California: Forest Fire North of Azusa Grows to More than 14,000 Acres

MSNBC ^ | 9-3-02

[dogbyte12]

AZUSA, Calif., 7:52 a.m. PDT September 3, 2002 - A wildfire in the San Gabriel Mountains that forced people to flee campgrounds over the Labor Day weekend has grown to 14,429 acres, officials said Tuesday.

The blaze, which started Sunday afternoon about 30 miles northeast of Los Angeles, was 5 percent contained, said Linda Steinberg, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service. It was expected that the wildfire would be fully contained by Sept. 10, Steinberg said.

[dogbyte12]

fyi

[madfly]

Fire & Aviation Newsroom

Note: Links for more info aren't working. Maybe they will be posted at the noon update.

Fire & Aviation Newsroom

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9/3/02	Current Large Fire Situation Initial attack was moderate in the Southern California Area and light elsewhere. Nationally, 134 new fires were reported. One new large fire was reported in the Northwest Area. Three large fires were contained yesterday, Bull Elk Fire in Montana, Pack Rat Complex in Arizona, and the Hickok Fire in California. For more information on large wildland fires see the Morning Report. A Fire Weather Watch has been issued in northwest Wyoming for breezy, hot, dry, and unstable conditions. A Fire Weather Watch has been issued in west-central and extreme northwestern Nevada for strong winds and low relative humidity. For more information on fire weather in your area...
9/3/02	Curve Fire - Southern California Area This fire is 30 miles north of Asuza, California and is burning in mixed conifer forest and heavy brush. Thunderstorms over the fir produced gusty winds contributing to extreme fire behavior with rapid rates of speed. The fire is estimated to be 11,000 acres in size and is 0 percent contained. For more information on the Curve Fire...
	Pass Creek Fire - Rocky Mountain Area Approximately 15 miles south of Lander, Wyoming on the Washakie Ranger District, Shoshone National Forest. This lightning caused fire is 13,433 acres in size and is 95 percent contained with a full containment date of today. For more information on the Pass Creek Fire....
9/3/02	Biscuit Fire - Northwest Area Located twenty-six miles southwest of Grants Pass, Oregon this fire is now 499,937 acres in size and 92 percent contained. Warm and dry conditions during the day, steep terrain, lack of natural barriers, and poor humidity recovery at night, has delayed the expected containment of the fire until September 6, 2002. Structure protection is in place at the Chetco Inn, Wilderness Retreat, Gardner Ranch, Tolman Ranch, and in the Pistol River drainage for 274 residences. For more information on the Biscuit Fire...

[madfly]

http://www.biscuitfire.com/

Information Collected @
09/02/02 @ 7:00 p.m. PST

Name: Biscuit Fire
(formerly the Florence Fire)

Location: 26 miles southwest of Grants Pass, Oregon

Lat: 42° 24' 46"
Long: 123° 52' 14"

Date of Origin: 7/13/02, reported at 12 AM

Size: 499,937 acres

Cause: Lightning

Contained: 92%

Expected Containment Date: 09/06/2002  6:00 p.m.

Fuels/Materials Involved: Mixed Conifers and Brush

Structures Threatened:
Residences: 274
Commercial: 0
Outbuildings: 0

Structures Lost:
Residences: 4
Commercial: 0
Outbuildings: 9

Resources Threatened:
65 structures in the Wilderness Retreat, Gardner Ranch, Chetco Inn, Tolman Ranch and Pistol River areas.

Industrial timberlands

Threatened, Endangered, and Sensitive fish, plants and animal species, long term ecosystem productivity.

Rogue, and Smith National Wild and Scenic Rivers.

North Fork Smith Botanical Area and Port Orford Cedars.

Personnel Assigned:
2,731 personnel

Number of Injuries to date:
63

Number of injuries today:
0

Equipment Assigned:
Crews:
Type I: 8
Type II: 44
Camp Crews: 20
Helicopters:
Type I: 7
Type II: 3
Type III:7
Engines: 63
Dozers: 61

Cost to Date: $130,799,000

Observed Fire Behavior:

Zone I: Creeping and smoldering, interior islands continue to burn out.

