Category: Fire Season

Fire East of Soledad

2:30 pm – KION reports:  SOLEDAD, Calif. – Multiple fires have been sparked in South Monterey County.

According to Soledad Fire officials, a two acre fire was likely started by lightning strikes just after 2p.m. Monday.

Currently, they are fighting the blaze by air and ground.

There are reports of another fire also sparked by lightning in King City.

Strong thunderstorms made their way through Gonzales and towards Salinas just after 2 p.m. Lightning and gusty winds over 40 mph and small hail are possible as the storm rolls through.

2:15 pm – I can see it from the 101. It is behind the first ridge, maybe in the Pinnacles. I will look for further. Cal Fire is just off the 101 trying to figure out how best to get there.

Margarita Fire

8:30 pm – high winds, but good rain on this fire.

8 pm – rain is coming down pretty good in Paso Robles right now. Hopefully, it will hit this fire! Also reported to be coming down hard in Arroyo Grande. It is heading here, so I need to go close a bunch of windows.

7:15 pm – 150 acres

6 pm – additional for the fire on Pozo Rd. …Eng. 8965, 1 eng. Paso, 1 eng. 5 cities , an WT21 and WR 57. SLO City just sent an engine, and there are now 3 AT working it.

5:30: Veg. Fire Hwy 58 at West Pozo Rd. First engine at scene reporting 50 to 100 acres potential for 2000 acres. B3418 requesting additional AT’s and 5 additional engines. Going to be tough to get any air support, as helicopters are currently unavailable. And that crazy wind event that blew through Santa Barbara, then Santa Maria, may make its way north tonight.

5:00 pm – CHP reports a brush fire.

Friend send me this: “Just had a veg response for Pozo Rd. an Santa Margarita Lake Rd. ….B3418/3422, T75, Tanker an Helo o/o, Engs. 14, 42, 40, 3480, 3468, 3467, 4684, 3428, 7596, WT50, D3441 an 34E1, Cuesta crews 4 an 5”

Missy alerting on Thunder

4:32 pm – Immediate evacuation of the Alamo Fire burn area due to expected flash floods. Significant damage in Santa Barbara Harbor due to the high winds. Flash flood warning for SLO Co and Southern Monterey County as well. AA 340 just sent to Santa Barbara for a search & rescue mission.

4:00 pm – I can’t hear a thing, but Missy? She has come to sit by my feet under my desk, a behavior she only exhibits for thunder and gunshots. I also got a weather alert for severe thunderstorms in Santa Barbara, and apparently that is happening now. SLO is expected to get thunderstorms as well. This is what KSBY in SLO says:

“The Central Coast is looking at another day of heat combined with the threat of continued isolated showers and thunderstorms. Tropical storm Lidia will shift north while expanding coverage today. The Central Coast should expect increasing mid to high level subtropical clouds, rain showers and chance of thunderstorms Sunday evening into Tuesday morning. About 1/3 inch of rain is expected for many locations over three days.”

This is not good news as there are fires throughout California threatening homes. There are too many to list. Two just started this afternoon, Mission Fire in North Fork, south of Bass Lake and Oakhurst, and Peak fire in Bootjack, near Mariposa.  Structures already lost in both, and people can’t evacuate from one housing area. The La Tuna in LA has caused the evacuation of parts of Burbank, Glendale, and LA.

Stay alert and aware. It is a bad weekend.

Weather West CA temps map for Sat

Daniel West, weather forecaster extraordinaire issued this map late Thursday.

IMG_3134

Look at those temps! “Why is it always so hot on big weekends?” the fire chief, Martha Karstens, bemoaned. This is critical fire weather folks. No campfires, no matches, no cigarettes, and as one visual says:

IMG_3135

Honestly, this community cannot survive another big one this close to the Soberanes. We have another heavy winter ahead of us, and we haven’t yet recovered from this double whammy. Please, help us by being vigilant and reporting any and all campfires.

Vegetation fire early this am on John K’s property

As some of you already know, there was a fire early this am in the eucalyptus grove on John K’s property (don’t ask me to spell it. I can’t.) back behind the deli, sorta, south of Rancho Rico, and the BSVFB got the call out. I got a notification at about 2:30 am from a local (I was up as it was too hot to sleep) and others woke from the smell of smoke. I decided not to post then for many reasons – no need to panic, wanted additional information, etc. and I was right. By this morning, it was a done deal. 14 BSVFB members were on scene in no time and had it under control. According to WildCAD LPNF members were also dispatched. Now is a good time to make a donation to our local fire brigade. 😘

Wildfire, Arroyo Seco

5:30 pm – HT 793 now back on base and available for the next fires, which tells me this one is in wrap up mode. Whew.

5 pm – a friend just told me HT793 was committed to a wildfire in Arroyo Seco. I found this on WildCAD-LPF:

08/24/2017 16:35 LPF-2499
New Wildfire 46360 ARROYO SECO RD . DIV1LPF E15LPF 4X4 E319LPF . . .

Saturday Morning in the ‘Hood

First off,  let me thank and congratulate the USFS and the MCSO. There were NO campers late Saturday morning in ANY turnout on Nacimiento Road. We saw only this one tent, well off the road, and the corresponding car in a small dirt turn out. Rock Knocker thinks it was within the 300 ft. Limit, but I’m not so sure.

