Calif Fires 09

Calif Fires 2009 – Open Page

For Calif Fires Part 2, ‘We’re Watching YOU!’ [includes entries up to September 22, 2009] click on the link below

We’re Watching YOU!

Calif Fires 2009 – Part 3: Pile on the manure, Sheriff!

A [Neanderthal ] took up residence [in SoCal,] dug a cellar [deep inside the forest] and built a log house on top of it; paved up large tracts of the forest and mountainside and bought two cars. After 20 years he decided SoCal was no good for living, for most of his forest had gone, the water table had dropped by 8 yards and he didn’t have enough water to spare the fish [and the cost of ‘fighting’ the fires had become unaffordable.] —Adapted from My Life, My Trees, by Richard St. Barbe Baker [Quoted by EDRO]

SoCal Fires: “Nothing personal; it’s just business, folks!”

Related FEWW Link:

• Hazard Mapping System Fire and Smoke Product [Links to Satellite Images]
• Our Forecast for 2009 California Fires
  
• Thought for the Day: The Car Salesman & SoCal Fires
• Tell Schwarzenegger Damage from Fires Is Preventable!
• Shock and Awe Southland Fires Take No Prisoners
• California Fires: Not Hard to Understand!
• The War on Wildfire
• Links to FEWW SoCal Fires Entries

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Burn Scar from Guiberson Fire

According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Guiberson Fire in Ventura County, California, was 100 percent contained as of September 27, 2009. The fire had burned 17,500 acres (approximately 70 square kilometers), caused 10 injuries, and destroyed one outbuilding. The cause of the fire was still under investigation.

The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite acquired this false-color image on September 26, 2009. The image uses shortwave infrared light to increase the contrast between burned and unburned land. Agricultural fields appear fluorescent green. Natural vegetation not burned by the fire appears greenish tan. The burn scar appears deep brick red. The boundary between the burn scar and the neighboring fields suggests that the Guiberson Fire encroached upon agricultural fields, burning irregular borders along what would otherwise have been straight lines. Irregularly shaped splashes of bright green appear inside the burn scar.
References: California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. (2009, September 27). Guiberson Fire. Accessed September 28, 2009.
Credit: NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using EO-1 ALI data provided courtesy of the NASA EO-1 team. Caption by Michon Scott.

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Calif Fire Looks Like Volcanic Eruption

Posted by feww on September 25, 2009

Image of the Day: ‘Guiberson Volcano’

A ridge of fire works its way through Grimes Canyon toward Fillmore, Calif., on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009. (AP Photo/John Lazar). Image may be subject to copyright.

More dry, hot weather; more red-flag warnings!

The three-day, 16,400-acre Guiberson fire in Ventura County, which has so far cost about $3.5 to tackle, no longer poses a threat to Moorpark, Somis and other communities on its southern edge, the authorities said.

The National Weather Service has extended red-flag warnings for many areas in Los Angeles and Ventura counties until 9:00 PM Saturday because they expect dry, hot weather  to continue.

Today’s temperatures stayed high throughout the region, reaching a high of 105 in Riverside, 103 in Anaheim,  102 in Pasadena, 100 in downtown Los Angeles, 98 in Santa Ana, and 97 in Long Beach.

Fire officials sent hand crews up into the hills to carve firebreaks on the northeastern and western flanks of the 27-square-mile fire, said Ventura County Fire spokesman Bill Nash. The blaze was 65 percent surrounded and about 2,750 personnel were assigned to the fire Friday. —AP

“We have an army of firefighters on the fire right now,” AP reported Nash as saying.

The LA Times reporter was more modest and put the number at “more than 1,800.”

The Station Fire is now at 98% containment, the fire authorities reported.

Related Links:

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SoCal End-to-End Corporate Arsons Blaze On!

Posted by feww on September 23, 2009

3, 2, 1, Action: SoCal fires are using the same ‘template’ as the US unending wars

SoCal: New Bull Crap Fires Rage on!

A new blaze in the hills of Ventura County NW of Los Angeles has spread to nearly 7,000 acres moving towards the city of Moorpark.

An early snap of Guiberson Fire. About 150 fire crew were reportedly tackling  the blaze, which broke out in Ventura County between the towns of Fillmore and Moorpark, Tuesday morning. Photo: KABC. Image may be subject to copyright.

The fire, named Guiberson Fire, has “torched oil fields and threatened homes,” according to a report, though it’s not known how many structures are threatened.

The Guiberson fire threatens homes, ranches and farmland, among other structures, Bill Nash of the Ventura County Fire Department said. The Ventura County sheriff has reportedly called for voluntary evacuations  in rural sections of Moorpark which includes a number of  ranches, he said.

According to Nash several pipelines run below the brush-covered fields, though he’s unsure as to how many.

“Air tankers including a DC-10 jumbo jet and big helitankers bombarded the flames with retardant and water while hundreds of firefighters worked on the ground.” Another report said.

Another fire broke out in Riverside County, 40 miles east of Los Angeles, and burned from the city of Riverside into the city of Norco and toward adjacent Corona. Norco Fire Chief Jack Frye said the 120- to 150-acre fire was up to 60 percent contained and no homes had been lost despite gusts up to 45 mph.

Pile it on fire

LA Times quoted the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department as saying that the fire had started through “manure spontaneous combustion from a local ranch.”

Officials did not disclose exactly where the fire started or how. But spontaneous manure fires are fairly common in farm communities, often occurring during conditions of extreme heat. Temperatures around where today’s fire started near Fillmore topped 100 degrees, with wind gusts topping 50 mph.

Related Links:

• Calif Fires 2009