20,000 Acre wildfire

[Bill, KD0HG]

31 square miles now. Burning some 15 miles away from the QTH. Sheriff says no hope of containment.  Aircraft have come in from Canada to help. Spreading about 1-1/2 miles every hour. Several mountaintop radio stations have been knocked off the air, at the same site are all of the county's public safety repeaters, currently running last gasp on battery backup.
This might end up being the worst fire in our area history.

Picture looking north at 6 PM.

Bill

[K5WLF]

Been there, done that, Bill. Stanislaus Complex Fire in  Central CA Sierra Nevada mountains (1987). It's no fun. Stay safe and give us a SITREP when you can.

[John K5PRO]

We have a hot one going also, down near Ruidoso, NM. Lightning start, was 100 acres, then overnight 10,000, no 26,000 acres today. Its burning towards Ft Stanton, one of my fav haunts. Lots of evacs already, and ~36 structures (homes) gone. Many Texan's have summer places there. The west is a tenderbox right now, no rain, and <10% humidity, windy. Hope that one in Larimer County, CO gets under some control soon.

[KF1Z]

This is yesterday's mapping.
Only 7400 acres when this was done.

Over 20k acres now

-----------

Basic Information
Incident Type.... Wildfire

Cause
Under Investigation, Suspected Lightning


Date of Origin
Saturday June 09th, 2012 approx. 05:54 AM


Location
appx. 15 miles west of Fort Collins

Incident Commander
Will Briggs


Current Situation

Total Personnel
250

Size
20,000 acres

Fire Behavior
Active fire, wind driven
 
Significant Events
Evacuations in place .
 
Outlook
Planned Actions


Eight 20-person crews and other firefighters on scene Sunday. Air resources on scene include: 5 Single Engine Air Tankers (SEAT); 2 Type 1 Helitankers; 2 Type 3 Helicopters; 3 Heavy Air Tankers; Air Attack; and Lead Plane. Approximately 15 engines are on scene. A Type 1 Management Team has been ordered and are expected to take over management Monday morning. Additional ground, air, and engines have been ordered.
 


Growth Potential
High
 
Terrain Difficulty
areas of rough terrain and beetle killed trees
 
Remarks
Small animals can go to the Larimer County Humane Society and large animals can go to The Ranch. Weather is expected to be cooler today, but winds of 15-20 mph with gusts up to 40 mph out of the northwest are expected. As of 3 p.m. winds are pedominately coming out of the west. Single digit relative humidity is also expected.
 

[Bill, KD0HG]

I love hearing those big old round engine tankers slowly flying by.
Yes, the West is a tinderbox this spring, as bad as 2002 was. There are hundreds of square miles of beetle-killed trees, standing kindling that no one has had the resources to deal with. The smoke is now so thick that the XYL might bail out of work in Ft. Collins today.

Bill

[KF1Z]

So far in the US this year 2,775,000 fewer acres have burned, than last year at this time.

Of course over 2M of that was in Texas alone.

The ten year average now is 1,404,000 acres

So far this year the acreage from large wildfires is 870,000.

[Steve - K4HX]

Just think how much burned before we started putting out the fires.

[K7EDL]

Im sorry for all of you who are suffering from the fires.
Have you heard the adds on tv radio etc where they say 90% of the forest fires are caused by man? I want to know where they got that statistic and what the person has been smoking who made it up.

Eric

[KF1Z]

Just think how much burned before we started putting out the fires.

People get all up in arms, because they decide to build their houses in the middle of the woods.
Woods that do not get managed properly to avoid too much dead and down fuels.

Forests cannot survive long without fire.

Several species of plants and trees cannot reproduce, without fire.

Some of these areas wouldn't be in the danger they are now, if more fires were allowed to burn.
Many fires each year are allowed to burn in certain areas, and just monitored, not immediately put out.
Unfortunately, this is done only on Federal and some State owned lands.

[KF1Z]

The High Park fire is now over 36,000 acres

[Bill, KD0HG]

Im sorry for all of you who are suffering from the fires.
Have you heard the adds on tv radio etc where they say 90% of the forest fires are caused by man? I want to know where they got that statistic and what the person has been smoking who made it up.

Eric

On a micro scale, the last several large fires in this area were human-caused. One was due to a fellow grading with a tractor in dry grass, he hit rocks and the sparks ignited the area. No kidding, the dry cheatgrass around here goes up like a gasoline-soaked rag. Another recent fire was caused by a camper who spilled his alcohol stove. He tried to report it but no cell coverage where he was. The third recent fire was due to a dunderhead burning tree slash on his mountain property. The second most common cause seems to be lightning.
The largest fire in Colorado modern history was 10 years ago, SW of Denver. IIRC, 200,000 acres. It was caused by a distraught woman burning letters from her -ex in a fire pit. And she was a Forest Service employee. She did prison time for that one. Not to mention the usual fires caused by fireworks and the occasional power line falling down in a windstorm.

Other than for human activity and lightning, there ain't any other causes.

