The Lake Fire west of Lancaster, California is up to its old pyrocumulus tricks again as you can see in the photo above taken just before noon Saturday. In the afternoon it was very active and in one location forced firefighters to withdraw to a safer location.
Fire photographer Jeff Zimmerman said, “We are getting hundreds of down strikes to the north of the fire.” This can happen under certain conditions when extreme fire behavior creates a massive pyrocumulus cloud that can generate lightning. The phrase “a fire can create its own weather” is overused, but creating its own lighting is an example.
On Friday it made a three-mile run to the northeast down into the Antelope Valley but firefighters were able to keep it from crossing the California Aqueduct.
The red line was the perimeter of the Lake Fire at 4:10 a.m. PDT August 15, 2020. The white line was the perimeter about 24 hours before.
Air Tanker 944, the 747, was over the fire at 11:45 a.m. Saturday and returned to San Bernardino. As this was being written at 1:35 p.m. Saturday the aircraft was again en route to the same general area, probably to drop another 17,500 gallons.
August 14, 2020 | 4:15 p.m. PDT
Lake Fire from Loop1 camera, looking N-NW at 4:21 p.m. PDT August 14, 2020.
The Lake Fire in southern California near Lake Hughes 17 miles west of Lancaster was very active again Friday afternoon. It is well established east of Pine Canyon road and at 4:30 p.m. was moving to the northeast approaching the California Aqueduct in the Antelope Valley.
Early Friday morning the Lake Fire was mapped at 11,637 acres.
To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Lake Fire, including the most recent, click HERE.
3-D Map of the Lake Fire, looking southwest at 2:58 a.m. PDT August 14, 2020.Map of the Lake Fire at 2:58 a.m. PDT August 14, 2020. The arrows show one of the locations where there was significant spread on Friday.
The map shows the predicted distribution of smoke from wildfires at 4 p.m. MDT August 14, 2020. Locations expected to impacted at that time will include parts of southern California, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, and Oklahoma.
Map of the Cameron Peak Fire at 8:38 p.m. MDT August 13, 2020.
A map from data collected at 8:48 p.m. MDT August 13 shows that the Cameron Peak Fire 36 miles west of Fort Collins, Colorado had burned about 1,540 acres. It is spreading in the Roosevelt National Forest between 8,900 and 10,500 feet above sea level and is under the management of a Type 3 Incident Management Team. A Type 2 Team has been ordered.
To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Cameron Peak Fire, including the most recent, click here.
The fire is near Cameron Pass, 15 miles southwest of Red Feather Lakes.
August 13, 2020 | 9:22 p.m. MDT
The Cameron Peak Fire is 36 miles west of Fort Collins, Colorado
When the Cameron Peak Fire was reported in mid-afternoon Thursday resources dispatched included, in addition to firefighters on the ground, a load of smokejumpers, three helicopters, two large air tankers, and four Single Engine Air Tankers. Within a short time it put up a very large smoke column topped by pyrocumulus clouds which indicate high fire intensity. After 5 p.m. the aircraft were unable to assist due to strong winds. At 7:15 p.m. the U.S. Forest Service estimated it had burned 1,540 acres.
The fire is burning in the Rawah Wilderness on the Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forests near Highway 14 and Chambers Lake.
Cameron Peak Fire. Photo by @CritterCat2020 August 13, 2020.
The Larimer County Sheriff’s office ordered evacuations at about 4:30 p.m. Thursday for Chambers Lake and areas near the intersection of Highway 14 and CR 103.
The red dots represent heat detected on the Cameron Peak Fire by a satellite at 2:12 p.m. MDT August 13, 2020. There were other detections two miles to the east, but they may be false positives from heat in the smoke column and will need verification.
The fire is 15 miles west of Lancaster, California
Updated August 13, 2020 | 10 a.m. PDT
Map of the Lake Fire at 4:04 a.m. PDT August 13, 2020. USFS
The Lake Fire started August 12, 2020 between Castaic Lake and Lake Hughes in southern California. When the first units arrived on scene the fire was about 100 acres burning on both sides of Lake Hughes Road, spreading to the northeast.
