News and opinion about wildland fire
A map generated by the Forest Service shows 885 lightning strikes that hit the north state in the 24 hours ending at 3 p.m. Thursday.
Firefighters in northern California already had their hands full, fighting a number of lightning-caused fires, but on Thursday the area received another 885 lightning strikes.
The prolific author of books about wildland fire, Steven Pyne, has been quoted in a Canadian publication as being an advocate for homeowners, in some cases, not evacuating in front of a fire, but staying, and putting out the small embers after the fire front passes. Sometimes this is called “prepare, stay and defend, or leave early”.
Here is an excerpt from the article:
VICTORIA, B.C. — A U.S. fire-fighting expert says evacuating communities to escape forest fires is not always the right thing to do.
Fire historian Stephen Pyne says it’s rare that communities are engulfed in a “tsunami of fire.”
More often, homes are destroyed by fires started from small burning embers thrown out from the fire front, Pyne said in an interview. They could be extinguished with little effort.
“After the front has passed, or the main surge, you could go out with a squirt gun and a whisk broom,” said Pyne.
He pointed to a wildfire that destroyed a number of homes an evacuated neighbourhood in Los Alamos, NM, nine years ago.
Afterward, officials realized most were the result of burning embers, said Pyne, who teaches at Arizona State University.
“Are these mass evacuations the right approach?” he asked. “Or is that what people are doing because they’re afraid of TV or lawsuits, who knows what?”
An intense lighting storm moved through the southern Black Hills in South Dakota Tuesday night, starting at least seven fires. One lightning bolt struck a barbed wire fence west of Hot Springs and started four fires over a 1/2 mile stretch of the fence.
The Minnekahta Volunteer Fire Department and some State of South Dakota engines responded, suppressing all four fires before they burned more than 1/10 of an acre.
The other fires were also suppressed quickly.
More info is at the Rapid City Journal.
The Mailonline has some fantastic photos of fires in British Columbia. Here is a sample:
Helicopter pilots watch a burnout operation on Mount McLean in British Columbia. It was an effort to protect the town of Lillooet. Do you see the helicopter? Photo: Darryl Dyck
Fire conditions are heating up in Alaska, the northwest, and northern California. Remember what Sgt. Phil Esterhaus, played by Michael Conrad, used to tell his Hill Street Blues cops as they left the briefing to begin their shift, as seen in this 11-second video.
Ok, maybe not EVERYBODY remembers Hill Street Blues. It was a television series, a police drama, that ran for 146 episodes in prime time between 1981 and 1987. The show received a total of 98 Emmy Award nominations during its run and won four Emmy awards for Outstanding Drama Series.
Reruns are still being shown on the American Life TV network. You can also watch 57 episodes of the show online at Hulu.com.
From the AP, via KXMB.com:
MCCALL, Idaho -Four people were injured when lightning struck a firefighting helicopter in central Idaho while it was on the ground.
None of the employees of Siller Brothers, Inc., a contract firefighting company, suffered life-threatening injuries in Tuesday evening’s incident, but they were transported to hospitals in the region for treatment.
The Sikorsky S64E Air-Crane helicopter was on a national contract with the Payette National Forest to help fight forest fires in the region.
The incident Tuesday night at about 8:45 a.m. took place just as the four crew members were doing end-of-day maintenance.
They were tying the chopper down as high winds hit the area following heavy rain and lightning.
Damage to the aircraft is still being surveyed.
