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200 soldiers activated to fight wildfires in the West

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags 1 Comment on 200 soldiers activated to fight wildfires in the West

The National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group at the National Interagency Fire Center has requested that 200 active duty soldiers be activated to help fight the wildfires currently burning in the Western states. The Department of Defense approved the request and will provide personnel from Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) near Tacoma, Washington. The soldiers will be organized into ten crews of 20-persons each. All of them will be sent to the same wildfire, which is in the process of being identified.

Soldier training
File photo. Jay Karle, center right, a crew boss assigned to assist Soldiers of 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Field Artillery Brigade, points out boundaries to be used during wildland firefighting training near Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Aug. 20, 2015. The “First Round” Soldiers have been activated to help suppress fires in the Pacific Northwest due to civilian resources running low. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Andrew Porch, 28th Public Affairs Detachment.)

The soldiers will be outfitted with wildland fire Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and all of the gear they will need to serve as wildland firefighters. They will be trained by wildland fire agency personnel at JBLM beginning Thursday, August 9. The training is expected to conclude by Sunday, August 12, and the soldiers are expected to begin working on a wildfire on Monday, August 13. While working on a wildfire, the soldiers will be accompanied by experienced wildland fire strike team leaders and crew bosses from wildland fire management agencies.

The training will consist of one day of classroom training at JBLM and two days of field training when the soldiers reach the wildfire that they will be assigned to. During classroom training, they will learn about a variety of topics related to wildfire suppression including fire terminology, fire behavior, and fireline safety. During field training, they will receive instruction in fire suppression methods and procedures, including Watch Out Situations and Standard Firefighting Orders, Personal Protective Equipment, and use, transportation and maintenance of wildfire suppression tools.

The U.S. military has been a key partner in wildland firefighting for decades, providing aircraft and personnel to serve as wildland firefighters. Four military C-130s equipped with Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems (MAFFS) are currently mobilized to serve as large airtankers and are operating from the Sacramento McClellan Airport in California. One military RC-26 aircraft is also currently mobilized to augment USDA Forest Service aircraft capability to detect and map wildfires in the western states and is operating from Spokane, Washington.

Since 1987, active duty military personnel have been mobilized to serve as wildland firefighters a total of 37 times. The last time active duty military personnel were mobilized as wildland firefighters was in September, 2017 when 200 soldiers from JBLM were mobilized to work on the North Umpqua Complex of Fires in Oregon for 30 days. Currently, several states – including Oregon, California, and Washington – have mobilized National Guard helicopters, equipment, and personnel to serve as wildland firefighters and assist with a variety of wildfire suppression support efforts.

Last week 138 fireline management personnel from Australia and New Zealand came to the United States to support large fires in California, Oregon, and Washington.

Trump wrongly blames large California wildfires on water being diverted into the ocean

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags

In a tweet Sunday afternoon President Trump said the wildfires in California are “magnified & made worse by the bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amount of readily available water to be properly utilized. It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Must also tree clear to stop fire spreading?”

trump tweet wildfires water diversion ocean fires

It is nonsensical to think that water projects, whether or not the water is diverted into the ocean, would have any significant effect on the spread of, for instance, the Mendocino Complex of Fires currently growing east of Ukiah that at 273,664 acres has just become the second largest wildfire in the recorded history of California.

average size acres wildfires United States 1990-2017

Most scientists agree that the increase in acres burned and the average size of wildfires in the United States is due to a number of factors, including climate change (high temperatures, lower relative humidity, drought), fuel buildup due to fire suppression for 100 years, and people moving into areas with continuous vegetation. This migration can increase the number of fire ignitions, and can divert the limited number of firefighters from actually suppressing a fire to protecting structures, allowing fires to grow unhindered at times.

Even the Washington Examiner, a very reliable and strong supporter of Mr. Trump, had some mild criticism about this statement by the President.

And yes, “tree clear”, can help, if by that he means reducing fuels around inhabited areas through prescribed fires and other fuel management techniques. But we will never be able to conduct enough prescribed fires to prevent blazes from becoming megafires. And increasing logging is not the answer. Large, very wide fuel breaks around subdivisions be beneficial, but it is more important for residents in the wildland-urban interface to accept the responsibility to use FireWise principles. Burning embers can cause buildings to ignite at a great distance from the main fire.  Homes should be constructed with fire resistant designs and materials. Residents need to thin and/or remove flammable vegetation within 100 feet of structures.

It was just yesterday that we wrote about fires remaining very active at night in an article titled, “Record-setting heat helped keep California wildfires active at night“. Here is an excerpt:

There are many ways that a warmer climate can influence wildfires, causing them to burn more intensely. Higher temperatures can lower the relative humidity, lower the amount of moisture in the vegetation (fuel), raise the temperature of the fuel itself, and cause more powerful thunderstorms with  lightning. But one factor that we don’t think about very often is that the heat can persist through the night, influencing fire behavior.

When today’s senior firefighters began their careers, they could usually count on fires “laying down” at night. The intensity and rate of spread would decline to the point where night shift personnel could more easily and safely “go direct”, constructing fireline very close to the edge of the fire…

(Note: we don’t cover or write about politics on Wildfire Today unless an issue directly affects wildland fire, like this one does. You might notice that comments have been turned off on this article.)

