Wildfire 2022

[KQ]

How does a 19acre fire burn for a month? That's on a par with the Chanukah miracle.

Have you ever seen a haystack fire?

[abraham]

Just heard today it’s not the trees anymore but smoldering root systems

Centralia is still burning.

Someone, I think Grrrr maybe, posted several years ago about a fire in Alaska that smoldered in the root systems over the winter then reignited.

[LongShortLong]

Have you ever seen a haystack fire?

Back in the 90s, driving south from Portland on I-5 at night, heading to the steam-up. Every couple miles there'd be a haystack fire, or several. Eerie. Never learned what was going on. We didn't see anything on the drive north a couple days later.

[KQ]

𝐏𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐬 𝐈𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐌𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐎𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐖𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐨𝐧

JOHN DAY, PENDLETON, BAKER CITY, and LA GRANDE, Ore. - Fire crews in northeast Oregon and southeast Washington are responding to reports of smoke and fire following passing thunderstorms Saturday and Sunday. Approximately 40 incidents reported so far to the Blue Mountain Interagency Dispatch Center and John Day Interagency Dispatch Center.

Local initial attack resources have been busy responding to these incidents with support from aerial resources. Additional smoke reports are likely to be detected throughout the next few days as temperatures warm and fire activity increases. Aerial reconnaissance, nighttime thermal detection aircraft, and fire lookouts are assisting with detection efforts.

[KQ]

Back in the 90s, driving south from Portland on I-5 at night, heading to the steam-up. Every couple miles there'd be a haystack fire, or several. Eerie. Never learned what was going on. We didn't see anything on the drive north a couple days later.

If hay is put up with too high a moisture content it will catch fire (think heat building in a compost pile). The technical answer is:

High-moisture haystacks and bales can catch on fire because they have chemical reactions that build heat. Hay insulates, so the larger the haystack, the less cooling that occurs to offset the heat. When hay’s internal temperature rises above 130 degrees Fahrenheit (55 degrees Celsius), a chemical reaction begins to produce flammable gas that can ignite if the temperature goes high enough.

They are hard to put out and are often just left to burn because moving the hay exposes the overheated or smoldering hay to oxygen that can result in a fire raging out of control.

I've seen big stacks burn for weeks and smolder for up to a month.

[LongShortLong]

I've seen big stacks burn for weeks and smolder for up to a month.

hmm. I take that to mean that an eastern forest, if it had built up feet of organic material due to lack of wildfires... when it eventually dries enough to burn, it could also smolder and burn for weeks.

[BFD]

I was watching a fire suppresion operation the other day. I was not sure what was going on. The small fire was in the upper corner of the clear cut ot cut block as they are called here. The helicopter was scooping water from the lake. It was than delivering the water to a place on an access road to the cut block. It was not dumping right on to the fire area. were they deliveing water to a grond crew? Is some type of sprinkler system set up or hoses used with the helicopter feeding them? It was hazey and could not get a good view of where the water was being dumped using my binoculars. The helicopter did keep returning to the same place. Figured someone here must be experienced and would know.

[Meadow Skipper]

Maybe filling a porta-tank for a pump (& hose) show.
https://www.fireequipmentassociates....t_detail&p=311
https://www.heimanfireequipment.com/...sure-fire-pump

[Meadow Skipper]

Amazing footy of a SoCal fire, super firewhirl and helicopter drop.


Commentary, if you’re interested in that sort of thing.
https://wildfiretoday.com/2022/08/24...ge-fire-whirl/

[bodywhomper]

The whirling spinning pattern is fascinating. It seems like ballsy and good skills to fly a helicopter that close.

I drove through the part of last year’s caldor fire area today (Mormon-Emigrant trail). I took a few photos, but some of the better vistas or more remarkable areas did not have safe areas to stop. In the below photo, only the background ridge lines were outside the burn perimeter.

