Threat: Wildfire - 1 Billion Acres at Risk 2019

[HotRodGuy]

Is your name Hammond?

No, but if they have a semi-attractive single female, age 18-60 that will be getting all the family money, I might be willing to work something out.

 

[308]

I have my own suspicions about the Paradise fire as well as a few others. But I'm not going to break out the tinfoil haberdashery yet.

No need for tin foil, although those who cannot imagine certain nefarious deeds will tell you to wear it.

 

[CountryGent]

The last couple years the wildfires got a little too close for comfort here. Lots of smoke and ash too. Alas, I don't see it getting any better in this region, and it doesn't take much imagination to see it getting worse.

 

[Ura-Ki]

The last couple years the wildfires got a little too close for comfort here. Lots of smoke and ash too. Alas, I don't see it getting any better in this region, and it doesn't take much imagination to see it getting worse.

I would assume you have taken precautionary measures to limit a burn on your property? How about your water supply, are you able to access large amounts?
Any suppression capabilities?
Also assuming you, the Smurfey one and little Taters have a bug out plan, are you able to relocate for a few days to a few weeks?

 

[CountryGent]

I would assume you have taken precautionary measures to limit a burn on your property? How about your water supply, are you able to access large amounts?
Any suppression capabilities?
Also assuming you, the Smurfey one and little Taters have a bug out plan, are you able to relocate for a few days to a few weeks?

We do indeed have some preps in place:

• Both vehicles have bug out boxes loaded with supplies (food, water, hygiene supplies, sleeping bags, med kits, tools, ammo, etc.)
• Both adults have bug out bags in the house that can be carried on the back or tossed in a vehicle.
• We have masks for all four people for when the smoke gets really bad. We haven't used them yet, though we kept wee ones indoors when it got really bad.
• Water is off the county line, so some. I've toyed with the idea of putting in our own well, but haven't done so yet. (Since we're planning on bail soon, it kind of got put on the back burner.)
• This time of year I do a bunch of mowing, cutting, clearing etc., to keep things clear around the house, though we are in a forested place, so trees are close.
• My office/workshop in town has a ton of storage space, so we could put valuables/irreplaceable there for short term. There is also a gun safe there, so firearms could be locked up securely.
• Short term bug out would likely be to a local casino resort until things blow over. Longer term would be to family in Josephine county, assuming they aren't also threatened, which they often are.
• I am planning on buying fire gel that can be sprayed on a house at the end of the week. I've seen mixed reports on this, though generally positive, and it is cheap insurance if it works.
• I've confirmed our homeowner's insurance covers wildfires.

 

[bbbass]

No, but if they have a semi-attractive single female, age 18-60 that will be getting all the family money, I might be willing to work something out.

Provided she retrieves ducks and baits her own danged hook!!!

 

[MxOverkill]

1 Billion Acres? Not buying it.
The 50 states contain 2.3 billion acres.
I'm not buying the claim that 43% is subject to catastrophic wildfire.

 

[The Heretic]

1 Billion Acres? Not buying it.
The 50 states contain 2.3 billion acres.
I'm not buying the claim that 43% is subject to catastrophic wildfire.

I think they said "America", not the USA. That could include Canada and Mexico - you know, those other countries that share the continent with us?

 

[CamoDeafie]

I think they said "America", not the USA. That could include Canada and Mexico - you know, those other countries that share the continent with us?

Also stands to reason that Canada would have to be included by default, due to sharing the border with Alaska which has 425 million acres...

Edit. Canada has just under 2.5 billion acres.. and as we all have seen; the British Columbia and Alberta both tend to have huge wildfires seasonally.

 

[The Heretic]

This morning I took off for work and as I was driving along the other side of the ridge looking back at my property about a mile away, I saw some smoke from one of my slash piles. So I turned around and went back. Filled up some water jugs and took the pickup to the back acreage and dumped water on it after I had stirred it up with some tools.

It's been about 10 weeks since I lit that pile off and it is still burning down in the ground.

 

[Member 52301]

I do as much fire mitigation as I can even though I live in town... for now.

I have city water/city sewer here in this house that I built several years ago. (I used to have a well and septic tank in my former state in the boonies.)

I do have a 'water rights ditch' towards the back of my land. Town lot. I have land behind this ditch too. It flows in the spring until winter time - freezing conditions. The small cattle ranch to one side of me - two houses down waters their fields from this ditch. Lots of people use the ditch for their gardens too.

