Whites Fire Community Update – Thursday 08-21-2014 Fire activity was very mellow yesterday. The fire grew 748 acres to a total of 32,141 acres. There was some westward expansion mapped to the east of Finley Camp near the LDMA property, as well as north of Flapjack Bar in Rattlesnake and behind the eastern end of town where it has been slowly working its way down for the past few days. There was significant growth north of Sawmill Gulch with perimeter growth of up to 8/10th of a mile. Intense heat was again mapped just west of Snowden. The area near the SW corner of the fire, near Uncle Sam that was finally closed in yesterday still showed significant heat as of midnight last night. The Salmon River Hotshots came home last night! The added technical crews with local knowledge combined with the slow rate of fire spread gave the team a chance to try to go direct on the fire that has been creeping down above Flapjack Bar and Sawyers Bar. They are working on this as I write. If they are successful they will hold it there, rather than using the contoured aerial ignition from the top of Tanners that was discussed yesterday. Backing a fire down from the top of Tanners is still an option, but we’ll have to wait and see on that one. An amazing amount of effort and some real heroics came to play over the past several days creating and holding the lines at the top of Whites Gulch. Dozer lines, hand lines, retardant, and defensive firing just ahead of the fire, were used to secure the South and SW flanks of the fire in the nick of time and it appears to be holding. My hat’s off to all of the firefighters and ops folks who made this possible when it seemed like the Whites line was lost for good. If these lines hold, this could be a big turning point in the fire for communities on the Salmon River. The northern flank leading into the wilderness above Tanners and up Snoozer Ridge are still a puzzle that the new team will have to work out, but with the Whites/39 road holding, solid contingency lines in place, solid structure protection in place in Sawyers, and the possibility of picking up the fire behind Sawyers Bar, things are looking pretty good for us and the new team coming in. The new type 1 team (Rocky Oplinger’s California Team 4) took over command of the fire at 6pm last night. This team hasn’t worked on the Salmon River before but they have worked in the Klamath Region, so they know something of the steep terrain. At the inbriefing meetings that I attended on Tuesday, Patty Grantham and Gary Asbridge (our acting District Ranger) stressed the need for the team to work closely with the Community Liaison Program and the community in general on the Salmon River; they also made it clear that the community was very fire savvy, and had a lot of important knowledge of the land and fire behavior, and that clear, frequent and up to date communication was key. Additionally Patty made it very clear that she did not want to see excessive impact to the land from suppression efforts and that firing techniques were to be used with discretion. All firing operations and retardant drops are being mapped on a daily basis. We’ve have met a lot of the new team over the past few days, and there are still some familiar faces that will be here throughout the week. Thus far the transition seems to be going relatively smoothly, other than some glitches with inciweb and e-mailed updates. Man: The Man fire continues to show growth to the west, with the western flank moving ¼ mile. Some intense heat was mapped along the western perimeter with scattered heat in along the northern perimeter and within the western portion of the fire. Overall the Forest’s strategy for the Man Fire is to use natural barriers (ridges, rocky slopes, and streams) for controlling this fire. They do not want the team to go direct due to its isolated location and difficult access, the steep rugged terrain, and the desire to reduce suppression impacts in the wilderness. They are having minimal helicopter use for the fire, mostly just bringing crews in, while using mules for supplies, though Wednesday was the R&R day for mules. (It’s nice to know that even mules get a day off!) There’s a Community Fire Meeting Planned in Sawyers Bar tomorrow evening at SRRC at 6pm. I hope to see you there. Best, Karuna
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 23:41:55 +0000
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