It was interesting to see how the fire severity varied. There were very dense conifer groves that didn’t burn that were bordered by decimated areas without any apparent difference in slope, aspect, or tree density. A lot of the burn area that I saw that hadn’t had salvage logging done yet had grass growing amongst the dead trees, but some steeper slopes were barren. I believe that may be due to loss of top soil.

There were also areas of dense 100% dead trees where roadside hazard tree removal hadn’t yet occurred. It was almost like driving through a black tunnel. Hopefully, they get those trees felled before there’s some big wind while the road is still open. I didn’t drive though any communities that got burned. I worked in Paradise before the burn and visited a few times during recovery efforts (for work). Very different feeling and experience for me.

[Meadow Skipper]

It was interesting to see how the fire severity varied. There were very dense conifer groves that didn’t burn that were bordered by decimated areas without any apparent difference in slope, aspect, or tree density.

Maybe time of day, or night, when it burned. Nighttime weather conditions (cooler, higher RH, less wind) can often make a fire that was rolling thru crowns drop to the ground. Sun comes up, warms up, wind picks up, and it’s off to the races again.

[bodywhomper]

Maybe time of day, or night, when it burned. Nighttime weather conditions (cooler, higher RH, less wind) can often make a fire that was rolling thru crowns drop to the ground. Sun comes up, warms up, wind picks up, and it’s off to the races again.

Thanks. That makes sense. Those areas that I noticed next to the road, the fire definitely carried through some of them on the ground. Some of the unburned canopy islands, though, we’re still chock full of unburned ladder fuels. Conifers were young and so dense with so much ladder fuels that you would not be able to easily walk through it. Google earth doesn’t have new imagery up yet for that area.

[PB]

Jeebus - sounds like the West is in for it with the looming heat wave.

[TBS]

Interesting piece on the impact of fire on the Pacific Crest Trail
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/31/t...est-trail.html

Interestingly, I picked up two thu-hikers Monday at Santiam Pass and drove them into town.

Their thru-hike is turning into a game of hopscotch. Had to divert around McKinney fire between Yreka and Ashland, then again around the Windigo fire between Crater Lake and Bend. So they took a bus north to the Columbia and are hiking south to Crater Lake. Will then get on a bus back north to Hood River to do the WA section, then back down to Ashland to finish the OR/CA border section.

[bodywhomper]

Woods Fire adjacent (?) to Sonora. Mike? Others?

[Svengali]

Weed, California https://twitter.com/wildland_zko/sta...erJpjTS1mJwPsQ

[Not DJSapp]

Weed, California https://twitter.com/wildland_zko/sta...erJpjTS1mJwPsQ

Weed is about to go up in smoke.. All of Weed under evac orders. 95+ degrees there and only getting hotter. Massive call from Calfire, 75 engines, 20 dozers, etc.

https://twitter.com/CAFireScanner/st...94192936169472

[Not DJSapp]

Now 900 acres and exploding. Weed is burning. 2 VLATs, 4 Large air tankers requested on top of 8 smaller tankers already there

https://twitter.com/KRCR7/status/1565821401419898886

[muted reborn]

Shit, that's posted only an hour or so after it started.

[muted reborn]

This webcam is on the edge of the Mill Fire right this minute

https://www.alertwildfire.org/region...era=Axis-Weed2

[Meadow Skipper]

My daughter lives north of Weed and sent me this picture from their yard just now.


Usually that view looks like this.


She tells me Weed is fucked.

[Meadow Skipper]

Daughter just sent this of Weed burning. She didn’t take it tho, a friend did.

[hawkgt]

^^^ hope daughter and fam safe

[Not DJSapp]

This webcam is on the edge of the Mill Fire right this minute

https://www.alertwildfire.org/region...era=Axis-Weed2

That camera stopped at 1pm. The 3 hour timelapse from Lake Shastina is scary as hell

https://www.alertwildfire.org/region...mera=Axis-Weed

[Meadow Skipper]

^^^ hope daughter and fam safe

They’re pretty safe…from that one.

They’re about 30 miles away.