Map produced by a multi-mission aircraft Tuesday morning, Oct. 5; 964 acres.
Tuesday morning an aircraft mapped the Auburn Fire north of Rapid City and determined it had burned 964 acres.
Firefighters have conducted one or two firing operations on Tuesday to help secure the firelines. They are being assisted by a Type 1 helicopter which is dropping water.
Another fire broke out Tuesday in Southwest South Dakota 14 miles east of Hermosa and burned 650 acres on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Three single engine air tankers helped slow the spread.
10:34 a.m. MDT Oct. 5, 2021
The red dots on the map represent heat detected by satellites on the Auburn Fire as late as 2:54 a.m. MDT Oct. 5, 2021. Grass that burned and then cooled between overflights does not show up.
The Auburn Fire burned an estimated 500 to 750 acres north of Rapid City, South Dakota Monday. Overnight firefighters stopped the spread and completed a line around the blaze with the help of a tactical firing operation. Much of the fire burned through timber which will be smoking for days and will require extensive mop up.
It was reported at 1:49 p.m. Monday west of Auburn Drive between Haines and Deadwood Avenues north of Interstate 90. It started in Pennington County and spread north into Meade County.
Auburn Fire – photo by Rapid City FD, Oct. 4, 2021.
Evacuations ordered Monday were still in effect Tuesday morning. The areas affected theoretically could be seen on a map. However, our experience was that the map was not visible on a Chrome browser, but it did work on Firefox and Safari.
There have been no reports of any structures destroyed.
Resources on the fire Monday included one large air tanker, a large type 1 helicopter, two single engine air tankers, dozers, and federal, state, and local firefighters.
The Rapid City air tanker base at the airport was activated to reload the air tankers.
Auburn Fire, Oct. 4, 2021, looking north from Mt. Rushmore Road/US 16. Photo by Pennington County Sheriffs Office.
Near critical fire weather conditions are expected through Wednesday. The forecast calls for temperatures to be in the upper 80s or lower 90s with relative humidity falling into the 7 to 20 percent range. Winds are expected to be out of the south at 10-20 mph.
The aircraft used Monday were still available Tuesday morning if needed.
Dozer on the Auburn Fire, Oct. 4, 2021. Photo courtesy of Great Plains Fire Information.Auburn Fire – photo by Rapid City FD, Oct. 4, 2021.Auburn Fire – photo by Rapid City FD, Tuesday morning Oct. 5, 2021.
The firing operation on the north side of the KNP Complex along the Generals Highway/180 southeast of Wilsonia is moving along rapidly. It appears to have begun on Saturday, and by the time of the mapping flight Sunday night had spread half a mile to a mile south of the highway. It is now moving through the Redwood Mountain Grove, which is the largest grove of giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) trees on earth. It contains the world’s tallest giant sequoia, 312 feet (95 meters).
Monday morning @mn_storm reported that a very large pyrocumulus convection column of smoke had been created that rose to 33,000 feet where the temperature reached -62°F. Monday afternoon @mm_storm said another pyrocumulus had reached 40,000 feet.
Nate Bogenschutz, an information officer for the fire, told Wildfire Today at 4 p.m. PDT Monday that the firing operation had remained within it’s intended boundaries and had not crossed Generals Highway/180. He said fire activity had increased around most of the fire today.
Our hope is that most of the smoke is not coming from the Redwood Mountain Grove and the tactical firing operation, and that the operation does not destroy large numbers of giant sequoia trees, which can live for more than 3,000 years old if climate change was not creating multi-year droughts and extremely low fuel moistures.
10:27 a.m. PDT Oct. 4, 2021
Map of the KNP Complex of fires, 8:46 p.m. Oct. 3, 2021. The dark red line was the perimeter on October 1. The green areas are groves of sequoia or redwood trees.
A drying trend over the last several days has led to an increase in fire behavior on the KNP Complex of fires in the Sequoia National Park in California. This has been especially apparent in lower elevations on the south and west sides where brush is the primary component of the vegetation.
