Map and update of Las Conchas fire, June 29, 2011

Update: a new article about the Las Conchas fire was written on June 30, 2011.

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Update at 7:36 p.m. MT, June 29, 2011:

Below, is a a new map showing heat detected by satellites at 2:50 p.m. MT, June 29, 2011. This map zooms in on the north side of the fire near the city of Los Alamos, an area that showed some growth on Wednesday, either from a burning out operation by firefighters or natural movement of the fire, or both.

Las Conchas fire map 1450 6-29-2011
Click to enlarge. Las Conchas fire map showing heat detected by satellites at 2:50 p.m. MT, 6-29-2011. The red areas were actively burning at that time, while the yellow was within the last 12 hours, and the black was within the last 24 hours. MODIS

The incident management team today finally posted two maps of the fire on their InciWeb site:

  1. Current as of 10:30 p.m. June 27, 2011
  2. Created 3:31 p.m. June 28, 2011

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Update at 3:10 p.m. MT, June 29, 2011:

(more maps and information are below)
Continue reading “Map and update of Las Conchas fire, June 29, 2011”

Las Conchas fire threatens Los Alamos

Wildfire Today posted more information about the Las Conchas fire on June 29.

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Update at 9:10 p.m. MT, June 28, 2011:

This new map of the Las Conchas fire includes satellite data collected at 3:50 p.m. MT on Tuesday. The recorded heat showed comparatively little growth, with some additional acres on the northeast corner and also some on the southwest side.

As expected, the weather on Tuesday was less extreme than on Sunday and Monday, with afternoon winds recorded at the Tower weather station (east of the fire) southwest at 8-18 mph, with gusts at 19-34. The relative humidity bottomed out at 8% with a cloud cover shading the fire for much of the afternoon.

The forecast for Wednesday at Los Alamos is for a high temperature of 87, RH of 14%, and southwest winds increasing throughout the day, from 8-12 mph in the morning to 22 mph by 6 p.m. — suitable weather for significant fire spread, but not as extreme as on Sunday and Monday.

Las Conchas fire map 1550 6-28-2011
Click to enlarge. Las Conchas fire map showing heat detected by satellites at 3:50 p.m. MT, 6-28-2011. The red areas were actively burning at that time, while the yellow was within the last 12 hours, and the black was within the last 24 hours. MODIS

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Update at 12:25 p.m. MT, June 28:

At a news conference that started at 12:10 p.m. today, Doug Tucker, the Chief of the Los Alamos Fire Department, said two incident management teams either are or will be managing the fire, and that an Area Command Team has been ordered which will coordinate resources, establish priorities, and supervise the IMTeams. (Note: this was confirmed by New Mexico Fire Information.) The Chief said the fire started near a power line, but the cause and origin are still under investigation.

Tucker said that since the Cerro Grande of 2000, a great deal of vegetation management has been conducted in Los Alamos to make the structures and facilities more fire resistant than 10 years ago when over 280 homes were destroyed or damaged and 40 Los Alamos National Laboratory structures burned. The Chief said the city is now qualified as a “Firewise Community”, which is a remarkable change from 10 years earlier when the structures were extremely vulnerable to wildfire.

Tucker said the numerous barrels of stored radioactive waste at the Laboratory are surrounded by bare mineral soil or asphalt and there little chance that the fire could impinge on the barrels. The operations manager of the Lab said that if a wildfire does approach the radioactive materials they have equipment on site that will cover it with foam, further protecting it from fire.

A live camera is available at Pajarito Mountain ski area.

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Update at 10:18 a.m. MT, June 28, 2011:

New Mexico Fire Information has posted more information about the Las Conchas fire near Los Alamos. The size is now 60,740 acres, according to data from an infrared mapping flight at 11:13 p.m. June 27. They have a map of the fire, but the resolution is too poor to determine who produced it.

InciWeb has very outdated information that is at least 24 hours old, far too old for a 60,740-acre fire that is causing evacuations. And they have no downloadable maps or Google Earth fire perimeters posted. Hopefully the incident management team will get organized and provide better information than the Wallow fire teams did during their first week in Arizona.

The Southwest Coordination Center has posted information about the impacts of the smoke from the Las Conchas and Pacheco fires.

