Extreme wildfire danger in the Northern Great Plains
For the 24-hour period ending at 6 a.m. on Friday sensors detected more than 28,000 cloud to ground lightning strikes in the portion of the Northern Great Plains shown in the map above.
The National Weather Service issued Red Flag Warnings or Fire Weather Watches on Friday for areas in Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming, and North Dakota.
The Red Flag map was current as of 10 a.m. MDT on Friday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts.
Above: Detwiler Fire photo courtesy of Sacramento Fire Department
(Originally published at 7:58 a.m. PDT July 21, 2017)
Firefighters working to keep the Detwiler fire out of Mariposa and Coulterville Thursday were grateful for the moderate weather that resulted in less spread of the fire than in previous days. The south end has not seen much growth for a couple of days but the north side continues to get closer to the community of Coulterville in the central California foothills of the Sierras. The fire is less than two miles from the town but the incident management team has large numbers of resources in the area constructing firelines and prepping structures.
The map of the Detwiler fire below was current at 8 p.m. July 20, 2017.
Map of the Detwiler Fire. The red line was the perimeter at 8 p.m. PDT July 20, 2017. The white line was the perimeter at 1 a.m. PDT July 20. The red shaded areas represent intense heat. Click to enlarge.
The wind on Thursday recorded at a weather station in Mariposa, was primarily from the west and north at six mph. If it was similar at Coulterville it would have slowed the growth of the fire toward the community, buying firefighters more time to put in defenses.
The weather forecast in the Coulterville area for Friday is not as favorable, with southwest winds of 10 to 13 mph gusting at 15 to 20, then switching to come out of the northwest late in the afternoon at 8 mph. The temperature should be in the mid-90s with the relative humidity in the high teens.
CAL FIRE is calling the fire 74,083 acres, but the map they distributed Friday morning along with that acreage figure (below) has a fire perimeter that was current at 1 a.m. on July 20 and does not show the most recent fire growth near Coulterville and on the east side of the fire.
CAL FIRE reports that 58 residences have been destroyed.
Highways 49 and 140 are both closed in the fire area. CAL FIRE and the Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office have more information about evacuations, however CAL FIRE’s information site is updated infrequently.
Most of the large air tankers are reloading with retardant at Castle Airport, which is 25 miles west of the fire. On Wednesday the vendor at the base ran out of fuel, so air tankers needing more had to divert to Mather Airport southeast of Sacramento to get fuel, and then fly to Castle for retardant. A CAL FIRE spokesperson said that by Thursday the fuel shortage had been resolved.
Fire officials are establishing a retardant site for helicopters so that they can drop long term retardant on the fire rather than water, which is less effective.
The Detwiler Fire still has not spread into the Stanislaus National Forest. Southeast of Coulterville it is about half a mile away from the Forest boundary.
(All articles on Wildfire Today about the Detwiler Fire are tagged “Detwiler Fire” and can be found here, with the most recent at the top.)
A firefighter working for a private company was killed July 19 while working on a wildfire in western Montana. Trenton Johnson 19, was struck by a falling tree while helping to suppress the Florence Fire, a small fire near Florence Lake on the Lolo National Forest northeast of Seeley Lake.
Mr. Johnson, a resident of Missoula, Montana was a member of a Grayback Forestry Inc. 20-person hand crew under contract to the U.S. Forest Service.
Kelli Matthews, a spokesperson for Grayback, said as the crew was getting lined out to begin work on a small fire the top broke out of a burning tree and struck Mr. Johnson. He was taken to the nearest heliport about half mile from the fire where he was airlifted to Saint Patrick Hospital. He was later declared deceased.
Mr. Johnson was a sophomore at Montana State University in Bozeman.
Lolo National Forest Supervisor Tim Garcia issued a statement Thursday saying in part:
This is a heart-wrenching loss of life and Trenton leaves behind many friends and family members who are feeling this profound loss right now. This loss is rippling across the Lolo National Forest this morning and is most keenly felt on the Seeley Lake Ranger District, where Trenton’s sister works as a Forest Service employee.
Between 1990 and 2014 18 firefighters were killed on wildland fires by hazardous trees, which was 4 percent of the 440 firefighter deaths in the stats for that period kept by the National Interagency Fire Center.
Our sincere condolences go out to Mr. Johnson’s family, friends, and coworkers.
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Chris and Paula. Typos or errors, report them HERE.
The National Weather Service has issued Red Flag Warnings for areas in Montana and Idaho.