Smoke trapped under an inversion has socked in the drainages and has limited the use of conventional aircraft for the last few days. However drones with infrared technology which can see through smoke have been flying, providing intelligence about the spread of the fire.
Map of the north side of the KNP Complex of fires, 8:46 p.m. Oct. 3, 2021, showing two firing operations. The dark red line was the perimeter on October 1. The green areas are groves of sequoia or redwood trees.
Two large firing operations are ongoing. On the north side near the Heartland community firefighters are working to keep the fire in Redwood Canyon, an area that is very steep and rugged all the way north to the Redwood Mountain Grove and the Generals Highway/180. The canyon is too steep and inaccessible and has multiple hazards, making it unsafe for firefighters. Saturday night a firing operation began at the highway to get the fire to back down the slope to the south, creating a buffer along the highway. By Sunday night fire personnel had ignited along four miles of the highway.
A few miles to the southeast, another firing operation is working north along the Generals Highway, starting near Dorst Campground. After it proceeds for a few miles, it will leave the highway to get onto a trail system to the west, closer to the fire, and will eventually meet up with the other operation which is working south off the highway.
KNP Complex of fires, Inyo Hotshots, Sept 29, 2021. InciWeb.
The incident management team is having difficulty obtaining the firefighting resources they need. This is due to several reasons, including the fact that some seasonal employees on hand and engine crews are reaching the end of their employment periods, and other fires are competing for the same types of resources.
Sunday night strong winds on the south side of the fire caused a spot fire across Mineral King Road which prompted an evacuation order for Crest, Sierra King, Hammond, and Oak Grove. Evacuation details are available on a map and at theTulare County Sheriff’s Facebook Page.
Helicopter waits for technicians installing a radio repeater on the KNP Complex of fires, Oct. 2, 2021. InciWeb.
The blaze has burned more than 92,000 acres in California.
9:02 a.m. PDT Oct. 3, 2021
Rick Rataj and Tyler Anderson, USFS California Smokejumpers, climb a giant sequoia to investigate an area on the tree that is burning. Windy Fire, Sept. 30, 2021. BIA photo by Laura Scott.
Smokejumpers who usually arrive at a fire by parachute have climbed at least one of the giant sequoia trees on the Windy Fire in California to investigate areas on the tree that were burning. The initial reports were that they would climb an adjacent tree and use a fire hose to apply water onto the burning tree. Smokejumpers are trained to climb trees in order to retrieve hung up chutes, but this is not a common task for them, climbing a tree that is burning. Usually they simply cut it down.
But these huge trees that can live for more than 3,000 years have been suffering during the multi-year drought and dry windy weather that has caused very low fuel moistures and intense fires that can penetrate the foot-thick bark. Last year the Castle Fire, just to the north (see map below), destroyed an estimated 7,500 to 10,600 large sequoias with trunk diameters of more than four feet, which was 10 to 14 percent of all large sequoias across the tree’s natural range in the Sierra Nevada.
The red line on the map was the perimeter of the Windy Fire at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 2, 2021. The black line inside that, was the perimeter about 48 hours before. The darkest green areas are groves of giant sequoias.
The 92,473-acre Windy Fire has not spread as much in the last two days as it did earlier. Most of the additional growth was on the west side in and south of the Tule River Indian Reservation. During the Saturday night mapping flight the only large area with intense heat (dark red area on the map) was on the reservation.
Most of the north one-third of the fire has contained fireline, as do some of the areas around California Hot Springs, Pine Flat, and Sugarloaf Village but there is still work to do west of Fairview, on the Tule River Indian Reservation, and other locations near Sugarloaf Village.
Very dry daytime and nighttime conditions are expected to persist into early next week. On Sunday, the Kern River drainage will be very prone to strong winds, with gusts of 25–30 miles per hour; elsewhere, gusts will be up to 20 miles per hour. The result will be several hours of near-critical to critical fire weather conditions along the Kern River valley and adjacent slopes.
