Fire season is upon us

[Andries]

WhitePine, sorry for your loss and hoping that you and your family are safe. 
Have you been able to get back to your home, or got any updates on your property ?

[WhitePineJunky]

Thanks guys, to clear things up I'm not entirely sure if my home has burnt down, but the fire absolutely rolled right through my land and went further north by about 8km. Had lots of various stuff barns and buildings out back I'm sure there is some damage somewhere. My mill was back in the woods as well. I've spent years of work babying that land and managing it, I hope all is not lost and if any, it just burned lightly in the understory.

 Had lots of mature white pine I'm hoping it didn't reach their canopy. I was last there Monday when I went back for a couple more valuables, it was a evacuated area, but I went up anyway, at that time the fire was about 100m from my place just around the corner, before that it was all scorched, could see for quite a ways through what use to be dense bush. Based on nasa and other satellite maps the fires burnt already through my place and there ain't much more fuel for it anymore but it could have a "reburn" scenario but unlikely within the next few days as it's finally raining here.

If I have lost everything I will rebuild, I'd clear cut the scorched trees and replant, and with a vengeance. I know there are some close to me who have confirmed lost their homes. 

Here's another photo out in my back woods I took on Sunday right before evacuation, figured I'd take one more walk in my woods just in case I won't see it in that state again for a long time


 

[WhitePineJunky]

 

 

 

[fluidpowerpro]

I must admit that wouldn't have your attitude if I was on the same situation but then again, not much you can do about it. I hope the damage you have is minimal.

[JD Guy]

Wow WhitePiney I sure hope and pray that you don't suffer severe damage from that fire !

[WhitePineJunky]

I must admit that wouldn't have your attitude if I was on the same situation but then again, not much you can do about it. I hope the damage you have is minimal.

Truthfully it ain't been easy the first couple days, it was surreal, got teary eyed a couple times, but I've been through the motions over the course of the week and I've accepted all possibilities now.
I'm antsy to get back and assess and rebuild if need be, may be another 3-4 days atleast 
Tiny silver lining will be no ticks for quite awhile I guess, and fertile soil 

[Hilltop366]

Just talking to my brother who runs a tractor trailer for moving heavy equipment around, he has been in the fire zone since Tuesday moving a 45 ton excavator once in a while, when not moving it he has to wait around in case the fire gets too close so he can take the excavator away. No sure where he was exactly yesterday but said he was watching the fire go by a few hundred feet up the road and was amazed at the sound. After a bit the excavator operator and the feller buncher guy decided it was too close so he went and hauled them out. (maybe Thomasville)

He was saying that there is getting to be quite a bit of gear down there trying to make a wide fire brake some were around 12 feller bunchers, 6 to 8 dozers (D6 & D8 ), and not sure how many excavators, he did mention that there were some guys putting together a very large excavator that arrived on several trucks.

Because he has local knowledge of the roads he has been trying to help other float drivers from away by telling them which roads to take and avoid when moving gear, the D8 (14' blade) and a long truck and trailer they were going to move to the Shelburne water treatment plant was too wide and long to go down a lot of those old narrow streets, we were wondering how many stop signs are knocked over.  

[WhitePineJunky]

Lots of the local heavy equipment contractors on the job, I'm not sure on the whereabouts of all the dozer breaks but I think one up by birch town and clements pond corner, not positive, but just deciphering what they are saying in the radio scanner and watching what the helos and air tankers are doing I kind of puzzled it together. 
The local volunteer FDs have done a great job working around the clock. They're all getting experience in that's for sure, this fire will be spoken of for over 100 years around here. 

[thecfarm]

Sorry to hear about the fire.

[Hilltop366]

Last I heard (Sunday evening) there was a report of 49 pieces of heavy equipment there working on fire breaks, looking at possibly scaling back the gear today.

A fair amount of rain and much cooler temperatures has been welcome 10°c instead of 30°c, unfortunately the weather seems to have kept the water bombers and choppers away. The fire area has grown to around 25000 hectares.  

I went and helped move an excavator yesterday evening, along the 103 the burnt sections started a bit before the landfill and go for around 15kms (marker 79 or 80) close to Beaver Dam, I know that is just a small portion of what was burnt along the main road, I did not see any burnt buildings, there were lots of fire hose stretched out along the side of the road, in some places like the Anchors Away restaurant the fire went right around the building but the building looked intact.

The fire was moving fast through there and burning the grass and bushes so what is left is blackened ground and trees, the normal look would be a thick spruce and fir, thick enough that you would disappear from view by taking two steps into the woods.

