Alexander Mountain fire has grown to around 2000 acres overnight. Highs down in Loveland forecast to push 100F today and mid to high 90's the rest of the week. Also - red flag warning for this afternoon.
Fack.
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Alexander Mountain fire has grown to around 2000 acres overnight. Highs down in Loveland forecast to push 100F today and mid to high 90's the rest of the week. Also - red flag warning for this afternoon.
Fack.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...f28c275397.jpgQuote:
Originally Posted by skaredshtles
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This was yesterday into last night behind the house. Can confirm it’s hot as balls and dry, wind is just ok but the evac areas keep creeping closer to west part of town. Another one apparently just started in Boulder county, near Lyons I believe.
Hoping for the best, but if anybody here ends up being affected by these fires and needs support feel free to PM me.
Many of you know I lost everything aside from the clothes I was wearing and the car I evacc'ed in during the Marshall fire in '21. I definitely don't have all the answers for dealing with fire losses, but I now know more than anybody would want to about recovery resources, insurance, tax implications etc.
Concerned about the strain and burnout on the hotshot crews who are fighting so much for so long.
Latest report is 3500+ acres.Quote:
Originally Posted by thedude2340
It’s a serious and almost unavoidable component of hotshot life. But at least the pay is really bad.Quote:
Originally Posted by cat in january
https://www.esquire.com/news-politic...ting-hotshots/
https://grist.org/wildfires/federal-...nia-wildfires/Quote:
In the peak of fire season, around the month known as "Snaptember," emotions tend to spin out. As fire seasons grow more intense, so do their effects on firefighters. In early 2020, Aaron Humphrey, the respected superintendent of the neighboring El Dorado Hotshots, published a resignation letter addressed to his crew. In it, he described how worsening wildfires had helped to break down his personal life. "The day the fire tornado came and everyone did the best they could I lost the mental fight," he wrote in reference to 2018's Carr fire, which burned into Redding, California. "I can't describe it in words but from that moment on I was different. I became someone I don't recognize and pretended a lot.... For the first time in my career I considered just driving the crew home. I thought about quitting. The past incidents and guilt and sorrow all hit me at once. I felt dead inside that night. I wanted my wife and family and a different life. Instead I sucked it up…. By not being able to correctly express what I had felt and how bad it was actually distanced me from my family more. I became an even worse husband and father. I feel like I was leading multiple lives. I needed real help."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...dfire-fightersQuote:
Among firefighters at the career stage most important to those agencies — those sharp, hardworking, and experienced enough to take on the responsibility of helping to run a crew— the myriad sacrifices the job requires increasingly outweigh its rewards. Public service and a dismal hourly rate can become fragile justifications for half-year chunks of absenteeism from the lives of spouses and children, not to mention the extreme toll on the bodies and minds of forestry technicians. Chronic injuries abound, as does psychological damage. I can’t cite hard numbers because the federal government does not compile them, but among wildland firefighters, there is ubiquitous acknowledgment of problematically high rates of divorce, chronic sleep problems, depression, PTSD, and suicide.
Quote:
Fire seasons are now, on average, 78 days longer than they were in 1970, causing additional exposure to stress and trauma for the thousands of wildland firefighters working across the country. In many parts of the west, warmer temperatures, severe droughts, historic fire suppression, poor forest management and a growing number of people living in the wildland-urban interface have created an unsustainable crisis.
In 2020 alone, Colorado experienced its three largest wildfires in state history, and more than 4m acres (16,000 sq km) burned in California, where the August Complex fire was named the state’s largest ever. This year is on pace to be even more destructive.
Fighting wildfires is a physically exhausting and risky job that requires extended time away from home and regular confrontations with hazardous situations. It’s also not particularly well compensated: entry-level federal wildland firefighters earn a base pay below $14 an hour. In comparison, the same job with the California department of forestry and fire protection nets around $26 per hour. (In general, municipal and state firefighting agencies tend to pay better and offer more robust behavioral health services.)
Federal wildland firefighters earn low pay for a job that is dangerous and exhausting.
Many wildland firefighters are seasonally employed, working for six or so months a year. Depending on their positions, they may work 16 hours a day, up to 14 days at a time, with two mandatory days off between “rolls” (their term for those two-week shifts). Sometimes, calls come in so quickly that firefighters don’t have time to kiss their spouses or children goodbye. Sometimes they fight fires – and watch houses burn – in their own communities.
These firefighters rely on 1,000 hours or more of overtime and hazard pay to cover their bills throughout the year. Some sleep in their cars during the season because housing is too expensive in the areas where they work. In June, Joe Biden called firefighter pay “unacceptable”. His comment was part of an announcement that some federal firefighters would receive temporary pay raises to at least $15 an hour this year.
The steady accumulation of mental strains – financial stress, a demanding work environment, isolation from loved ones and the pressure to manage public expectations – creates the perfect storm for mental health problems to emerge.
“The more traumas that you have layered on top of each other, the more likely that you will develop PTSD or depression,” says Dr Angie Moreland-Johnson, a clinical psychologist and co-director of the Center for Firefighter Behavioral Health in Charleston. “Wildland firefighters are seeing close calls and really scary situations, so if they’re having those layer on top of each other, then that risk for mental health concerns just keeps doubling.”
5000+ now. [emoji51]Quote:
Originally Posted by skaredshtles
And this morning... [emoji35]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...1db4cb770a.jpg
Is there an all-out fire ban in Colorado yet? Because if not, there needs to be ASAP.
