The Bootleg wildfire that in roughly the past six days has engulfed over 150,000 acres in Oregon continued Monday to spread rapidly across the state.
Charles Smith, National Weather Service meteorologist, said officials are particularly concerned about this wildfire because it started so early in the annual season.
The fire, which is threatening power grids and lives, comes amid a heat wave that in the past weeks has brought a string of 100-plus degree days to the usually tempered Northwest.
“The fire is changing so dramatically – in the past couple days, it doubled in size. It’s going to take a long time before it’s safe for people to return,” said Mark Enty, a spokesman for Northwest Incident Management Team said, according to The New York Times.
Enty reports no fire-related injuries or deaths. But officials continue to call Bootleg “unprecedented,” as it grows and threatens a major power grid connecting Oregon and California. read more
Back to the Stone Age for California?
The Sun is starting to rise here in Eastern Washington with a very nice pinkish red glow to it due to all the smoke in the air from all the wildfires surrounding our area. I woke up about about an hour ago and could smell the smoke from all these fires. I am sick and tired of this extremely hot and smoky weather this year, usually it comes later in August and early Sept. but this year has been the hottest on record for this area in June and July. I am almost looking forward to Winter just for it to cool off, that’s how hot and miserable it has been here lately. And we could also use an extremely heavy gully washer of a rainstorm without all the thunder and lightning to cause more wildfires.
“When you sow the seeds, you reap the whirl-wind”
Geoff, come to TX.
Yeah, it’s hot as hell, but no smokey.
And the liberal population is still dense, but not as numerous as they would ha you believe..
How’s that environmental protection of the “rare & endangered” tumbleweed… 🤨… over against homeowners, workin’ out for ya’ SO far?!
🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
@Geoff I hear ya buddy. It’s been too hot too early over on this side of the mountains too. Everything looks like late August. I’m ready for fog, drizzle and the rainy nights.
Firstoff, let me put this as bluntly as possible.
Wildland firefighting BLOWS.
It’s hot and windy, of course, or you wouldn’t BE there most times. You can’t wear your normal saftey gear like turnouts and SCBA because you’re going to be there for a LOONG time, and you’d run out of air and die of heat stroke if you tried, so you’re going to be breathing smoke, ash, and the occasional hot ember. You can’t have your truck anywhere near most of the time because, wildland, and there’s stopgap things you can do with 4x4s and Gators and the like, but it doesn’t give you BIG water capacity like you’re used to, which is a shame because the fire is MUCH more than you’ll deal with if it was a room and contents burn in someone’s bedroom.
Nice natural ventilation, tho.
Another reason why trucks are a problem even if you have access is that they don’t exist in isolation. You can take a hydrant or start running a water shuttle, but these things tie your equipment in and make it difficult to move quickly, so if the wind changes, you’re not getting out very fast because of all the hoses and such you’ve got laid in. One reason that firetrucks have axes on the OUTSIDE is so they can be used in exteme emergencies, like a huge outdoor fire blowing back on you because of a wind shift, to literally cut your hose lines so you can escape with your life, if not your equipment.
And that fire be QUICK. After a certain size it makes its OWN wind, and isn’t necessarily going to go where the NWS says it SHOULD go. It also follows its fuel, and that can be a lot of things from underbrush to gas stations, and you end up with MULTIPLE structure fires in the cases of the bigger ones, and you need to worry about life hazards and victims in every single one. Generally you’re NOT going to fight the actual structure fire unless there’s reason to suspect entrapment if its being engulfed in a HUGE wildfire because of the problems of getting that involved like I said before and putting people INSIDE a structure at that point is kind of problematic, but it doesn’t look too herioc on the evening news when there’s a burning building in the background of a fire truck and the one isn’t being used on the other.
So there you are, usually wearing bunker pants and fire boots because of the terrain you’re going to be wading through, but no jacket, your helmet that gets MAJOR sweaty, and your fire gloves, then whatever you can carry or wear on your back. Axes and shovels are good, can be carried or put on a carry sash if you have one, though things like Hallegen tools that you’d use in a structure fire are useless here, and you can leave the door wedges at home too. Maybe a light box if you’re at night, because the fire doesn’t stop when the sun goes down. but you’re going to be carrying other things depending on what you’re role is. Some guys carry salamanders to make backburns, after clearing the scrub before it with the axes and shovels (its a VERY gritty, physical kind of unglamerous firefighting that WILL tax you stamina), other guys will carry Indian tanks for hot spot operations (and yes, they still call them that) which are brass bicycle pump operated Super Soakers attached to a steel tank on your back with 5 gallons of water in it. The water alone weights 40 pounds on top of the tank and all the other crap you’re carrying, so it’s a lot of fun. Best have a burn blanket too, again if the fire turns on you, and bring water for drinking. Lots and lots of water. Other guys will carry crap in and out, somewhere there’s a command post where they dole out the equipment and stage the incoming and outgoing companies, there’s Command to manage all that, trucks, ambulances, even gasoline and diesel deliveries and water trucks if it’s not conveneient to a water source or a lake you can use hard suction on, and don’t go mixing the firefighting water with the drinking water either unless you want a bunch of sick firefighters on your hands.