Zones 2: Zone 2 is now under the control of Six Rivers National Forest.

http://www.r5.fs.fed.us/sixrivers/

 Zone 3:  Slightly cooler temperatures, higher relative humidities, and lighter winds moderated fire behavior. Flare-ups in unburned islands of fuel continued to provide a slight chance for spotting across fire lines.  See map.

 Zone 4:  Fire activity was moderate today in Div. V and W as the fire backs into itself in Lawson Creek. Fire behavior was mostly a low intensity backing fire with isolated tree torching where heavy surface and ladder fuels are present.

Current Weather Conditions:
Wind Speed: 3-6 MPH
Wind Direction: NE-NW
Temperature: 74-88°
Relative Humidity: 25-38%

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[Grampa Dave]

If your areas down south have gotten as dry as it has up north this past week, the state of Kali is in real peril of acting like Oregon has since mid July.

Normal plant irrigation times that has kept plants green for the whole summer are not working now in our area. I'm having to do emergency irritation all most daily to prevent plants from dying.

If that is happening to plants with an automatic drip irrigation system, the trees and brush in our forests must be tinder boxes ready to ignite.

[WaterDragon]

It seems that the fires had no beginning this year, and won't ever end. I cannot ever remember a year like this one.

[Myrddin]

The area north of Azusa includes the Burro Canyon Shooting park. Has that area been hit by the fire?

[dogbyte12]

It will be in the mid 100's out in the Azusa area for the third day in a row, with hot gusty winds. I think the fire fighters are being optomistic about having the Azusa fire contained by the 10th. We are supposed to cool down to the high 80's, low 90's by this week-end though.

The worst is yet to come though. We are in the middle of our worst drought year in decades, but then we are expecting a moderate el nino this fall/winter. The mudslides are going to be really nasty. I doubt that highway 39 is going to be open much during the peak of the rains.

[madfly]

©1999-2002 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

What's up with this story?

For its size, Oregon Biscuit fire
did little severe burn damage

Tuesday, September 3, 2002

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORTLAND -- For the amount of attention it received, this summer's Biscuit fire did relatively little damage to the land across which it raced.

"There is a lot of unburned area, and there's a lot that burned at a very low intensity," said Greg Clevenger, resource staff officer for the Rogue River and Siskiyou national forests, where the Biscuit fire touched about 500,000 acres.

Satellite images of the still-burning fire have revealed roughly 200,000 unburned acres within the fire's boundary. The fire, among the largest in modern Oregon history, severely burned less than 20 percent of the total acres, said researcher Annette Parsons.

Moreover, the fire appears to have burned many acres mildly enough to sweep out overgrowth left by decades of fire suppression without turning forests into ruins.

In that way, the fires resemble natural blazes that long ago cleared Western forests and may clear the same tinder now targeted by President Bush for thinning.

"It's not to diminish that large fires are going to happen, but to temper it with the idea that these things are also accomplishing a lot of good that may turn out to help us," said Bruce McCammon, a hydrologist who oversees fire rehabilitation for the U.S. Forest Service in Oregon and Washington.

The varied blend of blackened, singed and unburned lands could also lead to debate as foresters decide whether to log singed trees that conservation groups say might survive and serve wildlife.

Officials at the Fremont and Winema national forests in southern Oregon may salvage as much as 160 million board feet of wood or as little as one-eighth of that, depending on how much burned acreage they target.

The final number, said Steve Egeline, resource staff officer for the two forests, will depend on several factors: How severely the timber was burned, how accessible it is, the likelihood of insect infestation in surviving trees and the environmental effects of extracting the trees.

The satellite images reveal what fire scientists and foresters have known for decades -- that fires typically burn in a patchwork pattern.

Even when a fire is roaring, it may suck up so much oxygen it suffocates itself and cannot burn every patch of ground, said David "Sam" Sandberg, the Corvallis-based head of a Forest Service team that studies fire dynamics.