It was reported at 3:40 p.m. and within 29 minutes was creating pyrocumulus clouds indicating extreme fire behavior. It is very unusual for a fire to grow that quickly with that intensity. Three and one half hours after it was reported the size was estimated at 10,000 acres. The rapid spread was aided by burning embers starting spot fires one mile ahead. A map released by fire officials with data from 4:04 a.m. Thursday indicated the fire had burned 12,681 acres. (At 7:10 a.m. Thursday PDT the Angeles National Forest Twitter account said it was 10,500 acres.) At that time the northeast end was on the slopes leading down to the desert after crossing Pine Canyon Road.
(To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Lake Fire, including the most recent, click here.)
“It’s pretty explosive fire behavior,” said Angeles National Forest Fire Chief Robert Garcia. “It’s typically what we see a little bit later in the season and often driven by wind. The fuel, moisture conditions and the fire at this particular location with the slope, it really created the recipe for rapid fire growth.”
Lake Fire August 12, 2020, by Bill Neckels.
The records of a weather station at Elizabeth Lake showed that the fire was pushed to the northeast by a 7 to 13 mph wind gusting at 15 to 22 mph, with relative humidity in the teens and temperature in the low 90s. Western U.S. firefighters would not consider the weather conditions extreme. This begs the question, what kind of fire behavior will Santa Ana winds bring in the next several months?
Early in the incident, fire officials considered the possibility of the fire impacting homes along Pine Canyon Road, almost six miles to the northeast, and that it could keep going into the desert to the east. The Incident Commander placed orders for strike teams of Type 1 engines for structure protection, with 5 engines in each strike team. The orders were placed in multiples of 5 and 10 as the fire rapidly spread. By 6 p.m. a total of 20 strike teams, 100 engines, had been requested. The fire crossed Pine Canyon Road at about 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Evacuations were ordered along Pine Creek Road and for the community of Lake Hughes as well as other areas, affecting about 100 homes. Traffic on the road became very congested as large numbers of media vehicles, fire apparatus, and evacuees tried to occupy the space at the same time. Fire officials requested that all media leave the area in order to reduce the congestion.
Weather conditions moderated after 10 p.m. Wednesday with much calmer winds of less than 4 mph, but there was little humidity recovery, hovering around 20 percent during the night. The forecast for Thursday is for 92 degrees, 18 percent relative humidity, and variable winds generally out of the west at 9 to 15 mph gusting at 20 to 24 mph. There is a 15 percent chance of rain.
The Lake Fire is burning in an area that hasn’t burned since 1968, according to fire officials. The fire started in brush at about 2,300 feet and as it approached Pine Canyon road at over 4,000 feet it got into heavier fuels.
Map showing the approximate location of the Lake Fire in southern California, at 5:30 p.m. PDT August 12, 2020.
A very rapidly spreading fire broke out Wednesday afternoon in the Angeles National Forest about 19 miles west of Lancaster, California. When units first arrived the fire was about 100 acres burning on both sides of Lake Hughes Road, spreading to the east and northeast.
(To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Lake Fire, including the most recent, click here.)
At 5:50 p.m. firefighters reported it was generating spot fires one mile ahead and had already grown to about 7,000 acres; at 7:05 p.m. the estimate increased to about 10,000.
At 6 p.m. the Incident Commander ordered additional strike teams of Type 1 fire engines for structure protection to bring the total up to 20. With five engines per strike team, that is 100 engines. Evacuations are in effect.
At 7:05 p.m. the fire had crossed Pine Canyon Road and was well established on the east side.
Lake Fire from Loop, at 6-49 p.m. PDT August 12, 2020
Aircraft over the Lake Fire at 7:26 p.m. PDT August 12, 2020. The green line is the track of the King Air in the photo, probably serving as a lead plane. FlightRadar24
Ms. Veseth was killed by a falling tree while working on a fire in Idaho
Anne Veseth. USFS photo.
Eight years ago today, in 2012, Anne Veseth was killed while working on the Steep Corner Fire 56 miles northeast of Orofino, Idaho. The fire was on private property and was being managed by the Clearwater‐Potlatch Timber Protective Association (CPTPA). Ms. Veseth, in her second season working as a firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service, was killed when she was struck by a falling 150-foot fire-weakened green cedar tree. The tree fell on its own and was 13 inches in diameter where it struck her.
