Posted on 09/08/2020 10:15:43 AM PDT by notpoliticallycorewrecked
The Creek Fire in the Central Sierras has again almost doubled overnight. As of this morning, it is 134,000 acres and that was a number from several hours ago.
The 80-90% tree mortality is a major contributor to the feeding of this monster. The fire started at Big Creek which is a So Cal Edison town that supplies hydropower to So California for SCE corporation. The cause of the fire is unknown.
It decimated Big Creek, has taken out half the town of Shaver Lake and is moving south to Auberry and east to North Fork, Bass Lake, and Oakhurst.
There are tens of thousands of people that have been evacuated. All of Big Creek, Shaver Lake, Auberry, North Fork, Bass Lake, and Oakhurst have been evacuated, as well as all of the campgrounds in those areas. Large unincorporated areas, including subdivisions, are either evacuated or under pre-evacuation warnings.
There is zero percent containment. CalFire, the California Army Guard and the California Air National Guard are all in on this incident.
The Army Guard has been rescuing campers and hikers that have been trapped at various locations. They evacuated 200 people from Mammoth Pools with Chinook helicopters when the only road out was cut off by the fire. There are still a large number of people in one location and several other people in small groups that are in scattered locations that they have not been able to rescue due to the conditions of smoke and wind.
This fire is a monster of epic proportions. It is now creating its own weather with high winds, lightning, and fire tornados.
This ought to be something today and for a few days. The winds at at 40-50 MPH (gusts) plus here now, out of the north, and THAT would make me REAL worried if I was on the fire line.
Is California the most mismanaged state in the union? Or is it some other state?
143,000 acres burned now as of 11:00 am PST.
I wonder how much of the CA fires have been started by Antifa and Eco-warriors.
They called the fire crew I worked on two years ago to a fire that is 568 miles from Flagstaff AZ.
That would make it just about north of Yosemite?
USFS fire.
I cant go anymore, COPD.
The guy I know is REALLY concerned. Wind..
He has over 30 years experience. I have never heard him speak like that about going.
They called the fire crew I worked on two years ago to a fire that is 568 miles from Flagstaff AZ.
That would make it just about north of Yosemite?
USFS fire.
I cant go anymore, COPD.
The guy I know is REALLY concerned. Wind..
He has over 30 years experience. I have never heard him speak like that about going.
The second place is not even close. Well perhaps NY is.
I have lived/owned property outside of Yosemite for over 40 years. Tinderbox doesn’t even begin to explain the conditions.
It is actually south and west of Yosemite. It is between Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.
We were camping at June Lake and evacuated yesterday afternoon. June Lake was very smokey on Sat/Sun but Monday was beautiful, with at least 15 miles visibility. Got the “get out” call from the USFS just as we were finishing our morning hike. We were already packed up. As soon as we headed south on 395, the smoke started building. Before we even cleared the smoke from the Creek Fire, we were in the smoke from the Sequoia Complex fire. Over 200 miles of driving through the smoke from these fires. CA is burning.
Time to update the song “California Dreamin’.”
Yes, they shut down Inyo National Forest at 5pm yesterday due to extreme fire danger. All U.S. Forest Service campgrounds in the entire state of California are now closed. It has been quite smokey here for a few weeks but late yesterday afternoon it really rolled in heavy from the Creek Fire.
“One of these day there is going to be no trees left in California to burn.”
Of California’s 102 million acres, around 60 million acres are wooded.
It is anticipated that up to 2 million of that will burn this year.
The archeological record indicates that the long term history is that around 4 million acres would burn every year.
Yet we have the biggest trees in the world.
” Tinderbox doesn’t even begin to explain the conditions.”
An no amount, or quality of forest management would alter that fact.
With the winds these fires are able to jump 3-5 miles.
Not to worry, soon it will be mudslide season, followed by flood season...and nobody will remember the fires.
10.4
I know he said the whole crew is concerned. As of now, there will be just two machines going as the rest are out on other fires.
D6 and an excavator. Once the rest come in and they go thru them, they’ll most likely be sent also.
Not to worry! Mother nature will manage it for them.
They just lost thousands of acres of forest lands. It will take a hundred years to get even back to any tiny resemblance of what they were-and at least 100s of years to get back to what they were before this.
They think that they will be safe in the brush country after this..HA! I got news for them. That brush will grow back fast.
Now they can contend with the mud slides after the understory is burned off and the root systems that hold that dirt is gone.
You cant teach stupid.
California has not only the biggest trees:, the Sequoias, but also the tallest: the Redwoods, and the oldest: the Bristlecone Pines.
I disagree. If they had been able to log, do control burns and just generally manage the Sierra National Forest they would not be having these problems. When there are 100+ trees per acre instead of 10-12 trees per acre it causes problems. The trees are competing for sunlight, water, and nutrients.
In that deprived state with close proximity, they are prone to disease and insect infestation. Hence the bark beetle infestation that has been going on since 2015 or 2016. There are whole mountainsides that have dead trees. Last I heard there are over 800 million dead trees in the central to southern Sierra Nevada mountains.
CalFire has not stated the cause of the fire. But be it man-made or some other cause, it has caused considerable devastation to that area.
So after 50-60 years of limited to no burning allowed and logging operations being so very limited, to practically non-existent (until the bark beetle situation). The forest service has been held hostage by the Sierra Club to the point that they were not even allowed to maintain already built logging roads for fire prevention, mother nature had to make the correction. Those that have lived up in the Sierras knew that situations like this were inevitable. That it was not ever an if, but a when. And when is here.
Just saw a report on the CAL Fire site (from 2 hours ago) that a helicopter was able to rescue 35 more people today down to Fresno. It did not say which location the rescue took place, only the number of people and that they were airlifted to Fresno.
Our son showed us some of the bark beetle damage in Colorado. It looks horrible with large expanses of dead, dry trees. Lots of fuel out there.
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