Wildfire 2023

[bodywhomper]

Just finished a structure protection deployment- first on the Kiskatinaw fire near Tumbler Ridge and then the Donnie Creek fire.

I thought you were now an esquire and a former wildland FF?

A few days ago, I saw a Twitter post from a boreal forest researcher that explained how these fires typical burn a lot of peat fuel and can carry over and smolder through winter and reignite the next summer, aka “zombie fires.”

[XXX-er]

Buddy keeps his hand in that gig so he can get there before the ambulance, way to got Sean !

[bennymac]

Photo I took of a fire burning in January near the arctic circle - the fire started in the summer. Snow has been on the ground since early October. Was probably -10 outside. You could see orange embers burning under the roots of this tree.

[LHutz Esq]

I thought you were now an esquire and a former wildland FF?

A few days ago, I saw a Twitter post from a boreal forest researcher that explained how these fires typical burn a lot of peat fuel and can carry over and smolder through winter and reignite the next summer, aka “zombie fires.”

Just when I thought I was out ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPw-3e_pzqU


I am a lawyer with a FF addiction.

It's a sickness

I tried getting help

It got worse

[bodywhomper]

Just when I thought I was out ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPw-3e_pzqU


I am a lawyer with a FF addiction.

It's a sickness

I tried getting help

It got worse

Sounds fun to me!

[XXX-er]

a number of years ago I walked out of my house to see a piece of burnt legal file that had flown over from main st, on the front lawn, so i ride the bar bike over for a look to see that the furniture store & Law firm had burnt and were completely gone, a couple of FF's are walking toward me and I recognise one of them is L Hutz

buddy is carrying a pry bar walking away from what was his law firm and he is laughing, I wish I had that picture

[From_the_NEK]

Northeastern VT escaped the first round of acrid smoke that circulated around much of the NE US a couple weeks ago. However, today we're finally getting our dose. The smoke has been steadily thickening all day and visibility is now down to roughly a half mile. AQI of 151 with the thicker stuff at the border drifting our way. I went pecking around some of the reporting stations in Quebec and found this...



I would assume that would be like shaving creosote off a burning log and snorting it?

[ex-powderbroker]

i didn’t think the scale went that high. it sucks here today though. not quite the apocalyptic scene of nyc last week but supposedly the worst air of any city in the world right now in Montreal.

[bodywhomper]

It sucks

I hope people are able to obtain and wear respirator masks. I’ve found contractor n95 respirators with exhaust port or m3 aura respirators to allow for the most air movement through the masks.

[gravitylover]

Photo I took of a fire burning in January near the arctic circle - the fire started in the summer. Snow has been on the ground since early October. Was probably -10 outside. You could see orange embers burning under the roots of this tree.

Woah, that's fucked.

Northeastern VT escaped the first round of acrid smoke that circulated around much of the NE US a couple weeks ago. However, today we're finally getting our dose. The smoke has been steadily thickening all day and visibility is now down to roughly a half mile. AQI of 151 with the thicker stuff at the border drifting our way. I went pecking around some of the reporting stations in Quebec and found this...



I would assume that would be like shaving creosote off a burning log and snorting it?

724? Yuck. Today was the clearest day we've had in weeks. It seems like there has been a greyish pall for at least the last month.

[LHutz Esq]

Was asked to do some structural protection sets on some resource infrastructure near the upper Stikine River- some days you just get lucky! Up in an Otter with the gear- a couple days work using an A-Star and back in a Kodiak.

Not bad for being a retired wildland guy!

[paulster2626]

This smoke in the GTA is beyond annoying. Won't somebody do something??

[BmillsSkier]

Forgive my ignorance, but how much of Canada is on fire right now? I'm heading up to the North Coast for some time on Lake Erie this weekend and it looks like a scene from Blade Runner right now. Apparently its going to largely move out by tomorrow, but I can't ever recall wildfire smoke hitting the Great Lakes like this; if anything it would be W --> E smoke from out west.

[bodywhomper]

I touched base with a friend right now that lives near Detroit. His works outdoors, has kids, is an athlete, and had previously lived in SoCal and the Sierra foothills. He’s experienced “hazardous”-rated air quality from wildfires many times in California and is aware of the hazards and how to try to minimize the adverse health effects. He told me that it’s been a different experience recently than in California because it’s not smelling or tasting like smoke. Visually, he sees the smoke (like a dense ground fog). He thinks that it’s because of the high humidity. Anybody know more about that? Does humidity change the health effects of being in the smoke?

[bodywhomper]

I touched base with a friend right now that lives near Detroit. His works outdoors, has kids, is an athlete, and had previously lived in SoCal and the Sierra foothills. He’s experienced “hazardous”-rated air quality from wildfires many times in California and is aware of the hazards and how to try to minimize the adverse health effects. He told me that it’s been a different experience recently than in California because it’s not smelling or tasting like smoke. Visually, he sees the smoke (like a dense ground fog). He thinks that it’s because of the high humidity. Anybody know more about that? Does humidity change the health effects of being in the smoke?