[Mooseherder]

The system just east of you looks like it's going to be around for days.  Hope you guys get more of it.

[Hilltop366]

Yes, giving cloudy with showers or periods of rain until Wednesday. Just the cooler temperatures and cloud cover will be a huge improvement over last week.

Nova Scotia does not have water bombers only helicopters with buckets, we got 2 water boomers from Newfoundland as well as some smaller converted crop-dusters from New Brunswick when the were available. They hired several water bombers (I have heard 3 or 5) from Montana but unfortunately they were not able to use them once they got here due to weather so they have been loaned to Quebec in the meantime as they have some pretty big fires going on there too.

[SwampDonkey]

Rain here most of the day and for the rest of the week, got 6/10" already today, rained since 4:30 am then stopped by 2:30 pm and now I see another round coming over the hills. Had over an inch on the weekend. I see rain fall warnings for parts of NS popping up, Cape Breton and Halifax area.

Been getting an inch a week here, every week for the last 4 weeks. Looks like that and more in store this week.

Hopefully that will swirl around NS some to put out the fire. All New Brunswick fires are listed as being under control or being patrolled as of this afternoon. 4 fires.

[sawguy21]

I has been sunny and quite warm here but the fire situation has been quiet lately. BCFS has been quick to jump on some small ones before they got out of hand, somebody with experience and the ability to make decisions actually has the authority to deploy resources.  :

[Old Greenhorn]

I got a text out of the blue from my son yesterday: "Where the heck is all this smoke coming from? Do we have a big one working somewhere?" I told him it was imported from Canada and the folks up there are getting clobbered. "OH."

 It was a bit thick but high up. Today, it is solid thick and easy to smell right to ground level, even for me with burned out sinuses. Can barely see the sun except for the glowing area. At first I thought it was the small fire I made in the shop stove to dry things out, but no. It's everywhere and we have a statewide 'bad air quality' warning going on. Folks are complaining of course, but I remind them that those folks close to the smoke source need a lot more help and empathy than anybody around here does.

[barbender]

It was like that here a couple of weeks ago. I actually welcomed it, other than the smell, because it was quite hot out and the smoke was thick enough to have the same affect as cloud cover.

[Chuck White]

Lots of smoke here in the St Lawrence River Valley.

Advisories in the news say "stay inside if possible", especially for those with breathing difficulty!

[Hilltop366]

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

Looks like the Quebec fires giving you guys the smoke treatment. 

[WhitePineJunky]

Going on 10 days and after 5 days of rain and I still haven’t been allowed to see my property or at least get an update. Very frustrated with it all.

[Hilltop366]

Hopefully things will open up soon, I can't imagine how long the wait must feel.

[Old Greenhorn]

Thanks for that map HillTop! I see the prediction is for much worse here tomorrow around this time. I can't imagine what it must be like up by the St. Lawrence and I shudder to think what those folks north of the border are going through.
I just ran out to the corner store and crossing the reservoir I was really shocked awake. The normal 20+ mile view to the mountains is gone and visibility is about 2 miles, at best. I stopped and shot a short clip because I have never seen anything like this and to this extent.

WIldland fire smoke from Canada on 6/6/23 at 4:45 pm - YouTube


Edit: I meant to say WhitePine Junky, I can't imagine what you are going through. I hope it is not as bad as you have to be thinking right now and I hope you get in there soon. Once you know, you can deal with it, but when you don't know, it has to tear you up. Sorry man.

 It was so dark here at about 4pm everybody was driving with headlights and it looked like about 7:30 at night. The sky is an eerie yellow tinted color as if a severe storm was about to explode on us. Yeah, we can small it pretty good and honestly breathing outside has it challenges right now and I have a pretty good headache because I worked on firewood all day.

[Big_eddy]

I'm a bit North and west and the smoke here the last two days has been thick too. Thick enough it set the smoke detectors in the house off. No fires close by, although there is one close to my son's place. We got a bit of a breeze came up just now and I can see a touch of blue in the sky now, but forecasting a few more days of smoke yet. Earlier today visibility was less than a mile 

[Andries]

WhitePine: keeping fingers crossed for you. Y'know, after five days of rain, the fire hazard must be pretty darned low.
I've heard that they really tighten up restrictions so that they minimize the chance of some knucklehead looting your place. 

[Mooseherder]

Looks like the system has 3 more days of rain in the forecast.  

[gspren]

Even here in southern PA we are under code red air quality warnings from the Canadian smoke, us old people aren't supposed to work too hard outside so I won't, probably wouldn't anyway but it's so dry here that weedeating, mowing and such doesn't need done too often.