Wildfire 2021

Teens Hitting Burning Tennis Ball Started Destructive Martinez Fire: Investigators

Investigators determined a burning tennis ball being played with by three teenage boys started a fire that destroyed a Martinez home Wednesday afternoon.

The teens dug a pit in the backyard of a home on Arthur Road, started a fire, caught the tennis ball on fire and proceeded to play stick ball with it, according to the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District. One of the boys hit the burning ball into some dry brush, sparking a fire.

The flames quickly burned through the brush and spread to the home on Cambark Court, the fire district said.

The home, along with several vehicles and an array of items on the property, were destroyed.

Firefighters managed to keep the flames from spreading to nearby homes.

Due to the fire being an accident and the teens not having any prior criminal histories, they were released to their parents, the fire district said.

The case is being passed along to the Contra Costa County Juvenile District Attorney and the Youth Fire Setter program.

You thought last year was bad. Of course, there’s all sorts of variables and possibilities, but if you live in the west it seems like a good idea to make preparations and be careful.
https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content...ar-to-year.jpg

Dumb-assedry in effect.
Ilegal campfire cause of blaze in Santa Fe National Forest

I saw a Salt Lake Unified Fire Authority crummy in my upper Michigan town on Monday. I was at work in a commercial rig, but man I would have loved to chat with those guys and see wtf they’re doing here of all places.

We’re having intermittent fire weather days, and we had a little 40 acre fire that got everyone all bent out of shape, but as always it’s still a wet flat place with a ton of lakes and ponds and roads everywhere so…meh.

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Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper

You thought last year was bad. Of course, there’s all sorts of variables and possibilities, but if you live in the west it seems like a good idea to make preparations and be careful.
https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content...ar-to-year.jpg

Dumb-assedry in effect.
Ilegal campfire cause of blaze in Santa Fe National Forest

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That dark red spot in southern OR has about 600 acres burning right now with no containment. Been hot across the east side. Forecast for lightening tonight in Central OR.

And it’s barely June.
Hang on!

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Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper

You thought last year was bad. Of course, there’s all sorts of variables and possibilities, but if you live in the west it seems like a good idea to make preparations and be careful.
https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content...ar-to-year.jpg

Dumb-assedry in effect.
Ilegal campfire cause of blaze in Santa Fe National Forest

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Some areas of Eastern NM just got 3 times the June average monthly rainfall in one day.

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Originally Posted by Garth Bimble

Some areas of Eastern NM just got 3 times the June average monthly rainfall in one day.

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I’m in northern NM and it’s been raining here, enough to slow the advent of severe fire condition. Still the heavy fuels (called 1000 hour fuels because that’s how long it takes them to react to moisture) and live fuel moisture are really, really low. It’s unusual to get rain in NM this time of year, but I’m hoping it’ll keep up, at least for a while. <knock wood>

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Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper

I’m in northern NM and it’s been raining here, enough to slow the advent of severe fire condition. Still the heavy fuels (called 1000 hour fuels because that’s how long it takes them to react to moisture) and live fuel moisture are really, really low. It’s unusual to get rain in NM this time of year, but I’m hoping it’ll keep up, at least for a while. <knock wood>

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On Monday we got over three inches of rain at my house (North Valley) in 90 minutes....My garage flooded, and I had water pouring from a ceiling fan in my home office....Good times. I'm all for teh rainz, but for fuck sake can we spread it out a little????

So, anyone else already have to evacuate their home?

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Originally Posted by seano732

On Monday we got over three inches of rain at my house (North Valley) in 90 minutes....My garage flooded, and I had water pouring from a ceiling fan in my home office....Good times. I'm all for teh rainz, but for fuck sake can we spread it out a little????

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Heh. I was in ABQ for that storm, at the auto dealership. It was a full-on, frog-choking, turd-floater…with hail. Kind of refreshing. Sorry ‘bout the home issues - ‘the roof don’t leak, unless it rains.’

I've spent the last few weekends up in the Caribou Targhee NF near my home. Places that still had snow up high same time last year around 7500 ft are already dry. Creeks that were overflowing barely have a trickle. With all the deadfall, one good lightning strike, idiot camper or hot ATV/side by side driving off trail, it will go up in a blaze of glory. There is a lot of fuel that the Indian Creek Butte fire didn't reach three years ago.

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Originally Posted by ill-advised strategy

It’s maybe a can of worms we shouldn’t open, but most of the best (smart, shit-together, safe, funny) firefighters I worked with ran up against various brick walls and changed careers…. Simultaneously, some of the worst shitbirds I worked with stayed and moved on up. I can recall, at a few stages, feeling like there’s no way this could trend could end well.

In other news, we had a rare local fire here in Marquette, complete with helitack and atgs and a couple weird little float-SEATs ripping laps over to Lake Superior. Pretty neat. I was antsy as fuck during the IA…just all revved up with nowhere to go. The next morning when it was drizzling, I was glad for my current life where I didn’t have to get up at the asscrack of dawn to go dig up stumpholes in the rain all day.

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Sure is/was frustrating. The shitbirds know how never to be responsible for anything. I got a lot out of firefighting so making a career change was hard but worth it.

Looks like 20 miles of I-84 is closed in Oregon due to fire and smoke: https://www.koin.com/news/oregon/wil...ar-the-dalles/

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Originally Posted by ill-advised strategy

I saw a Salt Lake Unified Fire Authority crummy in my upper Michigan town on Monday. I was at work in a commercial rig, but man I would have loved to chat with those guys and see wtf they’re doing here of all places.

