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Nesikep
Well-known member
http://ipolitics.ca/2017/07/25/b-c-ranc ... -millions/
according to that, about 2.5 million acres have burnt
according to that, about 2.5 million acres have burnt
Wildfires 2017
- Thread starter Nesikep
- Start date
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greybeard
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Dave
Well-known member
If we get through this fire season without the entire west burning up it will be a miracle. Montana has some huge fires and lots of little ones. Northern Nevada is in the same shape. Washington, Oregon, and Idaho haven't had the huge fires yet but are certainly primed for them to occur. A very wet spring made for lots of grass growth early on. Now it has rained since very early June. Lots of fuel waiting for a spark to set it off. Heck there was a 20 acre (+/-) fire a couple miles from me on Monday. We just don't have fires here in Western Washington. But we have a ton of fuel, if one gets started.......
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Nesikep
Well-known member
Well, we're in the smoke for sure.. across BC over 1,000,000 acres have burnt up so far, the biggest fire (Elephant Hill) alone is 250,000 acres and raging on.. Apparently the "Controlled burns" are effective only at increasing the size of them.. On this fire alone they have had 8 controlled burns get out of hand.. Now it has crossed Highway 99 and is spreading quickly.
Here's some more info
https://www.facebook.com/20MileRanch/
Here's some more info
https://www.facebook.com/20MileRanch/
Bestoutwest
Well-known member
I'm waiting for things to explode. I thought last night might be it b/c it was so humid out at 10. The wife thought that it might have rained b/c her feet were getting wet in flipflops. Thankfully, we didn't get any lightning, but our time is coming.
Dave
Well-known member
Nesi, could you keep the smoke up there. It is mighty hazy down here and they say it is from the BC fires. North wind blowing and bring that smoke down to us.
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Nesikep
Well-known member
In that case you deserve an east wind so you get your Montana smokeDave":1u0dpgqm said:
I hear it has lots of sage in it.. so you don't need to smudge like those other hippies out your way
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Nesikep
Well-known member
Oh, and here's another point of view from facebook about the firefighting efforts
Dave
Well-known member
Nesikep":3gez2brq said:
The people in the Okanogan had the same complaint after the 2015 fire. A big portion of the fires 500,000 acres was from back fires. I have heard that complaint a lot from other areas too. I know a rancher in South Central Washington who was trying to move cows out of the way of a fire. They had a backfire lit while they were in the area. This guy and a deputy sheriff who was with him survived by laying in a creek and letting the fire burn over them. He will tell you they were lucky the smoke and lack of oxygen didn't kill them. He lost about 80 cows.
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Nesikep
Well-known member
Here's some more numbers
Elephant hill fire, the closest to us but still a long ways away, 200,000 acres
Tautri complex fire, ~150,000 acres
Hancevill fire, 340,000 acres.. 517 square friggin miles!!
Then there's tons of other "small" fires.
I did have to laugh at a newscast today though, they said they had 50 pieces of heavy equipment (that sounds OK) and 15 pieces of aircraft on a particular fire... That just sounded so wrong.. they really ought to use entire aircraft rather than pieces of them.
Elephant hill fire, the closest to us but still a long ways away, 200,000 acres
Tautri complex fire, ~150,000 acres
Hancevill fire, 340,000 acres.. 517 square friggin miles!!
Then there's tons of other "small" fires.
I did have to laugh at a newscast today though, they said they had 50 pieces of heavy equipment (that sounds OK) and 15 pieces of aircraft on a particular fire... That just sounded so wrong.. they really ought to use entire aircraft rather than pieces of them.
True Grit Farms
Well-known member
Fire fighting and the fire department is just a money grab, they do more harm than good. The local fire departments have turned into ambulance chasers, and a cash cow for the insurance companies.
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Nesikep
Well-known member
well, we've spent nearly $200 million so far fighting these fires
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Nesikep
Well-known member
North wind picked up last night.. another main highway is shut down.. Smoke is so thick you can look at the sun with ease, it's just a pale orange disc in the sky.. it's a cloudless day, but sure doesn't look like it.
