As the spread of the devastating Bastrop fire slows and firefighters can envision containment, another fire in Texas, the Riley Road fire, is becoming increasingly active and is also destroying homes. The fire started Monday, 11 miles southwest of Montgomery, Texas and has burned approximately 58 homes, according to Texas Forest Service spokeswoman Carmen Apple. It has blackened 21,619 acres and is 60% contained.
Thursday night and early Friday morning the fire was very active on the northeast side between roads 1774 and 1486, moving much closer to the 1486 road where evacuations were ordered, including the Clear Creek Forest subdivision.
The above map shows the perimeter of the Riley Road fire and heat detected by satellites. WeatherUnderground has a zoomable map, making it possible to zoom in and see street names, but the perimeter as of 1:00 p.m. CT Sept. 9 does not show the latest spread of the fire on the northeast side where it approached Road 1486.
A Type 1 Incident Management Team, California Interagency Incident Management Team 4, with Incident Commander Rocky Opliger, arrived on Thursday. The Type 3 SanJac IMTeam has been there since Tuesday, Sept. 6.
The DC-10 Very Large Air Tanker, which carries 11,600 gallons of fire retardant, arrived at Austin, Tuesday night but it was not used on Wednesday or Thursday because the crew had to take two mandatory days off. During that time, a portable retardant plant was assembled so that the aircraft can reload at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The plans are for the DC-10 to begin working on the fires Friday.
here is a KMZ 3-d map I made of -ALL- the fir boundary.
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0Bw7kXJBT68qBM2ExOTA5ZjMtNWE0YS00NTNlLTg2MDEtYzA1NWI5NTk4ZDY3&sort=name&layout=list&num=50
Thank you so much for the info and coverage. Info up here is minimal. We drive 10 miles to get our Chronicle since it stopped delivery in Grimes County. you have the best coverage and I have been searching all the stations and County postings.
Is this map you’ve shown posted on some government website on a regular basis?
I’m using WunderMap from inside the evac zone.
I would like to see the “official burn zone” on a regular basis.
Do you know the update cycle on the burn zone shown with the AVHRR on WunderMap?
http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2614/
I’m and Ex-WildLand Firefighter type 1. Do you know if they are taking on volunteers and who I may contact? I live in Conroe, near the fire.
Thanks for the information, we live close to the area, and getting good information and links is still challenging, and Houston news coverage is not that concerned to cover it…at least not to the level they should be.
Excellent post Bill, thanks for the update.
Thanks… and you’re welcome.
just to let you know, I used you map as an overlay with three other ones -PLUS- live Geos MODIS Fire weather satellite information in a Geoogle earth model, it is..just about Spot on. I posted my screen shot on:
https://www.facebook.com/WallerCountyFireInfo
I went to the site and could not find the map to which you refer. Do you have a more specific URL?