IMG_1685

Before we got to this point, there was a truck pulling a travel trailer that stopped in the middle of Nacimiento Rd. Just befor the Ranger Station on the east side of Nacimiento. He was fixing his chain, his lights, his trailer brakes or something. To his credit, he did stop by a turn out that allowed others to get by –  barely on his read end, but all but large trucks could get by.

IMG_1683

And then, up Plaskett – a large group camping at Turkey Flats who were putting out a campfire at 11:50 am. We stopped and told them of the $5000 fine, and they laughed and continued drinking their beer. Note the shovel in the guy’s hands.

IMG_1689

And the open beer cans on the log

IMG_1690

And the case of beer for later

IMG_1691

Rock Knocker got photos of all the license plate numbers, since they were on his side.

I called PV Station and sent emails to my USFS neighbors. They will be having  another campfire tonight unless they are stopped and cited, which I am hoping they will be.

Nacimiento Camping Prohibition goes into effect today.

Los Padres Prohibits Camping Along Nacimiento-Fergusson Road

GOLETA, Calif., August 11, 2017– Los Padres National Forest officials today announced that dispersed camping along the Nacimiento-Fergusson Road (Forest Road No. 22S01) on the Monterey Ranger District is prohibited under a new Forest Order. This prohibition is effective immediately, and will be strictly enforced due to public health and safety concerns.
This Forest Order will remain in effect through August 10, 2018, and violations of the Order are punishable by a fine of $5,000 and/or six months in jail.
The recent closures on State Highway 1 due to storm-related slides, along with the failure of the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge, have led to concentrated public camping use along Nacimiento-Fergusson Road. The volume of dispersed, roadside camping along the Nacimiento-Fergusson Road has significantly increased to the point where the public are placing tents and recreational vehicles in pull-outs designed for vehicles to allow oncoming traffic to safely pass. Visitors will often use their vehicles to protect their sites at night, which partially obstructs the roadway, causing traffic and camping conflicts and related public safety concerns.
The Forest Order extends along the right-of-way of Nacimiento-Fergusson Road from State Highway 1 west to mile post 10.3. Dispersed camping is prohibited within a 300-foot buffer that extends from the road’s center line.
Visitors are reminded that Los Padres is currently in Level III fire restrictions, under which recreational target shooting and dispersed campfires outside of established campgrounds are not permitted.
For more information, please contact the Monterey District Office at (831) 385-5434.

Country Fire in Southern MoCo.

Fire stopped at 82 acres. Mop up to continue for several hours.

6:40 pm – all Paso’s 4 tankers are now committed to this fire.

6:20 pm – It is a BEU Cal-Fire fire: Southern BEU, Cross Country Rd / Vineyard Canyon. 40 acres RROS (Rapid Rate of Spread) this is NE of the San Miguel area, or east of King City. SLU has also sent resources, including a couple tankers and a number of engines, etc.

Two Brush Fires off Highway 58

2:45 pm – Red Fire is up to 500 acres, but the IC just canceled one aircraft and put others on load and hold, so sounds like they are getting the upper hand on this one. Thankful. Now, we have to watch out through tomorrow for more lightening.

12:30 pm – IC for Red incident just reported LP going to a unified command and that fire activity has increased substantially. Unified means combined with Cal Fire and LPF as there are pockets of private property along the 58 corridor. They’ve added some more aircraft to the fire….HT 793, also several tankers.

Noon: The Red incident is at 80 acres and spotting.

LPF has 6 Tankers on order for the incident. Fire is running west. This is all brush and grass country, further west from Redhill, you get into heavy tall brush.

Tanker 103, 105 from Porterville on order. The Camatta Fire has retardant around 50% of the fire, so releasing one tank to Red, who requested 6.

IC is our very own Luke Krenkle.

11:27 am – looks like a possible third(?) on Cow Calf Highway? And a fourth(?) possible at 58 and La Panza?

Also from CHP:

Incident: 00076 Type: Road/Weather Conditions Location: Us101 N / San Marcos Rd Loc Desc: US101 N AT SAN MARCOS RD Lat/Lon: 35.722038 -120.697718
Detail Information
11:21 AM 1 [1] 9-CZP1 ADVSD OF LIGHTNING IN THE AREA // CLOSE TO TOUCHING THE GROUND

11:15 – Red Fire has these resources: C31LPF BC32LPF E16LPF 4X4 E31LPF 4X4 E335LPF E337LPF E47LPF 4X4 HEL530LPF PAT18LPF Q WT16SHF WT5LPF. On Camatta: 40-50 acres moderate rate of spread in grass and brush on the camatta incident

Lead Plane came out of Fresno,

There are 2 incidents, the first is the LPF-Red hill fire. This is in the area of Highway 58 and Redhill road, La Panza area which is the cutoff from Navajo Flats Campground to the 58. The second incident is the SLU Camatta, which is further west on the 58, but not by much. Also in what would most would call the La Panza area.

11 am – Two brush fires, probably started by lightening, started around 10:30 am. The first is near Red Hill, is called the Red Fire on FRA (Federal Responsibility Area – LPNF) and is 5 acres and the second is near Shell Creek and is called the Camatta Fire on SRA and is 40 acres. More as I get it.