Elephant Hill fire is up to 94,000 hectares (grew by 10,000 Ha in 2 days)... that's around 230,000 acres
Hanceville fire is 150,000 hectares
Elephant Hill fire is up to 94,000 hectares (grew by 10,000 Ha in 2 days)... that's around 230,000 acres
Hanceville fire is 150,000 hectares
Dave
Well-known member
I was up in the Methow Valley the last two days. The smoke was so thick the the visibility was down to less than a quarter mile. That is sort of near the border but a long ways from the fires. One guy commented that a fire could start near there and if it wasn't beside a road nobody would even know it was burning.
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Nesikep
Well-known member
That's what we've been thinking too.. another fire can start and you can't even see it.. scary thought!Dave":2sbawkvm said:
Nite Hawk
Well-known member
nesikep, how are YOU and yours, in all this mess?
It has been pretty stressful time. I was at work when the fires started on July 7th, when a friend texted me and told me fires were all over the place and she said they thought they were going to lose the Williams Lake airport. I quit work and sat outside waiting for my ride, and watched lightning strikes up on Fox mountain, across the valley and watched the smoke coming from over towards "coyote rock" across town, fidgeting and wondering what was taking my ride so long to get there.
Smoke was billowing up from the airport area, and yes, they just about did lose the airport. I think they may have lost a building or 2 not sure.
We were not sure which way to go home, "mountain house road" to the north which now had smoking billowing up in that direction, or Horsefly/ likely rd to the south which also had smoke billowing up from the Spokin lake fire, we also had to go past "coyote rock" which also had smoke billowing up from behind the hill. All this started in a matter of a few minutes.
On July 15th the high winds scattered the fire and it was so smoky no one actually knew where the fires were, and it was so windy that a lot of people refused to fly, so there was no infrared information from the air.
Our 4 cows had been put in some people's fields down by the river, so they had water and grass, and people who refused to move, said they would look after the other animals.
so we pulled out..
The fire jumped the Fraser river and "soda creek" area was burning so in the evacuation of Williams Lake, people were routed south to Kamloops. some people drove to Little fort, ( which was also burning) and then turned north to Clearwater-valemont-MacBride- Prince George. a drive of at least 7 hard hours, as Kamloops was full.
In our case the evacuation line was moved only a couple miles down the road. We were told the road north was closed, but discovered we could get to P.G. the back way. we left at night, and huge hunks of ash was floating down like snow, and there was a fire above a fellows house we know- in the middle of the night..
So we went the back way (Gibralter mine way) to P.G. after the high winds blew the fire all over.
We were in "prince" for about 12 days, and they opened things up for us to come home, which we did.
However, now the fire has jumped the Fraser river at the Rudy Johnson bridge, and they have evacuated north of Williams lake area, as they fear the fire could come into town from the north.
The east side of Williams lake down by "sugar Cane" is pretty burnt off, so nothing is coming that way, but the Wildwood fire is still burning, and the Spokin Lake fire is still burning, and that area is still evacuated, and the RCMP and The Army have that area blocked off, and yes I know people effected, and at least one person who lost her house, and another who lost their barn and were looking for their animals..
They have done successful back burns in this area, but we are not dumb, we know things can change, and everything is still packed and sitting in the corner, in case things go crazy.
The fires have scrambled sooo much. My cows still are not bred, the fellow that was going to AI them is so stressed, as he has cattle and horses scattered all over the country, and he knows that the spokin lake fire could come over the hill and hit his area, so he can't do it. another gal who does AI almost lost her cabin to a fire on the north arm of Quesnel lake.
I really don't want to take the cows into an area that is a high fire risk area, cause if they close the road you can't get in to get them out unless you have a pass..
I can't even take the older cow to a bull across the river because the road is closed due to evacuation order...
I am scrambling-first order is to get hay lined up, because it is going to skyrocket, as the grass is burned off, and people have to feed their animals..
