Author Topic: Wildfire News 2024  (Read 53645 times)

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Offline EQC

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Re: Wildfire News 2024
« Reply #280 on: Sep 18, 24, 10:39:19 AM »
You can use this link to track the hot spots and flare ups.  Zoom in to the Bridge Fire.  You don't need to click on it. Just keep zooming in.   The Mesa Fire yesterday over by Chrystalaire was on the map within an hour or less.  So, it's pretty current.
https://napsg.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/media/index.html?appid=a483112967f84db096e1c954f8249ad6

Thanks!

I like the hot-spot dots on that link -- they seem more informative to me than the circles on WatchDuty.

Looking now, I see two red hot spots up near Wright Mountain, right around where I can see smoke today and saw flames yesterday.  There are also 9 yellow dots sortof extending from that area over along the "peninsula" of fire boundary to the south and east of Wright Mountain.

Oddly, the dots disappear from that map if I zoom in too far...so if they aren't showing for anybody else, you might try zooming out a notch or two.

Offline Wrightwood

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Re: Wildfire News 2024 - Bridge Fire 9/8/24
« Reply #281 on: Sep 18, 24, 10:45:09 AM »
Here's the audio from last night's WFSC meeting that addresses the area in question

https://www.wrightwoodfsc.com/zoom/WFSC.9.17.24.b.mp3

Offline Wrightwood

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Re: Wildfire News 2024 - Bridge Fire 9/8/24
« Reply #282 on: Sep 18, 24, 12:04:02 PM »
Bridge Fire - Operational Update, September 18, 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5ZU4l0oXb8

Offline Wrightwood

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Re: Wildfire News 2024
« Reply #283 on: Sep 18, 24, 02:53:11 PM »
NOAA fire and smoke detection website, here is the link:

https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/products/land/hms.html#maps

Offline Joe Schmoe

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Re: Wildfire News 2024
« Reply #284 on: Sep 18, 24, 04:30:32 PM »
Glad most of the town is back where they belong.  Very sorry for those who lost their homes.  As a piece of advice, I hope you folks ask the tough questions about what led up to your situation playing out the way it did.  I don't live in Wrightwood, but when I was asked about the fire from out-of-state folks even I, not a professional...just someone who is observant as has spent time in Wrightwood, told them that the wind change was going to pose a problem.  This was based on what we saw of the fire that made a run out towards Hesperia some 20-whatever years ago.  IIRC it was similar circumstances.

You all were chased from your homes.  Some don't have homes to go back to.  You're happy to be home, but tough questions should be asked before the focus on the fire fizzles out and goes away.

1. If advanced imaging aircraft were present over the fire, where was that up-to-the-minute data provided to the public on the day residents had to, essentially, flee?
2. If it was available, whose job is it to direct the public and local officials to that resource?  Did that happen?  If not, why?
3. Where were the local media?  In previous fires in LPC, I've been able to use their helicopter coverage to provide extremely accurate distances from active fire to structures in Wrightwood.  I don't believe we had those resources available.  Were they all covering the fire in Orange County?

Offline Wrightwood

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Re: Wildfire News 2024 - Bridge Fire 9/8/24
« Reply #285 on: Sep 18, 24, 04:58:06 PM »
All Snowline schools will remain closed on Thursday, 9/19, and Friday, 9/20

Offline Wrightwood

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Re: Wildfire News 2024 - Bridge Fire 9/8/24
« Reply #286 on: Sep 18, 24, 09:02:22 PM »
Start Date: September 8, 2024, at 2:12 p.m.       

Incident Website:
inciweb.wildfire.gov/incident-information/caanf-bridge-fire

Fire Information: (626) 662-0120
Hours: 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Email: 2024.Bridge@firenet.gov

Fire Size: 54,795 acres
Percent Contained: 41%
Personnel: 2,549

Injuries: 4
Structures Damaged: 19
Structures Destroyed: 81

Cause: Under investigation

Location: Sheep Mountain Wilderness, San Gabriel Mountains National Monument


Offline Wrightwood

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Re: Wildfire News 2024 - Bridge Fire 9/8/24
« Reply #287 on: Sep 19, 24, 09:03:34 AM »
Start Date: September 8, 2024, at 2:12 p.m.       
Incident Website:
inciweb.wildfire.gov/incident-information/caanf-bridge-fire