The no build zone way, way and way down behind me is on private land until it hits the river. They do NOT clean up the scrub, underbrush, old, rotten, fallen or new trees, etc. I have only seen a clean up one time way down there and that is when a 'bum' aka A TRANSIENT trespassed even with SIGNS POSTED and started a camp fire with the WIND BLOWING! No ! and the fire department came to the rescue. The firemen and the owners of those two properties were OUT there too. The bum fled from the scene.

The Feds and Montana have fought over what the MT people could do when it came to fighting these dang fires. I NEVER ever heard of such stupid talk and action when one side b's when the other side could FIGHT IT RIGHT AWAY!

Heck, on the Indian Reservations, most of them fight the FIRES faster and better and get on it really fast from what I have observed. My MT born and raised husband has seen them do a better job in many cases too. My husband said that ALL of the tribes have their own forest fire fighting crews and they travel all over. They are HIGHLY trained and do a good job. Their sovereign nation (Rez) firemen get on their fires quickly and they don't have to argue with the Feds or Montana to GET ON THE FIRE immediately since it is on their own land! You can watch/read/listen to the news and see this is true when it comes to them doing a faster job in most cases. Rez = reservation.

Another thing, on National Forest land and on BLM land - close to and not close to homes or small towns or even CLOSE to where I live... they could have FOUGHT and put out small fires but they let them GROW and get out of control. Fact not fiction.

We know people and not just ranchers where this happened. (News, film footage, etc.) Plus where the FS did so called control burns and they got WAY OUT OF CONTROL and some ranchers sued and won their case. Fact. Close friends of my MT husband who live in another county. I know them but he has known them a LONG time.

There are people in this town and in the next town over where the FS stopped so far from their land or they just did NOT get out their hoses to fight the fires. They did not use their water bucket planes or helicopters when they could have in many cases too. You can see them FLY OVER and get water from the various rivers that flow throughout this town and one river is not that far from my house. Those BIG water and fire retardant planes fly out of this college town's airport too. You can see them and hear them. You can see them all around and not just by Snow Bowl ski resort which is to the north of me. This town is in a valley and the mountains surround us.

The Smoke Jumpers started in this town too. Their center is here. The Fire Science Laboratory is here too.

Missoula Smokejumpers | US Forest Service

Missoula Smokejumper Visitor Center | US Forest Service

Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory | Rocky Mountain Research Station

My husband said that they used to have WW2 vintage dive bombers there. They started with WW2 paratroopers and they BUILT their own equipment. He was born and raised here. He lived right off of the Rez when his late Dad taught school on The High Line aka Hi Line when he was a little kid for 5 years. He spent his summers way up in NW MT.

I respect ALL firemen. Paid and Volunteer men/women. My late husband was a Volunteer fireman/EMT shy of his military time back east. He was a Captain, treasurer, secretary, taught in another county as a volunteer not just at our fire station, and he and other men helped build a TANKER TRUCK. I helped him as some of us ladies did when they were on calls but I could NOT physically do what they did so I helped in my own way. My late husband was tall and slender but he was strong. Plus he could drive just about anything that you can think of and help take care of it too. He had a stoic personality in some situations but he was ALWAYS a calming and sane influence with other people and with VICTIMS while on a scene of an accident - death involved or not. He actually used his brains and common sense.

With that said, I do NOT understand SOME of the stupid fire fighting policies within many of the national and state orgs. The Montana people told the FEDS to stick it when it came to fighting some fires because they could get to it faster and knew about it from the gitgo. Then the FEDS went after the Montana people/firemen because they told them that they had NO authority to fight the fire due to x, y or z.

Plus they need to log the forests better in a more sane manner.

My MT husband had loggers on one side of his family. One of his Uncles, now dead, is on a Montana PBS special about loggers and people who homesteaded this state. Way up in the NW part of the state right below B.C., Canada.

Cate

 

[The Heretic]

Yet again.

This morning I was driving off to work and I usually glance over to my property when I get around the area over to the other side about a mile away because my clearcut is easier to see from there.

This morning I glanced at it and there was a plume of smoke coming from a pile. So I turned around, got home, put on my grungy clothes and boots, filled up some containers of water and headed over in the 4x4.