And always watching the horizon for new pillars of smoke..
I have found the most reliable sources of information are from people who are working the fires, or someone who is flying over, as until recently, the government was not forth coming on up to date information.
So we are waiting and praying for hard rain....
It has been pretty stressful time. I was at work when the fires started on July 7th, when a friend texted me and told me fires were all over the place and she said they thought they were going to lose the Williams Lake airport. I quit work and sat outside waiting for my ride, and watched lightning strikes up on Fox mountain, across the valley and watched the smoke coming from over towards "coyote rock" across town, fidgeting and wondering what was taking my ride so long to get there.
Smoke was billowing up from the airport area, and yes, they just about did lose the airport. I think they may have lost a building or 2 not sure.
We were not sure which way to go home, "mountain house road" to the north which now had smoking billowing up in that direction, or Horsefly/ likely rd to the south which also had smoke billowing up from the Spokin lake fire, we also had to go past "coyote rock" which also had smoke billowing up from behind the hill. All this started in a matter of a few minutes.
On July 15th the high winds scattered the fire and it was so smoky no one actually knew where the fires were, and it was so windy that a lot of people refused to fly, so there was no infrared information from the air.
Our 4 cows had been put in some people's fields down by the river, so they had water and grass, and people who refused to move, said they would look after the other animals.
so we pulled out..
The fire jumped the Fraser river and "soda creek" area was burning so in the evacuation of Williams Lake, people were routed south to Kamloops. some people drove to Little fort, ( which was also burning) and then turned north to Clearwater-valemont-MacBride- Prince George. a drive of at least 7 hard hours, as Kamloops was full.
In our case the evacuation line was moved only a couple miles down the road. We were told the road north was closed, but discovered we could get to P.G. the back way. we left at night, and huge hunks of ash was floating down like snow, and there was a fire above a fellows house we know- in the middle of the night..
So we went the back way (Gibralter mine way) to P.G. after the high winds blew the fire all over.
We were in "prince" for about 12 days, and they opened things up for us to come home, which we did.
However, now the fire has jumped the Fraser river at the Rudy Johnson bridge, and they have evacuated north of Williams lake area, as they fear the fire could come into town from the north.
The east side of Williams lake down by "sugar Cane" is pretty burnt off, so nothing is coming that way, but the Wildwood fire is still burning, and the Spokin Lake fire is still burning, and that area is still evacuated, and the RCMP and The Army have that area blocked off, and yes I know people effected, and at least one person who lost her house, and another who lost their barn and were looking for their animals..
They have done successful back burns in this area, but we are not dumb, we know things can change, and everything is still packed and sitting in the corner, in case things go crazy.
The fires have scrambled sooo much. My cows still are not bred, the fellow that was going to AI them is so stressed, as he has cattle and horses scattered all over the country, and he knows that the spokin lake fire could come over the hill and hit his area, so he can't do it. another gal who does AI almost lost her cabin to a fire on the north arm of Quesnel lake.
I really don't want to take the cows into an area that is a high fire risk area, cause if they close the road you can't get in to get them out unless you have a pass..
I can't even take the older cow to a bull across the river because the road is closed due to evacuation order...
I am scrambling-first order is to get hay lined up, because it is going to skyrocket, as the grass is burned off, and people have to feed their animals..
And always watching the horizon for new pillars of smoke..
I have found the most reliable sources of information are from people who are working the fires, or someone who is flying over, as until recently, the government was not forth coming on up to date information.
So we are waiting and praying for hard rain....
Nite Hawk
Well-known member
we in the east of the Cariboo finally got several decent rains.. Thank The Lord!
However in the Chilcotin ( western area) is still pretty dry. On the daily fire update last night they were saying that there was around 800,000 hectares of fire effected land in the caribou-chilcotin, which translates out to just under 2,000,000 acres...
