902,381
2006 (1/1/06 - 7/14/06) Fires: 63,322 Acres: 4,126,245
2005 (1/1/05 - 7/14/05) Fires: 33,161 Acres: 3,156,423
2004 (1/1/05 - 7/14/05) Fires: 41,756 Acres: 3,444,561
Annual average prior 10 years 2004-2013 Fires: 41,972 Acres: 3,227,744
Here is the link, click on the highlighted text and your browser should take you to the table:
http://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/nfn.htm
I am certainly not a mathematician, but from what I gather from the above data, this is indeed an abnormally slow year for the last decade, for large fire years in the United States as a whole.
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Jul 14, 2014 - 06:47pm PT
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It is due to a far lesser amount of small fuels, like grasses and small plants due to dryer winters and less moist springs of drought periods. Less fuel= less spread component.. I've been thinking the same thing. Watching my neighbor's big meadow this year there is a much lower fuel load than most years. On the other hand it's been tinder dry since mid-June.
BUT....
CalFire hired their summer staff 2 months early this year, increased their year round staff and have been All Over every small fire in the Bay area.
Last week I was monitoring a CalFire inmate crew on our Skyline Blvd shaded fuel break project when the two crews got called to a fire down in Stevens Canyon. About 3 miles as the mountain bike plummets but 10 road miles from where we were working. Before the crews could get their tools put away and line up they were cancelled. When the local fire company got to the fire they were able to deal with it themselves.
They're not taking any chances.
None of the fires so far in NCal have been really bad but there have been many more this early.
Another anecdote. A local CalFire captain's CalFire son was on that big San Diego area fire in early May. His small team of about 6 were out on the line when a blowup chased them back down the fire road on foot. Two of them got seriously singed but luckily not hospitalized.
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Radish
Trad climber
SeKi, California
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Jul 14, 2014 - 07:29pm PT
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We're all watching this monsoonal moisture coming through the area this week. Lighting in the foothills means fires and the front country is very dry!! I think technology has caught up with Wildfire some. Besides Planes and Helicopters we now have lighting maps on the computer that shows EVERY strike in the park, Positive or Negative. We can fly the area and see pretty fast if there's anything.
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the albatross
Gym climber
Flagstaff
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Jul 15, 2014 - 05:29am PT
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Fair enough, khanom.
I understand that much of California is in "extreme to exceptional drought". I would be be concerned, too, if I were in your shoes. Fire season is not yet over for this state.
Here is a pic of the Bully Fire, west of Redding, the afternoon that it broke out (Friday July 11).
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Jul 15, 2014 - 08:36am PT
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In California fuel moisture is at record lows. In my neck of the woods generally observation will discern NO difference in the amount of grass or ground-level fuels. In fact up here in the foothills near Yosemite we had a couple of late season rains that really boosted growth of these fuels.
yeah, seems to be the case throughout the foothills/gold country.
i dont know about the coast range.
we've also had really unusual wind conditions-- calfire and locals have been putting up the kind of hours you usually see only in the height of fire season. they seem to be scrambling air support for each and every report in tuco. even without another rimfire this season, we will be well over an "average" fire budget statewide.
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