White Fire burns through Los Padres Hotshots compound

P2V drops on White Fire
A P2V air tanker drops on the White Fire, May 28, 2013. Photo by Mike Eliason, Santa Barbara County FD

(UPDATE at 9:52 a.m. PT, May 29, 2013)

The maps below of the White Fire, 10 miles northwest of Santa Barbara, show the perimeter as of 8:50 p.m. PT on Tuesday. The incident management team has revised the size to 1,858 acres and the containment has increased to 80 percent.

Map of White Fire,
Map of White Fire, (north is at the top), 8:50 p.m. PT, May 28, 2013
Map of White Fire
Map of White Fire, looking south toward Santa Barbara, 8:50 p.m. PT, May 28, 2013

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(UPDATE at 8:22 p.m. PT, May 28, 2013)

The fire has burned 2,025 acres and is threatening 50 residences, 5 commercial properties, and 50 outbuildings. One residence was damaged. The fire is 65% contained. Today there were 6 air tankers, 2 air attack aircraft, and 5 helicopters supporting firefighters on the ground.
Continue reading “White Fire burns through Los Padres Hotshots compound”

Memorial Day, 2013

American Flag

Today, Memorial Day in the United States, is the day, one of the days, when we formally honor those men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. We thank them for their service and may they rest in peace. And, may all of us that benefited from their sacrifice enjoy peace as well.

The photo below is one of the most moving images I have ever seen. It shows Mary McHugh mourning the death of her fiance, Sgt. James Regan at “Section 60″ of the Arlington National Cemetery May 27, 2007. Regan, a US Army Ranger, was killed by an IED explosion in Iraq. When Presidents and members of Congress are considering sending our men and women into a war, they should be required to look at this photograph. Here is the story behind the photo, which was taken by John Moore.

Mary McHugh mourns her fiance. Photo by John Moore
Mary McHugh mourns her fiance. Photo by John Moore.

 

Red Flag Warnings, May 27, 2013

Red Flag Warnings 5-27-2013

Red Flag Warnings Alaska 5-27-2013
Red Flag Warnings, Alaska, May 27, 2013

Red Flag Warnings and Fire Weather Watches for enhanced wildfire danger have been issued by the National Weather Service for areas in Alaska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico.

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The Red Flag Warning map above was current as of 9:20 a.m. MT on Monday. 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.

A prescribed fire team in Spain

The video below features teams of bomberos (firefighters) in Spain who conduct prescribed fires and educate local residents about fire prevention. Their organization is called Equipos de Prevención Integral de Incendios Forestales (EPRIF), or Integrated Forest Fire Prevention Team.

It is interesting to see how firefighters in another part of the world accomplish the same tasks as those in North America, but with a different twist. We thank them for making the English language version of this video.

SPANISH Prescribed Burn Team – EPRIF from Madrid on Vimeo.

 

Use fire to manage lands in Australia to replicate pre-European settlement?

Bill Gammage
Bill Gammage, screen grab from ABC video.

A book about fire in Australia has won the nation’s top literary prizes while encouraging discussions about the role of fire and how it was managed before settlement by Europeans. In The Biggest Estate on Earth, historian Bill Gammage writes about settlers in the 1700s describing the land as looking like a park, with extensive grassy patches and pathways, open woodlands, and abundant wildlife. He explains this was because Aboriginal people managed the land, including the use of fire as a tool, in a far more systematic and scientific fashion than most people realized.The Biggest Estate on Earth

Below is an excerpt from the transcript of a very interesting video piece produced by ABC in Australia about Mr. Gammage’s thoughts concerning the role of fire in Australia:

TIM LEE: And that helps explain why his book is called The Biggest Estate on Earth. Bill Gammage is not the first to show Aborigines used what has been dubbed fire-stick farming – burning extensively and systematically throughout the year to ensure plentiful wildlife and plant foods. Several scientists have previously done that. But he is the first to exhaustively study the written and pictorial record left by the first European settlers.

BILL GAMMAGE: The scrub was very open when Europeans arrived. There’s stories of driving coaches through country which is now very thick scrub. And what happened was simply that Aboriginal burning was stopped and that allowed the scrub first and then the Eucalypts to regenerate and gradually the bush became denser and denser and denser. And you can see that particularly on hills, but you can see it in all kinds of vegetation. Open, dry, Western Plains-type of Eucalypts, the wet sclerophyll forest, rainforest. Rainforest expands, wet sclerophyll forest gets thicker. So, Aboriginal fire was actually making Australia, not a natural landscape, but a made landscape. Aborigines made it. And Europeans, when they came, assumed it was natural and so they left it alone. And what that meant was that trees and scrub were promoted to the disadvantage of grass.

Mr. Gammage is not the first to write about this, but the interest the book has generated is resulting in renewed discussions about the role of fire in Australia. Should one of the primary goals be to replicate conditions prior to settlement by Europeans? But was that “natural”? Since Aborigines altered the natural landscape with fire for centuries did that become the new “natural”? After settlement, priorities other than “plentiful wildlife and plant foods” emerged, such as protecting property and the lives of millions of people.