Rain and Red Flag Warnings are in the weather forecast for different areas of northern California, Washington, and Oregon today. While some portions of northeast California received rain overnight, a Red Flag Warning will be in effect for areas in the far north part of the state along with sections of Oregon and Washington. “Abundant lightning” is the primary reason for the Warning, which will be in effect on Tuesday from 1 p.m. until 11 p.m.
At 5 a.m. PDT Tuesday morning, as you can see in the map below, some areas in California were receiving rain, but at that time it was missing most of the large fires.
Current wildfires, and weather radar in northern California at 5 a.m., Aug. 5, 2014
The Red Flag Warning map was current as of 6 a.m. MDT on Tuesday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts. For the most current data visit this NWS site.
Map of Eiler and Bald Fires, 11 p.m., August 2, 2014. (click to enlarge)
Two fires about 40 miles east of Redding, California doubled in size on Saturday. These fires are part of the reason the number of burned acres in California’s National Forest has quadrupled since Wednesday.
The Eiler and Bald Fires were both very active with each devouring an additional 16,000 to 17,000 acres.
The Eiler Fire, 40 miles east of Redding and 4 miles southeast of Burney, has blackened 23,000 acres. On Saturday it was very active on the north, southeast, and west sides, moving onto the east slope of Burney Mountain. Evacuations have been issued for Johnson Park, Cassel, Big Eddie Estates. An advisory has been issued for the town of Burney. The fire has crossed Highway 89 which remains closed from the junction of Hwy 44 and 89 north to Hwy 299.
The fire behavior was described by firefighters as “running, torching, and long range spotting, with rapid rates of spread downhill to the north and east.”
An engine from the Redding Fire Department was damaged in the Eiler Fire.
Redding Fire Department engine sustained damaged in Eiler Fire. Photo by KRCR.
Bald Fire
The Bald Fire is 52 miles east of Redding, 13 miles east of Burney, and 7 miles east of the Eiler Fire. It doubled in size Saturday, spreading through drought-affected six-foot tall brush and patches of timber, growing from 17,000 acres to 34,000. Late on Saturday it was exhibiting extreme fire behavior, most actively spreading on the south and southwest sides.
Bald Fire with the Day Fire in the background. July 31, 2014. InciWeb photo.
BNSF Railroad is providing a two-car fire train to assist with fire suppression along the railroad tracks. In 2010 we wrote about fire trains. Here is an excerpt:
In the United States firefighting trains are frequently called water cars or fire trains. Usually a fire train consists of an engine, several tank cars carrying 7,000 to 14,000 gallons of water each, and sometimes a caboose for transporting the employees or firefighters to operate the fire equipment. Most fire trains carry an assortment of fire equipment including hose reels, hand tools, nozzles, and hose. Sometimes each tank car will have it’s own pump and master stream nozzles, and they often have the ability connect the tank cars together with hoses so that the water can be shared between the cars. When a fire train has an engine at each end, the train can be split so that both ends of a trestle can be protected at the same time.
A firefighting train on the White Lightning Complex Fire in August, 2010 near Warm Springs, Oregon.
Northern California fires Saturday morning, August 2, 2014. The red icons represent heat that was detected by a satellite over the last 24 hours. (Click to enlarge.)
Firefighters in northern California are battling fires that were started after almost 1,000 lightning strikes hammered the area this week. High temperatures that reached 108 degrees in Redding on Friday contributed to some of the significant spread of the fires.
Brief descriptions of some of the fires submitted by fire managers included words and phrases like “extreme fire behavior with wind-driven runs and long-range spotting”; “running with torching and long-range spotting”; “running with torching and crowning”; “crowning”; “active fire behavior with crowning”; and”structures threatened”.
Bald Fire with the Day Fire in the background. July 31, 2014. InciWeb photo.
Some of the larger and more active fires in northern California:
Day Fire, 12 miles north of McArthur, evacuations in effect, 12,500 acres.
Bald Fire, 9 miles northeast of Hat Creek, evacuations in effect, 17,977 acres.
Eiler Fire, 6 miles northwest of Old Station; evacuations in effect; the fire crossed Highway 89, which is now closed; 6,932 acres.
White Fire, (part of the July Complex) 7 miles southeast of Sawyers Bar, 2,500 acres.
Beaver Complex, 18 mile southeast of Ashland, Oregon. Most of this complex is the 11,524-acre Oregon Gulch Fire that burned across the Oregon/California border. It grew by 6,623 acres on Friday.
In central California on the Sierra National Forest 18 miles east of Oakhurst, the French Fire has burned 11,466 acres in steep, rugged terrain. The 4,689-acre El Portal Fire outside Yosemite Valley continues to spread to the north approaching Highway 120.
