Posted on 06/24/2006 8:26:45 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum
Thank you! Sorry I am wrapped up in something else, but had been lurking and reading until today and will catch up later tonight, I hope. Prayers for everyone in danger, especially the animals. Be careful out there, firefighters!
You would be amazed how few animals actually get caught unless there's a bad blowup, but its still a good thought!
SAN JOSE -- A forest fire that broke out Friday evening in unincorporated Santa Clara County is 60 percent contained, according to California Department of Forestry spokeswoman Becky Bamberger.
The fire has consumed nearly 150 acres so far, Bamberger said.
When the blaze first broke out, firefighters estimated that more than 200 acres had burned, but according to Bamberger, helicopters were able to better assess the blaze this morning and now believe that the burning area is closer to 150 acres.
The fire began around 7 p.m. Friday on a ridge in the Henry W. Coe State Park in southeast Santa Clara County. The fire moved in two directions, making it difficult to fight, spokesman Ed Schell said.
Bamberger said that firefighters expect to have the fire completely contained by 6 p.m., providing the wind doesn't pick up.
Three helicopters, two air tankers and 357 firefighters are currently fighting the blaze.
The area is very remote, which has made it difficult for firefighters to get water to the area.
No structures are currently threatened. There are, however, several ranches to the north of the park and park rangers have evacuated campers and visitors in the park.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, according to Bamberger.
http://www.ktvu.com/news/9421624/detail.html
Wildfire burns around huge Wal-Mart facility in Nevada
By MARTIN GRIFFITH
ASSOCIATED PRESS
RENO, Nev. (AP) - Firefighters were hampered by heat in their battle against a 2,000-acre wildfire that burned on three sides of a Wal-Mart regional distribution center east of Reno.
Temperatures hovered near 100 Saturday as more than 200 firefighters tried to surround the Olinghouse Fire near the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Park along Interstate 80 about 10 miles east of Reno.
"There's always a danger with temperatures like this for a rapid expansion of fire," said Joe Curtis, emergency management director for Storey County. "We're trying to knock it down, but it's a hard thing to do."
The huge Wal-Mart facility was spared because all brush around it was cleared during its recent construction, Curtis said.
"The fire burned pretty much all the way around it," he said. "But it didn't get closer than 1,000 feet to the center because of the clearing around it."
No structures were threatened Saturday by the brush fire, which started out Friday night as four separate lightning-caused blazes.
Officials were unable to estimate when the fire burning on both private and public land would be contained.
To the south in Douglas County, firefighters reported progress in their battle against a 30-acre wildfire burning on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest below rugged Jobs Peak. No structures were threatened.
The lightning-caused Faye-Luther Fire near the south end of the Carson Valley was 40 percent contained Saturday afternoon, said fire information officer Mark Struble. Full containment was expected by 6 p.m. Sunday.
Fire officials expressed concern because forecasters were calling for a chance of more thunderstorms through Thursday.
Near Lovelock, firefighters gained the upper hand on a 650-acre wildfire in the remote Seven Troughs Range.
Full containment of the Porter Fire was expected Saturday night, said spokesman Jamie Thompson. No structures were ever threatened by the apparent human-caused blaze.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2006/jun/24/062410583.html
GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. A 15-thousand acre wildfire near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon has stranded some tourists.
The fire cut the only road into the North Rim early Saturday, stranding an unknown number of park visitors. Fire team spokesman Steve Ritchie says they're not in danger, and a team is checking this afternoon to see if the road is safe enough to escort some tourists out.
Firefighters have been letting the lightning-caused Warm Fire burn for more than two weeks but say they're now aggressively fighting the flames. Ritchie says a wind change earlier this week sent the flames in a new direction.
This morning the fire got close enough to Highway 67, the North Rim Parkway, to force it to close. Arizona Highway 89A is also closed between Fredonia and Jacob Lake because of the fire. The flames are in a remote area about 30 miles north of the Grand Canyon.
http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=5074713&nav=HMO6
Crews battle several western wildfires
BEULAH, Colo. - Improving weather helped crews make progress against a wildfire that had forced nearly 5,000 people to flee their homes, officials said Wednesday.
The blaze in the Wet Mountains had grown to 12,200 acres, but firefighters had extended their containment lines around 40 percent of the fire.
The entire town of Beulah and two subdivisions outside town were reopened to residents. Pueblo County sheriff's spokesman Steve Bryant said he did not know how many people had left. About 1,200 people live within the town.
Bryant said everyone in Pueblo County was allowed to return, while Custer County dispatchers reported all evacuation orders were lifted. About 100 residents in a Greenwood subdivision were allowed to return earlier this week.
"Monday we got a toehold and yesterday we put a foot in," U.S. Forest Service spokesman Dave Steinke said.
Elsewhere, however, a 9,260-acre blaze jumped containment lines in southern Arizona, and about 30 summer homes and lodges were evacuated in a valley that is a world-renowned bird-watching area.
Steinke said fire managers in Colorado could contain the fire soon, with crews massing on the southern and southeastern edges of the blaze.
"That's the area we really need to get buttoned up today," Steinke said.
No injuries were reported and no homes burned, but more than 1,000 houses, outbuildings and other structures were listed as threatened by the fire, which was started by lightning July 6.
