Founders Day Fire at Crater Lake National Park. Crater Lake is in the foreground. Undated NPS photo by Greg Funderburk.
The National Park Service is not suppressing a 98-acre fire at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. Instead, they are “managing it to achieve natural resource benefit objectives”. It is five miles north of the famous crater, a geologic feature formed by a volcano. The fire started August 25 and for a while it could not be detected by the MODIS satellite, but recently the activity has increased making possible the data in the image below. Today September 16, the fire is one mile outside of a Red Flag Warning area to the east.
3-D Map of the Founders Day Fire, looking south to Crater Lake. The dots represent heat detected by a satellite at 2:02 p.m. September 16, 2014. They are accurate to within a mile.
The lightning-caused fire was discovered on the 98th anniversary of the founding of the National Park Service. Hence, the name.
The Meadow Fire in Yosemite National Park was “managed” for several weeks, burning only 19 acres, until it took off. As of today it has spread to 4,772 acres and is being suppressed at a cost to date of $4.9 million. The incident management team is calling it 80 percent contained.
Crater Lake, looking northeast on July 30, 2014. Photo by Bill Gabbert.
Investigators have determined that target shooting was the cause of the fire. The fire has burned 4,101 acres and the incident management team is calling it 30 percent contained.
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(Originally published at 8:37 p.m. PDT September 15, 2014)
The 36 Pit Fire 10 miles southeast of Estacada along highway 224 in Oregon has burned 2,300 acres since it started on September 13. The area is under a Red Flag Warning and evacuations are under way.
Here is some raw video of the why OR 224 is closed due to the 36 Pit Wildfire burning right along the highway. Even the guardrail is on fire. The wildfire is also causing trees to fall and rocks to slide into the highway. The smoke is so thick in some spots you can’t even see the road ahead. OR 224 will remain closed for the safety of travelers and those fighting the wildfire.
Division Supervisor Mike Carlson lowers a fusee on the Rowena Fire 8-9-2014. Photo by Mike McMillan.
The Oregon Department of Forestry has posted dozens of fire-related photos on their Flickr account. These three, taken by Mike McMillan, show ignition techniques during a burnout operation on the Rowena Fire, August 9, 2014.
Lighting an ignition device on the Rowena Fire, photo by Mike McMillan. Division Supervisor Mike Carlson flings an ignition device on the Rowena Fire. Photo by Mike McMillan.
What other creative ignition techniques have you seen on fires?
DC-10s, Tankers 910 and 911, at Medford. Photo by Kristin Biechler.
The U.S. Forest Service set up a portable air tanker base at the Medford Airport in southern Oregon to augment the existing air tanker base, enabling it to service Very Large Air Tankers in addition to the smaller tankers. Below is as press release from the agency:
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“Release Date: Aug 25, 2014 Medford, Oregon
Contact: Virginia Gibbons, (541) 618-2113
During recent fire activity in the Rogue Valley, many residents have noticed larger aircraft flying in to support firefighting efforts than was possible in past years.
This increased capacity with aircraft is due to the Rogue Valley International Medford Airport and the US Forest Service working together to make improvements to the taxiway and the ramp, allowing for the larger planes. Starting in fire season 2014, two fire retardant airtanker bases are now in operation; the main base that is operated by the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest and the Oregon Department of Forestry, and also the new portable Very Large Airtanker (VLAT) base.
The Medford Airtanker Base (MATB) is now able to accommodate all types of airtankers, including “next generation” air tankers (MD87, BAE146, RJ85, Coulson C130Q), and Modular Aerial Firefighting Systems or “MAFFS”, which are military C130s equipped with slide-in retardant tanks.
Next Gen airtankers are newer, faster, less maintenance and provide more pay load compared to the piston-powered legacy fleet of airtankers. Next Gen airtankers have a cruise speed of at least 346 when fully loaded and can hold over 3,000 gallons of retardant. The VLATs hold up to 11,600 gallons of retardant.
“The new ramp improvements, along with the portable VLAT base, are quickly proving to be a significant asset to firefighting efforts across the state of Oregon and Northern California, as well as to Southwest Oregon,” said Medford Air Tanker Base Manager Lonnie Allison.
The two DC-10s (T-910 and T-911) using the Medford VLAT bases are the largest airtankers flying in the nation. The Medford VLAT base is the only base in Oregon that can reload the DC-10’s. Airtankers play an important role in wildfire suppression, particularly during initial attack, by reducing the intensity and rate of spread of wildfires so that firefighters on the ground can safely construct containment lines.
As an example of the increased capacity at MATB, On August 9, the two ATB’s were able to support two large fires in Northern California (Beaver and July Complexes) with the VLAT (T-911) and six other airtankers. Together, these two ATB’s delivered almost 90,000 gallons of retardant to the fires. Approximately 40,000 gallons of retardant were pumped out of the main ATB on 21 airtanker loads and 50,000 gallons out of the VLAT base on 7 airtanker loads.
Now that Medford has two ATB’s, they can reload both the VLATs and other airtankers at the same time. Between VLAT reloads, the ATB is able to divert airtankers from the main ATB to the VLAT base, making both bases more efficient, with quicker load and return times to the fires.