The two C-130 MAFFS at the Channel Islands National Guard base in California are being activated to help deal with wildfires in the northern part of the state. Earlier today 17 California National Guard helicopters were also activated.
File photo of California National Guard helicopters in 2013. Photo by Robert Martinez.
(Update: the two C-130J Modular Airborne FireFighting Systems (MAFFS) air tankers at the 146th Airlift Wing at Channel Islands California, MAFFS #4 and #6, are also being activated today. Initially they will be working out of McClellan Air Field near Sacramento. Two MAFFS from Cheyenne, Wyoming were activated a week or two ago and have mostly been based at Boise, Idaho.)
With several large wildfires burning in northern and central California, the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services has tasked the California National Guard (CNG) to activate helicopter units to assist local, state and federal fire agencies.
The helicopters are a combination of 14 UH-60 Black Hawk and CH-47 Chinook helicopters and three LUH-72 Lakota helicopters. The crews and assets from the California Army National Guard were activated under the direction of Adjutant General Maj. Gen. David S. Baldwin at the request of Cal OES on behalf of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE).
The CNG helicopters and crews, which were deployed from around the state, will launch from Mather Army Aviation Support Facility and other locations to support CAL FIRE in battling wildfires across Northern California. The Black Hawks and Chinooks are equipped respectively with 660-gallon and 2000-gallon water buckets to fight the flames. The Black Hawks also are capable of functioning in a medevac capacity as well, with an onboard hoist for extracting injured personnel from rugged terrain. The Lakota will serve as an observation platform, capable of streaming near real-time video and thermal imagery of the fires to incident commanders on the ground.
The CNG helicopter crews will be working in coordination with the CAL FIRE and local firefighting crews in accordance with the Statewide Mutual Aid System that cuts across military, state and regional levels.
(Originally published at 9:48 PDT, August 1, 2014)
Oregon Gulch Fire, August 31. Photo by Don Hall.
The Oregon Gulch Fire, 18 mile southeast of Ashland, Oregon, was extremely active on Thursday, burning across the California-Oregon border. It is part of the Beaver Complex of fires that started July 30 from lightning. The complex also includes the Salt Creek Fire.
The Oregon Gulch Fire had only burned 100 acres Thursday morning, but by Friday morning it had grown to about 7,500 acres in or near the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Evacuations are taking place in the area. An Oregon Department of Forestry incident management team has been dispatched.
On Thursday morning more than 40 new fires had been reported in the previous 24 hours in Oregon. Almost 500,000 acres are burning in the state.
Several other large fires are burning in northern California:
Day: 4,500 acres,12 miles north of McArthur. Numerous residences are threatened and evacuations are in effect.
H-1 Bald: 3,100 acres, 9 miles northeast of Hat Creek. Residences are threatened.
White: 1,000 acres, seven miles southeast of Sawyers Bar. Residences are threatened.
Log: 130 acres, 8 miles west of Greenview.
KNF Beaver: 400 acres, 9 miles northeast of Horse Creek.
Northern California and southern Oregon fires, Friday morning, August 1, 2014. (Click to enlarge.)Oregon Gulch Fire, with another, much smaller, fire in the foreground. Photo by Joseph.
Map of the 2014 French Fire at 11 p.m., July 30, 2014. The 2013 Aspen fire is shown on yellow.
The map above shows the perimeters of the French Fire (south of the Mammoth Pool Reservoir) on Tuesday night and Wednesday night, as well as the 2013 Aspen Fire that was just across the San Joaquin River. Scroll down to see a map that shows a larger area.
The French Fire burned intensely well into the night on Wednesday, adding another 1,402 acres, bringing the total to 7,024 acres. Most of the growth was on the northwest and southeast sides.
Firefighters are planning a burning operation on the southern end of the fire to reinforce the hand and dozer lines that were constructed from the San Joaquin River up to Forest Road 4S81. This anchor point will support structure defense in the Hogue Ranch and Kinsmans Flat areas, which are currently the highest priorities.
Several Forest Service and private campgrounds were evacuated, as well as some summer homes in the Hogue Apple Ranch and Wagner’s Resort.
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(UPDATED at 7:25 p.m. PDT, July 30, 2014)
French Fire (burning now) and the 2013 Aspen Fire. (click to see a larger version)
We dug up the data for the July, 2013 Aspen Fire that was just across the drainage from where the French Fire is burning now — and put both fire perimeters on the above map.
Below is the 3-D version of the map.
3-D: French Fire (burning now) and the 2013 Aspen Fire. (click to see a larger version)
