Fire

[Metals406]

I firmly believe in the private sector in comparison to government employment.

It's been proven over and over again, that businesses have to do everything as close to right as possible to retain its customer base.

Unions and government employees, at every level, are usually overpaid for their level of knowledge, promoted through paperwork instead of skill, not held to the same fail/succeed standards, etc.

As just one example, a local government employed biologist destroyed an entire ecosystem of salmon. The salmon runs were epic! We had one of the world's largest gatherings of bald eagles during spawning.

After single handedly wiping out the salmon, he faced no judgment, no punishment, no fines or backlash. A simple 'oops', & business as usual. I guarantee a contracted biologist would have been fired, fined, & probably jailed.

There's also many reasons defense and tech are sub'd primarily to the private sector.

 

[BeatCJ]

I was at a retired firefighter's house yesterday. Our countywide burn ban has been moved up to July 1st. He had a small pile, burning limbs from having several doug-firs cut in his front yard. He was trimming the limbs, and feeding his pile. The wind switched on him, an ember jumped into his red slash, and all of a sudden it was a 1/4 of an acre. He was a tad shaken. At the same time, DNR was dealing with a 10 acre fire in red slash down near the Columbia, had a helicopter on a west side fire in early June.

 

[2dogs]

I was at a retired firefighter's house yesterday. Our countywide burn ban has been moved up to July 1st. He had a small pile, burning limbs from having several doug-firs cut in his front yard. He was trimming the limbs, and feeding his pile. The wind switched on him, an ember jumped into his red slash, and all of a sudden it was a 1/4 of an acre. He was a tad shaken. At the same time, DNR was dealing with a 10 acre fire in red slash down near the Columbia, had a helicopter on a west side fire in early June.

What is red slash? Our burn ban went into effect in April.

 

[_RJ_]

We're still at IPL Industrial Precaution Level 1.

-I. Closed Season
Fire season requirements are in effect. In addition to other fire prevention measures, a Fire Watch is required at this and all higher levels unless otherwise waived. -

 

[BeatCJ]

When the doug-fir needles are still on the limbs, but have dried and turned bright red. It's a local term, I guess.

Added Edit: I did some looking around, there are a few references. In this BLM Fuel Model publication HERE , they equate the behavior as similar to Fuel Type 4, Shrubs including chaparral.

 

[BeatCJ]

Had our first State Mobe of the year for the Cold Springs fire, up near where the Carlton Complex burned last year. Omak Chronicle Article
Google Maps link
I'm not sure the pointer is correct. Listed as 800 acres the last I saw. Had Red Flag warnings expire Friday.

 

[Metals406]

Too early!

 

[Joe46]

Just spent a couple of weeks in western Montana, and some time in Glacier NP. I'll try not to make this a political rant. When it burns this summer, and I have no doubt that it will, it will be bad. I understand the premise behind our national parks and keeping them "natural". But I have to wonder about people that travel from around the country or spends thousands of dollars coming from overseas to see our parks. I really have to wonder if they're going to enjoy seeing miles of burned dead snags. There is just so much cleanup that could been done and still retain the natural beauty of what visitors see, but of course it won't happen.

 

[madhatte]

4 calls on the Fort yesterday. 1 was about 100 acres. Heating up pretty quickly.

 

[Metals406]

Just spent a couple of weeks in western Montana, and some time in Glacier NP. I'll try not to make this a political rant. When it burns this summer, and I have no doubt that it will, it will be bad. I understand the premise behind our national parks and keeping them "natural". But I have to wonder about people that travel from around the country or spends thousands of dollars coming from overseas to see our parks. I really have to wonder if they're going to enjoy seeing miles of burned dead snags. There is just so much cleanup that could been done and still retain the natural beauty of what visitors see, but of course it won't happen.

I'm in Kalispell, & you're right.

Sent from my SCH-S738C using Tapatalk

 

[BeatCJ]

4 calls on the Fort yesterday. 1 was about 100 acres. Heating up pretty quickly.

They have had several 100 acre fire in the northeast region, too. The 1000 hour fuels are at late July dryness already. When our grasses and live fuels stop growing and dry out things will be on. We are forecast for drizzle this morning, then no more moisture for as far as they an see. Calling for temps near triple digit next week. Guess when the fireworks stands open? I think I may have a Type 5/6 parked at my house next weekend...

 

[Metals406]

Small fires are in the increase, supposed to be over 100* here this week!

 

[atpchas]

Some interesting views (from space) of the San Bernardino Nat'l Forest fire:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=86092

 

[Gologit]

http://yubanet.com/2015CA/Washington.php

The weather forecast is calling for 100 degree temps with possibility of dry lightning.

 

[Metals406]

http://yubanet.com/2015CA/Washington.php

The weather forecast is calling for 100 degree temps with possibility of dry lightning.

Yup, get'n dry-dry here too.

They're asking people not to light fireworks this year. That's not gonna happen, 'people' are dumb and selfish.

 

[madhatte]

Well, at least I'm getting plenty of OT.

 

[BeatCJ]

I just got back from a small pile burn. We banned all debris burning as of Tuesday Morning. The Elected Commissioner of Public Lands announced that burning on all state lands was moved up to Monday, instead of the scheduled July first. Evidently some of the staff got a heads up on Friday, but as far as I know, he made no effort to communicate with local agencies. I'm irritated. I asked on June 1st if DNR was going to consider moving their ban up due to the forecast conditions. None of their staff had heard anything. So I led an effort locally to move our ban up from July 15th to match the scheduled Statewide July 1st DNR date. Usually, in Wetter Washington a ban isn't justified until July 15th, but I understand, DNR is a statewide agency, they want one message. It was easy to justify moving ours to match theirs. Then they moved with no warning. I suspect their is a good reason rank and file DNR employees don't like the Elected Commissioner of Public Lands.

Anyway, back to my pile fire... I was at this location a while ago for a smoke complaint. The landowner was having trouble getting his logging slash piles to go because they were too wet. Fast forward, I keep my eye on the situation because it appears to have all the hallmarks of a neighborhood war. The landowner bent over backward to keep the peace, no problems. He stopped burning a few weeks ago, because of hie personal concerns over how dry things were getting. This morning, as he wanders around looking out over his property, he noticed some smoke in the slash. one of the burned down piles has taken back off. It didn't go anywhere, but by the time we got there, sized it up, found access, around noonish, it's starting to consume the green/tan weeds. I passed the fire off to DNR to mop up, it was a legal burn, so there is no penalty. That's why they collect Forest Patrol taxes, he paid for a logging and burn permit. I would guess they had to dig down a couple of feet to get to all of the heat. In a normal year, I would guess we wouldn't have been able to drive our truck out there, there were tufts of wetland grasses. No issue with our F-550 today, though.

 

[2dogs]

There is an interesting blurb in wildfiretoday.com telling of ff's finding four places within the Happy Camp Complex from last year that are still burning.
http://wildfiretoday.com/

 

[madhatte]

That's nuts!

 

[BeatCJ]

There is an interesting blurb in wildfiretoday.com telling of ff's finding four places within the Happy Camp Complex from last year that are still burning.
http://wildfiretoday.com/

I saw that. I expect any piles that have been burned within the last month are at risk to perk back up over the next few days.