The Texas Forest Service said strong winds today pushed the Livermore Ranch Complex of fires closer to the Davis Mountain Resort on Monday. The fire jumped containment lines on the east side and according to the TFS at about 6:30 p.m. “is making a run toward the Davis Mountain Resort. Crews on site providing structure protection”.
The map below shows heat detected by satellites at about 3:30 CT on Monday. The red squares show the most recent spread of the fire.
The fire is Jeff Davis County, about 13 miles west of Fort Davis and about 15 miles east of Valentine, Texas.
Our first report on the fire was on April 28.
Updated information on the fire, May 1, 2012.
8000 feet, D.A. of 11, 000 feet? Reload base (?) elevation. Lots of “scratching” for drop area.
No water to scoop in West Texas, all SEATs are AT-802As dropping LC retardant.
Are the SEATs 802F Fire boss dropping water/foam?
Two of the P2-Vs are assigned to the fire and the other four are used when available, two more SEATs were assigned today for a total of six and all timed out. The fire is in very rugged terrain and most of our drops today were around 8,000 feet msl.
My camera has been rolling for five days and will edit and download when I get a chance. Going to bed now!
Dropping retardant today in back yards, six heavies and four SEAT, a lot of progress made. Ground Guys said this evening that we saved their Ass!
So six of the 10 large air tankers that will be on exclusive use contracts this fire season are on that one fire in Texas.
Are you getting any in-cockpit video, Marc?
With major fires occuring from the East coast to Texas, Colorado, South Dakota and the West “primed” for a disaster year doesn’t this makes a good case for a national fixed wing air tanker agency? As three VLAT’s sit idle, fire fighters throughout the U.S. are putting their lives on the line with little or no air support. Each operational period that a fire continues to escape containment not only places risk on those involved in suppression but the cost spirals upward like a tornado.