Wildfire 2022

[mcski]

Smoke moved into tahoe city around noon. Getting worse by the hour. Starting to feel like smoke season again

[TBS]

Attachment 425773

Attachment 425774

Attachment 425775

This is some damn rugged country too. Land south of Joseph is wilderness too, so it isn’t going to get the same level of suppression

[Meadow Skipper]

‘Mosquito Fire’ 30 miles west of Tahoe.

https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/20...mosquito-fire/

They had it at 12k acres earlier in the day but are now saying 4k.

Heh, I’ve seen a number of times where a fire’s size is wildly overestimated at night, but it “shrinks” in the daylight.

[J. Barron DeJong]

Heh, I’ve seen a number of times where a fire’s size is wildly overestimated at night, but it “shrinks” in the daylight.

Heh. I think I may be a bit dyslexic today. Was 1200 not 12k earlier today. Quadrupled in size between noon and evening update.

[bodywhomper]

I think the pyrocumulus cloud above the mosquito fire collapsed after the 4k-ish acreage was calculated from the firis flight.

[isisis]

New start at the summit of our local ski area :
“Update, September 7, 8p.m.: New Fire. This fire is burning on top of Brundage Mountain. Smokejumpers are jumping the fire now in order to get firefighters on site as quickly as possible. The fire is visible from town in McCall.”

[oldnew_guy]

New start at the summit of our local ski area :
“Update, September 7, 8p.m.: New Fire. This fire is burning on top of Brundage Mountain. Smokejumpers are jumping the fire now in order to get firefighters on site as quickly as possible. The fire is visible from town in McCall.”

Interesting that they would jump that.

Can they really gear up, fly there, assess a jump spot, jump, throw gear, then gear up
and hike to the fire in less than the less than 1 hour drive to Brundage from the airport?

Easy to Monday morning quarterback but at the rate they break jumpers you would think it wouldn’t pencil out risk wise. Especially for a 15 acre fire that the 6 SMKJs can’t handle themselves anyways.

[John_B]

ONG, MS or others have you heard a rough injury rate for jumpers?

[oldnew_guy]

ONG, MS or others have you heard a rough injury rate for jumpers?

No clue. It always seemed secret squirrel for some reason. They all seemed to have a story about being seriously injured at some point (broken legs, ankles, shoulders) and there seems to be at least one major evac a year involving a hard landing and a medivac flight.

Tim Hart died last year in NM following a hard landing. Seriously shitty deal.

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

[isisis]

Interesting that they would jump that.

Can they really gear up, fly there, assess a jump spot, jump, throw gear, then gear up
and hike to the fire in less than the less than 1 hour drive to Brundage from the airport?

It may be a 1-hour drive to the base of Brundage, but this fire started at the summit, N of Hidden Valley. It would take much longer to drive up there, & even then, access would be problematic. Hopefully they can scratch a line around it tonight & order more resources for the AM.

[oldnew_guy]

It may be a 1-hour drive to the base of Brundage, but this fire started at the summit, N of Hidden Valley. It would take much longer to drive up there, & even then, access would be problematic. Hopefully they can scratch a line around it tonight & order more resources for the AM.

Is that road right below the fire not open?

Google maps pegs it as a 12 mile drive from downtown McCall to the fires coordinates.

Whatever, I’m sure the duty officer is making the calls they have to make to suppress, just seems odd.

[isisis]

From the Payette NF Facebook page:“Update, September 7, 9:20p.m.: New Fire. This fire is burning on top of Brundage Mountain and named the Rainbow Fire. Smokejumpers jumped the fire just before dark to get firefighters on site as quickly as possible, and three engines are currently on site as well. The fire is estimated at 15 acres. The fire is visible from McCall and New Meadows. Photo added - Initial Attack on the Rainbow Fire.”


https://fb.watch/fpdohxxMSu/

[Meadow Skipper]

No idea what the injury rate for jumpers is, but with the jump base right there in McCall I would think getting boots on the ground ASAP for a high priority location seems like a no brainer to me. It only takes a few minutes from the request to wheels up to get jumpers going.

Interesting thought about the possibility of injuries to jumpers. If the terrain looks too dangerous to jump (too likely to produce injuries) they wouldn’t have staffed the fire that way. Yeah, jumping is dangerous, but that was certainly a high priority fire that would benefit from rapid attack. If fires like that aren’t going to be staffed by jumping, might as well do away with the program. And by the way, as far as hiking in other crews, initial attacking fires after dark presents special risks and hazards.

