Rim Fire

[~mikey b]

ok, so, back to the Thai food burning asshole theme...

I think this is the best Rim Fire news story yet.

"Smoke taint"

[MTT]

ok, so, back to the Thai food burning asshole theme...

I think this is the best Rim Fire news story yet.

"Smoke taint"

Interesting, I am not a wine person. Hell the smoke taint Wine may end up being the better vintage 10 years from now?

How goes it near you TeleMike? RU out of the woods so to speak/

[LightRanger]

http://lakesidenews.net/wp-content/u...013/08/IAP.pdf

Incident briefing map posted on Supertopo.

Fire guys, can somebody explain what contingency line is? Because I see completed dozer line that's a ways off the leading edge of the fire, and contingency line that's a ways off the leading edge of the fire. Is contingency line an additional line behind a main line dug around structures? Hand line or dozer line? Or both? I gather that it's a "backup" line, or it's there in case the wind changes or something? That would make sense because there's a bunch of it on the map around the Big Oak Flat entrance station and the wind is blowing, more or less, in the opposite direction.

Looks like the fire's going to barrel through the White Wolf area and keep heading uphill around Cherry Ridge.

[Meadow Skipper]

http://lakesidenews.net/wp-content/u...013/08/IAP.pdf

Incident briefing map posted on Supertopo.

Fire guys, can somebody explain what contingency line is? Because I see completed dozer line that's a ways off the leading edge of the fire, and contingency line that's a ways off the leading edge of the fire. Is contingency line an additional line behind a main line dug around structures? Hand line or dozer line? Or both? I gather that it's a "backup" line, or it's there in case the wind changes or something? That would make sense because there's a bunch of it on the map around the Big Oak Flat entrance station and the wind is blowing, more or less, in the opposite direction..

Yeah, it's Plan B - the fall-back position if they lose the line that's closer to, or on, the edge of the fire. If the shit hits the fan, like a bad wind.

Hand or dozer, it all depends on what's available and what the site's like. Sometimes a natural break in fuels can be used as a contingency line. But if they're designating a contingency line, that means they really want to stop it at a closer location.

[hop]

I know, right? I've never seen one IRL, but I'd like to. Massive, floatable, and 4 radial engines...

I took a boat ride to see them many years ago. MASSIVE is an understatement. Probably the most impressive aircraft I've ever seen. I hear they may be losing their contract for firefighting in BC.

[LightRanger]

Yeah, it's Plan B - the fall-back position if they lose the line that's closer to, or on, the edge of the fire. If the shit hits the fan, like a bad wind.

Hand or dozer, it all depends on what's available and what the site's like. Sometimes a natural break in fuels can be used as a contingency line. But if they're designating a contingency line, that means they really want to stop it at a closer location.

Got it. Makes sense. Thanks for the info.

I took a boat ride to see them many years ago. MASSIVE is an understatement. Probably the most impressive aircraft I've ever seen. I hear they may be losing their contract for firefighting in BC.

Was reading that too. Bummer. Although the things are 70 years old so it's gotta be hard to keep them in service. Apparently one of them is being donated to a museum in Pensacola.

[LightRanger]

NPR article on the Geronimo Hotshots deploying to this fire: http://www.npr.org/2013/08/27/216078...ws-at-yosemite

One of the firefighting teams trying to contain the Rim Fire in and around Yosemite National Park is the Geronimo Hotshots team from San Carlos, Ariz., one of seven elite Native American firefighting crews in the U.S.

On the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, firefighting jobs are one of only a few ways for many young men to earn a living. For team member Jose Alvarez Santi Jr., 25, the work is rewarding — but being away from home fighting fires can be tough.

"I don't really see it as a job. Being out away from my family — that's the part that I'm down about, is just being away," Santi said not long before the team got the call to fight the Rim Fire.

Santi has a 3-year-old son. He's only seen him for a dozen or so days this entire spring and summer. The 20-member crew works a fire for 14 days, then it's a long trip home for maybe one or two days of rest, then back out again. This late in the season you can see this is starting to take its toll on a lot of the guys. But they know it's also good money. In a good year, you could make $40,000. That goes far here.

"Of course the wife's lovin' it," said senior firefighter Tom Patton. "Right now, just can't wait to get out of here. I wanna go on another fire. It's our only means of supporting our family."

As on most reservations, jobs are hard to come by, and most families live well below the poverty line. There are a few jobs with the tribal government or at the small casino on the outskirts of the reservation. But much of the community is dependent on the fire season.

"It's Essential"

The only restaurant in town is the San Carlos Cafe. It's in a worn stone building built by the U.S. government at the turn of the 20th century. The menu on the wall features the hot shot breakfast burrito. The owner, Jo Lazo, says the firefighters are looked up to here.

