Sunday, August 16, 2015

FIRE CIRCUS





FIRE CIRCUS!


A Helena Hotshot Crew Member

dismantles a blazing stump August 15th, 2015 on the Parker Ridge Fire in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. Photo is from the Bonner County “Daily Bee” website, courtesy of 
Nicholas Schreiner

      The 2015 Fire Season has turned out to be a big one! The drought in the West has made life miserable for many. In the Pacific Northwest, things started fairly normal, then escalated to a drought status. By the time middle of August rolled around, numerous showers left traces of rain instead of larger amounts, so it was almost for naught. The thunderstorms that arrived were often accompanied by lightning but without rain. So, both careless people coupled with lightning strikes that ignited fires soon overburdened the ability of fire-fighting crews to cope with the number of fires that popped up. All it took was a big blast of wind, and a fire would grow from a few hundred acres to thousands literally overnight.          
     What always bothers me is the stupidity of the people that “manage” fires. They want to play “incident commanders” instead of being fire-fighters. They spend too much time in meetings and get nothing done. Meantime the fires grow. One example of total asininity is represented by the Parker Ridge Fire in Northern Idaho’s Panhandle. It started as a lightning strike on July 27th 2015 in an area that can be described as "wilderness.” The “powers that be” decided not to fight it as it was burning uphill. It was a stupid decision. The winds came up and the nothing fire became a 6,500 acre or so fire on August 14th, 2015 that burned downhill, crossed a road, jumped the Kootenai River and threatened to burn clear across the panhandle. That came almost two weeks after this fire was known to be a problem in a very tricky fire season. 
     Now we had a possible major human disaster in the making. It was a three ring circus with mandatory “evacuations” and shelters were set up at a local high school and fairgrounds. The result was traffic tie-ups and people competing with fire units to get out. The town of Bonners Ferry looked like an evacuation zone. The winds eventually died down and so the area was spared any further mishap. Luckily no houses were lost. To hear the news reports, private, county, state and federal agencies worked seamlessly together through the night and were credited with stopping the fire. But that is not what locals told me!

     Here is what KHQ TV local news in Spokane, Washington reported:

Parker Ridge fire grows to 6,500 acres; no homes lost

Posted: Aug 15, 2015 4:21 AM UTC Updated: Aug 15, 2015 7:15 PM UTC
by Matt Pusatory, KHQ Local News Web Producer

BONNERS FERRY, Idaho -
UPDATE:  The Parker Ridge fire has grown to approximately 6,539 acres Saturday with zero percent containment. 
Extreme weather conditions and high winds caused the fire to make strong runs to the north and east Friday night. It overran the Westside Road and moved northeast where it jumped the Kootenai River. Crews worked through the night and into the early morning hours and stopped the fire's advance at Farm to Market Road to the east and Long Canyon Creek to the northwest.
Fire crews report that although homes were threatened, only one outbuilding was lost. All residents in the area were evacuated safely and no homes were lost.
Combined resources from private, county, state, and federal agencies are working closely together in coordinated efforts to minimize the fire’s effect.
There are currently 96 firefighters on the scene of the fire.

     During the height of the confusion, there was a big squabble between federal and local officials on who was to handle the fire! A listen to the scanner told the story. One farm couple who live near the fire but were not affected by it stated that the feds and the locals had a big disagreement on the radio when the feds told the locals to clear out! They also tried to commandeer the local farmers who used their own equipment, trying to save their places. Then to complicate things a panicked local threatened to light a backfire which really got the juices flowing. It amazes me the degree to which these morons will go. First they elect to not to fight a fire, and then when it grows out of sight out of mind, they want to control it! When I asked the farmer for his opinion on why they were like this he had only one thing to say: “They are stupid!” He is an old logger who has dealt with the “Forest Circus” for years and he has very little respect for some of those people. The suppression costs for this boondoggle will easily exceed one million dollars! It must be nice to have money to throw away like that!

      Control Burn on Kootenai National Forest that got away from the crew that set it (Author's Photo taken August 2015).

