There is a hilarious web site, SendBarackYourBaby.com that you will find useful if you’d like Obama to kiss your baby but find it too inconvenient to go to a rally and stand in line. The concept is, you ship your baby to Obama, being sure to complete the “Baby’s Packing Slip”, he kisses it according to your instructions (Kiss, Hug, Give Hope, or Other ___), then ships the baby back to you.
Be sure and check out the Shipping Instructions and the Frequently Asked Questions pages. For example:
How will you return my baby?
Most babies are back home within 14 business days. We send them via insured UPS Ground in a specially designed box, and to avoid mixups, we require that somebody sign for the delivery. Shipping to addresses outside the continental United States can take up to two additional weeks.
I recently learned about a new company, InciDocs Publications, that is producing logbooks for Incident Command System positions. They are all 5.5″ x 8.5″ and fit into the cargo pocket of your Nomex pants.
All versions have sections for travel information, in-briefing notes, contacts, web sites, ICS-214 Unit Logs, and a fillable calendar. They have a heavy-duty front and back cover and holders for business cards and receipts.
Logbooks are then customized to distinct ICS positions by inserting a 14-day daily log section that collects information specific to that job function. They can even be further customized by printing the graphic of your agency or incident management team on the cover. They have dozens of logos on file already.
From the web site:
Carrie Dennett, owner of InciDocs Publications, spent 13 years in fire and resource management for the National Park Service. She was the Fire Management Officer for two national parks for the last 6 years and a Fire Ecologist for the previous 7 years at three national parks in Arizona. Though retired from the National Park Service, Carrie still holds a position on a federal type 1 incident management team as a Situation Unit Leader and has responded to many wildland fires and hurricanes with type 1 and 2 teams in the last 7 years.
A bus filled with Riverside County firefighter inmates toppled in Aguanga on Monday night, injuring all 16 on board, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The Riverside County Fire Department bus was leaving the scene of a 20-acre blaze about 7:30 p.m. near Highway 371 and Wilson Valley Road. The Oak Glen Conservation Fire Camp inmate crew was brought in during cleanup efforts to assist firefighters, Riverside County fire officials said.
The driver, fire Capt. Steve Knutson, was headed west on Wilson Valley Road when he began driving down a speed grade, CHP Officer Ron Thatcher said.
He was going too fast and tried unsuccessfully to shift gears, Thatcher said. The bus ran up a dirt embankment and flipped on its right side.
The fire captain suffered moderate injuries and was taken by ambulance to Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar, Thatcher said.
Two inmates were critically injured and one was airlifted to Riverside County Regional Medical Center in Moreno Valley.
Another inmate was reported with moderate injuries and 12 other inmates who suffered minor injuries were treated at the scene, according to the Riverside County Fire Department.
The National Park Service’s “Morning Report” has always had an elegantly simple way of summarizing the current national fire statistics. Unfortunately, they do not report on the weekends, when it would have shown much higher numbers of initial attack fires when the 900+ new fires in California would have been counted. Most of the recent lightning-caused fires in California started Friday night and Saturday. (“large” fires are greater than 100 acres)
Fire Summary (Five Day Trend)
Date
Thu
Fri
Mon
Tue
Wed
Day
6/19
6/20
6/23
6/24
6/25
Initial Attack Fires
202
265
517
312
406
New Large Fires
5
9
25
14
12
Large Fires Contained
0
6
6
3
8
Uncontained Large Fires
14
16
37
48
52
National Resource Commitments (Five Day Trend)
Date
Thu
Fri
Mon
Tue
Wed
Day
6/19
6/20
6/23
6/24
6/25
Area Command Teams
0
0
1
1
1
NIMO Teams
1
1
2
3
3
Type 1 Teams
1
1
8
8
12
Type 2 Teams
5
6
11
12
15
FUM Teams
1
1
0
1
0
Weather forecast… is for more lightning, starting out dry, for northern California beginning Friday and lasting for several days. The thunderstorms will have a greater chance of having a little moisture on Saturday.
MAFFS….. Four C-130 air tankers operated by the military have been ordered for the fires in California. They are coming from Charlotte, NC and Colorado Springs, CO and should be operational today.
Airmen from the North Carolina Air National Guard’s 145th Airlift Wing push a modular airborne fire fighting system onto a C-130 Hercules. The system is a series of pressurized tanks that hold 3,000 gallons of flame-retardant liquid. (U.S. Air National Guard photo/Tech. Sgt. Brian E. Christiansen) Click on the photo to see a larger version.
The Unable to Fill list for northern California has 35 Incident Command System job categories that they can’t fill.
The California Wildfire Coordinating Group has raised the Preparedness Level to five, the criteria for which is:
CALMAC is fully activated. Multiple large fires are common in the north and or the south. Fire danger is very high to extreme. Resources are being mobilized through the National Coordination Center. Activation of National Guard or military done or under consideration.
On the north side of the Indians fire an evacuation order has been placed for the Arroyo Seco Drainage effective at 0800 hours on June 25.
The Gallery fire south of Big Sur, part of the Basin complex, has been very active the last few days. If it has not already, it almost certainly will merge with the Basin fire just to the north. As of last night the combined acreage was 13, 550 for the two fires. Evacuations are still in effect for the Partington Ridge area, and Hwy. 1 remains closed. The fire has consumed 16 structures and is burning in the tracks of the 1977 Marble-Cone fire which scorched about 165,000 acres.
You have to think about the possibility of the Basin complex burning into the Indians fire which is about 5-7 miles away. There is a 20-39% probability this will happen by June 30 if there is no suppression action in that area. I imagine that would disappoint Bill Molumby’s team that has struggled to obtain 71% containment of the 57,943 acre Indians fire. Having burned area on both sides of your fireline is disconcerting, to say the least.
The map below shows heat in red detected by satellites last night. Click on the map to see a larger version.
