This is a very impressive large fire whirl over the Gorman Fire Friday in Los Angeles County, filmed by Kevin Takumi for FoxLA.com
The images are screenshots from Mr. Takumi’s video.
#GormanFire [update] at Gorman School Rd at I-5, Gorman, (Los Angeles County) is 135acres and 95% contained Forward rate of spread stopped. pic.twitter.com/tZPdQxzTEO
Above: 3-D map of the Sunrise Fire showing the perimeter at 12:30 a.m. MDT Jul 29, 2017.
(Originally published at 10:36 a.m. MDT July 29, 2017)
The Sunrise Fire continued to grow closer to the small community of Quartz, Montana on Friday, spreading east 1.2 miles on the southeast side closing in on Whisky Gulch Road to come within 1.0 to 1.3 miles of the Clark Fork River. It started July 16 in the Lolo National Forest 39 miles northwest of Missoula and 6 miles south of Riverbend.
The fire added another 1,200 acres on Friday expanding to about 5,500 acres as of the 12:30 a.m. mapping flight Saturday. One spot fire was found 0.4 miles ahead of the fire on the southeast side.
Sunrise Fire photo by Phil Milette, undated.
The Mineral County Sheriff added Quartz Creek to the list of evacuated areas which also includes Sunrise Creek and Quartz Flats.
Resources assigned to the fire: 14 hand crews, 5 dozers, 18 engines, 4 helicopters, 14 water tenders, 4 Skidgens, and 1 Masticator for a total of 522 personnel.
The weather forecast for the fire area for Saturday predicts temperatures in the mid-90s, relative humidity in the high teens, with winds out of the south switching to the northwest at 2 to 5 mph.
Firefighters on the Sunrise Fire apply protective wrap to historic structure. Photo by Todd McDivitt, undated.
All articles about the Sunrise Fire can be found HERE, with the most recent at the top of the page.
Above: A spot fire at the north end of the Detwiler Fire July 27, 2017 between the main fire and Lake McClure. CAL FIRE photo.
(Originally published at 12:35 p.m. PDT July 28, 2017)
The Detwiler Fire south of Coulterville, California had been relatively quiet for several days, until Thursday when a spot fire took off outside the fireline near Lake McClure. It burned about 100 acres before firefighters could stop the spread. This brought the total size up to 81,650 acres.
Map showing the location of the spot fire at the northern end of the Detwiler Fire, July 27, 2017.
These photos were provided by CAL FIRE. The helicopters were stationed at the helibase near Highway 49 north of Mariposa.
USFS Air Tanker 116 sprays retardant on the spot fire on the north end of the Detwiler Fire, July 27, 2017. CAL FIRE photo.
All articles about the Detwiler Fire on Wildfire Today can be found here, with the most recent being at the top.
12 Incident Management Teams and no Area Command Teams are assigned.
The National Incident Management Situation Report (IMSR) shows 28 large fires in the Northern Rockies Geographic Area (NRCC), which is comprised of Montana, Northern Idaho, and portions of North Dakota and South Dakota. The screengrab below from the IMSR shows 18 of the 28 fires.
The IMSR and the NRCC web site have different criteria for reporting their statistics, but according to the NRCC they have the following 12 Incident Management Teams committed:
Type 1: Four
Type 2: Five
Type 3: Three
Wildfires on the Lolo National Forest listed on Inciweb at 10:43 a.m. MST July 28, 2017.
As you can see in the image above, the Lolo National Forest alone, which sprawls out in three directions from Missoula, has six fires larger than 1,000 acres plus three others. The workload on the fire management staff managing all those fires, procuring and allocating resources, and supervising the incident management teams has to be overwhelming.
In spite of this intense fire activity, no Area Command Teams have been assigned according to today’s IMSR. This is consistent with how the teams have rarely been used in recent years. In 2015 the number of teams was reduced from four to three.
Above: Safety Officer Breck Hudson speaks at the Sunrise Fire operational period briefing. Undated photo by Jennifer Russell.
(Originally published at 10:33 a.m. MDT July 28,2017)
The Sunrise Fire in Western Montana has continued to spread over the last two days at a moderate pace, eating up another 500 to 1,000 acres each day 39 miles northwest of Missoula and 6 miles south of Riverbend.
At the time of the last mapping flight Thursday night it had grown by about 600 acres in the previous 24 hours to a total of approximately 4,300 acres. As on previous days, most of the spread was on the east side where it is now about 2 miles west of the Clark Fork River. In that area the fire at times has been exhibiting extreme fire behavior with long-range spotting taking place.
It has the highest priority ranking of the 28 large fires in the Northern Rockies Geographic Area, which means Shawn Pearson’s Northern Rockies Type 2 Incident Management Team would be at the top of the list to obtain the firefighting resources they need. As of Thursday evening the resources assigned included 13 hand crews, 12 fire engines, and 4 helicopters for a total of 443 personnel.
Map of the Sunrise Fire. The red line was the perimeter at 10:30 p.m. MDT July 27, 2017. The white line was the perimeter about 48 hours earlier. Click to enlarge.
Not a great deal of information is available about the fire, but as of mid-day on Thursday an evacuation was in effect for Quartz Flats, and the Quartz Flats Campgrounds off Interstate 90 Eastbound and Westbound are either closed or under evacuation orders.
Friday’s weather forecast for the fire area calls for 87 degrees, 21 percent relative humidity, and northwest winds of 5 to 7 mph. About the same conditions are predicted for Saturday.
All articles about the Sunrise Fire can be found HERE, with the most recent at the top of the page.
