News and opinion about wildland fire
The Florida Forest Service reported that on Sunday a tractor plow was overrun by a fast-moving fire and was destroyed in Okeechobee County, near NW 144 Ave. and NW 286 Street, 13 miles southwest of Yeehaw Junction. The operator escaped and was not injured.
The fire eventually burned about 450 acres.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized2 Comments on Interior Secretary Zinke talks about managing federal land Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke was interviewed as he participated in what the Fresno Bee called a firefighting exercise during his first visit to Kings Canyon National Park in California, Friday, April 14, 2017.
Above: Screen capture from the video by Jon Krause.
Twitter user @JonLKrause posted videos of a large, long-lasting dust devil/fire whirl that persisted over a prescribed fire at Kramper Lake near Hubbard, Nebraska for about five minutes on Tuesday April 11.
@ReedTimmerAccu crazy vortices and one big cyclone during a prescribed burn near Hubbard, NE yesterday. pic.twitter.com/FvhGg1xs5i
— Krause (@JonLKrause) April 12, 2017
@Elisa_Raffa Smoke-nado finally moved after sitting stationary for nearly 5 minutes. From a prescribed burn near Hubbard NE yesterday. pic.twitter.com/GTUGzI8iKY
— Krause (@JonLKrause) April 12, 2017
Sometimes these are called “firenadoes” but this one did not have much fire in it. Dust devils and fire whirls can occur on days when the atmosphere is unstable. The heat from what remained of the fire and the solar heating of the blackened ground probably contributed to the phenomenon. It is interesting that after moving to the edge of the lake it still persisted for a while before dying out.
Above: photo of prescribed fire along the Rio Grande River supplied by the National Park Service.
Big Bend National Park in southern Texas conducted a prescribed burn along the Rio Grande River earlier this month in cooperation with Mexico. The objective was to burn out invasive river cane and promote a healthier river ecosystem.
A year ago we wrote about how the park cooperates with Mexico, borrowing their firefighters to assist with wildfires and prescribed fires.
In case you missed it, here is the interview we conducted with veteran lead plane pilot Jamie Tackman in January after he had been working with the 19,200-gallon 747 Supertanker in Chile.
After 17 years as a ground based wildland firefighter in the United States, with much as it as a smokejumper, Jamie transitioned to the air, becoming a lead plane pilot. He has worked off and on with the 747 air tankers since Evergreen converted the first one. Now retired from the U.S. Forest Service, he traveled to Chile to provide lead plane services for the huge aircraft operated by Global SuperTankers. This time he had a different role, or at least a different platform, flying ahead of the air tanker as usual but in an aircraft flown by military pilots.
Bill Gabbert interviewed Jamie, who began by describing the situation. Chile has no infrastructure for supervising, using, or refilling large or very large air tankers and they were unfamiliar with the concept of lead planes. In spite of these challenges the personnel working with the 747 and the other aircraft developed procedures to fight the fires from the air, while the local firefighters improvised a system on the ground for refilling the 747 and the IL-76 with water.
A fire on the roof of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas created quite a show for people who came to watch the fancy water fountain display Thursday night. The Las Vegas Review-Journal wrote that styrofoam facades burned, but it appears that real or fake vegetation on the roof may have also been involved.
Firefighters were able to knock down the wind-driven fire about 25 minutes after it was first reported.
Were you inside at the Bellagio last night and took photos or videos of the fire? Send them to news@news3lv.com and they could be on TV! pic.twitter.com/oQOwnAre29
— NBC KSNV News 3 (@News3LV) April 14, 2017
#UPDATE Normal operations resume at the Bellagio Hotel & Casino following a late-night firehttps://t.co/H19dx1ChBb pic.twitter.com/9PxmpqHhDk
— NBC KSNV News 3 (@News3LV) April 14, 2017
At least there was a wet line on one flank of the fire:
The fire didn’t stop the Bellagio water show from going on. via seankim on Instagram. #onlyinvegas #vegas pic.twitter.com/alMdBlMA5B
— Mick Akers (@mickakers) April 14, 2017
This reminds us of a similar fire on another hotel roof in Vegas in 2015. Here is a screenshot of part of that article:
