CAL FIRE reports there were no injuries in the rollover
A U.S. Coast Guard water tender rolled over while en route to the Sawmill Fire. Photo by Kent Porter; used with permission.
(UPDATED at 9:14 a.m. PDT September 27, 2016)
Firefighters have stopped the spread of the Sawmill Fire in northern California that burned 1,541 acres on a south facing slope along Geysers Road 26 miles north of Santa Rosa. Roads connecting geothermal facilities at the top of the ridge served as anchors for burnout operations.
3-D map of the Sawmill Fire at 11 p.m. PDT September 26, 2016.
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(Originally published at 8:23 a.m. PDT September 26, 2016)
A water tender rolled over while responding to the Sawmill Fire in northern California September 25. CAL FIRE reported that there were no injuries during the accident that occurred on Geysers Road in Sonoma County.
The Sawmill Fire started Sunday and by evening CAL FIRE estimated it had burned 1,500 acres. The fire is off Big Geysers Road 26 air miles north of Santa Rosa and 14 miles southwest of the community of Clear Lake. Sunday night mandatory evacuations were in place for residents in the Geysers.
DC-10 drops on the Sawmill Fire, September 25, 2016. Photo by Kent Porter, used with permission.
Map of the Sawmill Fire at 11 p.m. PDT September 25, 2016.
Most people do not think of the U.S. Coast Guard as having land-based firefighting apparatus, but the agency’s large training center just west of Petaluma, California has a full fire department.
Articles on Wildfire Today about the rollover of fire apparatus while assigned to a wildland fire are tagged “rollover”.
The weather station at Chilao recorded a gust of 58 mph at 10:53 a.m. PDT on Sunday.
At 11:11 a.m. PDT 17 weather stations in southern California met the criteria for Red Flag Conditions. Five of them at that time had recorded gusts of 40 and above, with Chilao having sustained winds out of the northeast at 30 mph with a gust of 58. The extreme fire weather conditions are predicted to continue on Monday, but with less severe winds.
The map below is a screen grab from an animated wind map (which is mesmerizing to watch).
Map of the Canyon Fire and a new fire (Washington Fire) at 1 a.m. PDT September 23, 2016.
The 12,518-acre Canyon Fire on Vandenberg Air Force Base has not spread over the last 24 hours.
However a new fire, named Washington, broke out on Thursday east of the 15,000-foot runway on the base and burned vigorously until it was knocked down by firefighters. As of 1 a.m. Friday it had blackened about 204 acres and is being described by the Air Force as controlled. The preliminary cause is a powerline downed by strong winds. It generated a 0.6-acre spot fire over a mile south of the main blaze.
(Originally published at 1:56 p.m. PDT September 21, 2016)
3-D map of the Canyon Fire looking east. The red line was the perimeter of the Canyon Fire at 11 p.m. PDT September 20, 2016. The white line was the perimeter approximately 24 hours before. Click to enlarge.
According to overnight mapping the Canyon Fire on Vandenberg Air Force Base on the southern California coast has burned 12,353 acres, an increase of over 2,000 acres from the previous day’s report. Approximately 1,056 firefighters from Vandenberg AFB, U.S. Forest Service, CAL FIRE, and Santa Barbara County Fire are combating the blaze.
Crews saw very little growth in the fire overnight, due in part to the heavy marine layer and calm winds. This allowed ground teams to further construct and improve containment lines along base boundaries and key rocket launch support facilities. Firefighting aircraft are being used today to assist firefighters ahead of anticipated increases in wind speed, which could gust as high as 30 mph later in the week.
Ventura County Fire Department reported that Fire Engineer Ryan Osler lost his life this morning in a line of duty vehicle accident while assigned to the fire.
Above: Fatal water render rollover, September 21, 2016. Screenshot from KEYT video.
This morning the rollover of a water tender enroute to the Canyon Fire on Vandenberg Air Force Base resulted in the death of a firefighter. Ventura County Fire Department reported that Fire Engineer Ryan Osler, a passenger in the truck, lost his life in a line of duty vehicle accident while assigned to the fire. The driver of the truck self-extracted and was transported to a local hospital with minor injuries.
The water tender had designations indicating that it was a California Office of Emergency Services apparatus. OES vehicles are often farmed out to local fire departments, such as Ventura County FD.
