Fires in California
Fires in California
14July 2006
Two large fires were burning in California in mid-July 2006. Thisupdate contains images of both the Sawtooth and Canyon Fires.
In Southern Californias Mojave Desert, a large wildfire was burning rapidly through chaparral terrain at the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains on11 July 2006.
AQUA
11 July 2006
Sawtooth Fire, 11 July 2006
close-up view
This image of the fire was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAs Aqua satellite at 2:20 p.m. U.S. Pacific Time that afternoon. The towering column of gray-brown smoke marches northeast over thedesert. A red perimeter outlines locations where MODIS detected actively burning fire. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, two fires are burning close together in thisarea: the Sawtooth Fire, which was about 2,400 ha and 0 percent contained as of12 July, and the much smaller Millard Fire, which was estimated to be about 50 acres and 70 percentcontained.
The close-up image is shown at MODIS maximum spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters perpixel. The large image shows a wider area at the same resolution.
Several fires were still burning in California on 12 July 2006, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAs Aqua satellite passed overhead and captured this image. The places where MODIS detected active fire are marked in red. In the south, the Sawtooth Fire and the Millard Fire are burning close together at the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains at the margin of the Mojave Desert. To the north, the Canyon Fire is burning to the east of San Jose in the Diablo Range Mountains.
AQUA
12 July 2006
The large image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters perpixel.
(source: EarthObservatory)
Latest GOES-11 image:
This multispectral combined image was taken on 13 July 2006 andshows the smoke from the Sawtooth Fire that increased to over 14,900 ha in San Bernardino County of California, in southern California,extending northeast into southern Nevada and western Arizona. Smoke from theCanyon Fire burning about 6,700 ha now, can be identified 17 km west of Patterson, California, in central California.
(source: OSEI)
For more information see:
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National Interagency Fire Center
See also latest news reports:
Riverside County Fire has more than 1,200 working on Southland fires
(source: www.kesq.com)
Palm Desert, CA, USA — The Riverside County Fire Department has more than 1,200 firefighters battling the Sawtooth Complex and Millard Canyon wildfires, authorities said today.
As of 7 p.m. yesterday, the two fires — the Sawtooth Complex in Yucca Valley and the Millard Canyon in the San Gorgonio wildlands — had burned a combined 40,600 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and the San Bernardino National Forest Fire Information Center.
Both fires started on July 9 and by lightning strikes, with high winds fanning the flames amid low humidity.
Aid from the Riverside County Fire Department came in the form of personnel and material, said fire department Capt. Jeff Kanov.
The department sent “overhead personnel,” which are supervisors to monitor the fire and coordinate firefighters’ efforts, and “hand crews,” which are groups of about 15 firefighters each who battle the blaze, he said.
Kanov said his department has contributed 72 overhead personnel, 16 hand crews, 25 engines and a bulldozer to the Millard Canyon Fire, and 145 overhead personnel, 51 hand crews and 75 engines to the Sawtooth Complex Fire.
The numbers of Riverside firefighters responding to the Millard Canyon fire are expected to rise as the fire gains in intensity today, Kanov said.
Although the evening humidity gave firefighters a break last night, strong winds are expected to churn up flames anew this morning, Kanov said.
The fire had burned 3,600 acres was 5 percent contained as of late last night, with no estimate of when it would be completely contained, according to the San Bernardino National Forest Fire Information Center.
No houses were destroyed as of last night and none were in danger, the Fire Information Center reported.
The Sawtooth Complex fire had burned 37,000 acres and was 15 percent contained as of early yesterday evening, with no estimate on full containment, according to CDF San Bernardino Firefighter Nick Rossman.
That fire had destroyed 42 houses, 55 outbuildings and 91 vehicles, and causing mandatory evacuations in Pioneertown, Burns Canyon, Flamingo Heights, Rim Rock, Gamma Gulch and Little Morango Canyon, Rossman said. An evacuation center was set up at Yucca Valley High School, he said.
Ten minor injuries from smoke inhalation and minor burns have been reported, Rossman said.
Five engines, run by three firefighters each, are on loan to Riverside County from Humboldt County while Riverside firefighters battle the two wildfires, Kanov said.
California fires grow; state park threatened
(source: www.mercurynews.com)
Hot, windy weather combined with steep, rugged terrain hampered firefighters’ efforts to contain three major wildland fires around the state Thursday, including one on the edge of the East Bay.
In Stanislaus County, more than 2,002 firefighters battled a 27,184-acre blaze in Del Puerto Canyon west of Patterson. The number of fire personnel had been substantially increased from an original figure of 780 because the blaze was moving south toward the popular Henry W. Coe State Park, the largest state park in Northern California. By Thursday crews had contained about 45percent of the fire, which had destroyed 10residences and injured four people.
