The National Weather Service has posted Red Flag Warnings and Fire Weather Watches for areas in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma. The Red Flag areas (in red) expire Thursday evening except for the ones in Colorado that expire Wednesday evening.
All areas are expected to have dry fuels, strong winds, and low humidities.
The map was current as of 8:55 a.m. MT on Wednesday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts.
The largest burned 151 acres northwest of Longmont.
Firefighters protect a house on the Rabbit Mountain Fire February 20, 2017. Screenshot from Denver7 video.
Firefighters along the front range of Colorado suppressed at least five wildfires on Monday.
The Rabbit Mountain fire blackened 151 acres north of Highway 66 near Rabbit Mountain Road. Three outbuildings and a barn were destroyed but firefighters were able to keep any homes from burning. Video showed the flames spreading to within a few feet of several residences. The fire was reported at about 5 p.m. and forced the evacuation of about 75 residences. By 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday Boulder County Sheriff’s office reported it was was 100 percent contained.
About two miles southwest of the Rabbit Mountain Fire another fire near Hygiene Road burned about 50 acres, as well as several outbuildings and vehicles.
A 30-acre fire near County Road 16 1/2 in Weld County southeast of Longmont destroyed a barn.
Two fires of suspicious origin burned seven acres in Green Mountain southwest of Denver, an area that experienced five other suspicious fires in November.
The National Weather Service has posted Red Flag Warnings and Fire Weather Watches for areas in Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma. Most of the Red Flag areas (in red) expire Tuesday evening, while the Watches (in yellow) are in effect through Thursday.
While the areas identified in Nebraska should experience record high temperatures on Tuesday, all areas have dry fuels, strong winds, and low humidities in the forecast.
The map was current as of 8:08 a.m. MT on Tuesday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts.
Two other firefighters suffered serious burn injuries while suppressing the 400-acre fire.
A firefighter was killed February 18 while fighting a fire in Bandipur National Park in India. It was reportedly the first time a wildland firefighter in the southern state of Karnataka has died in the line of duty.
The victim, identified as Murugappa Gouda Thammannanavar, was part of a team suppressing a fire in the Bandipura Tiger Reserve. Two others who suffered serious burns initially treated at a local hospital were later transferred to KR hospital in Mysuru.
“There was wind blowing from all directions and Murugappa could not escape from the spreading flames,” said Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Ranga Rao.
Below is an excerpt from an article in The Hindu:
While the immediate cause of the fire is not known, it has been established that most of the fires are caused by humans. In many cases, the dry vegetation is set ablaze by miscreants from the local community to wreak revenge when they are booked by the authorities for being in conflict with the law.
Bandipur is going through one of the worst dry spells in recent memory and though forest fires are an annual affair in view of its dry deciduous vegetation, the intensity of drought this year is high. The national park has suffered from two consecutive years of dry spell, and the failure of the southwest monsoon this year has aggravated the situation.
There are 373 waterholes in the national park, which is spread over 874 sq. km, but nearly 350 of them have gone dry.
Bandipur National Park is known for its tigers, Indian elephants, spotted deer, gaurs (bison), antelopes, and numerous other native species.
Our sincere condolences go out to Mr. Thammannanavar’s friends, family, and co-workers, and we hope the two injured firefighters have a speedy recovery
The fires have burned more than nine times the average number of acres.
The wildfires that have occurred in Chile over the last two months have attracted the attention of meteorologists, climate scientists, and wildland fire managers worldwide. During the current statistical period which runs from July through June the blazes have burned 601,367Ha (1.5 million acres) which is 924 percent of average for the 12-month period.
The organization that deals most closely with fires in Chile is not the national or regional government, but is CONAF.
From Wikipedia:
The National Forest Corporation or CONAF (Corporación Nacional Forestal) is a Chilean private, non-profit organization, through which the Chilean state contributes to the development and sustainable management of the country’s forest resources. CONAF is overseen and funded by the Ministry of Agriculture of Chile.
It administers the forest policies of Chile and promotes the development of the sector with sustainable forest management.
CONAF has been criticised in recent weeks for their response to the fires and their procedures for awarding contracts to international companies that provide firefighting helicopters and single engine air tankers.
Recently a group of wildland fire specialists from Europe visited Chile to evaluate the rash of fires in the country. One of them was Marc Castellnou, the Strategic Fire Analyst for the Government of Catalonia’s national fire services. Catalonia is a region in northeast Spain. In 2015 Mr. Castellnou received the Wildland Fire Safety Award from the International Association of Wildland Fire.
Prof. Domingos Viegas (left), 2016 Wildland Fire Safety Award Recipient with Marc Castellnou, 2015 Safety Award Recipient at 14th International Wildland Fire Safety Summit, Barcelona, Spain. Photo by International Association of Wildland Fire.
CONAF held a press conference and published some of the fire specialists’ findings. Below is an excerpt from their summary. It has been automatically translated by Google and is a little rough.
…Marc Castellnou, one of the 14 specialists from the European Union Civil Protection System and an expert in the analysis of forest fire behavior, said that this tragedy was caused by three factors: temperature records, water stress of vegetation and Anticyclonic lock. The accumulation of fuel caused by eight years of drought is another contributing factor in the generation of the phenomenon.
The high simultaneity of fires with numerous hectares of fire, Castellnou explained, through meteorological studies through which he concluded that here was a real “storm of fire.” He gives as an example the fire of the Machines, in the Region of the Maule, where in 14 hours burned 115 thousand hectares [284,000 acres]. There, says the expert, the fire advanced with a speed of 6 kilometers for hours with an intensity of 60 thousand kilowatts, something that had not been seen so far worldwide.
This fire, he said, modified the atmosphere, as demonstrated by satellite imagery in which it can be seen how the column of smoke caused by the fires covers much of the Pacific Ocean and feeds on cold currents to continue advancing. An example of what is expressed is the analysis of temperatures recorded on Robinson Crusoe Island [map], where on the night of January 25th to 26th the temperature rose above its normal ranges and the humidity dropped remarkably as an effect of these megaincendios [megafire] at a distance of about 800 kilometers [497 miles].
At least 12 homes have been destroyed in a wildfire in central Florida between Tampa and Vero Beach. Since it started near Indian Lake Estates the morning of February 15 it has burned about 5,000 acres and required the evacuation of the community for approximately 12 hours on Wednesday.
For a while on Thursday firefighters had the spread almost stopped, but strong winds caused the fire activity to pick up again near the River Ranch Hunt Club which had to be evacuated. On Friday Polk County Fire Rescue reported that approximately 100 campsite structures were destroyed at the club, where the fire is still active as of Friday afternoon.
Map showing the perimeter of the CR 630 E Fire, February 17, 2017.
At times early Friday morning State Road 60 had to be closed between CR 630 and Yeehaw Junction due to visibility being compromised by smoke.
All of these photos and the map were provided by Polk County Fire Rescue.
Map showing the perimeter of the CR 630 E Fire, February 17, 2017.
Kevin Watler, an official with Polk County, confirmed that this Florida Forest Service fire tower burned on Wednesday. The original source of the photo is unknown.
