Fire

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Those clear/white tanks grow algae something awful, a black tank keeps the water clear if it is stored for more than a few days. You can put a tarp over it, that helps to keep the algae from growing.


The green tanks allow the growth of algae as well, though not quite as bad as the lighter colored tanks. Even in full-shade 365 days a year.
 
Well, that and all of the neighborhoods built up in box canyons. They don't cause the fires but they do jack up the cost of both suppression and recovery. Oh and of course the high cost of public opinion and negative press. I think the counties need to bear more responsibility for this one because they're who permits the construction in those locations where the fuels are loaded and the topography favors large fire growth. The rise in temperature is absolutely an issue and will become more of an issue over time, but much more immediately the land use problems need addressed.


Stop building in/beyond the WUI and you eliminate 50% or more of the issue. But anytime someone speaks of limiting human growth/expansion they are immediately jumped upon and treated like a Charlatan.

Or, if you insist upon it, only allow homes that are 99.99% fire hardened.
 
From a NYT article on the Australian fires:
"Bush fires can be so large and hot that they generate their own dangerous, unpredictable weather systems. These so-called firestorms can produce lightning, strong winds and even fire tornadoes. What they don’t produce is rain.

The volunteer firefighter who died on Monday was crushed after a fire tornado lifted a fire truck off the ground."

Damn!
 
If you haven't seen it, image search "pyroclastic lightning." Both volcanic eruptions and wildfires can produce hail/lightning/flooding conditions. Wildfires can produce tornadoes, but I'm not sure if volcanic eruptions can.
 
From a NYT article on the Australian fires:
"Bush fires can be so large and hot that they generate their own dangerous, unpredictable weather systems. These so-called firestorms can produce lightning, strong winds and even fire tornadoes. What they don’t produce is rain.

The volunteer firefighter who died on Monday was crushed after a fire tornado lifted a fire truck off the ground."

Damn!

There was a similar incident on the Carr fire with F3 tornado strength. The heat-caused updraft broke the inversion layer, and all hell broke loose as the atmosphere destabilized and the wind shear spun the updraft then caused it to move around. It was somewhere around a half mile wide. I don’t remember if there were any deaths directly related to it.

It always sucks to hear about somebody dying, especially when it’s a firefighter, even from another country.
 
There was a similar incident on the Carr fire with F3 tornado strength. The heat-caused updraft broke the inversion layer, and all hell broke loose as the atmosphere destabilized and the wind shear spun the updraft then caused it to move around. It was somewhere around a half mile wide. I don’t remember if there were any deaths directly related to it.

It always sucks to hear about somebody dying, especially when it’s a firefighter, even from another country.

I believe 2 directly, Dozer operator (heat) and a Redding Prevention Officer (Blunt Trauma from being launched in his vehicle) and numerous close calls.
https://projects.sfchronicle.com/2018/carr-fire-tornado/

The Marin engine is from my county


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
There was a similar incident on the Carr fire with F3 tornado strength. The heat-caused updraft broke the inversion layer, and all hell broke loose as the atmosphere destabilized and the wind shear spun the updraft then caused it to move around. It was somewhere around a half mile wide. I don’t remember if there were any deaths directly related to it.

It always sucks to hear about somebody dying, especially when it’s a firefighter, even from another country.

This was the start of the fire tornado at the CARR Fire. This video was taken from our development just before it jumped the river and killed the 2 fire fighters.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
I finally got my hands on the Brush Rigs I got donated from San Jose Search and Rescue to our Volunteer Fire Association. Fifty cents each.

80-brush_rigs_8305eafe06ffcdd3b13847617df221fc55b2ba82.jpg
 
Those look like some pretty nice rigs for fifty cents each. Like, way nicer than our ‘83 Chevy K20.

I can’t tell-are they set up for USAR or wildland? Even if they’re set up for SAR it probably wouldn’t be hard to stick a skid unit in the back and run it as a Type 5 or 6. It would just depend on how heavy the department wanted to make the truck-not so much because of the chassis, they’re F-350s, but more for how they would handle off road.
 
Cal Fire has completed their annual fire training so next week it is back to work thinning our little forest. At the present time we are one of only three grade projects that the Cal Fire hand crews are permitted to work on during the pandemic. I am the only one to represent the sponsor and social distancing is not a problem. I know the inmates like to work this project and they really enjoy the treats I give them. Wish us good luck.
 
And so it begins. The ranger unit next to ours broke a fire two days ago so the hand crew working our grade project was pulled to go there. Who knows how many time this will happen this year.
 
We haven’t been out yet this year, and it doesn’t look like we’ll be going much farther than Daniel Boone NF for an incident if R8 & the state agencies stick with the NWCG guidelines for this season. That would be fine last year or in 2018, where we saw the two consecutive wettest springs on record that set the stage for the rest of the year in 2018 and only contained one 18-day dry spell locally, where nothing burned in 2019, maybe thankfully due to high RH values with normal temperatures that July into August. This year we’re drier and cooler than normal, with a hot & dry summer forecast so it’s probably fair to say we could be looking at a more active season.

I’m not excited about having to go into the woods or the WUI with a small hand crew, a couple one or two man type 6 engines and type 1 engines with crews that don’t do a lot of wildland training. There are less tenders in our area than any other time in the last 50 years. The dozer is going to take longer to get this season as well with our contractor retiring and us now having to wait on the state for heavy equipment.

Should be fun in our area. Southern parts of R8 usually burn in the winter, or our area July-August-September depending on how wet May/June were and what the jet stream wants to do.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top