Gusts of up to 16 mph continued to push flames south to southwest through the canyon, across ranch lands and into Santa Clara County, threatening at least a dozen homes and 50 other buildings.
“It’s steep terrain,” said Pam Rhoten, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry, which was leading the firefighting effort. “A fire that is that large creates its own winds.”
Using 31 bulldozers and more than a dozen helicopters and airplanes, firefighters worked to build a 25-mile break around the blaze, which began Sunday afternoon. By late Thursday crews had reduced the break to 16 miles. Crews included 21 firefighters and five engines from the Alameda County Fire Department.
Also Thursday, flare-ups and lingering flames from the 6,400-acre Midway fire near the Altamont Pass prompted cancellation of Altamont Commuter Express train service.
Using railroad cars that dump water on the tracks, crews extinguished the smoldering railroad ties that were of greatest concern. Regularly scheduled train service was expected to resume today.
Meanwhile, the state’s most destructive blaze raged on in San Bernardino County near Big Bear Lake City, about 100 miles east of Los Angeles. Ignited by lightning over the weekend, the Sawtooth fire had scorched at least 40,000 acres and consumed almost 100 buildings and 91 vehicles.
“The fire’s burning in extremely steep and rugged terrain with little access,” said Mary Flynn, a CDF spokeswoman.
Extremely low humidity and high winds also conspired against the 1,340 firefighters battling the blaze, Flynn said. Crews using hand-tools, bulldozers and air tankers had contained 20 percent of the fire Thursday, up from 16 percent a day earlier.
State officials lifted evacuation orders for several small communities but kept them in place for at least two others. The Sawtooth and other fires prompted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday to declare a state of emergency in San Bernardino County.
A dozen firefighters received minor injuries battling the Canyon and Sawtooth blazes, and a few civilians were slightly hurt in the Sawtooth fire, according to the CDF.
State and federal firefighting officials expected the Sawtooth fire to merge with the nearby Millard fire. The latter blaze had been 70 percent contained at 125 acres on Wednesday, but grew to 8,200 acres and was only 5 percent contained Thursday.
“We know that they will come together, more than likely,” said John Miller, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service, which was leading the effort to fight the Millard fire.
Firefighters were not expected to get a break this weekend from the hot, windy weather fanning flames.
“Wherever those fires are, it will be sunny and warm,” said Steve Anderson, a National Weather Service forecaster.
In San Bernardino County, the temperature was expected to rise to as high as 110 degrees and the wind to blow as fast as 25 mph. In the Bay Area, the temperature at the Canyon fire was expected to reach 100 degrees and the wind to reach 15 mph.
There have been 49 fires larger than 300 acres in California since the fire season began last month, according to the CDF.
Although the number of fires at this point in the season is about average, many of those fires spread unusually fast, said Kevin Olson, the CDF’s deputy chief of command and control.
The culprit has been the summer’s usual hot, dry and windy weather, Olson said. Also, the exceptionally wet winter produced a bumper crop of vegetation at lower elevations, he said.
“The smaller, fine fuels … are much thicker this year,” Olson said. “There’s a lot of grass this year, so it’s just helping feed the fires.”
On the other hand, at higher elevations vegetation is wetter than usual, because it has retained more moisture or remains under snow. The state might get through the season without major fires at those elevations, Olsonsaid.
Local crews join effort to snuff Southland fire
(source: www.sanluisobispo.com)
71 workers from SLO city and CDF/County Fire fight flames from a blaze that has burned 47,800 acres
More than 70 firefighters from CDF/County Fire and the San Luis Obispo Fire Department were dispatched this week to be part of the force battling a 47,800-acre Southern California wildfire that destroyed more than 100 buildings, forced residential evacuations and threatened to merge with another blaze.
“This is one of the more spectacular fires Ive seen,” CDF Division Chief Greg Pisano said by phone from the Sawtooth fire near Pioneertown. “What were seeing here is an interesting phenomenon where we have two significant fires burning in close proximity to each other, each influencing the fire behavior of the other.”
As of early Thursday evening, the Sawtooth fire was only 20 percent contained. The other blaze, called the Millard fire, had burned 8,200 acres in the remote San Gorgonio Wilderness of the San Bernardino National Forest, and it was only 5 percent contained. Both were caused by lightning.
Pisano, now in his 35th fire season, arrived Sunday to direct more than 850 inmate fire crews who are digging fire breaks to guard the remaining homes from the encroaching Sawtooth fire.
In San Luis Obispo, other crews waited for orders for more personnel to help fight the blazes.
So far, 62 emergency workers from CDF and seven San Luis Obispo firefighters have been dispatched, officials said. Five engines, one bulldozer and three privately owned bulldozers were also sent.
By Thursday evening, Pisano said, most could only look forward to more 15-hour workdays.
“Im not really as tired as the troops out there on the fire line,” he said. “Spirits are very high, as far as sleeping and having good and sufficient food and water and things to drink.”