I got there and there was open flame. Small, campfire sized - but open flame and it was trying to spread.

Almost two months ago I was working on this same pile, stepped into a hole filled with ashes, lost my balance and severely burned my left arm (enough to wind up in the ER).





I am going to have some pretty good scars on that arm for quite a while.

It was hot then and it is still so hot that it is still burning under the ground.

Last week I had to deal with smoke coming from a different pile. Every time I drive home from anywhere else, I stop at the top of the hill and examine that area with binoculars. Last night was no exception - no smoke. In the space of about twelve hours that pile spread and exposed the burning underground to be open flame. It has been breezy here for about a week and if I had not noticed it this morning that fire could have spread to the woods.

So be careful out there. It doesn't take much. Be vigilant.

 

[Ura-Ki]

Yet again.

This morning I was driving off to work and I usually glance over to my property when I get around the area over to the other side about a mile away because my clearcut is easier to see from there.

This morning I glanced at it and there was a plume of smoke coming from a pile. So I turned around, got home, put on my grungy clothes and boots, filled up some containers of water and headed over in the 4x4.

I got there and there was open flame. Small, campfire sized - but open flame and it was trying to spread.

Almost two months ago I was working on this same pile, stepped into a hole filled with ashes, lost my balance and severely burned my left arm (enough to wind up in the ER).

View attachment 591847
View attachment 591849
View attachment 591851

I am going to have some pretty good scars on that arm for quite a while.

It was hot then and it is still so hot that it is still burning under the ground.

Last week I had to deal with smoke coming from a different pile. Every time I drive home from anywhere else, I stop at the top of the hill and examine that area with binoculars. Last night was no exception - no smoke. In the space of about twelve hours that pile spread and exposed the burning underground to be open flame. It has been breezy here for about a week and if I had not noticed it this morning that fire could have spread to the woods.

So be careful out there. It doesn't take much. Be vigilant.

Sounds like you need to get a big tractor of some sort with a ripper or rake and pull it through those piles a few times!
Roots will hold embers for a very long time, and if you get winds through there often, its only going to keep going!

 

[The Heretic]

Sounds like you need to get a big tractor of some sort with a ripper or rake and pull it through those piles a few times!
Roots will hold embers for a very long time, and if you get winds through there often, its only going to keep going!

I had a skid steer with a grapple/bucket on it and I had an excavator. The excavator was more useful, but I rented it from True Value in Cornelius and they don't maintain their equipment very well - it broke down halfway thru the burn.

I am reluctant to go digging in those piles in the middle of fire season. When it starts raining again I will probably rent an excavator for a weekend and work on the ones that we burnt. I don't want to add any fuel to them right now, and I don't want to expose anything burning underground either. I am ok with keeping an eye on them and pouring a bunch of water on anything that pops up. We have had about 7" of rain since we stopped burning, and that did the trick (I hope) for most of the piles, but a few of them are reluctant to give up the ghost. That particular one is one of about 4 that I keep having to deal with. I am hoping the rest are dead.

Most of the piles have some cleared area around them, but a few I need to keep a close eye on.

 

[Caveman Jim]

Salem & DC for a start.

Don't forget Seattle (Olympia)...

 

[Member 52301]

Yet again.

This morning I was driving off to work and I usually glance over to my property when I get around the area over to the other side about a mile away because my clearcut is easier to see from there.

This morning I glanced at it and there was a plume of smoke coming from a pile. So I turned around, got home, put on my grungy clothes and boots, filled up some containers of water and headed over in the 4x4.

I got there and there was open flame. Small, campfire sized - but open flame and it was trying to spread.

Almost two months ago I was working on this same pile, stepped into a hole filled with ashes, lost my balance and severely burned my left arm (enough to wind up in the ER).

View attachment 591847
View attachment 591849
View attachment 591851

I am going to have some pretty good scars on that arm for quite a while.

It was hot then and it is still so hot that it is still burning under the ground.

Last week I had to deal with smoke coming from a different pile. Every time I drive home from anywhere else, I stop at the top of the hill and examine that area with binoculars. Last night was no exception - no smoke. In the space of about twelve hours that pile spread and exposed the burning underground to be open flame. It has been breezy here for about a week and if I had not noticed it this morning that fire could have spread to the woods.

So be careful out there. It doesn't take much. Be vigilant.