Mother fucker. I hope all my friends in Lyons and PWS are ok.Quote:
Originally Posted by skaredshtles
It doesn't work like that. I don't believe there is any state wide jurisdiction.Quote:
Originally Posted by smmokan
Most people I know that have lived through fire really consider campfires something you kinda don't get in the middle of summer. But for many campers, its not negotiable. I take a lot of dirt bike rides Sunday morning. I've started taking this collapsible bucket to put out fires.Quote:
As our neighboring counties on the front range have experienced fires the last several days, we have received some questions regarding how we evaluate and implement fire restrictions in Grand County.
Grand County continues to use our scientific fire matrix to assess our need for fire restrictions. This scientific approach utilizes data specific to Grand County as data can vary geographically. The data is trending upward and the Sheriff and fire officials are closely monitoring the data as it changes. The latest data is scheduled to arrive towards the end of this week and the Sheriff is planning to discuss these updates with the Grand County Board of County Commissioners during their regular board session on Tuesday, August 6th.
So short story. People don't give no fucks about no fire ban.
How everyone here is doing ok. All these fires are brutal to hear about.
I’m out of town (Denver) but what is the view west like? I assume you can see all three fires lined up south to north? That must be eerie.
I could see the pyrocumulous from the Fraser River Valley yesterday evening.
Wife took this north of Lafayette yesterday.
Attachment 497229
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Does the Sheriff drive around in a brush truck and cosplay as a firefighter?Quote:
Originally Posted by Foggy_Goggles
Murdered out Suburban, but yes he's got one of those yellow shirts.
Grand County experienced the East Troublesome Fire. The community gets a bit edgy when the danger is elevated.
Sent from my Turbo 850 Flatbrimed Highhorse
Doesn't look like there currently is: https://dfpc.colorado.gov/firerestrictionQuote:
Originally Posted by smmokan
A lot of the Front Range localities appear to have some sort of ban in place.
Copy. I'm going to get a duty vest and then go speak to city council on the dangers of gang violence.Quote:
Originally Posted by Foggy_Goggles
To be clear, I'm not a big fan of our Sheriff. But staying in his lane and letting the wildfire professionals do there thing does seem to be one of his strengths.
De-escalation, marksmanship, understanding the 2a rights of the citizens, serving and protecting...not so much.
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The 380000 acre park fire in Norcal seems to have slowed down considerably, I'm guessing because it has run into the 900,000+ acre Dixie Fire (2021) burn.
Getting pretty tired of smoke. We've got a long haul ahead of us with smoke this year.
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Pretty depressing it’s only July 31st. I’m really starting to hate mid to late summer/early fall.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevo
Argh!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by J. Barron DeJong
There are predisaster solutions to this that are cheaper and healthier for all than high severity fires and suppression efforts.
driving west from Erie this morning, I couldn't see the Indian peaks at all, and could barely see any foothills.Quote:
Originally Posted by The SnowShow
It appears that the fire out by Deer Creek may be presently in the process of blowing the fuck up. :mad:
Facebook and instagram posts from fire folk have started ranting about a huge number of UTF (unable to fill) requests for experienced fireline supervisors and staff like dispatchers. This might hurt.
Shitty pay and unresolved burnout conditions will do that I guess.
https://media.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2l...brlS/giphy.gifQuote:
Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper
Looks that way from here in Ken Caryl.Quote:
Originally Posted by skaredshtles
Couple tanker planes just hit it, might have knocked it down a bit.
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We've been lucky so far this year and were lucky last after 2 really bad years, but I'll take the smoke over a 4 day public safety power outage. Not that we have a choice.
At least they stopped burning off the rice fields in the Sacramento Valley--funny how the Tule "fog" went away when they stopped burning. Bad enough dealing with smoke in the summer without having to deal with it in the winter as well.
The PNW has been sitting at PL 5 for what seems like a month. I'd imagine folks are having a hard time wrestling resources away now?Quote:
Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper
JHFC. Now there's a new fire up by The Fort in Morrison and another at Gross Res in Boulder County. :mad:
The National Preparedness Level is currently 5 (out of 5), so everyone’s gonna have a hard time getting resources. Nat’l PL 5 usually means going to the military to see what they can offer. Military retardant C-130s are already on line. The military can sometimes provide crews, but experienced and well-trained civilian firefighters are needed to train and oversee them…which could/probably be scarce.Quote:
Originally Posted by John_B
Looks like Colorado’s next in line for ass-kicking.
Daily Incident Management Situation Report
https://www.nifc.gov/nicc-files/sitreprt.pdf
Memories of the 60s & 70s for me in the Sacto Valley there.Quote:
Originally Posted by old goat
The scientists claim that 4-11 M acres burned in California every year before Spaniards came and banned indigenous peoples for burning.Quote:
Originally Posted by old goat
The state has a current goal of 1M ac per year.
Pretty sure that is due to climate change not burning. There was a ton of tule fog in bako and near the grapevine but no rice fields or burning goin onQuote:
Originally Posted by old goat
Maybe true in socal, but it is well recognized that the rice burning seriously exacerbated the natural fogs. Like the London fogs of the 19th C and beyond that killed people (10,000--12,000 in 1952.
They burned rice in London?
Tule fog isn’t as common anymore because of less ag pollution. It’s particulate matter that causes the fog. So burning rice stubble or any crop stubble, dust from disking or plowing fields, etc.
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley....9/2018JD029419
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Did the whole west burn every summer in the past like at any point in the 20th century or is this a new thing?
Although last year was a really good year for very little wildfire (at least in Utah/Wyoming where I'm at)