Wildfires 2022

[tule peak timber]

Thank you very much, that means a lot. We will know more by this evening.

[tule peak timber]

Luck favors the prepared. I have maintained brush clearances around all of the buildings, filled my fire tanks, put 100 gallons of diesel into the generator, checked my propane, and have my pumps and hoses ready. We have evac kit ready.
 It all depends on the winds coming up today. A big fire creates its own weather, and the air quality from this weather will kill faster than the fire itself. It depends on factors out of my hands dictating fight or flight.
 17 years ago, a big fire roared up the canyon and just plain stopped at my driveway. I have no idea what this one is going to do, but it is getting bigger, fast.

[Ljohnsaw]

A fire started a few days ago, I think down in the canyon bottom (Middle fork of the American River), about 25 miles north of me.  They are hitting it hard and it spread pretty quickly in the heat and winds.  The winds change direction every evening and it smoked us out early this morning.  Temperatures to drop this weekend to mid-90s and mid-80s next week.

[doc henderson]

Be Safe!

[sawguy21]

We are still having problems as well. BCFS learned their lesson last year and are getting on them quickly which is maaking a difference but no relief in sight with unseasonably warm temperatures and no rain in sight.

[Walnut Beast]

Prayers sent your way Tule! Be safe!

[Ljohnsaw]

A fire started a few days ago, I think down in the canyon bottom (Middle fork of the American River), about 25 miles north of me.  They are hitting it hard and it spread pretty quickly in the heat and winds.  The winds change direction every evening and it smoked us out early this morning.  Temperatures to drop this weekend to mid-90s and mid-80s next week.

I couldn't think of the name yesterday.  It is called the Mosquito fire.  Here is a shot from down by Sacramento (~30 miles away) of the Pyro-Cumulous clouds it produced this afternoon.  The smoke is the lower section that is spread out.  There is a general haze all around the valley from this one.

  As of 0830 this morning it has consumed 6,800 acres (small) but has jumped the river and heading into Eldorado county (south).  The area is sparsely populated but the mandatory evacuation area is huge to the east, west and north with warning going even further out.  This is VERY rugged terrain.

Edit:  As of 5pm, over 8,000 acres burned.  Evacuation orders expanded.

[tule peak timber]

So they just cut off our power. Everyone up here is on a well........no water unless you have a genset.

[tule peak timber]

They just closed off the only road in and out of our valley.

[Walnut Beast]

Stay safe buddy!!!

[tule peak timber]

Thanks Walnut.The powers that be here just ordered mandatory evacuation for half of the valley. This is across the road from me at this point.

[rusticretreater]

I was hoping the storm coming up the coast from the south would help you.  Hang in there buddy.

[customsawyer]

I hate this for y'all. Stay safe.

[thecfarm]

Fire is some scary.
I have been around 2 right by land. One was almost on my land!!
Yes, stay safe and well!!!!

[firefighter ontheside]

I hope you made it through the night unscathed.  I looked up the fire on Inciweb.  They did suggest that rains may come from the hurricane.  I sure hope that was the case.  

[Old Greenhorn]

What's the name on this fire?

[Old Greenhorn]

Found it, the Fairview fire, although I doubt the view is fair from your perspective. Your 40MPH wind was supposed to come out of the east and hopefully that kept it away from your place. There is little you can do to predict a fire's behavior of this size beyond minute to minute. It looks like you have weather coming in from the south and west, hopefully the rain comes heavy enough.
 Was thinking about you all night and woke up too early with your place on my mind. This is a powerful thing. Best I can tell from google photos and some of your gallery shots is that you are in high desert country with medium to low brush. That stuff burns like tinder. I don't see trees for crowning fires, but what do I know. These big fires make their own weather and wind and sometimes tornados. 
 Keep your head on a swivel. Hopefully this turns out to be a good drill for you. If not, give it what you can and get out.

[tule peak timber]

Old Greenhorn,
You are spot on. It is pre-dawn here, the wind is swirling all over the place and I've been up most of the night keeping an eye on things. There is a great deal of confusion right now between fighting, competing fire agencies, various road closures and misinformation all over the internet. There are reportings of looting and even a missing kid that we know. The high desert has no large trees, but the fuel pack is like tinder, as you pointed out, due to lack of rain and triple digits for days on end.
Right now, we are not mandatory evac, burning diesel and hanging tight. It's unbelievable, but now there are flash flood warnings for today. Crazy. We are on a ridge, at almost 4,000 ft. and can see many miles in the distance on all sides. I have watch duty.
Thanks all for checking in. I'll keep you posted.

[Old Greenhorn]

Thanks for the update. I think the public panic is setting into your general population as is expected. Interesting about the agencies not playing well together. I thought that only happened here. You guys have a much more complex setup there with local, state, county, and federal wildland units all acting in the absence of any long term mitigation plan beyond telling landowners to cut clearance zones. But I digress.
 I spent about an hour looking at your forecasts, maps, and reading the fire briefings this morning. I appreciate the update and knowing you are OK so far. It's on my mind because it's frustrating not to be able to help a friend out and just sit here on the other side of the country and watch it happen. Looks like you may get up to an inch of rain between mid-day today and tomorrow.
 Good luck man!

[clearcut]

The Mosquito Fire, currently at 25,108 acres in steep and inaccessible terrain, is about 20 miles east. Air Quality Index is over 400, the sun is barely visible. Containment at 0%. Cause is under investigation, PG&E is likely, again. 

We are in an evacuation warning area should the fire make a westward run. Packed and ready to go. 

It appears that the Blodget Forest Research Station (UC Berkeley) is impacted. Lots of long term research projects will be getting a reset.

Some structures burned, no significant injuries, yet. 

Looks like the firefighters are holding a line using some fuel reduction projects I had worked on. Hope we did a good enough job. 

Waiting for the rain. 

[Old Greenhorn]

CC when you do those fuel reduction programs out there how is the follwup work handled? Do they stay at it, or is it one and done until they can do it again? Are you making fire breaks and if so, how wide? Just curious as a firefighter (now done) and because the left and right coast are polar opposites for fire behavior. Heck, we don't even use the same names for the apparatus. :D

[caveman]

Rob, stay safe.  Your preparation will likely pay off. 

[Ljohnsaw]

ClearCut,
Where did you get the 25,108 acres burned?  The link you provided shows 14,250 which makes sense as it was showing 8k acres last night.  Yeah, pretty heavy smoke down here this morning.  With the number of flights that 767 super tanker has been making, I'm surprised it is still 0% contained.  If there are no structures threatened, I'm all for letting it go to consume the dead stuff so the land can "reset".  Kind of telling that the fire started "near" a PG&E power plant.

[firefighter ontheside]

Inciweb has the Mosquito fire at 29,500 acres.  California is such a diverse area to fight fire in.  Years ago I was deployed to California for a few weeks.  First we were in staging at Redding, where it was super hot.  Then they sent us to Lake Shasta for a small fire where it was of course alpine.  Then they sent us to a fire at Lake Tahoe and again alpine.  Then they sent us back to Redding where we were used for what we called "stacking sticks" which meant we were stacking stuff after a clear cut that was to be burned at a suitable time of the year.  In the area of tule peak timber its more brush and light fuels which of course means extreme fire behavior when its hot and dry.  Beautiful to live in most of the time, but of course sometimes the fires.

[Riwaka]

I can't remember seeing a big tanker plane flying in such low light levels.