Fire Information: (626) 662-0120
Media Line: (626) 470-1395
Hours: 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Email: 2024.Bridge@firenet.gov

Fire Size: 54,795 acres
Percent Contained: 49%

Personnel: 2,591
Injuries: 4
Structures Damaged: 19
Structures Destroyed: 81
Cause: Under investigation

Location: Sheep Mountain Wilderness, San Gabriel Mountains National Monument


Offline Wrightwood

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Re: Wildfire News 2024 - Bridge Fire 9/8/24
« Reply #288 on: Sep 19, 24, 09:22:22 AM »
Bridge Fire - Operational Update, September 19, 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x6fU3JX3IU

Offline Wrightwood

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Re: Wildfire News 2024
« Reply #289 on: Sep 19, 24, 11:07:22 AM »

Offline Joe Schmoe

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Re: Wildfire News 2024
« Reply #290 on: Sep 19, 24, 12:14:34 PM »
The weak bit of Santa Ana winds for tomorrow have been taken out of the forecast.

Offline Wrightwood

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Re: Wildfire News 2024 - Bridge Fire 9/8/24
« Reply #291 on: Sep 20, 24, 06:45:37 AM »
Incident Website:
inciweb.wildfire.gov/incident-information/caanf-bridge-fire
 
Fire Information: (626) 662-0120
Media Line: (626) 470-1395
Hours: 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Email: 2024.Bridge@firenet.gov

Fire Size: 54,795 acres
Percent Contained: 53%

Personnel: 1,850
Injuries: 4
Structures Damaged: 19
Structures Destroyed: 81
Cause: Under investigation

Location: Sheep Mountain Wilderness, San Gabriel Mountains National Monument

Offline Wrightwood

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Re: Wildfire News 2024 - Bridge Fire 9/8/24
« Reply #292 on: Sep 20, 24, 09:40:20 AM »
Angeles National Forest
10 minutes ago
#BridgeFire
Fire size:  54,795
Percentage Contained:  59%
Personnel:  1,870
Overnight, firefighters maintained the day shift’s progress, keeping the fire within its current footprint, securing areas with heat, and strengthening lines.

Offline Wrightwood

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Re: Wildfire News 2024 - Bridge Fire 9/8/24
« Reply #293 on: Sep 20, 24, 10:45:23 AM »
Bridge Fire - Operational Update, September 20, 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkddPUqYPyE

Offline lwt42

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Re: Wildfire News 2024
« Reply #294 on: Sep 20, 24, 10:45:54 AM »
3. Where were the local media?  In previous fires in LPC, I've been able to use their helicopter coverage to provide extremely accurate distances from active fire to structures in Wrightwood.  I don't believe we had those resources available.  Were they all covering the fire in Orange County?

On the WrightwoodCalif.com home page, there is a link to a section of Fire Links.

I'll bring your attention to FlightRadar24.  They show all of the aircraft on a map, and you can zoom in on our fire.  It's usually not hard to find the Air Boss aircraft circling the fire for hours.  Gives a great idea of where the fire is at any given time.

What I've noticed with the media coverage is that they show you active flames, maybe show air tankers dropping, but it's usually hard to figure out exactly where they are.  Especially when they get out to the Inland Empire they're pretty much lost, and often pretty mixed up -- pictures in the San Bernadinos but the speaker says San Gabriels.

On the other hand, this YouTube channel has been fantastic.  https://www.youtube.com/@angelesfireinfo

The other problem is that there aren't that many news 'copters, and multiple fires to cover.

The firefighters have the same issue, doubly so when a fire goes from 8,000 acres or so to 40,000 in a blink of an eye.


Offline tcaarabians

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Re: Wildfire News 2024
« Reply #295 on: Sep 20, 24, 11:40:52 AM »
I agree with lwt42 that flirghtradar24 is an excellent way to ascertain where they're concentrating drops.