The map was current as of 9 a.m. MDT on Thursday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts.
Above: A 3-D map of the Detwiler Fire looking south from Coulterville, CA. The red shaded area was the perimeter at 1 a.m. July 20.
The Detwiler Fire was very active again Wednesday for the fourth day since it started and moved to within 2 miles of Coulterville, California. It grew by 4 miles on the north side, 3 miles on the south side, and 2 miles on the east. There was much less movement on the west side.
At 1 p.m. on Thursday the fire had spread north beyond the fire perimeter that was mapped at 1 a.m. and was less than 2 miles from Coulterville. It had crossed Crown Lead Road, which is south of Coulterville. The incident management team has a great many firefighting resources making preparations south of the town, including helicopters, hand crews, fire engines, and dozers. Firelines are being built and it is likely that when they are complete air tankers will reinforce those lines. The fire was also active at 1 p.m. Thursday on the northeast side as well as southeast of Catheys Valley on the south side.
Satellite photo showing the Detwiler Fire Thursday afternoon. Click to enlarge.
Southeast of Coulterville the fire is less than a mile from the boundary of the Stanislaus National Forest. A CAL FIRE incident management team has been running the fire but an Interagency Type 1 Incident Management Team has been ordered to report to the fairgrounds at Sonora 22 air miles north of the fire. The assumption probably is that the fire will be in the National Forest in a day or two.
By Thursday morning at 1 a.m. the fire had burned 73,096 acres, an increase of 27,372 acres since the previous mapping flight at 10 p.m. on July 18. (There is some confusion about the acres burned, with some sources reporting the total is 70,096.)
CAL FIRE reports that 45 structures have been destroyed. It is not clear if that number includes outbuildings.
The map of the Detwiler Fire was current at 1 a.m. PDT July 20, 2017
Map of the Detwiler Fire. The red line was the perimeter at 1 a.m. PDT July 20. The white line was the perimeter 27 hours earlier. Click to enlarge.
Highways 49 and 140 are both closed in the fire area. CAL FIRE and the Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office have more information about evacuations, although CAL FIRE’s information site about this rapidly spreading fire is updated infrequently.
Smoke from the Detwiler Fire is affecting the visibility in Yosemite National Park east of the fire. This was the view of Half Dome at 7:21 a.m. July 20.El Capitan in Yosemite National Park at 7:31 a.m. PDT July 20.
The USFS Blue Sky Modeling Framework projects where smoke is expected from the #DetwilerFire , impacting the Sierra & foothills. #cawx pic.twitter.com/sZjwTFDF4Y
When we were writing the July 13 article about Frank Anaya, the latest California inmate firefighter that died on a fire, we discovered details about a previous inmate fatality that were shocking. It involved the death of Jimmy Randolph in August of 2012 whose passing was associated with heat stroke. The shocking part was that Mr. Randolph was found unresponsive one morning in the sleeping area on a fire and died in a hospital seven hours later. He had complained of a headache the previous evening and was checked out by the medical unit, but apparently no one was aware of the seriousness of his condition.
Firefighter Jimmy Randolph was assigned to the Buck Fire as a part of a strike team. At approximately 1800 hours on August 18, 2012, Firefighter Randolph advised a correctional officer that he had a headache. He was escorted to a medical team, evaluated, and given a three-day no-work note. At approximately 0530 hours the next morning, Fire fighter Randolph could not be awakened. He was treated and transported to the Desert Regional Hospital in Palm Springs. With his family by his side., he was pronounced dead at 1230 hours on August 19, 2012. The cause of death was listed as anoxic encephalopathy combined with complications of heat stroke.
Anoxic encephalopathy is a condition where brain tissue is deprived of oxygen and there is global loss of brain function. The longer brain cells lack oxygen, the more damage occurs.
I checked the weather for August 18, 2012 for San Jacinto, California which is in the general vicinity of the Buck Fire, and the high temperature that day was 92 degrees — a temperature commonly found on a large wildfire in the summer.
The wildland firefighter community has experienced an alarming increase in heat related and other physiological injuries in the last few days. Heat related injuries and Rhabdomyolysis are not the same, but can occur at the same time. Extreme weather conditions are predicted to continue across western states for the next week. The National Weather Service is issuing Heat Warnings for the SWCC, GBCC, RMCC, OSCC, and ONCC.
It is a very well-written document about how to prevent, mitigate, and recognize heat related injuries.