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Updated at 9:05 a.m. MT, June 28, 2011

Smoke from Las Conchas fire 6-27-2011
Smoke from Las Conchas fire 6-27-2011. Credit: Los Alamos National Laboratory

The Las Conchas fire, pushed by strong winds, burned closer to the city of Los Alamos and the Los Alamos National Laboratory on Monday and Monday night. The fire crossed Highway 4 and continued for almost 5 miles north of the highway on the west side of the city of Los Alamos. It crossed to the west side of the East Fork of the Jemez River.
Continue reading “Las Conchas fire threatens Los Alamos”

Dignitaries visit the Wallow fire

Area Command briefing Wallow fire 6-18-2011
Area Commander Jim Loach, on the left, briefs Rep. Jeff Flake, Sen. John McCain, and Tom Harbour, Director of Fire and Aviation for the USFS. June 18, 2011. Photo by USFS.

Managers of the Wallow fire spent parts of Saturday and Monday briefing dignitaries that visited the fire area.

McCain, Tidwell, Harbour at Wallow fire
Sen. John McCain, Thomas Tidwell (Chief of the Forest Service), and Tom Harbour (Director of Fire and Aviation, USFS). June 18, 2011. Photo by USFS.
Walker and Salazar at Wallow fire
Norm Walker, one of the four Incident Commanders on the Wallow fire, briefs Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar on June 20, 2011. Photo: US Army Pfc Danielle J. Sargent AZNG

More information about the Wallow fire.

Updated progression map of the Wallow fire.

Wallow fire crosses fireline, Luna, NM evacuated

Wallow fire smoke 6-16-2011 USFS
Smoke from the Wallow fire, June 16, 2011. USFS photo

Strong winds on Saturday caused the Wallow fire to cross the fireline along U.S. 180 west of Luna, NM and run for about four miles causing the evacuation of the town. Saturday night the fire was north of the town and had crossed Forest Road 220 between the community and the earlier fire perimeter.

The wind recorded at the Luna weather station during the big fire run on Saturday afternoon was WSW and SW at 16-19 with gusts of 35-38. Saturday’s Red Flag warning is coming in for a repeat performance Sunday from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. The weather forecast for Luna predicts winds out of the southwest at 32-37 mph with gusts of 47-52. The relative humidity will be in the single digits with a temperature around 80. In other words, the fire behavior on Sunday could be even more extreme than Saturday.

Here is an excerpt from an update the incident management team posted on InciWeb Sunday morning:

Strong southwest winds have caused the Wallow Fire to breach containment lines along US 180, on the east side of the fire. The town of Luna, N.M. has been evacuated. Air resources in defense of Luna were grounded yesterday due to high winds. Structural protection is in place for Luna and also in the broad Blue River drainage, where fire has become established in the San Francisco drainage, Raspberry Creek, Steeple Mesa, Quebec drainage and Horse Canyon areas. Air support began early this morning to work on objectives before the expected wind gusts arrive and air support is forced to be grounded.

InciWeb has more information about the fire and the evacuations.

The map of the east side of the Wallow fire below shows the approximate location of Saturday’s fire run near Luna. The Wallow fire Area Command has posted a map of the fire that was produced after the infrared mapping flight Saturday night. The new updated size of the fire is 511,118 acres.

Continue reading “Wallow fire crosses fireline, Luna, NM evacuated”

Wallow fire passes the half-million acres mark

Update at 7:48 p.m. MT, June 18, 2011:

The Wallow and a new fire, Pacheco Canyon, 6 miles Northeast of Tesuque, New Mexico, (north of Santa Fe)  are both putting up a great deal of smoke.

Sat photo Wallow and Pacheco fires 1925  6-18-2011
Satellite photo of Wallow and Pacheco fires, 7:25 p.m. MT, 6-18-2011. NOAA

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Update at 5:36 p.m. MT, June 18, 2011:

The winds have indeed caused a problem on the Wallow fire. A slopover across Hwy. 180 is up and running. Area Command Tweeted this information within the last hour:

Area Command tweets, 1739 6-18

The wind at the Luna, NM weather station for the last couple of hours recorded winds out of the southwest or west-southwest at 17-18, gusting up to 37-38 mph. The direct effect of the wind on the air tankers might be enough to make flying 150 above rugged terrain unsafe for the flight crews. The wind would also make it very difficult for the retardant to land on the intended target, blowing horizontally for hundreds of feet before it hits the ground.