Another recent example of enhanced airtanker support was for the Rogue River Drive fire, which was threatening 130 homes between Sam’s Valley and Shady Cove. On August 11, approximately 20,000 gallons of fire retardant was dropped via seven loads provided by two airtankers. Later that afternoon, both air bases were used to deliver 70,000 gallons of retardant via 33 loads provided by six airtankers; with 21 loads out of the main base and 11 loads out of the portable VLAT base.
On the morning of August 12, 12,000 gallons of fire retardant was dropped via four loads provided by two airtankers to the Grey Back Complex. During the same afternoon, 6,000 gallons of fire retardant was dropped via five loads provided by two airtankers to the Delta Fire in California. The combined total of retardant delivered to fires in southern Oregon and northern California on August 12 totaled approximately 90,000 gallons via 42 loads provided by 8 airtankers delivered to three fires.
The total amount of fire retardant that has been pumped from the two airtanker bases in fire season 2014 is approximately 500,000 gallons; with approximately 420,000 gallons from the main airtanker base and approximately 75,000 gallons from the portable VLAT air base. The 10-year average at MATV for annual fire retardant use is 235,000 gallons per year. With the increased capacity, the Medford Airtanker Base has already doubled the average of retardant for fire season 2014 that is typically pumped for an entire fire season.
Airport Director Bern Case said, “I am thrilled with the tremendous relationship that has been developed with the Medford Airtanker Base and the Rogue Valley International Airport. Working together, we have made a great resource even better. These improvements benefit all in the region.” “
DC-10s, Tankers 910 and 911, at Medford. Photo by Kristin Biechler.
Kristin Biechler sent us these photos that she and Dave Clemens shot at the Medford, Oregon Airport (map) over the last few days. She said her house is directly under the tankers’ flight path to the Happy Camp and Beaver Fires in northwest California. The planes depart MFR, she explained, bank west, and mostly follow Highway 238 toward Jacksonville and out to Applegate Reservoir and into California.
A P2V (Tanker 07) and a DC-10 at Medford. Photo by Kristin Biechler. Neptune’s BAe-146s, Tankers 01 and 10, at Medford. Photo by Kristin Biechler. Tanker 910, a DC-10, at Medford. Photo by Dave Clemens. Tanker 101, an MD-87, at Medford. Photo by Dave Clemens. Tanker 101, an MD-87, at Medford. Photo by Dave Clemens.
The spread of a fire with an odd name, the Oregon Fire at Weaverville, California, was slowed with the help of a prescribed fire completed eight months earlier. The fire, 30 miles west of Redding, was aggressively attacked soon after it was reported at 4:53 p.m. PDT on August 24 with 16 engines, 9 hand crews, 5 helicopters, 3 dozers, and 9 air tankers, including both DC-10 Very Large Air Tankers, each carrying 11,900 gallons of fire retardant.
The combination of these suppression forces and the fact that the head of the fire burned up against the Five Cent prescribed fire from November, 2013 kept the number of structures burned to only one, even though it was burning in the wildland-urban interface of Weaverville. The fire spotted across the prescribed fire, burning an additional 18 acres before it was stopped.
As of August 28, the fire is listed at 580 acres with 95 percent containment.
Tim Ritchely contributed the above map (we added the text in white and yellow as well as the arrows). He told us:
Flame lengths were observed at 6+ feet in the oak woodland as the fire approached the Five Cent Rx with a rate of spread exceeding 20 chains per hour and then dropped immediately to the ground upon entering the treated areas and basically halted in its tracks… The DC-10s and BA-146 were both used effectively at keeping the fire north of the structures from the ignition point. Helicopters were used east of Weaver Bally road in conjunction with dozers and crews working above the residences until dark.
A burnout on the Sunnyside Turnoff Fire in 2013. InciWeb photo.
It turns out that bragging on social media about starting a wildfire can lead to a prison sentence.
On July 22, 2013, two days after throwing a firecracker into vegetation to start a fire so her firefighter friends would not be “bored”, Sadie Renee Johnson, 23, wrote on her Facebook page: “Like my fire?”
It grew to become the 51,480-acre Sunnyside Turnoff Fire on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Oregon, the 15th largest fire in the United States in 2013.
Ms. Johnson pleaded guilty on May 19 to the crime of setting brush and timber on fire.
The Department of Justice said she admitted that she was riding as passenger in a car on Route 3 near Sunnyside Drive when she used a lighter to light a small firework, then tossed it out the passenger window into the brush along the side of the road.
The National Interagency Fire Center reported that the estimated costs of suppressing the fire was $4 million. Prosecutors said the approximate cost for the Bureau of Indian Affairs was $7,901,973. According to the law, Ms. Johnson is required to pay full restitution.
Ms. Johnson is being held at the Columbia County Jail, awaiting sentencing scheduled for September 3. Prosecutors said Johnson faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a fine of $250,000, and three years of supervised release.
The map shows the lightning strikes that were recorded in the western United States during the 24-hour period that ended at 6 a.m. MDT, August 12, 2014.
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.
