News and opinion about wildland fire
(Originally published at 3 p.m. MDT July 18, 2017)
The Arrowhead Hotshots sent us these photos that were taken during their assignment on the Peekaboo Fire in northwest Colorado near Maybell. (Thanks guys!)
Arrowhead, first established in 1981, is a National Park Service crew based in Kings Canyon National Park in California.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized1 Comment on Little change in Whittier Fire on Monday Above: The view from the HPWREN camera on Santa Ynez Peak in the middle of the Whittier Fire, looking south at 12:27 p.m. PDT July 18, 2017.
(Originally published at 12:54 p.m. PDT July 18, 2017)
There has not been much change in the status of the Whittier Fire northwest of Goleta, California. Over the last 24 hours satellites have not detected many large heat sources, and the size reported by fire officials has not changed since Sunday morning.
Below is an excerpt from information supplied by the Incident Management Team on Tuesday:
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“Crews working on the eastern perimeter completed a containment line in Bear Creek Canyon, preventing the fire from crossing the creek. The fire continues backing down-slope on the western and southern perimeters.
The northern perimeter is transitioning to patrol and mop-up. Crews on the eastern perimeter are using bulldozers and hand-crews to build line and construct contingency lines. The southern perimeter is backing and is heavily influenced by the marine layer.
Above the marine layer expect active fire behavior; below the marine layer, minimal fire spread is expected due to high humidity.
Fifteen water-dropping helicopters and four fixed-wing air tankers are supporting crews as needed to help cool hot spots.”
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All of the articles we have written about the fire are tagged “Whittier Fire” and can be found here, with the most recent at the top.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized2 Comments on Detwiler Fire spreads quickly, causes evacuation of Mariposa Above: Map of the Detwiler Fire. The yellow line was the perimeter at 1 a.m. PDT Tuesday July 18, 2017. The red dots represent heat detected by a satellite at 1:48 p.m. PDT July 18. The satellite detections can’t be relied upon to be 100 percent accurate. The very intense smoke plume over the fire on Tuesday may have contained enough heat to trip the sensors on the satellite, giving the impression that the fire was larger than it actually was.
(UPDATED at 9:13 p.m. PDT July 18, 2017)
(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.)
The Detwiler Fire continued to be very active Tuesday afternoon. CAL FIRE, the agency responsible for suppressing the blaze, estimated at 7 p.m. that the size had increased to about 25,000 acres, up from 19,601 at 1 a.m. on Tuesday. They reported that 8 structures have been destroyed, but did not specify if they were residences or outbuildings.
The CAL FIRE web site sometimes has information about evacuations.
The fire spread to the south Tuesday, pushed by a wind out of the north. Winds from the north are expected to continue through the night and into Wednesday morning at 6 to 9 mph, shifting to come out of the west in the afternoon. Wednesday’s temperature in the fire area will top out at 98 degrees, with the relative humidity hitting 14 percent in the afternoon.
3 hour #GOES16 loop w/ fire temp imaging shows the scale of the #DetwilerFire w/ pyrocumulus casting shadows. #CAwx #CAFire @CAL_FIRE pic.twitter.com/DIQFvVqg36
— Rob Mayeda (@RobMayeda) July 19, 2017
(UPDATED at 5:34 p.m. PDT July 18, 2017)
The Detwiler Fire has been very, very active Tuesday afternoon, spreading very quickly and putting up a huge smoke plume. For a while at mid-afternoon at least one air tanker working the fire, a DC-10, was diverted to a new fire 6 miles southeast of Redding. During that time the KCRA live video did not show any air tankers on the Detwiler Fire, but after a while there were two DC-10s, an MD-87, a C-130, and at least one S2T working the fire again.
The camera operator for KCRA has no trouble finding action to film — air tankers dropping, massive flames, or a towering convection column.
