Category: 2011 Fire Season

Living in Paradise – responsibility

Living here, in the paradise of Big Sur carries responsibilities. I have my share – and that does not include my full time job. We live here for many reasons, and we give back to the community, mostly, without either renumeration nor recognition, and that is as it should be. We live here because we are nurtured and because we are drawn to this place, and this place is drawn to us.

I’ve lived here a long time, and one thing I’ve noticed … everyone is willing to pitch in and help start, set up, get things rolling. When it is all done? Who is here to help clean up? For some people, that is their life’s work, but for others, that is the last thing on their mind.

Soon, we will become too busy to reflect on what it means to live here. The summer tourist season is upon us, the traffic causes us to pause, but even more importantly, the fire season is about to arrive. We all need to be aware, alive, and awake.

Please, pay attention, report what needs to be reported on the campfire realm, and watch out for one another. It is the time of awareness once again. Another fire was reported today on the other side of the Santa Lucias. It is just beginning, and we need to keep an eye out on our place in this world.

Highway Fire – SLO Co.

6:15 pm – It is up to 150 acres and Highway 41 between Shandon and Creston has been shut down, due to the fire.

5:30 pm – This is on Highway 41 near Shandon. One engine reports the fire has hit the highway, another reports one structure threatened and access problems. Cal-Fire has thrown a lot of resources on this fire this afternoon, including a nice little airshow. There was another near San Marcos Rd. and Nacimiento Lake, but resources sent there have been diverted to the Highway Fire. I probably won’t provide continuous coverage unless it gets away from them, which is not sound like it is going to do, although another report I have is that there is some wind on this one.

For those who like the details, here are some: At scene AA 340, T74, T75, T76, 3461, 3465, 3468, 3477, 3482, E31, WT43, D3441, H527. En route 3469, 3470, ATA 7574 and 1 addtl tanker

This is on CDF Command 1, Tac 8

BTW, AA is air attack; T is tanker; E is engine; WT is water tender; H is Helicopter, and ATA I do not know. Those without letters are presumably engines. 😉

Wildfire & beetle infested trees

The USFS commissioned a study which revealed (not surprisingly) that beetle infested trees burn faster, hotter, and spread embers farther than healthy pine trees.

“HELENA, Mont.—The red needles of a tree killed in a mountain pine beetle attack can ignite up to three times faster than the green needles of a healthy tree, new research into the pine beetle epidemic has found.
The findings by U.S. Forest Service ecologist Matt Jolly are being used by fellow ecologist Russ Parsons to develop a new model that will eventually aid firefighters who battle blazes in the tens of millions of acres from Canada to Colorado where forest canopies have turned from green to red from the beetle outbreak.

The new model incorporates a level of detail and physics that doesn’t exist in current models, and it is much more advanced in predicting how a wildfire in a beetle-ravaged region will behave, Parsons said.

“It gives you so much more information about what to expect,” he said. “Are these people safe here or should they run away? If we put a crew on the ground here, can they make it to the top of the ridge in ample time?”

Many communities in the Rocky Mountain West have beetle kill forests in some proximity.

And the new research dispels the notion that beetle-killed trees present no greater fire danger than live ones, a theory that had gained traction after a couple of wet, cool summers tamped down fire activity in the region, Jolly said.

On the contrary, beetle-killed trees can hold 10 times less moisture than live trees, Jolly found. That means they not only ignite more quickly than live trees, but they burn more intensely and carry embers farther than live trees, Jolly said.”

For the rest of the article, see this link: Sunday’s Monterey Herald.

I was just posting to Firefighter blog how it is fast approaching the time for me to make the seasonal change in my blog from winter/spring weather to summer/fall fires. I will start to make that transition this month, change the links to the right for my fire watch links, a bit at a time. Some links span the entire year, and will remain.