Above: Data from the Incident Management Team, May 5, 2018.
Three large wildfires in Big Cypress National Park and Preserve in South Florida have burned a total of 38,808 acres. Along with several other small fires they are being managed as the Avian Complex.
Buzzard Fire, 23,914 acres: Raccoon Point 11 miles north of US 41 MM 50. It continues to be active in the northeastern and southwestern portions. The observed fire behavior Saturday was flanking fire with short head fire runs. Scattered areas received small amounts of rain that had zero effect on the fuel conditions. The passing storms brought increased winds that pushed it to the north, increasing the threat to the cabins in the Little Deer area.
Flamingo Fire, 4,043 acres: north of I-75, E of SR 29, S of Preserve N boundary. It was active Saturday before receiving about 1/2 inch of rain. A well developed smoke column was visible from Highway 29 and I-75. A steady flanking fire was moving north and northwest with small areas of head fire.
Curlew Fire, 1,062 acres: South of US 41, east and north of Loop Road. It is burning in both Big Cypress National Park and Preserve and Everglades National Park. No fire activity was observed Saturday due to additional moisture and limited fuels.
Uploaded to InciWeb May 5, 2018, labeled: “Jose Martinez PR crew”.Map of fires in the Avian Complex. Incident Management Team May 5, 2018.
The kites carry burning material that can start vegetation fires
Palestinians protesting along the Gaza border are attaching burning material to kites to fly over the fence into Israel in a new tactic as demonstrations enter their fourth week. The kites have started vegetation fires in wheat fields, forests, and towns.
Most of the structures were unoccupied bungalows primarily used in the summer
Above: Fire in South Fallsburg, NY. Screenshot from the video below.
A vegetation fire in South Fallsburg, New York grew to a five alarm incident that destroyed 27 structures Wednesday. The fire spread into two bungalow colonies burning seasonal buildings that were unoccupied at the time.
The fire was fought by 300 firefighters, mostly volunteers, from 39 departments in four counties. By the time they first arrived it was already moving through both colonies.
South Fallsburg is in the Catskill Mountains about 40 air miles northwest of New York City.
Mirriam-Webster defines a bungalow as “a one-storied house with a low-pitched roof; also : a house having one and a half stories and usually a front porch.” In the Catskills these homes are primarily used in the summer.
The video below reportedly shows the fire shortly after it started and began to approach the bungalows.
Below is another video shot at the scene of the fire.
Above, image credit:NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL-Caltech, MISR Team
I found out today that NASA has been measuring wildfire smoke plumes for at least a decade. The nine cameras on the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) have been capturing imagery of the Tinder Fire as it passes overhead on NASA’s Terra satellite. With a little trigonometry it can determine the height of smoke columns. The image above shows what it came up with after analyzing the fire on April 30, the day after it made its biggest run. Strong winds on both days probably kept the smoke from rising as high as it would have under calmer conditions.
(To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Tinder Fire, click here.)
The two photos below were taken the day before the NASA analysis described here.
Tinder Fire, April 29, 2018. InciWeb photo, uncredited and undated.Satellite photo of the Tinder Fire, April 29, 2018. NASA.
Below is how NASA described the April 30 analysis:
“On April 30 at 11:15 a.m. local time, the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) captured imagery of the Tinder Fire as it passed overhead on NASA’s Terra satellite. The MISR instrument has nine cameras that view Earth at different angles. This image shows the view from MISR’s nadir (downward-pointing) camera. The angular information from MISR’s images is used to calculate the height of the smoke plume, results of which are superimposed on the right-hand image (Figure 1). This shows that the plume top near the active fire was at approximately 13,000 feet altitude (4,000 meters). In general, higher-altitude plumes transport smoke greater distances from the source, impacting communities downwind. A stereo anaglyph (Figure 2) providing a three-dimensional view of the plume is also shown. Red-blue glasses with the red lens placed over your left eye are required to observe the 3D effect.
“These data were acquired during Terra orbit 97691. The smoke plume height calculation was performed using the MISR INteractive eXplorer (MINX) software tool, which is publicly available at https://github.com/nasa/MINX. The MISR Plume Height Project maintains a database of global smoke plume heights, accessible at https://www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov/getData/accessData/MisrMinxPlumes2/.
“MISR was built and is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Terra spacecraft is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The MISR data were obtained from the NASA Langley Research Center Atmospheric Science Data Center in Hampton, Virginia. JPL is a division of Caltech in Pasadena.”
At least 54 outbuildings also burned, for a total of 87 structures
Above: Snow at the Tinder Fire Incident Command Post, May 2, 2018. IMT photo.
(Originally published at 1:55 p.m. MDT May 4, 2018)
The Incident Management Team reported Friday morning that 33 residences and 54 outbuildings burned in the Tinder Fire, which started a week ago 22 air miles northeast of Payson, Arizona.
(To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Tinder Fire, click here.)
By sunset today, May 4, all evacuation orders will be lifted on the 12,628-acre blaze. Displaced residents are being allowed into the communities during a staged re-entry process beginning with those whose homes burned. Highway 87 will reopen at 7 p.m. today.
Firefighters are conducting burnout operations today on the northeast and east sides as conditions allow to further secure unburned interior islands within the fire perimeter.
Incident Management Team map of the Tinder Fire May 3, 2018. The black lines represent areas where the fire is held by a road, dozer line, or hand-constructed fireline. The red lines are open fireline. Click here to see the original map with a legend.
Above: The Voltage Fire, undated photo, credit: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
Firefighters are making progress on a wildfire that started April 27 in Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, but it sounds like there will be extensive mopup since it is burning in heavy tule marsh vegetation. Firefighters are using roads, canals, open water, and nonburnable vegetation for control opportunities.
Voltage Fire. Photo credit: Peter Pearsall, Friends of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
Here is the latest information about the Voltage Fire issued Thursday by the Refuge:
The fire started April 27 from a lightning strike, and burned approximately 1,500 acres. Firefighters are continuing to suppress the wildfire in organic soils, and will be conducting interior burn out operations today to remove the immediate threat to control lines. Photo credit: Peter Pearsall, Friends of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