We were watching a few youtube interviews of ranchers etc out west and they are really suffering. some have lost buildings, hay crops, equipment, homes and fields are gone. fences are also gone.. nothing to feed their cattle with.. IF they can FIND their cattle.. this area around here has a limited population, so it is very common to know people who know people out there. I was told --and the guy told me his name and it "hit and bounced", that this guy had 800 head of cattle, and at that time could only find 23-35..
Not sure if it was the same story, another neighbor told of a ranch, and she said the name, which had 1200 head and could only find about 25 head..
She also told of people finding cattle that looked fine, and several days later they came down with pneumonia ,( burned lungs) and often their hooves started falling off due to being burned..
On top of everything.. A lot of people run on "rolling credit" they get a loan from the bank in about February and then in the fall when they sell their calves they pay it off. I doubt that the bank is going to forgive the loan..
Also,It can be difficult or very expensive to get fire insurance in these very rural areas, because a lot of people still burn wood as their primary heat source in winter, which the insurance companies frown on, and there is not a local volunteer fire department in many, many, many miles..
so yes people are hurting.
The local politican called on the government for help, but we just had a change in government, and actually getting a department to answer a phone can be interesting.. and government works at "governments pace"..
However in the Chilcotin ( western area) is still pretty dry. On the daily fire update last night they were saying that there was around 800,000 hectares of fire effected land in the caribou-chilcotin, which translates out to just under 2,000,000 acres...
We were watching a few youtube interviews of ranchers etc out west and they are really suffering. some have lost buildings, hay crops, equipment, homes and fields are gone. fences are also gone.. nothing to feed their cattle with.. IF they can FIND their cattle.. this area around here has a limited population, so it is very common to know people who know people out there. I was told --and the guy told me his name and it "hit and bounced", that this guy had 800 head of cattle, and at that time could only find 23-35..
Not sure if it was the same story, another neighbor told of a ranch, and she said the name, which had 1200 head and could only find about 25 head..
She also told of people finding cattle that looked fine, and several days later they came down with pneumonia ,( burned lungs) and often their hooves started falling off due to being burned..
On top of everything.. A lot of people run on "rolling credit" they get a loan from the bank in about February and then in the fall when they sell their calves they pay it off. I doubt that the bank is going to forgive the loan..
Also,It can be difficult or very expensive to get fire insurance in these very rural areas, because a lot of people still burn wood as their primary heat source in winter, which the insurance companies frown on, and there is not a local volunteer fire department in many, many, many miles..
so yes people are hurting.
The local politican called on the government for help, but we just had a change in government, and actually getting a department to answer a phone can be interesting.. and government works at "governments pace"..
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Nesikep
Well-known member
Missed your first reply, good to hear from you again!
I have a friend just across the river from Soda creek, so he was watching the White Lake fire, on evacuation order, etc.. I think it was lifted for their area.
Around here, we had serious smoke, like everywhere I guess, could barely see across the river.. Saturday a week ago we had a south wind from h3ll, and that cleared the smoke out, it was nice to not be choking all the time, but the wind we had yesterday (more wind from h3ll) stirred things up again and we have a heavy haze here.
The stranglehold the insurance industry has on us is terrifying, and total :bs: It would be one thing if they had an exclusion for fires caused by wood home heating.
Stay safe!
I have a friend just across the river from Soda creek, so he was watching the White Lake fire, on evacuation order, etc.. I think it was lifted for their area.
Around here, we had serious smoke, like everywhere I guess, could barely see across the river.. Saturday a week ago we had a south wind from h3ll, and that cleared the smoke out, it was nice to not be choking all the time, but the wind we had yesterday (more wind from h3ll) stirred things up again and we have a heavy haze here.
The stranglehold the insurance industry has on us is terrifying, and total :bs: It would be one thing if they had an exclusion for fires caused by wood home heating.
Stay safe!
