News and opinion about wildland fire
The National Weather service has posted Red Flag Warnings and Fire Weather Watches for areas in California, Nevada, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, South Dakota, and Colorado.
The maps were current as of 10:20 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 and maps. For the most current data visit this NWS site.
A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has ruled that the Greer Fire, a 2010 wildfire southeast of Vanderhoof, started from lightning, not a timber harvesting company’s feller buncher as claimed by the government. The Province sued two companies including Canfor, which then countersued, alleging that the B.C. government “did not take sufficient action to suppress or extinguish” the wildfire.
The fire burned 6,100 hectares (15,073 acres), required 30 households to evacuate, and cost $5.5 million including suppression, reforestation, and lost wood taxes.
Below are excerpts from an article at straight.com:
“Canfor has not established the Province’s conduct in fighting the Fire constituted a substantial departure from the basic principles of firefighting,” Greyall wrote in his decision.
According to the ruling, “a one-hour fire watch was not conducted as required”.
“The Province argues a fire watcher, properly conducting his or her duties under theRegulation, would have been able to utilize Barlow’s resources to extinguish or at least control the Fire on the afternoon of June 18 and to report it to the Ministry such that it would been actioned earlier and would not have spread,” Greyall wrote.
However, the judge concluded that the province failed to prove that the fire would have been discovered and reported “prior to the expiry of the fire watch period” had a fire watch taken place.
In court, the province maintained there was “strong circumstantial evidence” that the fire was started by the use of a fire buncher and that the operator failed to remain with his equipment after turning off the engine.
The province also claimed that “sawdust or other flammable forest debris” were dislodged from the machine into the forest floor, causing the fire.
The defendants pointed to lightning as the likely cause, with Barlow employees saying they saw a bolt during heavy rainfall around 5 p.m.
“I find the evidence of the Barlow and Canfor employees to be consistent and credible,” Greyall wrote. “The issue of lightning on the Cut Block was reported to Ministry investigators during the course of their investigation within days of the Fire.”
The article does not mention any physical evidence of a lightning-struck object or data from an electronic lightning detection system.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized1 Comment on Montana: possible large fire north of Big Timber (UPDATE at noon, July 9, 2016)
After we inquired, we heard back from Bruce Suenram, Deputy Chief with the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. He said neither his Department or the County are aware of a large fire in this area.
It looks like a major failure by MODIS; 54 false positive fire detections (most of which had a “high” confidence rating) by the fairly new and highly touted Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite. The VIIRS 375-meter sensor system on the Suomi-NPP satellite began collecting data late last year.
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(Originally published at 9:50 MDT July 9, 2016)
The MODIS satellite system detected heat Friday afternoon spread over a large area across Highway 191 25 miles north of Big Timber and 12 miles south of Harlowton, Montana. We drew a perimeter around it encompassing over 20,000 acres. It does not show up in the national or regional situation reports.
We are checking to see if this is an actual fire and will update this article if more information becomes available.
The National Weather service has posted Red Flag Warnings and Fire Weather Watches for areas in California, Nevada, Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado.
The maps were current as of 7:10 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 and maps. For the most current data visit this NWS site.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized2 Comments on Lost hikers set signal fire, attracts firefighters 
After an extensive five-day search two missing hikers were found in a very remote area of the Marble Mountain Wilderness Area in the Klamath National Forest 41 air miles southwest of Yreka, California. They were rescued after the smoke from their signal fire attracted firefighters.
When Cody Hopkins, 14, and his father, Joseph Hopkins, 54, did not return home on June 29 as planned, Mr. Hopkins’ wife notified the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Department. With the assistance of many other agencies, the Department searched from June 30th until July 4th when the hikers were found a considerable distance from the initial search location. Both father and son were in relatively good shape considering their ordeal and were reunited with family members shortly after their rescue.
As of Wednesday night the fire, now named “Wilderness”, has burned 46 acres in the footprint of a 2008 fire. On Wednesday 18 smokejumpers were dispatched and two hotshot crews are on scene or en route.
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Kurt.
Sky lanterns are being looked at as the possible cause for at least two fires over the Fourth of July holiday, one in New York and another in Michigan.
Investigators are considering sky lanterns as a possible cause for a fire that spread to four homes in Highland Park, Michigan Tuesday morning.
And in Yates County, New York, Sheriff Ron Spike, thinks a sky lantern caused a fire that burned a portion of a boat dock on Keuka Lake July 4. Boaters on the lake notified residents who were able to suppress the fire by dumping lake water onto it.
Below is an excerpt from an article at the Chronicle Express:
…Investigation by deputies and the fire chief concluded that based on debris at the scene that a sky lantern someone had launched to celebrate July 4 had landed on the dock, causing the fire. Spike says the property owner is William Goulburn, of Rochester, and the damage is over $1,000…
Sky lanterns are made with plastic or lightweight paper and are lifted into the air when burning material is ignited at the base making it lighter than air. They can travel for more than a mile, whichever way the wind blows. Sometimes the fuel is still burning when the device contacts a structure, a tree, or lands on the ground. Usually they are not retrieved and become someone else’s trash.
The dangerous devices are banned in 29 states and many counties and cities.
