(Originally published at 7:01 MDT, September 7, 2015)
A firefighter was burned today on the Rough Fire. Below is a news release from the incident management team:
At approximately 8:00 [on September 7, 2015], a firefighter was injured while working in the Converse Basin area of the Rough Fire. The firefighter was part of a hotshot crew working the night shift tasked with monitoring the fire line along Hoist Ridge, looking for spot fires that may have occurred outside the containment line.
Given the extremely steep, rugged terrain, a Rapid Extraction Module (REM) was dispatched to remove the firefighter from the scene to a road. The firefighter was delivered to an ambulance and transported to a nearby helispot. A helicopter then transported the patient to the hospital for treatment. The firefighter was conscious and alert at the time of the extraction.
The firefighter is now in the hospital, receiving treatment, in stable condition and good spirits. The firefighter’s family has been notified and is en route. The Forest Service is providing an employee advocate who is on scene to work with the firefighter’s family and medical staff to facilitate communication with all involved parties and deal with any needs of the family.
The Rough Fire, which started on July 31 east of Fresno, California, has burned over 95,000 acres.
Does anyone have details of what comprises a “Rapid Extraction Module” on a wildland fire?
Fire hose was transported back to the incident base on the Mad River Complex in northern California after being deployed on the fireline. Before it is used again it will be tested, cleaned, and rolled.
These photos are samples of those being uploaded by incident management teams to InciWeb over the last few weeks. If no date or photographer’s credit is listed, it means they were not provided on InciWeb.
Air tanker drop on the Buck Horn Fire in Montana, August 13.Snow on the Grizzly Bear Complex, Oregon, September 5. Credit: WIIMT #4.Incident Command Post at the Omak Fire in Washington.
In this video Thomas Martin, a reporter from VICE, gets a close-up look at what it’s like to thin trees and construct fireline as he embeds with a crew from Grayback Forestry for a day, and gets outfitted with gear and swings a Pulaski for a few minutes.
At then end he sums up his impression of the work wildland firefighters do. And keep in mind during his time with the crew, it appears they were nowhere near a fire.
Firefighters around the world are universally acclaimed, and considered heroes. Forest firefighters, though, are in a league to themselves. They basically go into one of the deadliest situations in nature, something that we have all been instinctively hard wired to avoid on site or smell, no matter what. And get right up against the flames, and then do one of the hardest jobs imaginable, which is digging a ditch. It’s some of the hardest work I think that exists.
Wildfire smoke map, morning of September 7, 2015. The round brown icons represent the locations of large fires.
The National Weather Service has issued Red Flag Warnings or Fire Weather Watches for areas Wyoming.
Again today, the weather and vegetation are cooperating and confining their extreme conditions within state borders, simplifying the job of fire meteorologists.
Red Flag Warnings, September 7, 2015
The Red Flag map was current as of 10:30 a.m. MDT on Monday. 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 or this NWS site.
To see the most current smoke reports on Wildfire Today, visit the articles tagged “smoke” at https://wildfiretoday.com/tag/smoke/
The Rough Fire has grown by almost 20,000 acres in the last three days and is now listed at 138,053 acres.
Below is an excerpt from an update by the incident management team Monday morning:
Firefighting efforts are being made during day and night shifts on the Rough Fire to further the containment lines, which have now reached 40% over the whole fire.
Crews and Engines continue to patrol Grant Grove checking for any escaped embers with potential to start a spot fire. Structure defense crews are in place around residential areas near the fireline including, Sequoia Lake, Hume Lake, and Cedar Grove. These firelines are holding well and being monitored closely.
Weather will be slightly cooler today through Wednesday with areas of dense smoke thinning by the afternoon, making aerial firefighting efforts more productive.
The red line was the perimeter of the Rough Fire at 8 p.m. PT, 9-13-2015. The white line was the perimeter on 9-10-2015.
At about 11:30 a.m. Monday the on-scene incident meteorologist said light rain was falling over some portions of the fire.
Radar showing light rain moving in to the area of the Rough Fire at 11:32 a.m. PT, 9-14-2015.
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(UPDATED at 9 a.m. PT, September 11, 2015)
New evacuations were ordered at 6 a.m. Friday near the Rough Fire for some locations south of Highway 180 and west of Highway 245. The details can be found at InciWeb, where they also have a difficult to read map unless you are able to zoom in.
The red dots on this map of the Rough Fire were detected by a satellite at 2:36 a.m. PT, Sept. 11, 2015. The red line representing the perimeter was provided by the incident management team on September 10. (click to enlarge)
The fire has burned 119,069 acres 32 miles east of Fresno, California and continues to spread on the southwest side. Thursday night firefighters began a burnout along Highway 180 from Indian Basin south toward Cherry Gap working toward the northwest portion of Grants Grove, which has already been evacuated. Friday morning they described it as successful with containment lines reaching 400 to 500 feet wide in some places.
The eastern portion of the fire remains active near Cedar Grove and is expected to continue to spread to the east and northeast.
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(UPDATED at 10:27 a.m. PT, September 10, 2015)
Satellite photo showing heat (red dots) and smoke created by the Tenaya Fire in Yosemite National Park and the Rough Fire east of Fresno. September 9, 2015. (click to enlarge)
The Rough Fire east of Fresno, California was very active Wednesday and continues to spread on the east and southwest sides. It has grown to 110,134 acres, crossing the 100,000-acre threshold to become a “megafire”.
Tuesday night the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department issued additional evacuation notices for homes west of the fire. Thursday morning the National Park Service issued an evacuation order to park visitors, park employees, concessions staff, and residents of Wilsonia in the Grant Grove area of Kings Canyon National Park. The NPS is working with the Sheriffs’ Departments of both Fresno County and Tulare County to provide the evacuation notifications.
Highway 180 is closed at the Big Stump Entrance Station. The Generals Highway, sometimes referred to as Hwy. 198, is closed at the Red Fir gate, which is west of Wuksachi Village. Sequoia National Park remains open and visitors can still use the Ash Mountain Entrance Station. Vehicles longer than 22 feet (including trailers) are not advised between Potwisha and Giant Forest Museum.
Very little information about the fire has been released by the incident management team since Wednesday morning.
Map of the Rough Fire east of Fresno, California. The red dots represent heat detected by a satellite at 1:28 a.m. PT on September 10, 2015. The red line, supplied by the incident management team, was the perimeter three days before on September 7. (click to enlarge)
Two Napa County firefighters were injured Saturday morning [September 5] when the engine in which they were riding swerved off Wooden Valley Road east of Napa and rolled down an embankment.
Cal Fire spokesman Joe Fletcher said the engine was en route to a reported motorcycle accident around 11:30 a.m. when dispatchers cancelled the call. As the engine was returning to its station, it rolled off the edge of the road and came to rest in a creek bed about 100 feet below the pavement.
One firefighter was able to extricate himself from the wreck; the other had to be helped out by other firefighters arriving at the scene, Fletcher said in a news release. Both were treated for minor injuries.
