Fires in 2014

[Kathie in Thorp]

New (or resurrected) fire going near Vantage, too, PL Tannery. It's at about 38,000 acres and has taken out some structures. 3,800 acres!! Sorry. And that was earlier today.

 

[tamarack]

Sounds devastating hope everyone is ok keep safe.

 

[Nesikep]

I saw the clouds really moving over the mountains from the west this afternoon, they seem to have stopped in the evening, the wind has quit here too, hope it has for you as well.

If you figure you may need to evacuate, round up the cows into corrals early if you can

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

I saw the clouds really moving over the mountains from the west this afternoon, they seem to have stopped in the evening, the wind has quit here too, hope it has for you as well.

If you figure you may need to evacuate, round up the cows into corrals early if you can

Nesi, we're still good here. Had big dark, heavy looking clouds around us this evening, but no rain. No lightening either, thank God.

 

[Nesikep]

We got a splash of rain overnight, certainly didn't amount to a whole lot, but it cools things off bit..

 

[Nesikep]

Well, we got a couple good wet splashes through the course of the day, I think the fires must be pretty much out, they certainly can't be spreading much at this point.. probably didn't amount to more than 1/4", but there were clouds hugging the mountains to cool things off.
Hope you folks to the south got some of it too...

 

[Dave]

I heard on the news this morning that they had strong winds yesterday and that Carlton fire made another big run. There is rain in the forecast but not until Wednesday. I hunted deer for years right above Carlton and helped Charlie Judd gather cows several times in that area. There is some big rough country back there that has plenty of fuel for a fire.

 

[Nesikep]

I think I went through there on a bus about 20 years ago.. I'm quite sure I went through Tonasket, but don't remember that much about it. Too bad you didn't get this rain

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

Winds are better for Carlton Complex today. I'm making another post on Coffee Shop -- please LMK if you know of someone/trucker.

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

COW MILKER/CRAIG -- I will never forget the box of tape. Ever. I still have the packing slip that came from Cow Milker.

 

[Dave]

I heard that Gebbers lost a hundred head to the Carlton fire. Just a couple weeks ago they sold three pot loads of bred heifers on Superior that wouldn't have been delivered yet. I know it is a terrible lose no matter which cattle died but it would sure be the pits to sell heifers for the kind of money they went for and then lose them to a fire before the delivery date.
There has to have been more cattle lost too. It is rough semi timbered range land that takes weeks to gather all the cattle out of in the fall under normal conditions. I can't imagine trying to push cattle out of that country ahead of a fast moving fire.

 

[Nesikep]

must have been lots of wildlife cooked ahead of it's time too

 

[pdfangus]

Joel Kretz is a Quarter Horse breeder in Okanagan and he has posted photos on his facebook page....lot of destruction around there....He did a photo album of Gebbers crew using orchard sprayers to fight the fire...

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

I haven't had an update on the Gebbers' cattle losses. Last I heard was several days ago from son-in-law, at 200 head. Dave, have you heard if Washington Cattlemen's is doing anything about hay donations or relief effort? I have not. 7 ton donated hay came out of our valley to Chelan over the weekend, as well as 5-6 ton from Spokane up to Okanogan. They are collecting animals both locations. I'm letting someone else work with the 20+ ton donation that is apparently promised from MT. One of our hay exporters and a family of growers, plus driver found by FFA and fuel donated by a local petroleum co., will haul 15 tons out of here this weekend.

Until they actually start re-building (there will be many that had no insurance, as we had w/ Taylor Bridge Fire), the food stuffs, diapers, clothes, pillows, blankets, batteries, etc.) are being pretty well met, I think. It's just not all organized well . . . . the Carlton Complex fires cover a couple of counties and lots of miles N to S. Getting donations organized from the S end of the fire to the N end is an issue. Those of us helping from the outside just hope all the organizations involved top to bottom are playing well in the sand-box.

 

[Nesikep]

Well, around here the rain over the weekend apparently didn't do any good, my friend who worked on my truck was up there fixing equipment and said they sure aren't trying very hard... with the cooler damper weather over the weekend they should have had it contained at least on a couple sides.. not so apparently, they're going to milk the gov't for more money it sounds like.. 120 firefighters, several helicopters, and 8 pieces of heavy equipment.. the fire is 12 KM long, that's about 1 person per 110 yards of length, you'd think the manpower is there!