"I like to say our Apache men are the strongest of all firefighters. I think it just goes down through genealogy and the struggle that we had many, many years ago. We never go down without a fight," she says.

Lazo is proud and pragmatic. The Hotshot crew members are regulars here, and that's good for business. But the tribe and the Bureau of Indian Affairs also employ hundreds more seasonal firefighters. During a big fire year, everyone has more money in his or her pocket, including Lazo. Her cafe caters all the meals for the crews if there's a wildfire near here.

"And it's sad when there is a fire because we do lose a lot of vegetation, but it's essential and it's been essential for years," Lazo says.

It's hard to find someone around San Carlos who doesn't have a father or brother or sister who's a wildland firefighter. In fact, by late last week, the town seemed almost empty of anyone between 18 and 35.

"Yeah, right now everybody's out on the fire. They're up in Idaho, up in Oregon, up in Washington," says Frank Rolling Thunder. He has fought fires since the '70s. He says for a lot of people here, firefighting isn't just good money — it's a ticket off this isolated reservation. And opportunities like those don't come along that often.

"First time we went out to Yosemite National Park ... there were sequoias and I'd never seen them," Rolling Thunder says. "It gives me the opportunity to go see all kinds of different places — the Cascades, Mount Shasta, Mount Hood."

Representing The San Carlos Apaches

The team had only a short two days of R&R before getting the call to go to Yosemite. As word spread from man to man at the tribal forestry office, the buzz in the room changed. A little anxiety was added to the anticipation. A few guys drifted away to make last minute phone calls. A couple more moved their motorcycles into the garage. They'll be gone for a while.

"Right now's the time where everybody kinda double checks, makes sure they got everything they need, make their last calls to their family," Santi says.

For Santi, this is the moment when it becomes clear what it means to be a Geronimo Hotshot. "I hold the name up high. Wherever I go, my family, they're proud of what I do," he says.

Santi says it's not just about fighting fire or saving people's homes. It's about representing his people off the reservation. He says the crew meets a lot of people who have never heard of the San Carlos Apaches or their history.

"We come from a people that were pushed around, shoved into reservations, and to me, I want our people to show that we can do a lot of things other than being pushed around and shoved around," he says. "It's a good feeling."

The white trucks with blue letters spelling out Geronimo are all packed. No more time to talk. Ten men to each "buggy" as they call them. They'll drive through the night to California and then it's on to the front lines of the Rim Fire.

[Lone Star]

try and not use the word "deploy" --in the military sense-- when you talk about fires, eh? that's how rumors start.

[LightRanger]

So the correct term is...?

[Hugh Conway]

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/articl...se-4765875.php

Tioga pass rd closed from crane flat to white wolf through the weekend. (half empty optimism of a relatively empty high country on a holiday)

[Meadow Skipper]

So the correct term is...?

Assigned to, or dispatched to, though I don't see it as a big deal at all. People know what you mean.

[ill-advised strategy]

try and not use the word "deploy" --in the military sense-- when you talk about fires, eh? that's how rumors start.

Kind of like calling your friend at the helibase and saying "hey man, what's going down over there?"

[~mikey b]

Or like when my wife says "Look, I see Smoke right over there in the pasture!", meaning my neighbors horse who they'd just picked up from evac zone. She had three of us freaking out immediately grabbing tools and a saw and a hose.

[riser4]

ok, so, back to the Thai food burning asshole theme...

I think this is the best Rim Fire news story yet.

"Smoke taint"

Not to be confused with smokey taint which is something entirely different. It is most common among exotic dancers who use a cigar in their act.

[splat]

Or when someone says, "I think I'll deploy the big guy and smoke that taint."

[LightRanger]

Or when someone says, "I think I'll deploy the big guy and smoke that taint."

Chuckle.

[supermodel159]

Crane Flat cam is fucking scary right now:

This image auto-updates, pretty crazy.

[splitter]

yesterday morning, smoke from the Rim along Tahoe's east shore


Hidden Beach - Rim Fire by chadbrownimages, on Flickr

[Viva]

Not Fresno, I asked my brother over the weekend (he lives in the Fresno departure path). Those birds are noisy and he would have noticed.

We speculated about Castle, but I didn't think they had the reload capabilities. Good location.

I left a meeting at Castle about an hour ago and that DC-10 appeared to be in a landing approach as I was driving away.

[Timberridge]

Here's the website for those birds:

http://www.10tanker.com/the-future.html

[LightRanger]

Incident briefing map from this morning: http://lakesidenews.net/wp-content/u...13/08/IAP1.pdf

[DJSapp]

Just curious, there's very little ink on the map within Yosemite, but lots in the national forest below. Is this part of the policy, or have they just not gotten ahead of it within the park yet?

[~mikey b]

both.....

[Meadow Skipper]

both.....

Quoted for truth.

[~mikey b]

MS - I like your sig. I used to work with Mary on the Tongass.