LiveCopter3 on the way to the #DetwilerFire . Mariposa has been evacuated. Coverage starts at 4 on KCRA3 pic.twitter.com/A8MVgjys61
— Mark Finan (@kcraFinan) July 18, 2017
(UPDATED at 1:24 p.m. PDT July 18, 2017)
The Detwiler Fire has grown explosively since it started less than 48 hours ago during the afternoon of July 16. At 1 a.m. PDT on July 18 it was mapped at 19,610 acres, an increase of 16,192 acres over the previous 24 hours.
The fire is 6 miles northwest of Mariposa.
The maps of the Detwiler Fire below were current at 1 a.m. PDT July 18, 2017.
It is already causing evacuations in areas of Mariposa County, according to the Sheriff’s office. At 12:30 p.m. PDT Tuesday CAL FIRE revised their information about the fire to indicate that the city of Mariposa is being evacuated, but by 1:18 p.m. PDT the Sheriff’s Office had not stated it like that on their web site. However, the Sheriff’s site lists about 19 locations that ARE evacuated, without providing a map, so it can be a little difficult to get the entire picture.
Highway 49 is closed. Power lines that supply electricity to Yosemite National Park, which is 19 air miles to the east, could be impacted.
The time-lapse video below was filmed by Toney Gorham between 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. on Sunday July 16.
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to JW.
Typos or errors, report them HERE.
Above: 3-D map of the Whittier Fire, looking north. Current at 9:30 p.m. PDT July 16, 2017.
(Originally published at 10:08 a.m. PDT July 17, 2017)
Relatively mild weather conditions aided firefighters on the Whittier Fire Sunday which expanded by less than 300 acres, bringing the total up to 18,311. The relative humidity at San Marcos Pass actually increased after 10 a.m. and hovered around 70 percent, and then after midnight went up to 89 percent. At 9 a.m. Monday it was still very high — 74 percent. Similar conditions should persist through Wednesday, but Thursday through Saturday could see stronger afternoon and evening winds of 10 to 14 mph.
Since structures burned during the early hours of the fire the number destroyed has been listed as 20. The Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management has now updated their figures and determined that a total of 46 structures were destroyed, which includes 16 residences and 30 other structures. The other structures were detached garages, barns, bunkhouses, or other improvements.
The number of personnel assigned to the Whittier Fire increased by 347 Sunday, bringing the total to 2,271.
Nationally there are 14,205 personnel assigned to wildfires — on 331 hand crews, 999 engines, and 110 helicopters.
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All of the articles we have written about the fire are tagged “Whittier Fire” and can be found here, with the most recent at the top.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized10 Comments on Whittier Fire slows, but keeps spreading west and south Above: The Whittier Fire as seen from Santa Ynez Peak at 7:13 a.m. PDT July 16, 2017.
(Originally published at 7:55 a.m. PDT July 16, 2017)
The Whittier Fire was less active Saturday than in previous days but it added another 651 acres to bring the total burned area up to 18,015 acres, according to the data from a mapping flight at 12:30 a.m on Sunday. Most of that increase was on the northwest side but the south flank also advanced slowly down the slope.
The weather forecast for Saturday night predicted Sundowner winds but a weather station at San Marcos Pass recorded mostly mild conditions overnight — winds of 1 to 4 mph gusting at 6 to 11 with the relative humidity hovering around 60 percent. The weather forecasters are having a hard time accurately predicting the Sundowner winds.
Firefighters working on the eastern side are striving to keep the fire from reaching Bear Creek. The southwest corner of the fire burned into the last year’s Sherpa Fire Saturday and stalled out due to a lack of fuel.
Evacuations are still in effect. (see map)
Resources assigned to the fire include 38 hand crews, 145 fire engines, 30 water tenders, 4 masticators, 6 fixed wing aircraft, 13 helicopters, and 18 dozers for a total of 1,924 personnel.
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All of the articles we have written about the fire are tagged “Whittier Fire” and can be found here, with the most recent at the top.
The National Weather Service has issued Red Flag Warnings or Fire Weather Watches for areas in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.
The map was current as of 7 a.m. MDT on Saturday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts.