The map below shows the area where the fire most likely crossed the fireline and caused the evacuation of Luna. The red squares represent heat detected by satellites at 2:00 p.m. MT on Saturday. Click the image to see a larger version.

Map of east side Wallow fire data 1400 6-18-2011
Map of east side of the Wallow fire, heat data 2:00 p.m. MT, June 18, 2011. MODIS/Google Earth

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Firefighter uses a pistol-like firing device to ignite a burnout
Firefighter uses a pistol-like firing device to ignite a burnout on June 12, 2011

The massive, record-breaking Wallow fire in eastern Arizona yesterday reached the dubious distinction of burning over a half-million acres — 500,409 to be exact. Officially, containment is at 38%, a figure not to be confused with the amount of fireline that is being held, which is much higher, at least for now.

Firefighters are worried about the Red Flag warnings that started Friday and go through Sunday, which Wildfire Today covered yesterday. The Luna, NM weather station recorded strong winds on Friday, 17 mph gusting up to 34 at about 5:00 p.m. The firefighters made it through that OK, but the updated forecast for the winds at Luna on Saturday are 28 mph gusting up to 39, and for Sunday, 33 gusting up to 47. On Monday they die down to the 16 mph range.

Refilling drip torches
Mormon Lake Hotshots refilling drip torches during a night burn operation on the 275 Road near Alpine, AZ, June 12, 2011.

We have not posted any photos of the Wallow fire for a while, so today we will catch up. Except for the last one, they were all taken on the Wallow fire by Kari Greer for the U. S. Forest Service, who has been taking some great photographs of the fire. More photos are at Flickr. More photos are below.
Continue reading “Wallow fire passes the half-million acres mark”

Update on Arizona fires, June 6, 2011

 

Wallow Fire smoke
Smoke from the Wallow Fire. Photo taken from Pinetop's perspective by Jeff Krouskop

Updated at 5:32 p.m. MT, June 6, 2011; added updated map of Wallow fire and info about more evacuations.

Arizona is dealing with at least three major fires, Wallow, Horseshoe 2 and Murphy:

Wallow fire

Pushed by strong winds from thunderstorms, the Wallow fire at Alpine, Arizona crossed highway U.S. Hwy. 191 resulting in a flurry of fire activity around Alpine, Nutrioso and Escudilla Mountain. The fire has burned 192,746 233,522 acres according to InciWeb. (The revised acreage is the result of an infrared mapping flight Sunday night.) Containment is at 0%.

More evacuations have been ordered, this time for the communities of Greer and Sunrise. More information is at InciWeb and at the White Mountain Joint Information Center; the phone number is (928) 333-3412, and their web site is 593.org.

 

Wallow fire as seen from Molly Butler Lodge in Greer AZ
Wallow fire as seen from the Molly Butler Lodge in Greer, AZ. Captured off their web cam at 5:48 p.m. June 6, 2011.

Assigned to the fire are:

  • 2,315 firefighters, including 31 hotshot crews and 25 other hand crews
  • 12 dozers
  • 138 engines
  • 31 water tenders
  • 22 helicopters

A red flag warning is in effect on Monday between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. for low humidity — not good news for firefighters.

Area Command Team 3, with Jim Loach as Area Commander, was dispatched Monday morning to the fires in Arizona. Area Command Teams coordinate activities and firefighting resources among multiple fires and incident management teams.

Some very rough estimates, very rough, based on heat shown in satellite images early Monday morning, indicate that the fire is approximately 6 air miles from Greer, 11 miles from Eagar, 7 miles from Luna, and 35 miles from Morenci.

A call center has been established by the White Mountain Joint Information Center for information, including evacuation information, regarding the Wallow fire. Their phone number is (928) 333-3412, and their web site is 593.org. InciWeb is another source.

(Scroll down to see maps and more information about the Wallow, Horseshoe 2, and Murphy fires.)

Continue reading “Update on Arizona fires, June 6, 2011”