Normally a wildfire that adds about a thousand acres a day would be very newsworthy, but now that the Apple Fire has burned over 27,000 acres, an additional 500 or 1,000 acres a day is only about a three percent increase. That is what this large fire north of Beaumont and Banning, California has been doing for the last several days. Much of the fire has reached the very steep rocky slopes of the highest peaks in Southern California and the Transverse Ranges at 7,000 to 10,000 feet where firefighting is even more difficult than it is on flat ground in California.
(To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Apple Fire, including the most recent, click here.)
Wednesday the incident management team said the fire was mapped at 27,319 acres.
On Tuesday and Tuesday night the fire was active in some areas on the east and west flanks. Ground crews continued to build line in the area of Pine Bench and made good progress on the western perimeter east of Oak Glen. Line building continued Wednesday up to Yucaipa Ridge which is a high priority in order to protect the Forest Falls and Oak Glen communities.
I think it’s worth noting here, that the Apple fire has slowed its growth and it is at the 30,000 acre mark. Wouldn’t everyone agree, that if they can hold the AF at that mark, or at the worst case scenario, at less than 50,000 acres burned mark, it would be a good successful wildland fire suppression campaign.
Why would I say that?
Because , just compare the Apple Fires acreage burned to the three huge 100,000 acre plus wildfires that just happened in Arizona.
I have to check some AZ fire information, to see just how much Arizona wildland acreage just burned up, last month of July 2020. I remember reading that over 500,000 acres or 750 square miles had burned up in approximately 10 different large wildfire incidents.
If this is actually true, it’s a remarkable amount of acreage burned for a four corners state of the west in about a month.
The Catalina mountains above Tucson look really devastated to me. The Mt Lemmon ski area and the entire range there look like they sustained a direct hit from the fire.
With all that I just considered in those Arizona fires, it makes the Apple Fire seem like a pretty successful wildfire battle.
However, It’s still so hot & so dry right now in the Southwest, especially because our monsoons have recently fizzled out.
I think we are now clearly seeing some new records being set for heat indexes and drought conditions for mid August.
I hope I am wrong on my instincts & predictions. It’s the worst year ever to have a big long sustained fire season, because of this pandemic. Time will tell.
Stay safe every one,
-Jamie B
Thanks Bill, for keeping us up to date on this fire that is burning in such a special wilderness area of Southern California, my fingers are crossed that it stays out of the wind tunnel of the Banning Beaumont pass area and I hope that it lays down and out quickly. Unbelievably difficult, steep high altitude terrain to fight fire in.
My prayers are for the safety of all of the fire resources, especially the ones that are fighting this fire on the ground. Ugh!
Stay safe to there everyone-
-JB