The National Weather Service has issued a warning for elevated wildfire danger beginning Sunday night for very strong winds and low humidities for some areas in southern California. Combined with very low live fuel moistures in the low 50 percent range, little or no rain for the last month, and not much greenup in some areas, this is further evidence of the often heard statement that the wildfire season in southern California is year-round.
Moderate to locally strong Santa Ana winds will impact much of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties Sunday night through Tuesday. Peak wind gusts between 50 and 60 mph can be expected across the mountains on Monday, with gusts in the 40 to 45 mph range across the valleys. Humidities are expected to lower to between 10 and 15 percent on Monday, with widespread single digits on Tuesday. As a result, critical fire weather conditions will be possible Monday into Tuesday for much of Los Angeles and Ventura counties due to the combination of gusty northeast winds, very low humidities, and warm temperatures. This in combination with very dry fuels will bring the potential for extreme fire danger and rapid fire growth. Offshore flow will likely maintain high fire danger (with warm temperatures and very low humidities) into next Friday.
The coastal temperatures between Los Angeles and San Diego next week will be close to those usually experienced in July.
Strong high pressure will build over the West next week, creating unseasonably warm weather over Southern California. High temperatures in coastal areas will near their average high temperature for July. Temperatures away from the coast will also be warm next week, but will not rival their July average high temperature.
Structural fire departments in recent years have discovered the value of thermal imaging cameras to detect dangerous heat sources that could ignite fires, find lingering heat hidden behind walls, and even locate fallen firefighters in a smoky environment. Most of those cameras start at $4,000 and can cost over $10,000.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, FLIR, which manufactures some of these high-end forward looking infrared cameras, unveiled a $350 thermal imager that fits over the iPhone 5 or 5S like a protective case. Called the FLIR ONE, the company said it will be available in the spring of 2014. An Android version should be out later in the year.
Using an infrared imaging smart phone in a burning structure is not feasible, but wildland firefighters might find it useful for locating very small lighting-strike fires or finding the last heat sources during mop-up. Or, for example, after the snow has melted, are any of those burn piles we lit two weeks ago still smoldering?
(UPDATE January 31, 2014)
Some images have been posted on the company’s web site that they captured using the first run of FLIR ONE cameras.
Bicycle racers ride past the Horsethief Canyon fire. Photo by David Cernicek
The U.S. Forest Service has billed a 77-year old Wyoming man $6.3 million for causing the Horsethief Canyon Fire that burned 3,373 acres five miles south of Jackson, Wyoming in September, 2012.
Using a Freedom of Information Act Request, the Associated Press obtained a copy of the bill that was sent to James G. Anderson Jr. A breakdown of the charges included $3.6 million for the USFS, $2 million for the Bureau of Land Management, $54,000 for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, $154,000 for the National Park Service, and $252,000 for the state of Wyoming and Teton County. The total suppression costs of the fire was about $9 million.
Investigators determined the fire started from a rusted-out barrel Mr. Anderson was using to burn debris at his son’s home.
Burnout operation on Horsethief Canyon Fire, September 12, 2012. Credit: Horsethief Canyon Fire.
Firefighters on the Black Forest Fire, June 15, 2013, cut down a hazardous tree that was partially burned through on the other side. Photo by Bill Gabbert
The campaign of the County Sheriff in Colorado’s El Paso County against the fire chief responsible for the initial attack of the devastating Black Forest Fire is having an effect. Sheriff Terry Maketa has been EXTREMELY critical of Bob Harvey, the Fire Chief responsible for the first two hours of the fire.
The Colorado Springs Gazette reports that state Senator Kent Lambert of Colorado Springs is drafting a bill that “would empower county authorities to take over command during an emergency without permission or a request from the local jurisdiction”. Sheriff Maketa has complained that Chief Harvey did not turn over the management of the fire to him early enough.