Rick Rataj and Tyler Anderson, USFS California Smokejumpers, utilize a “bigshot” to launch ropes into the branches of a giant sequoia tree so they can climb up to investigate heat left by the Windy Fire on September 30, 2021. BIA photo by Laura Scott.Rick Rataj and Tyler Anderson, USFS California Smokejumpers, climb a giant sequoia to investigate an area on the tree that is burning. Windy Fire, Sept. 30, 2021. BIA photo by Laura Scott.Rick Rataj and Tyler Anderson, USFS California Smokejumpers, climb a giant sequoia to investigate an area on the tree that is burning. Windy Fire, Sept. 30, 2021. BIA photo by Laura Scott.
Smokejumpers climbed one tree to knock down fire in upper limbs
11:33 a.m. PDT Oct. 1, 2021
Windy Fire map at 8:45 p.m. PDT Sept. 30, 2021. The green areas are giant sequoia groves. The black line inside the Windy Fire was the perimeter on Sept. 27, 2021. The “Fawn Fire” should be labeled “French Fire”.
Some of the giant sequoia trees that can live for more than 3,000 years are being killed in the Windy Fire which has burned about 89,800 acres east of Porterville in Southern California. The huge blaze is burning in Tule River Indian Reservation; the Sequoia National Forest, including the Giant Sequoia National Monument; and Tulare County and state responsibility areas.
The multi-year drought has led to extremely dry fuel moistures which is causing wildfires in California and other areas to burn with unusual intensity, making even some of the giant sequoias with bark up to a foot thick susceptible to wildfires burning under these conditions.
The giant sequoias are found in groves, seen as green areas on the map above.
CNN is reporting that Garrett Dickman, a wildfire botanist with Yosemite National Park who is leading personnel protecting the big trees, said an early assessment indicates that at least 29 of them have died so far.
From CNN:
While the assessment is just beginning, there’s already grave concern. The center of Long Meadow Grove managed well, thanks to work crews did in preparation for the fire, but moving away from that area, Dickman counted 29 sequoias that were “just incinerated” by the blaze.
“There were four of those that had burned so hot that they’d fallen over,” Dickman said, adding one tree burned so badly that it was nearly reduced to just an outline of a tree on the ground. “The majority of the grove is going to survive,” Dickman said, “but there are portions that burned so hot and those trees won’t make it.”
Elsewhere in the forest, Dickman has seen even more devastation. In Starvation Creek Grove, which he says has no modern fire history, he said he saw only “a couple of trees survived.”
“It was one of the groves where we got a few hours of prep work and those trees that we did the emergency prep work around, from the picture, they are the ones that did survive and all the rest of them — it doesn’t look promising,” Dickman said, adding that he plans to assess the grove in the next few days.
Smokejumpers are firefighters who arrive at a fire by parachute. They are trained to climb trees in order to retrieve chutes hung up in trees. Some of them assigned to the fire are going to climb the iconic Bench Tree in the Trail of 100 Giants and use a fire hose to apply water to an adjacent sequoia that has fire burning in some of the upper limbs. This may be unprecedented, or at the very least, it is very uncommon.
The National Park Service reported that, “…preliminary estimates suggest that the 2020 Castle Fire [just north of the Windy Fire, see, map above] killed between 31% to 42% of large sequoias within the Castle Fire footprint, or 10% to 14% of all large sequoias across the tree’s natural range in the Sierra Nevada. This translates to an estimated loss of 7,500 to 10,600 large sequoias (those with trunk diameters of 4 feet or more).”
The Windy Fire was active Thursday, growing by about 1,800 acres, and is expected to be more so on Friday. On Thursday there was significant spotting on the south and west sides.
Crews have documented 14 residences, 12 outbuildings, and 2 commercial structures that have been destroyed.