"If you look at a big fire more closely, it's really a whole lot of smaller little fires doing their own thing," he said. "Often most of the land is hardly touched at all."

In all but one Northwest blaze surveyed this summer, more than half the acres were burned lightly or not at all. Taken together, an average of 69 percent of the acreage was burned lightly or not at all, with 19 percent burning moderately and 12 percent burning severely.

The severity rankings reflect damage to soil and the plants that hold it in place. Rehabilitation such as seeding to control erosion usually targets severe burns, where soil was cooked so deeply little vegetation survives.

Where fires burn lightly, though, flames gobble dry grasses and leave roots ready to spring back to life and trees untouched. In the Fremont and Winema forests, site of the Toolbox, Winter and Grizzly fires in July, charred willows and other plants are already resprouting.

[Grampa Dave]

150 degrees this week (mid 100's). "It will be in the mid 100's out in the Azusa area for the third day in a row, with hot gusty winds." :)

I'm sure glad that I live in N. Kali where it only gets a little over 100.

Seriously, we keep this type of weather up, and we will be in serious potential fire damage.

[EBUCK]

Good Morning Gang!

First time in a while that I've been able to chat. (seems as though I work so efficiently that I've worked myself out of work!!)

G'Pa, could you add PyroMike to your ping list? He's a buddy of mine and a real good fella.

G'Pa and Blackie please check your private mail and get back to me ASAP.

EBUCK

[madfly]

Welcome back Dave! I recived a great MP3 song to the tune of Billy Joel's "We didn't Start the Fire".
If you'd like I can mail it to you.

Hope you had a nice Labor Day!

[Granof8]

"In that way, the fires resemble natural blazes that long ago cleared Western forests and may clear the same tinder now targeted by President Bush for thinning."

More enviro-bullscat. Move along Mr.President, there isn't anything to see here.

Sure hope you folks down south aren't subjected to the smoke and ash fall we have had here around the Biscuit fire for the last six weeks or more.

[madfly]

bttt

[Grampa Dave]

I had a great Labor Day Weekend.

However, after baby sitting with Bubba Bam Bam and his sister the Princess this past weekend at their home, Grampa Dave is in a process of re toddler proofing our home.

Bubba Bam Bam and his sister will be visiting this weekend while their Mom and Dad get away without them.

I thought that our home was basically toddler proof as the Princess has presented no problems on her visits. The past 18 months after my first toddler proofing.

Bubba Bam Bam has a degree in engineering, bridge building and as a cat burgler all wrapped up in one very strong and highly active 18 month old body.

He sees every door as an obstacle to freedom that must be overcome. He will climb to the ceiling with his bridges he builds with furniture, pillows, toys or whatever. Any electronic device like a tv, tv tuner, vcr are fun things to master. He knows how to eject a vcr tape or to put it back in.

Besides the house, I have to Bubba Proof our back yard and deck before they arrive this Friday.

[Grampa Dave]

Good to hear from you.

I will be off for a few hours in about 30 minutes. I have a dental/tooth cleaning appointment and a quick session with our lawyer as she starts to wrap up our new trust. Two really fun things to do any day.

Then a couple of hours of additiona Toddler Proofing our home for the upcoming visit of our grandson Bubba Bam Bam and his sister. It is mainly for him, however she can unlock any door without safety locks that if the lock is not over 5' from the floor.

[blackie]

I replied to your email...

Death To All Tyrant's !!

The Second Amendment...
America's Original Homeland Security !!

[EBUCK]

Funny,
My son's nickname = Bubba, and my daughters nickname(s) = Sissy/Princess.

Must be a conservative thing.

Yak at ya later..

EBUCK

[EBUCK]

Sorry, read my above reply to G'Pa, was meant for you.

EBUCK

[EBUCK]

Now I'm really confused....Blackie belay my last. G'Pa, that reply was really meant for you after all. Gotta get some coffee into me quick.

EBUCK