One of the best fire photos ever

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A P3 Orion drops on the Station fire Aug. 30 near Acton, California. Photo: Dan Steinberg

This photo is one of the best fire photos I have ever seen. When I first saw it, I thought it was a great photo with plenty going on–the two fire vehicles, massive nearby flames, the house, and the firefighters–and then noticed the air tanker making a drop between the house and the intense flames. Holy Crap! What a photo!

This one is pretty impressive too, of the Station fire near Los Angeles:

Photo: Nick Ut

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0 thoughts on “One of the best fire photos ever”

  2. You forgot to mention the high voltage power lines in the picture. This is a good advertisement for Wildland Urban Interface.

  4. In the photo of the smoke, note that the smoke column on the left is starting to form a pyrocumulus cloud. If the photo is from Saturday, I can attest that the cloud eventually formed the anvil shape we associate with a thunderhead and sort of looked like a mushroom cloud (another type of pyrocumulus).What’s going on is that vaporized moisture from the burning vegetation is rising in the smoke column due to the intense heat of the fire. When it reaches a certain altitude the vapor begins to cool and the moisture condenses, often around ash particles, thus forming the white cloud atop the smoky column. Basically, the fire is creating its own weather.I’ve read that there are cases when rainfall has resulted, actually putting the fire out. I don’t think we’ll see that here, though, because of the very low overall relative humidity. Other possiblye consequences of this fire/weather phenomena are more dire, as the column creates local wind gusts and instability as the heat rises and if the column collapses, as it often does.After learning about this, I can really see why fire fighters keep meteorologists on staff to monitor local (or even very local micro-climatic) conditions. Knowing when a column is showing signs of collapse that could lead to strong gusts down a canyon could save lives of firefighters.

  5. wow this is very interesting! i cant believe how much pollution comes from these fires…..we are destroying the earth one day at a time! i feel that the time has come and dont like to put that out there but its just my opinion! may god bless all =]