News and opinion about wildland fire
The National Weather Service issued Red Flag Warnings or Fire Weather Watches on Friday for areas in Montana, South Dakota, California, Nevada, and North Dakota.
The Red Flag map was current as of 5:45 a.m. MDT on Saturday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts.
The graphic depicts the distribution of wildfire smoke at 7 p.m. MDT July 21, 2017.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized2 Comments on Services for Trenton Johnson, July 22 A public memorial service to celebrate the life of Trenton M. Johnson will be held in Missoula, Montana Saturday July 22:
3 p.m until 5 p.m.
Fort Missoula Regional Park Bella Vista Pavilion
3501 South Avenue West
Missoula, MT 5980
(This is a change. The gathering at the church earlier in the afternoon is for family and close friends.)
Mr. Johnson was killed July 19 while working on a wildfire in western Montana. He was struck by a falling tree while helping to suppress the Florence Fire, a small fire near Florence Lake on the Lolo National Forest northeast of Seeley Lake.
Below is the link for donations to benefit both the Wildland Firefighter Foundation and the Trenton Johnson Lacrosse Scholarship.
More information is on a Facebook page established in his honor.
Extreme wildfire danger in the Northern Great Plains
For the 24-hour period ending at 6 a.m. on Friday sensors detected more than 28,000 cloud to ground lightning strikes in the portion of the Northern Great Plains shown in the map above.
The National Weather Service issued Red Flag Warnings or Fire Weather Watches on Friday for areas in Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming, and North Dakota.
The Red Flag map was current as of 10 a.m. MDT on Friday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized3 Comments on Detwiler Fire update, July 21, 2017 Above: Detwiler Fire photo courtesy of Sacramento Fire Department
(Originally published at 7:58 a.m. PDT July 21, 2017)
Firefighters working to keep the Detwiler fire out of Mariposa and Coulterville Thursday were grateful for the moderate weather that resulted in less spread of the fire than in previous days. The south end has not seen much growth for a couple of days but the north side continues to get closer to the community of Coulterville in the central California foothills of the Sierras. The fire is less than two miles from the town but the incident management team has large numbers of resources in the area constructing firelines and prepping structures.
The map of the Detwiler fire below was current at 8 p.m. July 20, 2017.
The wind on Thursday recorded at a weather station in Mariposa, was primarily from the west and north at six mph. If it was similar at Coulterville it would have slowed the growth of the fire toward the community, buying firefighters more time to put in defenses.
The weather forecast in the Coulterville area for Friday is not as favorable, with southwest winds of 10 to 13 mph gusting at 15 to 20, then switching to come out of the northwest late in the afternoon at 8 mph. The temperature should be in the mid-90s with the relative humidity in the high teens.
CAL FIRE is calling the fire 74,083 acres, but the map they distributed Friday morning along with that acreage figure (below) has a fire perimeter that was current at 1 a.m. on July 20 and does not show the most recent fire growth near Coulterville and on the east side of the fire.
#DetwilerFire [update] QUICK update. @CALFIRE_PIO @CAL_FIRE @R5_Fire_News @YosemiteFire pic.twitter.com/Q2pPIbMSop
— CAL FIRE MMU (@CALFIREMMU) July 21, 2017
CAL FIRE reports that 58 residences have been destroyed.
Highways 49 and 140 are both closed in the fire area. CAL FIRE and the Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office have more information about evacuations, however CAL FIRE’s information site is updated infrequently.
Most of the large air tankers are reloading with retardant at Castle Airport, which is 25 miles west of the fire. On Wednesday the vendor at the base ran out of fuel, so air tankers needing more had to divert to Mather Airport southeast of Sacramento to get fuel, and then fly to Castle for retardant. A CAL FIRE spokesperson said that by Thursday the fuel shortage had been resolved.
Fire officials are establishing a retardant site for helicopters so that they can drop long term retardant on the fire rather than water, which is less effective.
The Detwiler Fire still has not spread into the Stanislaus National Forest. Southeast of Coulterville it is about half a mile away from the Forest boundary.
(All articles on Wildfire Today about the Detwiler Fire are tagged “Detwiler Fire” and can be found here, with the most recent at the top.)
(UPDATED at 1:38 MDT July 20, 2017)
A firefighter working for a private company was killed July 19 while working on a wildfire in western Montana. Trenton Johnson 19, was struck by a falling tree while helping to suppress the Florence Fire, a small fire near Florence Lake on the Lolo National Forest northeast of Seeley Lake.
Mr. Johnson, a resident of Missoula, Montana was a member of a Grayback Forestry Inc. 20-person hand crew under contract to the U.S. Forest Service.
Kelli Matthews, a spokesperson for Grayback, said as the crew was getting lined out to begin work on a small fire the top broke out of a burning tree and struck Mr. Johnson. He was taken to the nearest heliport about half mile from the fire where he was airlifted to Saint Patrick Hospital. He was later declared deceased.
Mr. Johnson was a sophomore at Montana State University in Bozeman.
Lolo National Forest Supervisor Tim Garcia issued a statement Thursday saying in part:
This is a heart-wrenching loss of life and Trenton leaves behind many friends and family members who are feeling this profound loss right now. This loss is rippling across the Lolo National Forest this morning and is most keenly felt on the Seeley Lake Ranger District, where Trenton’s sister works as a Forest Service employee.
Between 1990 and 2014 18 firefighters were killed on wildland fires by hazardous trees, which was 4 percent of the 440 firefighter deaths in the stats for that period kept by the National Interagency Fire Center.
Our sincere condolences go out to Mr. Johnson’s family, friends, and coworkers.
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Chris and Paula.
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