Bill

[KF1Z]

Last year, one of the biggest fires was caused by a fellow who tried to burn the
toilet paper he'd just wiped with on the side of the road.

He didn't want to litter!

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Pretty sure I drove through an area of the 2002 fire when I was out there in 2003 to pick up Barry's 300G down past Durango. We came right through Denver and headed SW. Came through a large area east of Wolf Creek pass IIRC that was all blackened and burned running up a hillside. You could see where the fire stopped. Didn't appear to have a fire line, so either fire tankers or something natural like rain.

Just think how much burned before we started putting out the fires.

Entire states and more. As mentioned, much of the problem today exists due to the intervention of man either in not letting fires burn through, or in building within the area and not keeping the vegetation in check around structures. California is famous for the latter.

And eventually we'll have another hurricane landfall that takes out a bunch of beachfront properties. I doubt either will improve AM operating conditions, though. 

[KF1Z]

And eventually we'll have another hurricane landfall that takes out a bunch of beachfront properties. I doubt either will improve AM operating conditions, though. 

What is the propagation effect of lots of soot ( carbon ) in the air?

[WA1GFZ]

Don't worry HUZ your tax dollars will rebuild stupidity

[K7EDL]

back during the depression, here in the PNW the locals would start forest fires just so they could earn money fighting them.   The forest service would show up and there would be the locals already lined up with shovels etc.     

There is a difference between wildfire and forest fire, to get the 90% they have to count all the brush fires, railroad fires etc.  Most forest fires are still caused by lighning. (just not those in highly populated areas.)

A good book is "a river runs through it and other stories"

The movie made out of "a river runs through it" started the fly fishing craze about 20 years ago, the other two short stories are great if you want a good read about how it used to be.

easy to find used or at your local library.

Eric

[Opcom]

It is a horror! Can you rent a dozer and clear a swath wide enough to protect your home?

[Bill, KD0HG]

It is a horror! Can you rent a dozer and clear a swath wide enough to protect your home?

To be clear, I am in no danger whatsover. I'm a good 15 miles from the fire. It's now something like 40,000 acres, one woman dead, maybe a hundred homes burned.  Zero containment. This morning visibility is about 1/4 mile, thick white smoke and an occasional cinder falling. The feds and local agencies are throwing everything they can at it. No chance of any rain in the near future.

There is another bad one in central NM.

Bill

[KF1Z]

Glad you are safe...

As of one hour ago ...  43,433  acres...    5% contained

Compare this map to the one I posted the other day!

[W3RSW]

Looking at some of the housing 'developments' burned out in these western fires, I see on TV that the tops of the trees all around the houses are still green.  Apparently most of the fires are not crowning but just flash through the underbrush and lower tree limbs when the terrain is fairly level.

Only on the steep mountain sides do I seem to see crowning of flames.  A very limited observation from TV but may have some validity.

I've fought a few fires in northern PA when younger (my old wa3ypi days in Wellsboro/Galeton/Marshlands).  We had to lug indian tanks up and down the mountains.  Ran my plows once to make a fire line.  Very backbreaking hauling 5 gals. and feeling usless when empty, urk.
The only nice thing was getting steak dinners paid by the commonwealth when finished. 

[John K5PRO]

The Little Bear Fire near Ruidoso, NM is now about 50% contained, as they had some favorable conditions. I think it has burned about 36,000 acres and 220 buildings. A lot of ranches and cabins there. No human life lost so far. A friend's cabin was less than a mile from the fire, when it was stopped. Its a lot more rural than the Colorado fire locale, both are fierce though.

[KF1Z]

NASA MODIS satellite image of the High Parkk fire.

[K5WLF]

I was talking to a friend of mine last night. He has a cabin out of Ruidoso NM that his granddad built and he's vacationed in and worked on over the years, first with his granddad, then with his dad and now on his own. I asked him if his cabin was OK; his answer was simply "I don't know". I'm hoping for the best for him.

[Art]

Hi Guys,
I'm near the foothills just east of Horsetooth. Yes, it has been and is a nasty fire. The pine beetle killed timber is burning fiercely. The only good part of this is the personnel and equipment is here to try to save as many homes as possible. That might not be the case if the wildfire was contained quickly and the fuel started burning again at a later date.
Thanks for all your concern and observations.
I have been volunteering with the ARES groups at the evacuation center and the incident command post and the firefighters deserve all the appreciation we can muster.
As I look out my west window now there is another plume of smoke coming from just west of me but it has turned from black sooty smoke to white. . . . that's a good sign.
We were not among the folks who were evacuated and count ourselves lucky (for the moment).
I'll try to report regularly.
73
Art 
W0BA

[Art]

Smoke in the air is thicker this morning. We lost some containment in the past several hours. Strong winds and 100 degree temps are definitely taking their toll. Estes Park also has a fire but that seems to be under control. It is possible that it started with a spark from the High Park fire.
John is working to get a squad ready (he is a Loveland police explorer) in case traffic control of the many tourists in Estes Park is required.
I expected a call from ARES yesterday afternoon for Estes Park communications but that proved to be unnecessary. We have sufficient resources for the time being.
73
Art