Hathaway Fire Archives - Wildfire Today

(Originally published at 8:12 p.m. PT, June 10, 2013)

This photo of the Hathaway fire 80 miles east of Los Angeles was taken about two hours after the fire started on June 9. Unfortunately, there is no caption. Do you have any suggestions for a caption?

(UPDATE at 7:50 a.m. PT, June 11, 2013)

Now, thanks to John Hawkins, Fire Chief of the CAL FIRE Riverside Unit & Riverside County Fire Department, we have an actual caption, but don’t let that inhibit you from suggesting one of your own. Here’s what Chief Hawkins told us about the photo:

The picture was taken about 1pm to 2pm [June 9] looking north from the ICP. The FF standing next to the pickup is Morongo Tribal Fire Department Fire Chief Tim Beadle. The pickup was the ICP for CAL FIRE Riverside Unit and Riverside County Fire Department Battalion Chief Jeff Stowells who, at that moment, was functioning as the sole IC.

Thanks Chief.

(UPDATE at 11:09 a.m. PT, June 11, 2013)

Map of Hathaway Fire, June 11 — Map of Hathaway Fire, looking east, 2:35 a.m. PT, June 11, 2013 (click to enlarge)

The Hathaway Fire has grown to 1,954 acres and is 25 percent contained, according to information released by Incident Commander Don Garwood’s Incident Management Team.

As you can see in the above map of the Hathaway fire, which shows heat detected by a satellite, the fire has gone over the hill, as firefighters say, so we had to turn the 3-D image around, looking to the east now. Cabezon and Banning, along Interstate 10, are on the right, south of the fire.

It is burning in the San Gorgonio Wilderness, an area with steep, rocky cliffs. The fire has reached Raywood Flats which is a narrows-type area between Mill Creek and Water Canyons on the west and the huge, Whitewater River watershed on the east.

The fire has exhibited extreme fire behavior. According to the U.S. Forest Service, there is continued potential for large fire growth into the San Gorgonio Wilderness. Emphasis today is on continuing direct fire line construction, continue air operations until dusk, and night air attack flying. The Hathaway Incident Command Post has been established at Noble Creek Park in Beaumont, CA.

The firefighting resources working on the fire include:

1,018 personnel
40 hand crews
35 engines
13 water tenders
11 dozers
6 air tankers
10 helicopters

Predicted weather, according to information released by the IMTeam: wind speeds today will be 25 mph from the West. Temperature 87. Humidity 15%. High pressure will begin to rebuild in the area today, bringing warmer temperatures to the area.

Monday night the IMTeam put in a late request that the USFS fixed wing aircraft, which images fires at night with infrared equipment, map the fire, however the infrared ship was booked solid with the Powerhouse fire that has been quiet for several days as well as four fires in New Mexico. The USFS has two infrared aircraft, but only one at a time has been mapping fires so far this year.

We posted some photos that Chief John Hawkins took of the fire two hours after the fire fire started.

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(UPDATE at 6:35 p.m. PT, June 10, 2013)

The U.S. Forest Service says the Hathaway Fire has burned 1,650 acres and is 25 percent contained.

The map below, which has been sent to many U.S. Forest Service employees, is a computer model projection of the spread of the Hathaway Fire 80 miles east of Los Angeles over the next seven days. While it may be startling, keep in mind there are many caveats, including but not limited to:

It uses a 1,354 acre estimated perimeter as the ignition file.
Size and location may not be accurate.
No barrier files were used.
Anticipate fire spread burning into the low probability surfaces early in the 7 day analysis period due to drought, critically low live and dead fuel moistures and forecasted gusty W-SW winds.
Model assumes no suppression action.
Model outputs represent the probability of each 120 meter pixel burning but NOT the probability of fire extent.

Again, it is very important to consider that the model assumes that no firefighters on the ground or the air will take any suppression action on the fire. And it assumes there are no barriers, such as surface streets or interstate highways.

The concentric circles of color represent the probability that the fire will reach those areas, with no suppression action and the other caveats. For example there is a 40 to 59 percent chance the fire will reach out into the yellow area, and only a 0.2 to 4.9 percent that it will reach the blue area.

Click the image below to see a larger version.