Video: scenes from the Beaver Creek Fire

This video of scenes from the Beaver Creek Fire has some excellent fire and aviation footage. It’s a little over-edited, but you won’t be bored during the three minutes.

Here is the description from SCVP Cordovano Video & Production:

I shot this video before, during and after being evacuated from my home due to the Beaver Creek Wildfire. I am taking this chance to celebrate the power of nature and its natural cycles as well as celebrating the power of modern technology.

Very impressive fire behavior in Alaska

Douglas Burts, who posted this video shot at the Tetlin Juction Fire August 16, 2013, called it Alaska Firenado. While I’m not sure that there is an official definition of the term, there is definitely rotation in this smoke column, and it appears to be more than just horizontal roll vortices. Whatever we call it, this fire behavior is very impressive.

Red Flag Warnings and smoke map, August 19, 2013

wildfire Red Flag Warnings, August 19, 2013

Red Flag Warnings and Fire Weather Watches for enhanced wildfire danger have been issued by the National Weather Service for areas in Idaho, Montana, California, and Oregon. Dry lightning is in the forecast on Monday for northern California.

****

The Red Flag Warning map above was current as of 9:40 a.m. MDT on Monday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts. For the most current data, visit this NWS site.

The map below shows the distribution of wildfire smoke in the United States at 11:04 a.m. MDT August 19, 2013.

Wildfire smoke, at 11:04 a.m. MDT, August 19, 2013
Wildfire smoke, at 11:04 a.m. MDT, August 19, 2013

Below is the map of the northwest U.S. from Sunday, showing only dense smoke.

Wildfire smoke, August 18, 2013
Wildfire smoke, August 18, 2013, showing only the dense smoke.

Wildfire briefing, August 19, 2013

Preparedness Level

The National Preparedness Level is going up to the highest level of 5 effective Tuesday.

Screenplay to be written for the Esperanza Fire

An arrangement has been made to write a movie script for John N. Maclean’s book The Esperanza Fire: Arson, Murder, and the Agony of Engine 57. Legendary Pictures has closed a deal with Sean O’Keefe to adapt the book about the 2006 entrapment and deaths of the five firefighters who were working on U.S. Forest Service Engine 57.

We talked with Mr. Maclean in February when he signed the movie rights deal with Legendary Pictures. He told us then that while the contract had been signed, including the stipulation that he will serve as a consultant, there are many steps that have to be completed before it appears on the big screen. The producers must arrange for someone to write the screenplay, financing has to be arranged, and actors have to be signed — just to name a few. So, the first of those three important steps has begun. But many scripts never become movies, Mr. Maclean said.

The arsonist who started the fire, Raymond Oyler, was found guilty of five counts of first-degree murder, 20 counts of arson, and 17 counts of using an incendiary device to start fires. He was sentenced to death.

The firefighters who died were engine Capt. Mark Loutzenhiser, 44, of Idyllwild; engine operator Jess McLean, 27, of Beaumont; assistant engine operator Jason McKay, 27, of Phelan; firefighter Daniel Hoover-Najera, 20, of San Jacinto; and firefighter Pablo Cerda, 23, of Fountain Valley.

We have an excerpt from the book in our January 21 article.

Dry lightning starts fires in California

Numerous lightning strikes, some of them without rain, started several dozen new fires in the Sierras and in southern California. On Sunday 24,681 strikes were recorded in the state, but so far firefighters have kept the fires small. Scattered mostly dry thunderstorms are predicted to continue through Monday followed by widespread thunderstorms with wetting rain in the Sierras Tuesday through Thursday.

The National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag Warning due to the possibility of dry lightning in combination with gusty winds for most of the foothills and mountains of Northern California.

Aviation

There are three new articles over at Fire Aviation.

  • Tanker 910, a DC-10 Very Large Air Tanker, experienced an engine failure coming off of a drop on the Beaver Creek Fire in Idaho on Thursday, August 15.
  • Minden Air Corp has made a video available of the takeoff for the first flight test of their Tanker 46, a converted BAe-146, which occurred June 9, 2013.
  • An Air Tactical Group Supervisor (ATGS) has completed a detailed comparison of the use of a DC-10 Very Large Air Tanker (VLAT) and P2V Large Air Tankers to complete the same task of creating 4.6 miles of retardant line on the Colockum Tarps Fire,

 Atlanta evacuated (not THAT Atlanta)

Little Queen Fire, August 18, 2013

Residents of Atlanta, Idaho have been ordered to evacuate by noon today, Monday, because of the 2,000-acre Little Queens Fire burning about four miles north of the town. The majority of the fire is in the Sawtooth Wilderness and Sawtooth National Forest.

The Great Basin Type 2 Team 5 (Wilde) is being reassigned to the fire.

From InciWeb, on August 17:

Jason Greenlee is the Incident Commander, “We will manage the Little Queens Fire as a long term fire. We will monitor the fire to ensure that it does not burn into Atlanta, Idaho and plan and prepare to defend the community if the fire changes direction and moves to the south”. This strategy is being used due to the shortage of resources to fight the fire due to other fires in the area.

In case you’re not familiar with Atlanta, it is 37 miles northwest of Ketchum, ID, and 23 miles northwest of the 104,000-acre Beaver Creek Fire.

Smoke map and Red Flag Warnings, August 18, 2013

Wildfire smoke, at 10:23 a.m. MDT, August 18, 2013
Wildfire smoke, at 10:23 a.m. MDT, August 18, 2013

The map above shows the distribution of smoke from wildfires in the United States at 10:23 a.m. MDT today.

wildfire Red Flag Warnings, August 18, 2013
The map shows Red Flag Warnings, Fire Weather Watches, and some of the more active fires in the United States. (click to enlarge)

Red Flag Warnings and Fire Weather Watches for enhanced wildfire danger have been issued by the National Weather Service for areas in Idaho, Oregon, and California.

****

The Red Flag Warning map above was current as of 11 a.m. MDT on Sunday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts. For the most current data, visit this NWS site.

City of Prescott refuses to do the right thing

Yarnell Hill Fire, morning of June 30, 2013
Yarnell Hill Fire, morning of June 30, 2013. Photo by Joy Collura.

Paul Whitefield has written an editorial for the Los Angeles Times that criticizes the City of Prescott for giving full survivor benefits to the families of only 6 of the 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots that died in the employ of the city while fighting the Yarnell Hill Fire on June 30.

Below is an excerpt, but you should read the entire well-written editorial.

****

“…As my Times colleague Cindy Carcamo writes:

It would cost the city an estimated $51 million over the next 60 years and would mean cuts to vital services to the people of Prescott, city spokesman Peter Wertheim said Thursday in a statement.

If the city were to make a one-time lump-sum payment of $24 million, it would be three times the entire budget of the Prescott Fire Department.

Excuse me, but when exactly did Prescott, Ariz., turn into Bangladesh? Brave young men die doing dangerous work protecting public and private property, and Prescott can’t “afford” to take care of their survivors? If that’s the case, then I’d say Prescott can’t “afford” to send such folks out to fight fires either.

And about that affordability explanation: If you’re so inclined, you can visit the city’s website and check out its financial position. For 2014, the city says it has about $230 million available; it’s budgeted about $173 million for expenditures. Hmmm. Is it just me, or does it appear the city could cough up a few bucks for some widows and their kids?”

****

More information about this issue is in an article we published on August 15, 2013.

 

Thanks go out to Dick