SOS Forests

First Reports on Fire Blow-ups

As we predicted yesterday, wildfires are blowing up across the West due to two factors: high winds driven by the cold front moving through, and the criminal propensity of the USFS to kindle and expand wildfires rather than suppressing them.

The following reports were gleaned from today’s updates at W.I.S.E. Fire Tracking, a free service provided free of charge to the entire world for no remuneration. It’s free, for your edification, should you wish to avail yourself of the opportunity to become informed.

The fires listed below are a small portion of the active fires burning today. Many fires were not updated this morning, and the winds from the cold front have not yet reached some of them. It is not our fault that fire reports emanating from the USFS are sparse, late, incomplete, and often incompetent.

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View Lake Let It Burn Complex Fires [here]

Situation as of 08/26/2010 5:00 pm
Personnel: 604 (up from 333 yesterday)
Size: 3,037 acres (up from 776 acres yesterday)
Percent Contained: 30% (this number is meaningless)

Costs to Date: $2,731,000 (estimate is too low)

Type 3 IMT withdrawn. PNW Team 2 (Type 1 National IMT, Hoff) assumed command of the fire at 0600 today. Yesterday’s strong winds and unstable conditions resulted in a 5-fold growth in the size of the fire. An 80 acres spot fire developed east of the Pyramid Butte Fire (formerly Fire 264) now on the Warm Springs Reservation. No action on fires located in the Bull of the Woods Wilderness.

A decision was made to line a portion of the Pyramid Butte Fire.

Closures for Breitenbush, Harvey and Trout Lake areas.

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Scott Mountain Let It Burn Fire [here]

Situation as of 08/26/2010 4:00 pm
Personnel: 440 (up from 147 yesterday)
Size: 2,559 acres (up from 600 yesterday)
Percent Contained: 5% (this number is meaningless)

Costs to Date: numbers reported are incompetent

The new strategy is Let It Burn, in violation of the Willamette NF LMRP and FMP.

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Oak Flat “Appropriate Response” Fire [here]

Situation as of 08/26/2010 6:00 pm
Personnel: 959 (up from 762 yesterday)
Size: 5,708 acres (up from 4,760 yesterday)
Percent Contained: 60% (this number is meaningless)

Costs to Date: $10,010,496

Another 1,000 acres deliberately incinerated yesterday, at an additional cost of $1 million. This fire could have been contained at 800 acres. Everything burned in excess of that is deliberate, malicious arson on the part of the USFS.

The ORCA IMT is without a doubt the most inept and destructive IMT in the nation. The RR-SNF and Region 6 are run by incompetent leftwing political appointees with absolutely no conception of how to manage forests.

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Phoenix Let It Burn Fire [here]

Location: 4 mi NE of Crater Lake, Klamath Co. OR
Specific Location: NE corner of Crater Lake National Park, 1 mi S of Hwy 138 , Lat 43° 4´ 18″ Lon 122° 1´ 14″

Date of Origin: 08/17/2010 (reported for the first time today)
Cause: Lightning

Situation as of 08/26/2010 4:00 pm
Personnel: 52
Size: 200 acres (a guess-timate)
Percent Contained: 0%

Desired incineration area: 2,500 acres

Significant growth occurred on the Phoenix Fire yesterday due to strong, gusty winds from the predicted cold front moving through. No effort being made to line or otherwise control this fire.

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Banner Let It Burn Fire [here]

Situation as of 08/26/2010 6:00 pm
Personnel: 542 (down from 561 yesterday)
Size: 2,365 acres (up from 2,077 yesterday)
Percent Contained: 20% (this number is meaningless)

Costs to Date: $2,908,000

Incident strategies: 57% of fire is containment; 33% of fire is “limited supression” [sic].

The cold front had not yet hit with full force at the time of the 209 report. Red Flag warning today for winds and low RH; lightning on the fire with light precipitation.

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