Resources assigned to the fire include 71 hand crews, 136 engines, 17 helicopters, 23 dozers, and 12 water tenders for a total of 2,500 personnel.
The top priority continues to be the southwest side where crews are making good progress securing containment lines and providing structure defense around Sugarloaf and Sugarloaf Mountain Park north towards Pine Flat and California Hot Springs.
If weather conditions on the northwest side permit, Friday crews will continue a tactical firing operation to help improve containment lines.
On the east and southeast sides helicopters and the Bombardier CL-515 Super Scooper have been dropping water and retardant on the upper ridge to slow the fire’s movement east towards the Kern River.
Tulare County residents can sign up to receive county emergency notifications by registering at AlertTC.com.
KNP Complex of fires, posted Sept. 28, 2021 by IMT.
The KNP Complex of fires in Sequoia National Park in Southern California has grown to 49,349 acres.
In a Thursday morning briefing Operations Section Chief Trainee Clint Remington said the fire on the south side of the Middle Fork is backing down closer to the bottom of the drainage. If it crosses, it could run uphill toward the Giant Forest, one of the larger groves of giant sequoia trees in the park. Firefighters have spent weeks prepping this and other groves, removing fuels, clearing around structures, and installing hose lays.
The fireline between the Giant Forest and Lodgepole has received a lot of attention in recent days and is considered secure and contained, but there is a lot of work left to do on the northwest side of the fire, northwest of Red Fir and west of the Generals Highway.
The west side of the fire where it has moved into lighter fuels, including brush, is looking good, Mr. Remington said.
KNP Complex of fires map, 1:30 a.m. PDT Sept. 30, 2021. By Incident Management Team.
At an 11 a.m. briefing on Tuesday fire officials said the Ptarmigan Fire near Silverthorne, Colorado has prompted the evacuation or pre-evacuation notices of 617 homes.
More accurate mapping Monday evening found that at 10 p.m. the fire had burned about 17 acres, a decrease from the earlier estimate of 30 to 40 acres. The District Ranger said it may have grown to about 40 acres overnight.
Firefighters expect to use tactical firing operations to help protect structures on the west side of the fire. Two hand crews are en route.
The weather forecast predicts significant rain beginning after noon on Tuesday, continuing off and on through Saturday, accumulating about 0.70 inch. The elevation is over 9,000 feet so by Wednesday night it could turn to snow as temperatures drop into the low 30s.
7:45 a.m. MDT Sept. 28, 2021
Ptarmigan Fire map. The icons represent heat detected by satellites as late as 2:55 a.m. MDT Sept. 28, 2021.
The Ptarmigan Fire discovered at about 4:45 p.m. Monday has prompted the evacuation of 200 residents near Silverthorne, Colorado about 50 miles west of Denver. The blaze estimated at 30 to 40 acres is burning on the lodgepole and aspen-covered slopes below Ptarmigan Peak off I-70 north of Dillon Reservoir.
Monday night the Summit County Sheriff ordered mandatory evacuations for the Hamilton Creek area above Silverthorne. Pre-evacuations are in place for Angler Mountain and South 40.
Ptarmigan Fire Sept. 27, 2021. Photo provided by USFS.
The fire was attacked by two single engine air tankers, a large BAe-146 air tanker, and a Chinook helicopter which can carry up to 3,000 gallons. The aircraft focused their efforts on keeping it from moving downhill toward structures.
Monday night the White River National Forest said firefighters had not yet been able to safely engage the fire on the ground, but they are staged in strategic places should they have the opportunity. More resources are en route.
Ptarmigan Fire Monday night. Photo provided by USFS.
Check out the fuels in these photos by Sean Gorman.
Saw what I thought was an aggressive camp fire hiking Ptarmigan. Went to go check it out and was too big to smother. Sadly now looking significant. 911 said crews were in route. #ptarmiganfirepic.twitter.com/K1XEEx51Mw