Several states, including Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, stipulate that on state and private land in unincorporated areas the County Sheriff is responsible for fires. Texas also has an archaic system, and puts a County Judge in charge of fires in some areas. These systems date back to a time when areas with sparse populations had very few government officials and little firefighting capacity of any kind. But the Sheriff was one of the first government positions filled. Now fire protection districts have sprung up in many areas that have firefighters and chief officers with far more knowledge, skills, training, and abilities related to fire suppression than the typical elected County Sheriff. Yet the laws are still on the books.
How about an alternative to Senator Lambert’s proposal. Make the local fire chief responsible for all law enforcement incidents. That would be just as logical as the current situation where the Sheriff is responsible for fires. (kidding, of course)
Even though a major winter storm has caused 4,121 flights to be cancelled and another 11,284 to be delayed today across the United States, northern California has experienced four medium to large fires already this year.
The Campbell Fire, which started January 2 on the Lassen National Forest 24 miles southeast of Red Bluff, according to the U.S. Forest Service has burned 600 acres and is 40 percent contained. No structures are threatened and no evacuations are planned for this fire that is burning in the proverbial “steep, rugged terrain”. Minton’s NORCAL Incident Management Team 1 is assigned.
The Red Fire, south of Berry Summit in Humboldt County, has burned 350 acres and is 40 percent contained. It started January 4.
The Bridge Fire, near Bridgeville in Humboldt County, started January 3 and burned 18 acres. It is 100 percent contained.
The Honcut Fire, started January 1 in Butte County near Honcut and burned 60 acres before it was contained.
The Grant Fire, started December 31 and burned 40 acres in Santa Clara County near Grant Ranch County Park before it was contained.
On Sunday the U.S. Forest Service activated one large air tanker, Minden’s Tanker 48. CAL FIRE has been using multiple helicopters and air tankers on these fires.
Timeline released for Colorado’s Black Forest Fire
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office has released their own timeline for the early stages of the Black Forest Fire near Colorado Springs that burned 486 homes beginning on June 11, 2013. Below is an excerpt from an article at The Denver Channel:
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office has released its own timeline of events for the Black Forest Fire which indicates the fire was first reported nearly two hours earlier than the Black Forest Fire/Rescue District reported.
In a Dec. 10 news release, the Black Forest Fire/Rescue District said the fire was first located at 1:45 p.m. on June 11.
However, the sheriff’s office timeline released Monday shows callers to 911 started reporting a haze and the smell of smoke at 11:54 a.m.
At 1:40 p.m., emergency radio traffic is heard saying, “you might start getting more call of localized smoke,” but they blamed it on the Royal Gorge wildfire burning in Canon City, saying”looks like there is a fire in Canon City.”
However, in the same report, the person says, “pretty good column on Hodgen Rd.,” which is near the Black Forest area.
Prescribed fire workshops will be held in eight locations across Nebraska between January 21 and March 19, 2014. Hosted by Pheasants Forever, Nebraska Game and Parks, and several other organizations, the one-day sessions are broken down into basic and advanced classes.
The workshops for landowners will discuss benefits of prescribed fire and how to safely conduct a project. Topics covered include equipment and safety, environmental factors, techniques for conducting prescribed fires, briefings, items to consider when writing a burn plan, possible funding sources, and how to factor in weather conditions. There will also be an exercise on how to write a burn plan. The registration fee of $10 includes lunch and training materials.
In order to conduct a prescribed fire in Nebraska, a landowner needs to have a burn plan and a permit from the local fire department.
More information, including dates and locations.
Recent articles at Fire Aviation
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Today we are starting our seventh year of Wildfire Today. Since we began on January 6, 2008 we have published 4,657 articles. We are still covering news and issues related to wildland fire. And not simply that a fire occurred somewhere, but we prefer to write about topics and events that are interesting — not only to firefighters but to anyone with an interest in wildland fire, or who may live in a fire-prone environment. We don’t attempt to cover every fire, or even every very large fire, but if an event or news item interests us, we hope that you will find it to be worth your while.
As we enter our year number seven and the 2014 calendar year, we want to thank our loyal readers, folks who send us news tips, and our supporters, BFX Fire Apparatus, Coaxsher, and TENAX.