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Those guys get after it on severity deployments. We got a request for MN last month, have a single resource down in NM. I know Idaho Falls already has 2 severity deployments under their belts this year. Earliest I can remember.

If any of you get sent to this severity or rx or whatever orders are bringing resources to Upper Michigan, let me know…we can go get a beer next door

The Great Michigan Fire (actually a bunch of fires, mostly in the LP) burned 2.5M acres in 1871, killed 200 people.

I'm seeing red. Ugh.

https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...4c&oe=60DF9EC4

RIP to Tim Hart, smokejumper from West Yellowstone, working in NM. Died yesterday at the age of 36.

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Originally Posted by zion zig zag

RIP to Tim Hart, smokejumper from West Yellowstone, working in NM. Died yesterday at the age of 36.

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From a bad landing. Fucking sucks. RIP

https://wildfiretoday.com/2021/06/03...t-passes-away/

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Originally Posted by old goat

The Great Michigan Fire (actually a bunch of fires, mostly in the LP) burned 2.5M acres in 1871, killed 200 people.

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Pretty different nowadays with lots more roads and communications, aircraft, etc. Weather and fuels might be similar but the suppression scenario would never allow that kind of a sustained push.

Came here to post about the Columbia Gorge fire but someone already beat me to it.

Glad I got a new HEPA filter last month. High 90s in Portland first week of June is no bueno.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

Did towns in Michigan in the 1870’s have wood road surfaces and sidewalks?

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Originally Posted by ill-advised strategy

Pretty different nowadays with lots more roads and communications, aircraft, etc. Weather and fuels might be similar but the suppression scenario would never allow that kind of a sustained push.

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Obviously the resources available to fight fires are much much greater now than in 1871. Apparently sustained high winds were the big weather issue. That's when the Great Chicago Fire happened. My point was that wildfires can happen in Michigan, not just the west. According to Wikipedia's list of big fires there have been some whoppers in eastern Canada too. These huge fires were before it became policy to put out every small fire as quickly as possible.

I think a lot of the land that burned in Michigan in 1871 was private--logged over timberlands with big slash piles. In the west so much of the land that burns is federal and to a lesser extent state land, which does allow for a more coordinated and vigorous response.

I am not sure what point you are trying to make about the historic Fires of the Great North Woods of the late-1880s is -
the Chicago Fire (?) the northern Michigan Fire of 1871 (?)
the flora of northern Michigan ( lower peninsula ) and network of roadways are very different from 1871 --

could there still be a Big Fire in the upper midwest ? yes - And it would take at least two weather events And, ,,, probably a response failure
( see the Fire of northern minnesota in the last decade that burned twenty miles in a day ) ( that is a roadless area. northern Michigan ( l.p. ) has lots of roads. and 'managed' forest ... And a lot more people ( than in 1871 ) )

weather events - drought. And high Wind !

I appreciate the reminder and the History lesson - and I don't believe the Risk of catastrophic Fire is found in the midwest that still exists in the west.


Thank you. skiJ

( I do defer to i-as - he is the old Pro(fessional ) ! ! )

New NPS report finds last year's Castle Fire may have destroyed 10% of the world's Sequoias

I just drove through Camp Nelson and Sequoia Natl Monument last weekend where the fire burned through. It was pretty bad....

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-...?ocid=msedgdhp

Two Fires Sparked By Lightning Near Washington/Oregon Border Grow to Estimated 2,300 Acres; Third Fire Also Burning Southeast of Lewiston

https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.town...size=596%2C448

JOSEPH, OR - Lightning activity from thunderstorms passing through the area Thursday night and into Friday morning ignited multiple wildfires near the Washington/Oregon border as well as another southeast of Lewiston. Responding resources have successfully contained some of the ignitions, however others remain active and uncontained.

The Joseph County Fire (Photo above), initially reported on the morning of Friday, June 4 by the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR), is burning in steep rugged terrain in the Joseph Canyon area of northern Wallowa County, OR. Low humidity, warm temperatures and breezy winds hampered firefighting efforts Friday and the fire rapidly spready through the grassy vegetation within the canyon and cross over the state line into Washington. The fire continued to burn actively overnight into Saturday and is estimated to be approximately 2,000 acres in size.

The fire is burning on lands protected by the Oregon Department of Forestry and Bureau of Land Management. A local interagency Type 3 team will shadow firefighters today and transition management of the fire to the team around 6:00pm on Saturday.


A second fire, deemed the Dry Creek Fire, is also burning just east of the Joseph Canyon Fire. It is estimated to be 328 acres in size and is located solely on Wallowa-Whitman National Forest land.

All jurisdictions involved share common objectives in managing these fires, which is to fight the fires aggressively while maximizing the safety of the public and all fire staff involved. Due to the remote location and steep, rugged terrain, the fires are mostly being fought by air attack.

Rappelers, smoke jumpers and air tankers were brought in for initial suppression efforts. Three large airtankers dropped retardant along the perimeter of the Joseph Canyon Fire on Friday to help slow the growth. In addition to firefighter delivery, Type 2 helicopters were used to drop water on hot spots. There aerial resources will continue to support firefighters on the ground, as well as the addition of Single Engine Air Tankers. Active fire behavior is expected throughout Saturday with low humidity and increasing winds as a cold front passes through.

A third fire located southeast of Lewiston, ID has also been reported according to Nez Perce County Fire crews and the US Wildfire Activity Map. The map shows the fire to be located near Hamilton Canyon outside of the Slickpoo area. Additional details on that fire will be added to this post as soon as they become available.

https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.town...ze=1200%2C1723