The Sacramento River Canyon caught fire today near Pollard Flat. Another fire and this one is near the Hirz Fire. This is the Delta Fire.
It started just after lunch and began building its own pyro-cumulus cloud right away. Just what we need here, another wildfire. Lamoine and other river communities are being evacuated.
With all the fires burning in California there has been a lot of discussion about logging to reduce forest fuel. Doing so makes our forests more fire resilient. There is fear among many people that logging of any kind will destroy our forest. The truth is the the fires are destroying our forests. This is a short video of such a logging operation from last year on the Lassen National Forest. The Forest Service prepared this project. Our company bought and logged the timber sale. The result is a healthier more resilient forest.
A wildfire broke out west of town Friday afternoon.
Last Friday I posted Storm Clouds Brewing and talked about lightning and wildfire. Then Friday afternoon an aggressive wildfire broke out west of town. However, this fire wasn’t caused by lightning, it was caused because of an illegal marijuana grow.
It formed a huge column and began building it’s own thunder cloud.
The fire crews were scrambled and the air-tankers took to the air.
The thing is, Mary and I were planning a weekend away camping in our trailer at our favorite spot. The problem was, the fire was less then five miles from our camp where we had already staged our trailer. We made the decision to retrieve our trail while the fire was relatively small, only 300 acres.
As we approached camp the sky became angrier.
After reaching camp, we packed everything, hooked up the trailer and pulled out. The smoke made it very dark.
Looking to the sky from camp.
The fire was two ridges away when we hauled out.
We got the trailer safely home and by the time we went to bed the fire had grown to 2,800 acres.
Saturday was a new day and the fire had not advance too much over night. It was reported at 2,930 acres. We decided to head back up to camp to pick the last of our equipment. Sailor and Kinta came with us this time.
Sailor and Kinta are ready for an adventure.
It was still very smoky up near camp. An inversion had settled the smoke into the canyons.
By the time we finished the truck was covered in ash. Clearly the fire was still actively burning.
Sailor and Kinta found this whole adventure thing quite exhausting.
By the time we returned home the fire was still at 2,930 acres. Unfortunately, high winds hit Saturday night/Sunday morning and by Sunday morning it was up to 3,700 acres. The terrain is very steep and it is extremely brushy. Spot fires have been tormenting the firefighters. Just when they seem to getting a handle on it, another slop over occurs. It is now Tuesday night and the fire is reported at 8,100 acres. Today was overcast and calm. Hopefully, they made good progress containing it. The fire is now 1 3/4 miles from camp. We shall see what tomorrow brings.
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