The Line Fire started on 9/5 and was expanding with evacuations and warnings by 9/10.  The Bridge Fire started on 9/8.  Until the afternoon of 9/10 - based on the updates - we all thought it was around 4000 acres in the area East Fort, etc.  The Airport Fire started on 9/9 and quickly exploded.   

I was watching the Bridge Fire on flightradar 24 on the 8th, 9th, 10th (and every day since).  There was not a lot of air up on the Bridge Fire on 9/9 or the morning of 9/10.  Clearly, I could have missed those drops.  I'll wait for the after-action report to better understand why Wrightwood and Pinon Hills had so little notice the fire was moving fast

I'll be watching that NW corner again today.  we have thunderstorms blowing in again. There are containment lines around the north side above Pinon Hills and leading south to Wrightwood.   Here's the NWS forecast for that area today:  https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lon=-117.73298978805538&lat=34.390478039756445







Offline Joe Schmoe

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Re: Wildfire News 2024
« Reply #296 on: Sep 20, 24, 04:53:17 PM »
I'll wait for the after-action report
If there's an after-action report I've never seen one.  Frankly, I think the reason for this would be to admit that they are incapable of protecting the forest, and it's residents, from fires with their current strategy and budget.

Offline Joe Schmoe

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Re: Wildfire News 2024
« Reply #297 on: Sep 20, 24, 04:56:35 PM »
What I've noticed with the media coverage is that they show you active flames, maybe show air tankers dropping, but it's usually hard to figure out exactly where they are.
Not to toot my own horn, but I am VERY good at this.  And when given the opportunity I have done this for Wrightwood.  But the sense I get is old-school thinking and public relations control are at play.  Tax payer dollars buy advanced imaging rigs for firefighting planes.  Those images need to be used in real time to plot active fire on a map.  Distance from populated areas and average rate of travel of fire should all be on a website available to the public.

And I'm again going to harp on where they place their staff during extreme heat, and in relation to previous burn scars.  If you let the public into the forest in massive numbers when the temps are 100+, conditions that you cannot guarantee stopping the fire early, then you need to have all hands on deck out in the trucks where the most people are located in the areas with the highest likelihood of an unstoppable fire.

Offline lwt42

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Re: Wildfire News 2024
« Reply #298 on: Sep 20, 24, 09:02:19 PM »
Quote
    3. Where were the local media?  In previous fires in LPC, I've been able to use their helicopter coverage to provide extremely accurate distances from active fire to structures in Wrightwood.  I don't believe we had those resources available.  Were they all covering the fire in Orange County?

Not to toot my own horn, but I am VERY good at this.  And when given the opportunity I have done this for Wrightwood.

My observation on the media is that over the past couple of decades, they've come to serve their advertisers, and the media coverage may have been on the Airport Fire because the market for advertising is bigger in the OC than some little mountain town.

Non-traditional media is far better: WatchDuty.org, FlightRadar 24, and the ANF fire info YouTube channel were great.

I did see in one of the briefings, may have been the Lytle Creek Community Meeting that one of the team 5 leaders said that the fire went from about 8,000 acres to 40,000 in a matter of a couple of hours -- something they've rarely, if ever, seen.  The speaker said that there is simply no way to get that many people into wilderness fast enough, even if they had an unlimited budget.

The way to fight something like this is with controlled burns and fuel modification during the late fall and early spring.  Native Americans did this 150 years ago, time we realize that they knew something.

Offline tcaarabians

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Re: Wildfire News 2024
« Reply #299 on: Sep 20, 24, 10:24:30 PM »
Speaking for myself, I want a C-130 on every corner.

On this map, you can click on "Fire History" in the right-hand nav bar.  Choose 2000-now and 1900 - now.  You can suppress the Bridge Fire.  The areas where it moved quickly have not burned in a long time.

The map hasn't shown hot spots for a couple of days. I'm not sure why.  Ideas welcome.  There are a few older hot spots in the NW area near Jackson Lake on other maps.
https://caltopo.com/map.html?fbclid=IwAR1tlPYUuxtDxevvYRHXsPOwNmBsNO7fykWfp7twxRnqc474CwQfwlfmdOY#ll=34.31255,-117.67284&z=12&b=mbh&o=mbr&n=1&a=modis_mp%2Cwxd_wspd-01

 

anything