     There is a lot of stupidity to go around. If this was an isolated incident, that would be one thing. But it is the norm. A couple years ago the USFS (we snidely refer to them as the “Forest Circus!”) had a fire crew light a prescribed burn area on a nearby peak near the end of a fire season. They lit it before the rains arrived, and so when the winds picked up, the fire moved both down to a local road and all the way up to the crest of the mountain!. If any of us unwashed multitudes did that we would be in jail for arson. But nothing happened to these bimbos. In another area some fifty miles to the east in Montana, an area that had been logged was brush piled so that piles could be burned as part of a rehabilitation of the logging area and a reduction in burnable fuels. A family member was the brush piler so that is how the story is known. When the fire crew went to light the 200 or so piles, they picked a poor day; the piles burned together and the resulting fire damaged USFS and private timberland due to their carelessness. And these people remind the rest of us to be careful with fire! It is a huge laugh that is unfortunately not funny.

     Here is another example of problems: A fire fighting official in Stevens County, Washington reported this week he had just 15 or so people to fight a 4,000 acre wildfire. And all of them were volunteers! There is nothing like great planning. Because of the scope of the fires, no more equipment was available and requests for aid from as far away as back east were being made! I suppose it is fair to state that if you live in fire country it is best to depend on your own resources: PLAN AHEAD!


     When I lived in Fresno California in the early 1960’s, A big fire erupted just outside the boundaries of the Sierra National Forest. The USFS fire boss and the California Division of Forestry fire boss openly feuded about who was to run the show. By the time the fire was encircled it had burned thousands of acres both in and out of the forest. Much of the blame was laid on the fire bosses who caused much delay and confusion in attacking the serious burn. As a result, people lost their homes in the tiny villages of Ahwanee, Nipinnawasee and Oakhurst, California. It was one big mess. I never forgot the lesson.

          Ahwanee Fire destruction in California 55 Years ago
                     (Image from Author's Ektachrome Slide).

Update August 23, 2015.
     There are over a hundred fires now burning in Montana, dozens in Idaho, Washington and other western states. Recently it became known that 3,000 volunteers with dozers and excavators are willing to work on the fires in Washington State. Instead of putting them to work immediately to save lives and property, the idiots in government want to "verify" that these volunteers are qualified before putting them to work! And they have come up with the novel idea of importing Australian and New Zealand Firefighters to help out! Is there any end to the idiocy that goes on? Nope! Lets all cross the river to get water! No sense in drinking on this side! Apparently the old adage that the "scum floats to the top" still applies!
Update September 21, 2015
     Believe it or not, the Parker Ridge Fire has been burning for more than six weeks from the time it was discovered as a lightning strike on top of Parker Ridge. It was originally ignored by the Forest Service. Strong winds turned it into a blowtorch that headed down the steep ridge to the farmlands of the Kootenai Valley. The local farmers got a hold of any and all equipment that moved dirt and went to work to stop the firestorm. They were successful.
     Today the blogger inspected the fire from the paved road that follows the valley and took photographs of the results which are only impressive by their starkness. There were several upscale farm homes the fire approached but due to effort made, they were spared from the advancing flames. The sad part about this whole incident is that it was unnecessary and with some intelligent forethought, the whole incident could have been avoided. Nothing like intelligent government to "help" the people.......


       The Burned Ridge and the Kootenai Valley Farmlands


                  The Burned Ridge from the Westside Road


Farmlands Disked, forming a huge break in event the fire         made another run at the farms.


                 Minimal Damage along West Side Road


Scorched Earth and unburned trees showing "blowtorch effect"


                              Ground Burned to a Crisp 



                Green Grass Growing along the road after rains!


                                     Varied Tree Damage


                                    Dead Sentinels Standing



                  There will be floods here after heavy rains!



If there have not been enough screw-ups here is an encore! First we don't fight the fire, then after it becomes a disaster we make sure those who burn wood for heating can't cut the damaged and dead trees! Isn't government absolutely BRILLIANT?!

Photographs in this Update by the Blogger


Harald Hesstvedt Scharnhorst
             Posted 2015

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