Red Flag Warnings. The areas in CA, NV, ID, and CO expire Monday evening. The areas in ND, SD, WY, and most of MT expire Tuesday evening.
A frontal passage is bringing strong winds into most of the Western U.S., prompting Red Flag Warnings in seven states. The Red Flag Warnings generally expire Monday night except in North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and most of the areas in Montana, which expire Tuesday evening.
The cumulative precipitation forecast through Saturday evening shows at least a small amount of precipitation occurring in many western areas, but many locations will receive less than 0.10″. Even some snow or rain/snow mix is in the forecast for portions of Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and Idaho.
Most of the southern two-thirds of California and Nevada are expected to remain dry through Saturday.
Forecast for cumulative precipitation, Monday evening through Saturday evening.
A mapping flight Monday night determined the blaze had burned 8,559 acres
8:40 a.m. PDT Sept. 27, 2021
Fawn Fire map. The outer red line was the perimeter mapped by a fixed wing flight at 11:10 p.m. Sept. 26, 2021. The blackish/red line was the perimeter about 26 hours before. The dark red area represents intense heat when the fire was mapped.
The incident management team on the Fawn Fire north of Redding, California reports that Damage Inspection Teams have documented 76 residences and 79 other structures that have been destroyed.
Shasta County has established a map showing the structures that have been evaluated for damage. Redding maintains a map showing evacuation status.
A mapping flight Monday night determined the blaze had burned 8,559 acres.
Backfiring operations near the lake on the northwest and northeast sides were both successful Sunday, stopping the spread. Firefighters now have a fireline around the entire fire, however the weather could test those lines.
Weather forecasters predict breezy conditions beginning late Monday afternoon ahead of a front which could drop 0.1″ of rain, but no wetting rains are expected. Winds will be out of the southwest gusting from 25 to 35 mph then turning to come from the northwest with gusts to 25.
Firefighter on the Bull Complex of fires, OR, Sept. 2, 2021, Inciweb.
The Grassroots Wildland Firefighters (GWF) conducted a survey of spouses of wildland firefighters that are connected with the federal government. The 1,841 responses included in the analysis found disturbing trends among the work force that until now may not have been clearly documented.
The primary goal of the survey was to measure the impacts that a career as a federal wildland firefighter (WFF) has on both firefighters and their families. The GWF is asking that the systems of support grow with the demands of the fire seasons.
Here are samples of their findings:
About half said they may have considered separating from their partner due to strain on the relationship caused by the job.
Only 11 percent often or regularly feel confident if something were to happen to their partner while on duty, they would be taken care of by their federal agency.
About 17 percent report partners have been injured at work resulting in a financial hardship.
When those in a dual fire career relationship were asked if they’ve left or considered leaving their own fire career due to the difficulty of having children, 79 percent of respondents the questions applied to, reported yes.
Below are documents released today by the GWF.
[pdf-embedder url=”https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GRWFF-Highlights-of-Data-Summar2.pdf” title=”GRWFF Highlights of Data Summar2″]
The nine-page document below has detailed findings from the survey. (Look for the down arrow; hover or tap at the bottom to see more.)
[pdf-embedder url=”https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/WFF-Partner-Survey-Data-Summary.pdf” title=”WFF Partner Survey Data Summary”]
A 30-year-old woman has been arrested for starting the blaze
9:18 a.m. PDT September 26, 2021
Fawn Fire map. The red line was the perimeter at 9:43 p.m. PDT Sept. 25, 2021. The black line was the perimeter about 24 hours earlier. The darker red areas indicate intense heat when the fire was mapped.
The Fawn Fire north of Redding, California grew by about 1,000 acres Saturday to bring the size up to 8,537 acres Saturday night. All of the growth was on the north side where it reached the shore of Shasta Lake west of Ski Island, and on the northeast side near Bear Mountain Lookout Road and west of Silverthorn Road.
For the second time it spotted across the lake onto an island, which is 500 to 1,000 feet away from the mainland. However with the lake as low as it is, that distance may be much shorter, or non-existent.
Below is a zoomed-in archived satellite photo overlaid with areas of intense heat in red.
North edge of the Fawn Fire, mapped at 9:43 p.m. PDT Sept. 26, 2021
Fire officials report that 131 structures have been officially documented as destroyed, with 44 of them being residences. CAL FIRE Damage Inspection Teams are still assessing the affected areas.
Starting late Monday morning, there is a chance for rain through mid afternoon Tuesday. Unfortunately, this will only produce 0.1 inch over the fire area, but the increased moisture should moderate fire behavior.
Looking toward the Fawn Fire from the Highland Trail camera pointing northwest at 9:08 a.m. Sept. 26, 2021. AlertWildfire.
Resources assigned to the fire include 12 helicopters, 201 engines, 46 dozers, 30 water tenders and 49 hand crews for a total of 1,886 personnel.
9:25 a.m. PDT September 25, 2021
Fawn Fire map 9:21 p.m. PDT Sept. 24, 2021. The dark red areas had intense heat when the fire was mapped Friday night.