Instead I think they did NOTHING over the weekend (union rules?) (I didn't see any air traffic)... And when they do work, it sounds like they get there at 9 AM, have a meeting to discuss what the fire has done over night, then have a meeting about what they're going to do today, then have the mandatory safety meeting, then it's probably time for a coffee break, and perhaps after that they'll actually start doing something, at which point it's 100F in the shade (away from the fire), and any work done is incredibly hard on the people, as well as being an exercise in futility, and then once it gets cool enough to work again, they go home.

I wouldn't dare say this aloud in this community!

 

[pdfangus]

sounds like a government project.....

around here I call them 10 to 2 ers.....

they show up here at 10:00 am and want to work thru lunch so they can head back by 2:00 pm to be home by quitting time....

 

[Dave]

It is raining here today. Work me up it was raining so hard. First thing this morning I had standing water every where. Hopefully it is doing this in the fire area.

The forest circus has hugely reduce the cattle allowed to range in this area. They ran off the sheep years ago and they kept the brush down. Pretty much stopped all the logging. And what do you know, the fuel built up and we have a huge fire. Of course everyone knows that cow pies burn much hotter and faster than dry grass. Government policies worked real good here.

On the news this morning they were talking to a couple of retired fire fighters from Twisp. They and several or their neighbors fought fire with garden hoses while DNR crew sat and watched. They managed to save 5 homes but lost about the same number. These are guys with years of experience fighting wild land fires. To say they were upset would be an understatement. We use to jump in and do what needed to be done. But now with government run by policies you have to wait to be told what to do. Doing something on your own accord because it looks like the thing to do is punished.

 

[Nesikep]

that's exactly what is happening here too. One guy apparently wasn't allowed to unload his excavator because he didn't have a pickaxe and shovel on it... He told the guy "this IS a shovel!".. another fellow wasn't allowed to drive his D8 down the road because there was a tree leaning across it and the road was "Closed".. his Cat had full forestry protection on it. The fellow was camped further down the road by a lake, apparently he told the guy where to stick it, revved the cat and walked it down the road with the rippers sunk down.. NOW the road is closed. don't doubt he got S**t for it though

in order to protect buildings, they're taking D8's with rippers and pushing down any trees around buildings, and making a big old mess... the house might still stand after, but you probably don't much want to live in it anymore.

 

[Dave]

I haven't had an update on the Gebbers' cattle losses. Last I heard was several days ago from son-in-law, at 200 head. Dave, have you heard if Washington Cattlemen's is doing anything about hay donations or relief effort? I have not. 7 ton donated hay came out of our valley to Chelan over the weekend, as well as 5-6 ton from Spokane up to Okanogan. They are collecting animals both locations. I'm letting someone else work with the 20+ ton donation that is apparently promised from MT. One of our hay exporters and a family of growers, plus driver found by FFA and fuel donated by a local petroleum co., will haul 15 tons out of here this weekend.

Until they actually start re-building (there will be many that had no insurance, as we had w/ Taylor Bridge Fire), the food stuffs, diapers, clothes, pillows, blankets, batteries, etc.) are being pretty well met, I think. It's just not all organized well . . . . the Carlton Complex fires cover a couple of counties and lots of miles N to S. Getting donations organized from the S end of the fire to the N end is an issue. Those of us helping from the outside just hope all the organizations involved top to bottom are playing well in the sand-box.

I haven't heard anything from the Cattlemen's yet but beings as the association president lives in Twisp I would imagine there will be an effort made. I heard that Vic lost all of his rangeland but the home place was missed. And that he was busy trying to find cattle and bring them home. At this point all the effort has been just trying to stop this thing. I have heard that they made good progress yesterday and with the rain and cooler weather they should be making progress today. But it is 250,000 acres and still only 12% contained. And the weather is supposed to climb back into the 90's by the weekend.
Looking at a map off this fire there is an area of 30,000 - 40,000 acres in one block in the middle of the fire that hasn't burned. It is just forest service and private timber/range land. You know nobody is fighting fire in there so I think it is safe to assume that will burn too by the time this is over.

 

[Nesikep]

Wow, that is a whole lot of area!

It's raining cats and dogs here now, though it'll probably only last a couple minutes... If it really rained hard perhaps they would have a hard time keeping that money maker lit!