Mendocino Complex burns more than 273,000 acres

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , , , 4 Comments on Mendocino Complex burns more than 273,000 acres

(Originally published at 8:12 a.m. PDT August 6, 2018)

The Mendocino Complex of Fires east of Ukiah, California has blackened more than 273,664 acres, becoming the second largest wildfire in the state’s recorded history if the size of the two fires in the “complex” are combined. Since we last reported on the fire two days ago it has grown by 120,000 acres, according to the numbers released by CAL FIRE Monday morning.

(To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Mendocino Complex of Fires, including the most recent, click HERE.)

The Ranch Fire, north of Clear Lake, over the last two days has spread five miles east, one to two miles north, and three miles south. Sunday it spread into the footprint of the Pawnee Fire that in June of this year burned 14,000 acres west and south of Indian Valley Reservoir north of Highway 20.  The blaze is threatening communities on the east shore of Clear Lake, including Nice, Lucerne, Pepperwood, Glenhaven, and Clearlake Oaks.

The other fire that makes up the “complex” is the River Fire west of Clear Lake. About three-quarters of the perimeter has been quiet recently, but it is still moving aggressively north, coming to within less than two miles of merging with the Ranch Fire to the north. The report by one local media outlet that they had already merged was premature.

largest California wildfires fires
The table released by CAL FIRE on August 4, 2018 does not include the Mendocino Complex, since it is still very actively growing.

On the two fires 75 residences have been destroyed and another 9,300 remain threatened.

Resources assigned to the fire include 432 fire engines, 89 water tenders, 15 helicopters, 57 hand crews, and 80 dozers, for a total of 3,781 personnel.

map Mendocino Complex fires
Map showing the perimeter, in red, of the Mendocino Complex of Fires at 7 p.m. MDT, August 5, 2018. The white line was the perimeter two days before. The red shaded areas represent intense heat. Click to enlarge.

Nationwide on wildfires 558 hand crews, 186 helicopters, and 1,907 fire engines are assigned on wildfires, for a total 28,234 personnel including overhead and other firefighting resources.

Australia and New Zealand have sent 138 fire personnel to assist. They are currently deployed in California, Oregon, and Washington.

 

Fire causes evacuations near Monchique, Portugal

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , 2 Comments on Fire causes evacuations near Monchique, Portugal

At least two villages have been evacuated

Above: the map shows the approximate location of the burned area northwest of Monchique, Portugal, August 5, 2018.

A wildfire in Portugal’s southern region of Algarve is causing evacuations in the northern portion of the region northwest of Monchique which is about a half hour drive from the tourist facilities on the coast.

Similar to the heat that is complicating efforts of firefighters in California, temperatures have been close to all time records. Some locations are experiencing 46C (115F).

The fire near Monchique has burned approximately 1,000 Ha (2,470 acres). It is being fought by by 800 firefighters, 130 soldiers, and  12 aircraft. Last year wildfires in Portugal killed 114 people in the country’s worst such tragedy on record. Authorities pulled the trigger much more quickly this time to evacuate at least two communities near Monchique.

In the video below helicopters use a swimming pool to refill their water buckets.

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Wildfire smoke forecast and Red Flag Warnings

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , 2 Comments on Wildfire smoke forecast and Red Flag Warnings

Above is the forecast for the distribution of smoke from wildfires at 6 p.m. MDT August 5, 2018. It looks like the air will be pretty nasty in areas of California, Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

The map below shows the Red Flag Warnings in effect for Sunday, August 5 in portions of California, Utah, and Wyoming.

Red Flag Warnings, August 5, 2018
Red Flag Warnings, August 5, 2018.

Record-setting heat helped keep California wildfires active at night

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , ,

July in the state had the highest minimum temperature on record

Above: Credit Los Angeles Times

There are many ways that a warmer climate can influence wildfires, causing them to burn more intensely. Higher temperatures can lower the relative humidity, lower the amount of moisture in the vegetation (fuel), raise the temperature of the fuel itself, and cause more powerful thunderstorms with  lightning. But one factor that we don’t think about very often is that the heat can persist through the night, influencing fire behavior.

When today’s senior firefighters began their careers, they could usually count on fires “laying down” at night. The intensity and rate of spread would decline to the point where night shift personnel could more easily and safely “go direct”, constructing fireline very close to the edge of the fire.

During the month of July in California, many of the large fires continued to grow rapidly at night, which often required firefighters to drop back to a safety zone and simply watch, since there is little that they could do without putting themselves in harms way.

Of course it is too early to say that this will be a permanent change, but in the last month a new record was set for California’s average minimum temperature; it was the highest since records have been kept. And this was not just a one-month event. The trend has been increasing since the 1980s.

Many of those senior firefighters have been known to to lament the trend in the last couple of decades of incident management teams declining to have a night shift. The justification of the teams was that it was not safe to have firefighters working at night because of snags falling, steep terrain, and other issues. After observing the nighttime fire behavior in recent years, the senior firefighters might now be less inclined to argue strongly in favor of night shifts, at least in certain geographical areas and weather conditions.