Threat: Wildfire - 1 Billion Acres at Risk 2019

[RicInOR]

1 Billion Acres At Risk For Catastrophic Wildfires, U.S. Forest Service Warns

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[GOG]

We evac'd last Summer due to the Taylor Creek Fire which quickly morphed into the Garner Complex Fire.

I just had a fire mitiigation crew in a couple of weeks ago, got a new pump for irrigation and I've got plans for a metal roof on the house and shop.

It's the price I pay to live here and here is where I hope to stay.

 

[HB of CJ]

Yep, it is wildfire season again. Lots of rain and snow this past winter which means more ground fuel this hot summer. Wildfires are taken very seriously out here. Time to go through the 7-10 day 2 person comprehensive multiple bag bug out bags. Change out the water and food. Inspect everything. The bags now reside inside the front door closet.

Will I need them? Hope not. Three, (3) close calls since 2001.

 

[GOG]

I know the feeling, including prepping for the critters.

 

[bbbass]

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?

 

[Certaindeaf]

I'd click but if you've seen one Doctor Evil you've seen them all.

 

[RicInOR]

Attempt to plug a wasp nest sparked the biggest wildfire in California history

 

[Ura-Ki]

Yup, Watched BLM fire crews just sitting on a fire doing NOTHING while it was still small enough it could have been contained! Watched and waited until the State and Fed argued over the seasons budget for fighting fires, before they actually sent any one to actually fight the fire! Fought with the State of OryGun over billing for fighting it's fires, Or questioned every single penny spent because I was Private HotShot, while the big outfits got paid with out any issue, after I told Or. to Get Bent and refused to send my teams, Or. had the gall to accuse me of all sorts of things, including racketeering, but the first big fire, they were begging me to send the teams! Ironically, Cali was the best and easiest to work with, thanks to Cal-Fire!
Too many Chief, not enough Injuns in OryGun!

 

[IOM]

All of this speculation, is this before or after the huge meteor strike...???

 

[cigars]

All of this speculation, is this before or after the huge meteor strike...???

A few surgical meteor strikes would be nice.

 

[GOG]

A few surgical meteor strikes would be nice.

Salem & DC for a start.

 

[The Heretic]

Over two months ago I stopped burning my slash piles because it was getting too dry and the embers were catching old stumps on fire. There has been about 5-6 inches of rain since then - sometimes almost an inch of rain in a day, a couple weekends ago there was a downpour where I got half in inch of rain in 30 minutes.

This week I had to pour more water on one slash pile that had burned down to a foot of ashes with crumbled wood underneath. A hole had opened up and air was getting into the wood in the ground that was still burning and smoke was coming up out of the ground.

Underneath the stump on the edge of the pile were large holes a couple of feet wide and 3-4 feet deep where the fire had kept burning over the months down into the roots of the stump. I will be keeping an eye on that acreage for the summer as it gets drier and drier.

Every evening when I come home from work, I stop at the top of the hill overlooking that acreage and examine it with binoculars to see if there is any new smoke. I won't be burning again (I still have about a dozen piles to burn) until next year after the rains.

This week some neighbors were burning something - I hope it wasn't a slash pile.

 

[The Heretic]

The good thing is that I now have a wide area (about a mile wide when you include the neighbors cut) of clear cut land between me and standing fuel on the west side of my property. There is a lot of trash laying on the ground, but not near as much fuel as there was before the cut. Plus it would be a lot easier to fight a fire moving across that cut as now there are logging roads in there to move equipment in. Also aircraft could get in and see where to dump water.

We have a really good fire station nearby too - very proactive and quick to jump on anything that gets out of control up here.

About 5 years ago I thinned the woods on the house side of the gully, so now the trees are mostly mature large trees with a lot more space between them and the closer to the house you get the less underbrush there is until up on the flatter area right around the house there is almost no brush at all.

 

[bbbass]

Attempt to plug a wasp nest sparked the biggest wildfire in California history

Wants me to pay to read the article...

 

[bbbass]

Yup, Watched BLM fire crews just sitting on a fire doing NOTHING while it was still small enough it could have been contained! Watched and waited until the State and Fed argued over the seasons budget for fighting fires, before they actually sent any one to actually fight the fire! Fought with the State of OryGun over billing for fighting it's fires, Or questioned every single penny spent because I was Private HotShot, while the big outfits got paid with out any issue, after I told Or. to Get Bent and refused to send my teams, Or. had the gall to accuse me of all sorts of things, including racketeering, but the first big fire, they were begging me to send the teams! Ironically, Cali was the best and easiest to work with, thanks to Cal-Fire!
Too many Chief, not enough Injuns in OryGun!

Washington State argued with the Feds about a fire near the west end of Lake Chelan before dispatching resources to fight a new start while I was finishing up on the 25Mile fire. Meanwhile, the new fire grew nicely. Funny thing, I was sleeping in the back of my PU at an old helipad base where a bear had been rumaging a dumpster... I had a .357 with me, which was strictly prohibited while on any fire. Like I cared!!

I know several contractors that had trouble getting paid by the Feds. In fact, one of my buds that had a large catering outfit and shower trailers quit the business because of constant rule changes and lack of being paid. They delayed payment for years, then tried to settle with him for half what they owed him for Katrina.

I got paid for almost an entire summer of sitting at the Prineville airport just in case we were needed. I didn't complain, but just wow! Many examples of standby vehicles. My boss said payment was very slow. We were #1 on the dispatch list for our second contract period, then this last one were #18 as several newby/cheapo guys from further east outbid our rates. They didn't dispatch us until they had some of those cheapo communications trailers on fires and they were a big FAIL (No comms). Then they begged us to hurry on up to Twisp, etc, to pull their butts out of the fire.

How about the Feds refusing to certify the Global Supertanker, which could have put out those Cali fires with one run/drop??? Did they not want to use it because of all the others that wanted to work the fires and get paid?

 

[GOG]

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.

 

[bbbass]

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.

Thinking of that fire saddens me... but hey, they are all blaming Global Warming eh? Now we are supposed to worry about a new round of Climate Change caused fires...

 

[The Heretic]

Noticed on my way to McMinnville that some kind of burning going on north of Lafyette towards Yamhill, maybe towards Gaston. Heard there was a fire out at Grand Ronde too. Somebody burning on south side of my mountain.

I will be glad when the 15th rolls around and burns are banned period for the summer. It really is too late to be burning unless you have a water truck/pump. Way too easy for it to get out of control.

 

[Ura-Ki]

I wish I had time to get more pictures of the Napa Valley Fires, Man, that was some seriously nasty fast moving fire!
The sad part is a State utility is responsible for starting several of the last fires, and are being sued, sad because the people are the ones who suffer when the utility settles!
The L.A. Hills fire was another serious bugger, with 40+ MPH winds and difficult access, that fire got big in no time!
Last years Nor-Cal fires were by far the very worst, that sucker blew horizontal, burning out all the underbrush and racing though every thing with out ever topping out! You couldn't get ahead of it and dig lines, you couldn't drop on it as it was almost impossible to follow down in the brush, and you couldn't back burn against it as it would blow through your possession before you got out of the way! All they could do was try and keep cleared areas from burning out and hold on!

 

[albin25]

Latest stats I see say there's 766 million acres of forest in the USA....
....I guess some is going to need to be burned twice!

But, on the bright side, after that, there can't be any more forest fires for a few years.