KYET reported the accident occurred at about 6:20 a.m. on state Route 246 at Purisima Road in Lompoc which is near the fire burning on the military base on the southern California coast.
Unfortunately rollovers of fire vehicles, especially water tenders, happen far too often.
Our sincere condolences go out to the family, coworkers, and friends of Engineer Osler.
Beginning in 2000 the costs of suppressing wildland fires suddenly got more expensive, as you can see from the chart.
One fire this year that is still going strong has added over $208 million to the total for this year, according to the September 20 national situation report.
The Soberanes Fire on the central coast of California south of Monterey has been burning since July 22. New evacuations were ordered Monday for this fire that has blackened more than 121,000 acres of brush, grass, timber, and large quantities of poison oak. The current uncontained fire perimeter is 95 miles. Fire managers expect they will have 191 miles of fireline by the time it is over.
It is very difficult to determine the exact costs of suppressing large wildfires. Many months can pass before most of the bills come in, get approved, and are paid. Costs are often shared among multiple agencies, making it even more complex to come up with one figure. And if you want to compare the historical costs of individual large fires, you have to decide which formula to use while adjusting for inflation.
Not deterred by these difficulties, the Associated Press published an article yesterday reporting that the costs of suppressing the Soberanes Fire is the largest ever spent on one fire.
BIG SUR, Calif. (AP) — A wildfire burning for nearly two months on California’s scenic Big Sur coast has surpassed $200 million in firefighting costs, becoming the costliest to fight in U.S. history, according to data released Monday.
The fire has cost $206.7 million to fight so far, the National Interagency Fire Center said in a report. And with the blaze at only 67 percent containment, there could be weeks left before the firefight is done.
That puts it well past the previous high of $165 million established by a blaze that burned in California and Oregon in 2002. [From Bill: probably the Biscuit Fire.]
The figure does not include the actual damages done by the fire like destroyed homes, only the costs of extinguishing and containing it.
It also is not adjusted for inflation, which would put the 2002 fire and others ahead of it.
The cost is mostly attributable to the long duration of the fire, and the need to pay thousands of firefighters for their daily work, the U.S. Forest Service said. The daily costs got as high as $8 million at the fire’s peak, though they’ve settled at closer to $2 million as it has calmed…
The AP was a little vague about where they got their data.
But as they said, these figures only include the actual costs of suppressing the fires. Often the indirect costs can exceed the cost of putting it out. These can include temporary housing while evacuated, lost wages, rebuilding structures, declining retail sales at nearby communities, reduced tourism, lower sales tax receipts, medical treatments for breathing smoky air, and repairing the damaged land.
A BAe-146 drops retardant on the Owens River Fire. Photo by Justin Benttinen.
(UPDATED at 2:43 p.m. PDT September 20, 2016)
The spread of the Owen River Fire in eastern California 36 miles northwest of Bishop moderated on Monday. A heat-sensing satellite only detected a couple of large heat sources on the fire during a Monday afternoon overflight. This does not mean the fire is almost out; there are no doubt many small heat sources that the satellite could not detect from 200 miles above the earth.
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(Originally published at 3:29 p.m. PDT September 19, 2016)
The Owens River Fire has burned at least 6,000 acres in eastern California 36 miles northwest of Bishop. It is approximately 6 to 8 miles from two popular ski areas, Mammoth Mountain and June Mountain. According to a report from a Californian who contacted us, at one point three Very Large Air Tankers, DC-10’s, were dispatched to the fire.
It started during the afternoon of September 17th and is burning sagebrush and Jeffrey pine along Owens River Road near Clark Canyon, east of Highway 395.
Four uninhabited outbuildings and several pieces of heavy equipment were destroyed during the initial response Saturday.
The Big Springs Campground, Clark Canyon (a popular climbing area), and nearby ranches and developments have been evacuated. The Owens River Road and the Whitmore Springs Roads are closed.
There are 483 personnel, 9 hand crews, 48 engines, 3 air tankers, 7 helicopters, 3 dozers, and 6 water tenders assigned to the fire.
The dots represent heat detected on the Owen River Fire by a satellite. The red dots, the most recent, were observed at 3:30 a.m. PDT September 19, 2016.
The cause of the fire is under investigation but appears to be human-caused.
A C-130 at the Owens River Fire.Owens River Fire as seen by Anton Brey from Mammoth Mountain.