Hello,

I hope that you heal up and don't get an infection from that bad burn on your arm. Burns are a pain in more ways than one. Get well soon.

Is there any way that you can ask for help from a FD to help you with putting out that deep and long burning fire that just will not die?

That type of fire that continues on and runs deep with roots and more is like one that started down in Ravalli County (?) I think. RC is in MT not too far from here. The group of young adults put it out, they checked it several times BUT the heat and/or coals ran so deep in the GROUND and it spread through all kinds of roots and more fuel that NO one could see when they left their campsite.

I would ask for help if I were you and I am sure that some people would be willing to help you who are on a Volunteer or Paid Department just to be on the safe side.

Best wishes to you!

Cate

 

[The Heretic]

The local FD has been up here a few times to fight slash fires that got out of control or that flare up. They generally don't deal with this kind of thing though; it is up to the landowner to keep an eye on such issues - and most of us do (except sometimes if the landowner doesn't live up here). The fire dept. doesn't have the equipment to deal with burning deep in the ground. As long as their is no open flame they generally don't respond.

It would take an excavator to dig down into the ground, and then a water truck to dump water on it. Most landowners just wait it out and keep an eye on the piles because equipment is pretty expensive and paying someone to do this is even more expensive. That is what I am doing - but I still have 10+ unburnt piles to dispose of. A neighbor may be having someone come up with equipment to mulch his piles - I didn't know there was anyone local who did that. I may have them do mine if it is possible (remaining piles are mostly in the gully) and not too expensive.

---

I am mostly healed now. No open wounds and it no longer hurts. My wrist is still tender though and I think I wrenched my shoulder a bit.

 

[tinkerbill]

Didn't click. However...

I'm wondering what screaming that we're all going to burn up is supposed to accomplish. 1B, 2B, 10B, why not 500B, it strikes me as fearmongering so they can get more money. Not that more funding is not needed, but have you ever been on a fire, seen the waste by gov agencies?

I've written our ultra-left tree-hugging Oregon legislators many times asking why they don't loose the strings on logging? I think clear cut areas that are completely cleared out, brush and all then replanted with young trees would benefit EVERYONE! More tax revenue, more people working in the logging industry, cleared land is no longer a fire hazard and is beneficial to wildlife. But no, Oregon .gov wants MORE money to fight wild fires! Kinda makes ya wonder what the hell is going on and who is benefiting from status quo?

 

[tinkerbill]

The local FD has been up here a few times to fight slash fires that got out of control or that flare up. They generally don't deal with this kind of thing though; it is up to the landowner to keep an eye on such issues - and most of us do (except sometimes if the landowner doesn't live up here). The fire dept. doesn't have the equipment to deal with burning deep in the ground. As long as their is no open flame they generally don't respond.

It would take an excavator to dig down into the ground, and then a water truck to dump water on it. Most landowners just wait it out and keep an eye on the piles because equipment is pretty expensive and paying someone to do this is even more expensive. That is what I am doing - but I still have 10+ unburnt piles to dispose of. A neighbor may be having someone come up with equipment to mulch his piles - I didn't know there was anyone local who did that. I may have them do mine if it is possible (remaining piles are mostly in the gully) and not too expensive.

---

I am mostly healed now. No open wounds and it no longer hurts. My wrist is still tender though and I think I wrenched my shoulder a bit.

I have gotten pretty dang good at operating track hoes, mostly John Deere control. I'm retired and would volunteer to run one but it would have to be after I get done fighting the white collar criminals (who faked our signatures on what they are calling the note on our loan) We know that the MERS debacle destroyed our original note and have been fighting the criminals a long time but they managed to fool a county judge that the fake note they produced is real. Too long a story for here. Anyway, if I get done fighting them my time would free up. If someone else or a group would fund the extended use of a medium size track hoe (with thumb) we could help solve your problem. Some volunteer hoe time would do me good & would take my mind off what is happening to me and mine.

 

[The Heretic]

Thanks. One of my neighbors is good with a track hoe - I just thinking I don't want to dig it up and open the pile to air while it is dry up here now. THinking of waiting until the rains hit in the late fall. I have this week off so I am going to go over and shove a fork down into them to see if they are done yet - so to speak.

Haven't seen any smoke for about 10 days. Had about an inch of rain last week - that was nice.