My last thought is that the initial size up might have estimated needing more than the three engine crews to effectively contain the fire, and that there weren’t enough other ground-based or helicopter resources available at the time.

Lastly, if the fire got away and damaged the ski area or even the town, consider how it would have looked if jumpers hadn’t been deployed ASAP.

[oldnew_guy]

No idea what the injury rate for jumpers is, but with the jump base right there in McCall I would think getting boots on the ground ASAP for a high priority location seems like a no brainer to me. It only takes a few minutes from the request to wheels up to get jumpers going.

Interesting thought about the possibility of injuries to jumpers. If the terrain looks too dangerous to jump (too likely to produce injuries) they wouldn’t have staffed the fire that way. Yeah, jumping is dangerous, but that was certainly a high priority fire that would benefit from rapid attack. If fires like that aren’t going to be staffed by jumping, might as well do away with the program. And by the way, as far as hiking in other crews, initial attacking fires after dark presents special risks and hazards.

My last thought is that the initial size up might have estimated needing more than the three engine crews to effectively contain the fire, and that there weren’t enough other ground-based or helicopter resources available at the time.

My only point is you maybe could have driven the guys there in a truck from the base as fast or faster than jumping it at near dark. Certainly makes sense for the jumpers to respond with their quals and experience, resource availability and a dozen other things the DO is considering. It certainly only takes a few minutes to get wheels up, but jump operations take time.

In this case, you aren’t walking in other crews, they are driving to it.

Ok, now let’s pull the dispatch logs and see if there was an engine there watching them jump.

[oldnew_guy]

Found a document that indicates the injury rate for smokejumper operations is .1% with 75% being minor injuries.

I guess you would have to look up the injury rate for other modes of delivery to make any sense of that number.

[Conundrum]

No idea what the injury rate for jumpers is, but with the jump base right there in McCall I would think getting boots on the ground ASAP for a high priority location seems like a no brainer to me. It only takes a few minutes from the request to wheels up to get jumpers going.

That and a bunch of the McCall jumpers train, bike and ski up there. They probably demanded they go to protect their playground if they were available.

[Meadow Skipper]

That and a bunch of the McCall jumpers train, bike and ski up there. They probably demanded they go to protect their playground if they were available.

I wasn’t going to say this, but I wouldn’t want to have been the FMO or duty officer that didn’t order jumpers to a high-priority fire they could see. That person would probably have gotten more than an earful.

[Hopeless Sinner]

I was on a fire on the south zone of the Sawtooth NF during a slow year and they jumped it as well probably just to send them. One jumper broke both his ankles in a sagebrush flat littered w boulders which probably weren't visible from the aircraft. We (hotshots) saw the jumpers land driving in after being dispatched from Twin.

[yeahman]

Moose Creek fire now on the edge of Salmon, ID

[abraham]

Wow I hadn't seen that one. What changed recently to cause it to grow so fast? It looks like it has been burning since July?

The Ross creek fire in Smiley creek seems to be burning places I was hoping to visit this fall. Some old/former friends may have lost places but I'm not sure.

On the Mosquito fire, the webcams are looking grim. https://www.alertwildfire.org/region...Axis-MtDanaher

[yeahman]

Wicked winds past couple days really stoked it.

[bodywhomper]

The mosquito fire is now burning into the UCB blodgett forest, where the UC has conducted a lot of experimental forests treatments and actively conducted treatments for structural protections in the middle of the forest. It’ll be interesting to see how the area is affected. Hoping for some efficacy demonstrated.

The first landscape level treatment project is also in the area, just upstream of French Meadows reservoir. That project is a pilot project for landscape-level restoration in the Sierra. Recent thinning, meadow restoration, and rx burning. Hoping it demonstrates efficacy if the fire reaches that area.

[TBS]

Cedar Creek fire in central OR has caused evac of the towns of Oakridge and Westifr.

https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/8307/

The area has been trying to make a comeback into an MTB destination after collapse of the forest products industry. Now that may be gone too.

Fire is also about half way around Waldo Lake. The lake is fed by snowmelt and is so clear there is no aquatic life.

[Flyoverland Captive]

Waldo is not gonna be clear once all that ash washes into it. Kinda scary how fast that fire is growing.

[frorider]

With friends in Oakridge and Bend, I’ve been following Cedar fire for weeks now but the Mosquito fire has been focus recently given the proximity. So I didn’t know shit had gotten so bad with Cedar fire. Damn it. Thx for posting that.

Fuck.