September 17, 2020 | 7:24 a.m. PDT
![smoky western skies Satellite photo at 4:26 p.m. MDT Sept. 17, 2020](https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Satellite-photo-at-426-p.m.-MDT-Sept.-16-2020.jpg)
The satellite photo shows smoky skies in the Western states caused by wildfires in California and Oregon.
Current information about air quality and smoke can be found at https://wildfiretoday.com/tag/smoke/
News and opinion about wildland fire
September 17, 2020 | 7:24 a.m. PDT
The satellite photo shows smoky skies in the Western states caused by wildfires in California and Oregon.
Current information about air quality and smoke can be found at https://wildfiretoday.com/tag/smoke/
September 17, 2020 | 7 a.m. PDT
Near-surface smoke refers to the smoke that will hover within 8 meters (26 feet) of the ground—the kind responsible for burning eyes and aggravated asthma.
Vertically integrated smoke depicts all of the smoke in a vertical column, including smoke high in Earth’s atmosphere and can produce red sunrises and sunsets. In some cases where it is only at high altitudes it may not be very noticeable on the ground.
You can bookmark https://wildfiretoday.com/tag/smoke/ to always go to the latest article on Wildfire Today about smoke.
At the request of the National Interagency Fire Center and in support of the U.S. Forest Service, approximately 250 Marines and sailors will assist wildland firefighting efforts in Central California. The National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group (NMAC), comprised of state and federal wildland fire managers at NIFC, requested the personnel, along with command and support staff, from the Department of Defense (DOD).
The Marine unit from Camp Pendleton, California will receive wildland firefighting training before assisting with response efforts in Central California.
In late August 200 active duty U.S. Army personnel were mobilized to help battle the blazes.
Wildfire Today has articles about other mobilizations of the military in 2008, 2015, 2017, and 2018.
Strategies are being suggested to mitigate the shortage
As we move into the fall months Federal fire officials at the national level are expressing concerns about how students leaving and tours of duty ending will affect the availability of firefighting resources. Today September 16 there are over 31,000 personnel nationwide working on wildfires. That is an extremely high number that has not been reached often and will be difficult to maintain if the present rate of wildfire activity continues.
In August when all hands should have been on deck, there were, and still are, severe shortages of engines and hand crews. Many fires organizations have been trying to suppress fires larger than 10,000 acres with about 20 percent of the resources they would normally have on a similar fire, back in the old days of, say 2019. Incident Management Teams were also in short supply. A Type 2 Incident Management Team from the eastern United States was assigned to a large, very complex fire threatening thousands of homes in southern California. (They may have done a great job, but it was unusual.)
As a step toward confronting the problem, the National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group issued a memo dated September 15 suggesting some strategies to mitigate an even worse possible shortage of firefighters in the coming weeks and months.
It is a lengthy letter, but here is a very condensed version of some of their suggestions for local units:
The memo had a list of attachments which were not available to Wildfire Today that appear to offer temporary exceptions to regulations about time and employment limits. We were not able find any information about additional funding.
Updated maps of the Southern California fire
The north end of the Bobcat fire has burned across the Angeles Crest Highway (Hwy. 2) burning approximately 800 acres on the north side near Waterman Mountain and Cooper Canyon.
Seven air tankers were used to help firefighters contain the spot fires north of the highway until about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday when smoke limited the visibility. When the smoke cleared at 3:30 several tankers were again used.
Firefighters are holding on to what has been accomplished on the rest of the fire over the last few days near the foothill communities and Mt. Wilson Observatory. Crews are strengthening the lines and looking for opportunities to attack the fire directly. Additional strategic firing may occur as necessary to secure the lines, including along along Highway 39.
The blaze is burning on the mountain slopes above the communities of Arcadia, Sierra Madre, Monrovia, and Duarte.