News and opinion about wildland fire
Warnings for elevated wildfire danger were issued Saturday by the National Weather Service for areas in California, Nevada, Idaho and Wyoming.
The Red Flag Warning map was current as of 10:30 a.m. MDT on Saturday. 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.
John N. Maclean, the author of Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire, has written an article for the National Geographic website about the South Canyon Fire, but he also draws some comparisons between that fire and the Yarnell Hill Fire that occurred 19 years later. The two disasters killed a total of 33 firefighters.
The article is worth reading, especially if your memory of the details of the South Canyon Fire has faded. Below is a paragraph from the piece:
When the South Canyon Fire exploded into a blowup, a sudden burst of flame that sweeps all before it, there were 49 firefighters scattered across an area later known as Hell’s Gate Ridge, which extends like a mighty arm of Storm King Mountain. Mackey, the smoke jumper in charge, directed one group to safety. He then faced a daunting choice: Stay with the group headed for safety, or hike back into dense brush to check on a dozen firefighters who were digging and cutting a fireline, a trench about 18 inches wide, to try to contain the flames. He turned back to join the firefighters in the brush, an act of selflessness that became known in the wildland fire community as a “Don Mackey moment.”
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized7 Comments on Wildfire Today welcomes Ryan Maye Handy Over the next few days our site visitors will have the pleasure of reading some articles written by a professional writer whose day job is a newspaper reporter. Ryan Maye Handy will be helping us out at times, contributing content on an as-needed basis. We would like to welcome Ryan to the website!
We had been aware of her coverage of wildland fires for a couple of years but met her for the first time at the Large Wildland Fires Conference in Missoula in May where she put on a very well received presentation on The Timeline of Media Manipulation during and after a Large Scale Wildfire.
Ryan currently works for the Fort Collins Coloradoan as the newspaper’s environment and public lands reporter. She was formerly the wildfire reporter for The Gazette, in Colorado Springs, where she covered the Waldo Canyon and Black Forest fires, the two most destructive wildfires in Colorado history.
Recently she has written an article on the second anniversary of the Waldo Canyon fire, as well as traveled to Montana to cover the Large Wildland Fires Conference.
Warnings for elevated wildfire danger have been issued by the National Weather Service for areas in Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada, and Wyoming.
The Red Flag Warning map was current as of 11 a.m. MDT on Friday. 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.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized2 Comments on Perspectives: before, during, and after the 1994 South Canyon Fire As I pack to begin my journey to attend the 20-year commemoration of the 1994 South Canyon Fire that killed 14 firefighters in Colorado, I am thinking back on video interviews with a couple of dozen firefighters who were either on the fire, or dealt with some of the fallout over the next 20 years. It is interesting and in some cases refreshing to see them speak out, sometimes bluntly, about how the safety culture of wildland firefighters has changed since South Canyon.
Every firefighter should see this first video, titled Everyone goes home published on YouTube on May 30, 2013. It includes an assortment of people with various degrees of involvement in the South Canyon Fire.
In the next video, 1994 South Canyon Fire on Storm King Mountain, 11 firefighters that survived tell their stories.
As a bonus, check out the excellent July 3 article at Oregonlive that includes video interviews with three survivors of the fire, Alex Robertson, Sarah Doehring, and Michelle Ryerson.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized1 Comment on California: Banner Fire east of Julian 
(UPDATED at 7:12 a.m. PDT, July 4, 2014)
The Banner Fire has been mapped at 217 acres and the firefighters are calling it 40 percent contained. At CAL FIRE’s 7 a.m. update there were 331 personnel assigned, along with 28 engines, 10 hand crews, and 4 helicopters.
This will be our last report on the Banner Fire.
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(UPDATED at 8:35 p.m. PDT, July 3, 2014)
CAL FIRE reports that the Banner Fire just east of Julian, California is holding at 150 acres and they are calling it 15 percent contained. All evacuation orders have been lifted.
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(Originally published at 5:27 PDT, July 3, 2014)
The Banner fire started near Banner Grade about a mile east of Julian, California at about 10:43 a.m. PDT, July 3, 2014. After a heavy attack by ground and air firefighters it burned 150 acres by 4:30 p.m.
Local media reported that two homes and an outbuilding burned.
By 5:20 p.m. local time a few units were being released and the radio traffic had subsided, which usually means they are beginning to obtain containment.
NBC in San Diego recorded some excellent video (below) showing drops by S-2T air tankers. It appeared that the camera operator and at least one resident got cooled off by the retardant, who was very pleased that she protected her camera.
The video below is a time lapse showing the smoke from the fire.