The evacuations in southern Arizona, east of the city of Green Valley near Tucson, were conducted primarily as a precaution, firefighting officials said. Crews wanted people out of Madera Canyon so they can build fire lines and because there is only one road out of the canyon, said Bill Watt, a spokesman for the firefighting team.
Eight to 10 residents evacuated Tuesday night and 12 to 15 others left Wednesday morning, said Louis Chaboya, director of the Santa Cruz County Office of Emergency Management.
More than 730 firefighters were battling the blaze that had been started by lightning last Thursday.
Crews had nearly completed a containment line on the fire's southern edge Monday, but shifting wind caused the blaze to flare. By Wednesday, firefighters said, the fire was 16 percent contained.
Madera Canyon draws visitors to see several species of hummingbirds and rare birds including the colorful Elegant Trogon.
Elsewhere, a wildfire whipped by coastal winds burned Wednesday in rugged brushlands along the back yards of expensive hilltop homes on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, about 25 miles from downtown Los Angeles.
Residents sprayed vegetation with their garden hoses, while firefighters brought in fire engines to protect homes and helicopters dropped water.
The blaze grew to 10 acres after it was initially reported; there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, said a Los Angeles County Fire Department dispatcher.
In South Dakota, a fire in the Black Hills that burned over 6 square miles was 65 percent contained Wednesday; full containment is expected Saturday. The wildfire, burning northwest of Rapid City, is believed to have been ignited by lightning Friday. A house and garage were destroyed.
http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=87114
SeveraL NEW Fire stories, begining with post 23.
Been checking out one of the places they list new starts...been a number of them today, but I have no idea at this time how big they are.
FORT GARLAND — More firefighters worked to build containment lines around a 13,780-acre wildfire burning in southern Colorado on Saturday while crews also attacked a new 175-acre blaze burning about 65 miles to the west.
The new fire was burning 5 miles west of La Garita in Saguache County on rocky public land that was home to a volcano 30 million years ago.
It's believed to have been human-caused, possibly sparked by a cigarette from a driver, said Mike Blakeman, a spokesman for the Rio Grande National Forest. Residents of 30 homes on the western edge of the San Luis Valley were evacuated Friday but have been allowed back, Mark Wertz of the Saguache County Sheriff's Office said.
More than 100 firefighters have arrived at the larger fire burning near Fort Garland at the valley's eastern side over the previous two days. That's allowed crews to focus more attention on the north side of the fire, which is in steep terrain. Because that area is uninhabited, fire managers earlier were forced to largely ignore it and focus on the eastern edge of the fire, where it crept within two miles of some of the 50 houses nearby.
Some of the 463 firefighters on scene were also building containment lines to stop the fire from advancing to those homes or across U.S. 160, an important east-west road.
''They're making slow, steady progress in containing the fire and finishing the perimeter containment line,'' fire information officer Laura Pramuk said.
Firefighters abandoned plans to burn a strip of land along the northeastern edge of the fire Saturday because cloud cover prevented an air tanker from flying. The tanker was needed to spread retardant over the area to prevent the planned burned from spreading.
Meanwhile, on the Western Slope, a 700-acre fire was burning on state land between Silt and New Castle. Firefighters were working to stop the fire from burning into the Garfield Creek State Wildlife Area and a high voltage power line that provides electricity to the Denver area during peak times in the summer, spokeswoman Marilyn Krause said. It was about 20 percent contained.
Both of the southern Colorado fires were burning in trees that have extremely low moisture content after a dry winter there, Blakeman said.
Throughout the winter, the snowpack in southern Colorado trailed the rest of the state. As of Friday, the snowpack in the Upper Rio Grande basin, which feeds the San Luis Valley, was 9 percent of average and it was 4 percent of average in the southwest corner of the state. Statewide it was 10 percent. The highest percentages were found in central and northern Colorado — 28 percent of average in the Gunnison basin, 21 percent in the South Platte basin and 15 percent in the Colorado basin
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4799909,00.html
Teller County and the south end of Park County are damp from rain the day before yesterday and heavy hail the day before that. If the monsoons continue extending from Pikes Peak to Hwy. 9 a few days during the next or three weeks, the grasses between sparser pines will green-up a little.
a new New Mexico fire:
NM State, Chama District, Bear Paw Fire: 500-600 A. (estimated). 3 mi. W of Gallina, N of Cuba, NM. Started on private land, has burned onto Santa Fe NF (Coyote & Cuba RDs). Burning in oak and ponderosa pine. Voluntary evacuation in place for Bear Paw Lakes region. Winds have slowed, no longer pushing the fire.
If it's Mato Vega, the Beulah community isn't involved at all!
Need clarification on this story.
Haze and smoke hugged the Wet Mountains all day yesterday but neither the Beulah FD or the Rye FD could find the source.
The smoke could be seen rising from the south side of the mountain but not from the north side. Very strange.
Helicopters buzzed around all day trying to pinpoint the location from the sky, but as of last night, the ground crews were still searching.
Stay tuned.......
I will!
Waiting for this morning's report to come out. It will probably be in a form I can't post, but I don't want to start today's fire thread until I get to read it.
There were a whole bunch of starts late yesterday, but the source I read them on doesn't really let me know if they get caught or not. Most of them do.
Hubby's coming home from his fire assignment today! If posting gets sketchy later on, you know that it's because I am being distracted with home coming stuff!
Take good care of hubby:-)
I'm not sure, either. Maybe the Coolbroth fire, which is new.
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