[paulster2626]

Forgive my ignorance, but how much of Canada is on fire right now? I'm heading up to the North Coast for some time on Lake Erie this weekend and it looks like a scene from Blade Runner right now. Apparently its going to largely move out by tomorrow, but I can't ever recall wildfire smoke hitting the Great Lakes like this; if anything it would be W --> E smoke from out west.

https://firesmoke.ca/forecasts/current/

Zoom in on the Quebec fires. They are M A S S I V E.

I've heard it's places burning that have never burned before - hence the high energy and smoke output.

[oldnew_guy]

Some one on NPR was saying this morning that they historically debated whether they even needed a "red" air quality category because the air quality we experience now seemed implausible pre-mega fire. Now it goes all the way to purple.

[bagtagley]

I touched base with a friend right now that lives near Detroit. His works outdoors, has kids, is an athlete, and had previously lived in SoCal and the Sierra foothills. He’s experienced “hazardous”-rated air quality from wildfires many times in California and is aware of the hazards and how to try to minimize the adverse health effects. He told me that it’s been a different experience recently than in California because it’s not smelling or tasting like smoke. Visually, he sees the smoke (like a dense ground fog). He thinks that it’s because of the high humidity. Anybody know more about that? Does humidity change the health effects of being in the smoke?

No science, only anecdotes. We’ve been hovering around 150 down here in VA and you can taste, smell, and feel the smoke. Humidity is lower than normal for here, but it’s not particularly low.

[TBS]

Smoke particles will bond to water vapor so higher humidity will make it smokier at ground level.

[From_the_NEK]

No science, only anecdotes. We’ve been hovering around 150 down here in VA and you can taste, smell, and feel the smoke. Humidity is lower than normal for here, but it’s not particularly low.

I have no idea what the smoke tastes/smells like on the west coast. But I do know I could certainly taste and smell it here in VT last week and it looks to be moving back in here this weekend . The humidity may make for more of a "foggy/smoggy" appearance. But I would also guess the burnt material may also play a roll. Fires in the western mountain areas are typically coniferous forests/dry brush. The Canadian fires are mostly coniferous as well but with a damp under carpet (after the dry surface material burns off) of peat mosses and other slow/cool burning materials that add a lot of moisture to the smoke. And it isn't just "the fire moved through and is done here". As noted up thread, that slow burning material just keeps on smoldering (potentially even through winter). This may also be why the smoke seems to remain near ground level rather than get dispersed in the upper atmosphere like much of the western fire smoke seems to do. It is HEAVY smoke.

[From_the_NEK]

For scale of one of the northern Quebec fires, just imagine EVERYTHING between Tahoe and Sacramento being burnt.


Or all of northern Vermont:


And the is just ONE of the fire complexes. There are a couple others that aren't much smaller than this one.

[yeahman]

Must have been a helluva lightning storm.

[gravitylover]

I have no idea what the smoke tastes/smells like on the west coast. But I do know I could certainly taste and smell it here in VT last week and it looks to be moving back in here this weekend . The humidity may make for more of a "foggy/smoggy" appearance. But I would also guess the burnt material may also play a roll. Fires in the western mountain areas are typically coniferous forests/dry brush. The Canadian fires are mostly coniferous as well but with a damp under carpet (after the dry surface material burns off) of peat mosses and other slow/cool burning materials that add a lot of moisture to the smoke. And it isn't just "the fire moved through and is done here". As noted up thread, that slow burning material just keeps on smoldering (potentially even through winter). This may also be why the smoke seems to remain near ground level rather than get dispersed in the upper atmosphere like much of the western fire smoke seems to do. It is HEAVY smoke.

I said pretty much the same thing many pages ago. This is a different animal and it really sux.

[Cisco Kid]

Must have been a helluva lightning storm.

Or meteorite. Pretty sure we'd have seen it today tho.

I've lived through a few 200+ AQI days out west in the past few years and it's not the same smoke you smell from a camp fire in the Daks. To me, smoke from a long range source smells more like the smell from a plastics plant. We handle 200+ days like we handled a NE blizzard with the power out. Tighten up the house and stay inside. Sleep with hot water bottles. Pro tip if it hasn't been posted. We get a 20" box fan and tape a 20x20 HEPA furnace filter to the back and run it 24/7. Goes in the BR at night.

[buttahflake]

Yeah, after getting a break for the last couple of weeks, the smoke is back, big time. Just got back from an easy ride, and I could taste it, still can’t smell it for some reason. AQI 106 on my side of the river, 15 miles south in Dummerston VT they are sitting at 156.