Congratulations to the firefighters involved in this rescue.
Since it started on July 8, the Whittier Fire has burned over 13,000 acres northwest of Goleta, California.
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UPDATED January 30, 2018:
A U.S. Forest Service employee is being honored by attending the President’s State of the Union Address scheduled for 9 p.m. ET Tuesday.
Dave Dahlberg, a Fire Prevention Technician on the Los Padres National Forest working out of Pine Canyon Fire Station, helped rescue 62 children and staff members at the Circle V Ranch Camp during the Whittier Fire July 8, 2017.
This is a big deal. Congratulations to FPT Dahlberg!
Mr. Dahlberg will be one of 12 special guests of President Trump and will be seated with First Lady Melania Trump.
The National Weather Service has issued Red Flag Warnings for areas in Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and California.
The map was current as of 7 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.
A California firefighter died July 11 in a hospital from injuries he suffered July 5 while fighting a wildfire near Lakeside in Southern California.
Frank Anaya, an inmate firefighter with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation based at the La Cima Conservation Camp, was throwing cut brush during line construction operations when he lost his balance and fell into a running chainsaw. He suffered a severe cut to his upper right leg behind his chaps.
The 22-year old firefighter underwent multiple surgeries, but succumbed to his injuries July 11, 2017, according to the CDCR.
Our sincere condolences go out to Mr. Anaya’s friends, family, and coworkers.
Other California inmate firefighter fatalities that we are aware of in the last six years:
January 4, 2012. Crisanto Leo Lionell. Heart attack near the conclusion of a 20-minute, .66 mile exercise hike.
August 19, 2012. Jimmy Randolph. Anoxic encephalopathy combined with complications of heat stroke while assigned to the Buck Fire.
February 25, 2016. Shawna Lynn Jones. Struck by rolling boulder while working on the Mulholland Fire .
May 24, 2017. Matthew Beck. Struck by falling tree while doing project work with his crew.
Edited July 14, 2017 to reflect new information in the Green Sheet. The victim was not running the chainsaw, but was swamping for it (throwing the cut brush).
Above: Satellite photo from July 12, 2017 showing smoke from fires burning near Mount Vesuvius in Italy. The red dots represent heat from the fires. NASA.
(Originally published at 11:40 a.m. MDT July 13, 2017)
Two fires in Italy, one on the mainland and another on the island of Sicily, are in the news today.
The fire on Sicily came very close to the Calampiso Resort 15 air miles northwest of Trapani and had authorities worried that tourists would be endangered by the fire directly, or trapped at the end of the dead end road leading to the community.
The Italian paper La Stampa quoted one evacuated tourist, Stella Belliotti, as saying: “We fled in swimwear and slippers. Our apartment was engulfed in flames. They were right above us. I took my daughter and I went to the beach. They made us go on the boats that go around Zingaro. First women and children, and then the others.”
Various reports say that 700 to 1,000 tourists were evacuated by boat from the Calampiso Resort and taken to San Vito Lo Capo 5 miles by boat to the northwest where the mayor, Matteo Rizzo, appealed on Facebook for residents to pick up the evacuees:
We need minibuses and cars to pick people up at the little port and take them to school buildings. Let’s all do something.
There were no reports of injuries.
File photo of the Calampiso Resort area as seen from the access road. Google Street View.A 3-D view of the Calampiso Resort area on the northern end of Sicily. Google Earth.
Numerous wildfires have been burning on the mainland of Italy on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius and nearby the volcano. The huge plume of smoke led some to believe that Vesuvius was erupting again. The last time it erupted was in 1944, but it is most famous for the 79 AD eruption that destroyed Pompeii.
Vicinity map of southern Italy and the island of Sicily. Google Earth.July 12, 2017 satellite image of wildfires at Mount Vesuvius. Copernicus Sentinel data, processed by ESA.
(Originally published at 8:24 a.m. PDT July 12, 2017)
There have been no major changes in the status of the Alamo Fire east of Santa Maria, California in the last couple of days. The Incident Management Team fine tunes the mapped perimeter every day, mostly to make it more accurate.
Satellites have not detected any large heat sources during the previous 24 hours. This does not mean the fire is out; just that what is still burning can’t be detected by the sensors flying 200 miles overhead. A fixed wing mapping aircraft with infrared equipment flying much lower at 2 a.m. Wednesday found dozens of scattered hot spots, mostly in the northeast and south areas.
The fire is very large, 28,687 acres, and it will take some time to complete a fire line around the entire perimeter and mop up far enough inside to ensure it will be under control.
A mandatory evacuation order is still in effect for Tepusquet Canyon. Highway 166 is closed from Highway 101 to new Cuyama, and Tepusquet Canyon Road is closed from Highway 166 to Santa Maria Mesa Road.
