News and opinion about wildland fire
This is a spectacular photo of smokejumper parachute canopies back-lit by the sun.
#Smokejumpers parachute from planes to remote wildfires that can’t
be reached easily by any other method. pic.twitter.com/Ci0iqVQobw— USFS Fire-California (@R5_Fire_News) March 23, 2016
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized2 Comments on Anderson Creek fire in Oklahoma and Kansas (UPDATED at 11:30 a.m. March 25, 2016)
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(UPDATED at 12:15 a.m. CDT, March 25, 2016)
This map was provided by Oklahoma Forestry Services, along with the information that the fire had burned an estimated 397,420 acres and was 0% contained Thursday morning.
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(UPDATED at 6:12 p.m. CDT March 24, 2016)
The video below is a recording of the briefing by public officials of Barber County Kansas the morning of March 24, 2016 about the very large fire insouthern Kansas and northern Oklahoma. It was originally broadcast on Periscope by Amy Bickel, but since recordings there are automatically deleted after 24 hours, we preserved it here. It was recorded off a computer monitor, so we apologize for the low quality.
In the briefing referenced above, the County Attorney said “397,420 acres have burned over the last couple of days”. He did not indicate if that was the size of the very large fire in our maps, or if the acreage includes multiple fires. He also said two homes were destroyed.
The map below shows heat detected by a satellite at 2:25 p.m. on March 24. The light vegetation in the area may sometimes ignite, burn up completely, and then cool before the next satellite overpass, which can be about 12 hours apart. In this case the mapped data may under-report the true extent of the fire.
Here is an excerpt from an article at WIBW, dated March 24 at 2:10 p.m.
Strong winds have thwarted efforts to contain a wildfire that has burned 620 square miles of rural land in Oklahoma and Kansas, and it’s now approaching populated areas.
Oklahoma Forestry Services spokesman Mark Goeller said Thursday that strong winds shifted the direction of the fire late Wednesday and overwhelmed existing containment lines.
Officials are now monitoring a part of the blaze 5 miles away from Alva, Oklahoma, where about 5,000 people live. No mandatory evacuations have been issued in Oklahoma, though Goeller says officials are forming contingency evacuation plans as crews work to slow the fire’s spread.
Goeller says wind conditions and humidity are expected to improve throughout the day, making progress on containment more likely…
Continue reading “Anderson Creek fire in Oklahoma and Kansas”
The National Interagency Fire Center has released five videos to help Public Information Officers provide information about wildfire management in 2016.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized3 Comments on Red Flag Warnings in the southern plains and southwest The National Weather Service has issued Red Flag Warnings for areas in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona along with forecasts for strong winds and low humidities.
The maps were current as of 8:15 a.m. MDT on Tuesday. 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.
Erickson Aircrane made a demonstration video to show what would happen if the entire load of 2,500 gallons of water was dropped in a salvo on a car.
The 747 SuperTanker arrived at McClellan Air Field in Sacramento today after flying in from Marana, Arizona where it received a new paint job. It will be on static display for attendees the Aerial Firefighting conference until Wednesday, March 23.
Bob Soelberg, Senior VP and Program Manager of Global Supertaker, said the retardant delivery system still needs a few tweaks before it can actually drop water or retardant, but they hope to have it ready to fight fire later this year.
This article first appeared on FireAviation.com. For more information about the 747 visit these articles at the site tagged 747.
