Month: May 2010

UPDATE AT 5:53 pm ET May 19

The Michigan DNRE announced this afternoon that 12 homes have been destroyed and 2 damaged in the Meridian Boundary fire. It is 65% contained. The size is still being reported to be 7,520 acres. The evacuation order is expected to remain in effect at least until Thursday.

The Range 9 Fire at the National Guard’s Camp Grayling in Kalkaska County has burned about 1,200 acres and it was contained at 9 p.m. Tuesday night. The cause, according to a spokeswoman from the Michigan Department of Military and Veterans Affairs was a “controlled pre-burn” which got out of control. We have never heard of a “controlled pre-burn”, but judging from the context in information provided by the military, a “pre-burn” appears to be a prescribed burn. They conduct an average of 20 pre-burns each year at Camp Grayling. MORE INFORMATION.

The Meridian fire in Crawford County in northern Michigan east of Grayling has burned 7,520 acres and destroyed ten homes. The areas that were evacuated on Tuesday are still under evacuation orders.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment said debris burning was the cause of the fire.

Here is a video report from WJRT:

The Range 9 Fire at Camp Grayling property in Kalkaska County is about 75 percent contained. Four mobile homes have been lost. Last night the fire was about 900 acres.

We posted a map of the Meridian fire.

Photos of the fire.

Above is a map of the Meridian fire east of Grayling in northern Michigan as of 2030 ET, May 18, 2010. It is an estimate of the perimeter of the fire at that moment, Tuesday night. Grayling is in the top-left corner of the map. Click on it to see a larger version.

Below is a map provided by the Michigan DNRE. Click on it to see a larger version. A pdf copy of the map can be found HERE.
Continue reading “Map of Meridian fire in northern Michigan”

These photos were taken today by the crew of Helicopter 57Z, the Redding Air Service ship that is working on a fire contract in Michigan. Shortly after the Meridian wildfire took off today east of Grayling, Michigan, they were assigned.

Earlier today we wrote more about this fire and another one in Michigan not too far from this one.

It looks like some extreme fire behavior, driven in part, at least, by the 14% relative humidity and moderately strong winds today.

.For more photos, Continue reading “Photos of the Meridian fire in northern Michigan”

UPDATE @ 10:48 mt

A map of the fire, which is east of Grayling, Michigan, is HERE.

The helicopter 57Z crew sent us some more amazing photos of the fire. We put them in a new article.

UPDATE @ 7:10 mt

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment said an hour ago that the fire in Crawford County (the Meridian fire?) is 6,000 acres, 6.5 miles long, and 1.5 miles wide, and “structures have been lost”. (Later that night the DNR revised the acreage to “at least 5,000”, saying they will have a more accurate map tomorrow.)

They said the fire in Kalkaska County near Camp Grayling is 1,100 acres and three or four structures have been lost. (Later that night the acreage was revised to “about 900”.)

==================================

At least two forest fires that started in northern Michigan today are rapidly chewing up acres. One of them southwest of Luzerne, according to various news reports is between 3,000 and 5,000 acres, and the head of the fire is a mile wide. People within 10 miles of the intersection of F-97 and M-18 and 3 miles north of M-18 are being advised to evacuate. We believe this one is named the Meridian fire. HERE is a map of the general area.

These photos were taken by the crew of Helicopter 57Z, of Redding Air Service. The ship is working on a contract out of Cadillac, Michigan but was assigned to the fire today. They tweeted that multiple structures have been lost, which is confirmed by news reports.

A second fire is burning in Kalkaska County, within the Camp Grayling National Guard base. DNRE spokeswoman Mary Detloff said 10-15 houses have been evacuated near this 300-acre fire.

The Grayling weather station about 15 miles northwest of the fire recorded the following at 6 pm: wind at 6 mph with gusts to 13 out of the east, temperature of 76, and relative humidity of 14%. That is a VERY low humidity for Michigan. The maximum RH last night was 50%, again, a very low maximum RH for that area.