These are campaign fires too, you have to set them up like that becuase guys will get worn out fast, the fire can go for WEEKS, can go a LOOOONG way, and you have to have many agencies to rotate guys in and out, and you’re not necessarily going to be working alongside guys from your agency that you know and trust well, the way you do on a normal structure fire. Communications can be sketchy so you’re not necessarily going to KNOW if the fire’s sweeping back at you in time to deploy your burn blanket, and Command may or may not be looking at your sector when it does.
There’s a ton of other stuff like insane brave smoke jumpers parachuting into the worst of the fire and aerial water tankers and tons of other things, but this is already way too damn long and you all have seen the more exciting stuff like that on the news, so I’m not going to get into all that except to say that, while ALL the jobs are VERY dangerous, THOSE are the sEVERELY dangerous ones, but absolutely vital to getting a handle on something this massive, so special prayers for them, but prayers for ALL. I’m just trying to bring this down to the tired, sweaty, foot slog level so you know that firefighting isn’t a glamor job, but it’s got the worst parts of ditch digging, logging, hiking, carrying heavy loads, bad food, and insanely unpleasant places to sleep, all wrapped up in a fire blanket if the fire decides it wants to kill you for no reason.
Let us pray,
Dear Lord, please bless and watch over all those that toil to contain this and every devil’s inferno no matter its origins, for all such are from the devil and should be put down with Your help as such. Give these toilers the strenth to protect their fellow man, the bravery to stay and fight as long as it can help, and the wisdom to withdraw if the situation is too dangerous. Please Lord, hold Your hand over them, protect them from any hurt, harm, or danger, lead them to those who need saved and let them be able to rest in serenity in their time of resting so they have the stamina to go out and do it all over again. Bless those too who worry for them as they go about thier dangerous business, give their families the hope that their loved one will return to them healthy, and give them the strenght to carry on in their daily lives even as they must fill in for the one on the fire line for their household responsibilities. And Lord God, protect those that they GO there to protect, the average citizen, man, woman, and child in the path of this dreadful conflaguration, lead them away from the flames over the safest possible path, let them be reunited together no matter what they pass through that they may know their loved ones are safe, and preserve that which they leave behind, that which they worked a lifetime for, that tney may not need consider their life’s work in vain. And please Lord, let all of those, and indeed all of us, use this occasion to turn to You for Your strenght and for Your aid in these and all disasters, and to seek salvation with You for the hope of a Heaven where there ARE no disasters, and that we may have Blessed Assurance that no matter what happens on Earth, we will be reunited before Your Throne in Heaven by and by, and will be able to look upon each other and You with joy and gladness, and let us praise you always on that account.
This is much to ask, but we ask as You command us in Your Word to do, knowing that You are mightier than all and more merciful than all. So we ask for Your Grace by the only thing that makes us worthy, in the precious holy name of Your Son Jesus, Amen.
God Bless,
SNS
Smokey as hell here in southern Oregon. Besides the Bootleg fire near Klamath Falls, there is another big one east of Roseburg, and one west of Weed, CA. Do a search of western wildfire map, and it will blow your mind. We are reaping the results of 50 years of environmentalists shutting down logging. And the governors of WA, OR, and CA, in their “wisdom” did not renew the contract with Global Supertanker, bankrupting the company, and parking one of the most effective firefighting tools ever made.
Refresh my memory….
Before the environmental terrorist took over California forest management…..say back in the 50’s…..didn’t they burn/thin the underbrush and harvest the old trees….??? and not have these devastating fire seasons…???
Libtards hate clean Forrest floors. They also have no use for logic or root cause. Trump was right. Again.
Burn Baby Burn!!!!
Something about “No more water, the fire next time.”
The kids and I spend a lot of time in central WA and Montana in August and September following rodeo as the season winds down. We expect wildfires, more now than ever. I was just commenting that it is pretty early in the year to have this many going. I seem to be the clearing house for info on the fires, but for the most part what I rely on is inciweb, which gives the daily updates from the crews on the ground especially for larger fires and complexes.
I have a buddy who used his D8 to cut a fire break and he had the State on his ass, but his property and his downwind neighbors were the only properties that were not scorched off that year in a major burn. When the State came back after him they were lucky to get back to Olympia with their hides intact. Those people were pissed and loaded for bear when they pulled that stunt.
Talked to a guy in Roundup yesterday morning and they have a complex going SE down by Musselshell that has them pretty smoked up. That country was ripe for a burn, it escaped the big burn about twenty years ago that went damn near from Slippery Ann down past Grass Range.
Range fires do clean the brush out of the coulees and clean up the range so they do provide some long term benefit, but there are better and more efficient ways to realize that benefit w/o sitting around picking boogers and eating them while watching half of the county burn off.
SNS…CalFire mandates that firefighters wear 3 layers of clothing, the outer layer being fire resistant.
While I empathize with those having to deal with the fires and smoke, I am appreciative of the haze that drifted over nOrthern Utah a few days ago that has taken just a bit of the edge off the flesh-stripping high altitude Summer sun and 100 degree temps here (to the dismay of the Climate fear mongers who have been gloating over the high temp records). When I can smell the smoke and my eyes start stinging, I won’t be quite so appreciative. That also means the fires are a lot closer.
The early monsoonal flow wouldn’t be so bad if it resulted in actual rain. So far it has only resulted in high temperatures and higher humidity (keep in mind that anything over 20% feels muggy here).