The Fawn Fire has burned approximately 25 residences and 75 other structures just north of Redding, California according to fire authorities. When it started Wednesday afternoon it grew very rapidly but slowed after reaching the north-facing slopes above the shore of Shasta Lake. Friday night it was mapped at 7,544 acres and was active on the west side near Radcliff Road and on the northeast side west of Juniper Drive and Bear Mountain Lookout Road.
Saturday morning live cameras showed very dense smoke in the area which would prevent aircraft from assisting firefighters on the ground.
A map showing the evacuations that are in effect is available at the Redding website.
Friday night the fire was four miles north of Highway 299 and was east of Interstate 5 and a large powerline right-of-way east of the Interstate. It was north of Bear Mountain Road.
Alexandra Souverneva. Photo by Roseburg Police Dept..
Fire investigators arrested 30-year old Alexandra Souverneva of Palo Alto, California for starting the fire. She was booked into the Shasta County Jail charged with arson and a special allegation for starting a fire during a state of emergency.
KRCR reported that Souverneva was seen in the general area where the fire started earlier in the day. When questioned by investigators while the fire was burning she was carrying a lighter and said she was hiking because she was trying to get to Canada.
[Souverneva] said she was thirsty and had found a puddle in a dry creek bed but that it contained bear urine. She said she tried to filter the water using a tea bag but that didn’t work so she tried to start a fire to boil the water. She said it was too wet to start a fire so she drank the water and continued walking uphill.
Souverneva is suspected of starting another fire in the nearby city of Shasta Lake on September 21.
On September 12, 2021 Souverneva was arrested in Oregon, for Criminal Trespass, 2nd Degree according to the Douglas County Sheriff. She was released the following day.
Last week, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried submitted a budget request for fiscal year 2022-2023 that includes a $2,500 pay increase for 932 firefighter and firefighter support positions within the Florida Forest Service.
A vacancy announcement for Forest Ranger, position #42002179 closing today whose duties include forest fire prevention, detection, suppression and pre-suppression shows a starting salary of $29,080 annually, which works out to $13.98 an hour (based on 2,080 work hours per year). This raise would increase it to $15.18 an hour.
Nikki Fried, Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
These numbers are similar to the pay for a federal wildland firefighter starting at a GS-3 in most of the United States. Their salary is being temporarily bumped up to around $15 an hour, but there is an effort to rebuild the pay system on the federal side, possibly with a more substantial permanent increase.
Applicants for the Florida job must swear that they have been a non-user of tobacco or tobacco products for at least one year immediately preceding application. They must live within 30 miles of the headquarters, in this case Chipley Florida, throughout employment in the position. Within 6 months of appointment they are required to obtain a Class A Commercial Driver License (CDL).
Over the last three years, Florida Forest Service personnel responded to an annual average of 4,672 fires that burned 147,169 acres, according to a press release from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
(Update Sept. 27, 2021: CBS has what looks like the entire transcript of the piece that aired Sunday night.)
Sunday September 26 at 7 p.m. EDT 60 minutes will broadcast a piece about the very large helicopters being used in Southern California this year. They interview Brian Fennessy, Chief of the Orange County Fire Authority about the Quick Reaction Force that has been partially financed with nearly $18 million from Southern California Edison since June 15 this year.
This group of helicopters includes two 3,000-gallon Boeing CH-47D Chinooks based in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, a Sikorsky S-61 with a 1,000-gallon tank in Ventura County, and a Sikorsky S-76 to provide intelligence, evaluate effectiveness of drops, and identify targets with a laser designator. They are all crewed 24/7 and can hover refill with water or retardant at night assisting firefighters whenever they are needed. The helicopters are operated by Coulson Aviation and have either internal or belly tanks.
On August 18 they were dispatched to assist on the Caldor Fire, working out of Amador County Airport, also known as Westover Field.
Chief Fennessy believes in prompt, aggressive, initial attack of fires.
Reporter Bill Whitaker said to the Chief, “If somebody calls 911 you hit it with everything you’ve got. You knock it out.”
“In case of fire break glass!” the chief replied.
This is not the first time a privately owned Chinook has been used in California. In 2020 one operated by Coulson Aviation worked under an 83-day 24/7 contract in collaboration with Southern California Edison (SCE) and the Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA). Other Chinook operators used on fires that do not fly at night include the California National Guard, Billings Flying Service, Helimax, and Columbia.
The video below is a preview of the Sunday program.
Below is an excerpt from a CBS article about the helicopters:
“[Chief Fennessy said] the ability to lay retardant line, to continue to drop fire retardant after sundown, that’s a first,” he tells Whitaker. And there’s an added advantage: the fires usually die down at night because of decreased wind and increased humidity.
Wayne Coulson, the CEO of Coulson Aviation, is a pioneer in night firefighting. His company built the fleet with its specially designed tanks that carry either water or retardant. Computers control the tank’s doors, opening and closing at precise GPS locations.
“We can fly the aircraft to those GPS points and the doors will automatically open and close between those points,” Coulson says.