Nite Hawk
Well-known member
True Grit, that is sooo sad that your local fire department has turned into ambulance chasers...Our local fire department is totally volunteer, and our community built the fire department buildings using government and other grants and with local labour, and they take NO government /district ( not including grants or wages for wildfires which is another section), if they take funding for wages, that limits what they can do. As soon as a fire department takes government wages, they can only attend fires and accidents within a 7 mile radius, and this area is sparsely populated and far flung, and if there was a fire in sight of them just outside the "7 mile limit" they would have to sit and watch it burn.... i know of fire departments where that has happened and they attended anyways and got in big "poo-poo". Because the fire guys / gals ( there is more gals on our department than guys at this time) are local, and we are sparsely populated, we are neighbours even if we are 15 miles away, and we don't want to see our neighbours house/ buildings burn, so we want to help. In fact our local fire personnel are considered HEROS in most of the communities' eyes. Some of our fire fighters are "juniors" and some not much older. The juniors can attend, but not get involved until they are older.
Just talk to the locals about the "strung out kid who never drank and was trying to impress his friends with drinking and driving " that came around the corner doing who knows what speed ( the other kids that survived said between 130—170 kilometers an hour and sheared off a hydro pole at the base, and the fire fighter who wasn't much older than this kid by a few years, helped do CPR on the kid as he died with a head trauma, while waiting for an ambulance. The local firefighters were risking their lives, due to down power lines in the dark, and the possibility that this kid had a contagious disease, and the post traumatic stress from an incident like this. Even though they are volunteer, they have to go through a number of HUGE manuals during their learning phase, like these manuals are like 5 inches thick, and I know, as I have family members in the fire department..During these wildfires the local department maintained the phone batteries/ buildings to keep the phones up, as the hydro went down for several days, as we needed communication. They also had permits to go to town and bring back medications for local people who if they left would not be allowed to return if they left the locked down area( they didn't have return permits)—our community.
Within the local department (not including everyone) there is another department for the wildfires, and they get paid by the government for fighting the wildfires, and I was told they were angry at how things were being ran by the commanders that were brought in to oversee things. I have heard lots of horror stories about how the commanders ran things concerning the wildfires, how my own family members told me they sat on standby for hours, when they could have been building fire guards, and machinery was sitting idle while the fires raced and destroyed homes and farms etc.and how you were not allowed to start a water pump unless You had a "ticket " that said you knew how to run one.. lots of heros out there that saved peoples homes and lots of @#$%
Lots of stupid stuff like back burning during high winds and during the middle of the day when the humidity is lowest.. and it is not over..
Just talk to the locals about the "strung out kid who never drank and was trying to impress his friends with drinking and driving " that came around the corner doing who knows what speed ( the other kids that survived said between 130—170 kilometers an hour and sheared off a hydro pole at the base, and the fire fighter who wasn't much older than this kid by a few years, helped do CPR on the kid as he died with a head trauma, while waiting for an ambulance. The local firefighters were risking their lives, due to down power lines in the dark, and the possibility that this kid had a contagious disease, and the post traumatic stress from an incident like this. Even though they are volunteer, they have to go through a number of HUGE manuals during their learning phase, like these manuals are like 5 inches thick, and I know, as I have family members in the fire department..During these wildfires the local department maintained the phone batteries/ buildings to keep the phones up, as the hydro went down for several days, as we needed communication. They also had permits to go to town and bring back medications for local people who if they left would not be allowed to return if they left the locked down area( they didn't have return permits)—our community.
Within the local department (not including everyone) there is another department for the wildfires, and they get paid by the government for fighting the wildfires, and I was told they were angry at how things were being ran by the commanders that were brought in to oversee things. I have heard lots of horror stories about how the commanders ran things concerning the wildfires, how my own family members told me they sat on standby for hours, when they could have been building fire guards, and machinery was sitting idle while the fires raced and destroyed homes and farms etc.and how you were not allowed to start a water pump unless You had a "ticket " that said you knew how to run one.. lots of heros out there that saved peoples homes and lots of @#$%
Lots of stupid stuff like back burning during high winds and during the middle of the day when the humidity is lowest.. and it is not over..
