The City of Ann Arbor Michigan has approved funding an elaborate water fountain art project costing over $800,000.00. An Arbor recently fired three full time firefighters due to budget constraints.

The new fountain will grace the entrance to the Ann Arbor police headquarters.

Cal Fire’s FaceBook feed offers up some impressive stats from yesterday’s lightning storms in Southern California.

‎3,000 to 4,000 lightning strikes occurred this afternoon in Southern California that resulted in several fires within the following CAL FIRE Units:
*Riverside Unit – 22 fires, 19 are contained, 3 uncontained; 1 residence & 1 outbuilding destroyed.
*San Diego Unit – 11 fires, all are contained, 0 structures damaged/destroyed
*San Bernardino Unit – 15 fires, all are contained; 0 structures damagaed/destroyed

Well done!

Further north in Kern County another lightning start has consumed nearly 500 acres near Bodfish. This is rugged country with a fire history. I’m going to watch this one. Updates here.

Team Smokey Bear wants everyone to know there is a new lineup of PSA’s designed to inform those living in the Wildland Urban Interface, or just visiting the wilds, to be careful and to look out for those less careful.

Have a look at the latest Smokey Bear PR here.

The video below is from 1964. The message today is the same one he has been sending since 1944!
Kids may want to check out Smokey’s awesome (interactive) cabin.

Smokey Bear is social too. Check him out;
SmokeyBear.com
Smokey Bear on FaceBook
Smokey Bear on Twitter
Smokey Bear YouTube Channel

Mid July and nothing is burning in the West. The Schultz fire near Flagstaff Arizona grabbed some headlines in June burning 15,000 acres but that is it.

In California every fire is getting picked up. Initial attack with immediate air attack response and well coordinated air tanker drops is dousing everything quickly.

Take the case of the Beaver Fire that started yesterday in Shasta County near the Lassen County line in Northern California. Initial reports on  WildlandFire.com’s hotlist forum put the fire at 25 acres with potential for much more. Air Attack was dispatched followed by tankers out of nearby Chester. Ground resources to this remote area is an hour or more away according to posters on the Wildland Fire.

The area is no stranger to big fire events so it figured this one had legs. Not so. Because of precision drops and great air resources management this one was halted, stopped at 75 acres. Amazing.

Ground crews will babysit it for a day or two mopping up, it’s over.

So far the summer of 2010 is acting like previous El Nino years, slow, with fewer acres burned.

We still have the Southern California Santa Ana and Sundowner winds to contend with in the Fall but so far this year it looks like Northern and Central California and the Sierra’s caught a break.

UPDATE: AM July 9. Looks like they caught this one. Admittedly I was jumpy. This is tough country with a history. Good firefighting and a quick coordinated response by air attack and air tankers.

The Boillos Fire is burning in the Los Padres National Forest. The fire is a control burn escape originally started on Fort Hunter Liggett. This is an eerie reminder of the beginning of the Indians Fire that started in the same general vicinity, in the same manner. The Indians Fire went on to scorch 81,000 acres. The Boillos incident has all the potential to mimic a similar path as the Indians Fire. This one bears watching.

Local fire blogger Big Sur Kate lives within a few miles of the  fire and offers images and local perspective.

Inciweb shows 15,000 + acres, 590 firefighters and support personnel assigned. Patrol and mop up.

Cause;  Abandoned campfire!

The image below is an early contender for wildland fire image of the year. The image was sent to me via email so I am posting it without proper attribution, something I don’t like to do. If someone knows its origin or the photographer please let me know.

Click to appreciate

This image is from InciWeb.org

More coverage on;
Twitter
WildlandFire.com

WildlandFire.com has mapped out the location of each Cal Fire station and camp on Google Earth and Google Maps.

Cal Fire Stations On Google Earth

The viewer can zoom in to individual properties where an information filled pop up describes Long/Lat, station name, address and an image of the station or activities associated with the station or camp. For instance, below is a close up look at Rancheria Station near O’Neals in the central Sierra foothills.

Cal Fire Rancheria Station, O'Neals California, Central Sierra Foothills

Zoom out and you see Rancheria Station and its proximity to other Cal Fire stations, air attack bases and the closest camps.

WildlandFire.com invites readers with local knowledge to help edit details and add images of individual properties.

In addition to Cal Fire Stations and camps they offer similar KMZ files for California County Agencies/CalFire Contracted, US Forest Service North and South Zones and California BLM NPS BIA FWS.

Follow the link at the top for all KMZ files offered by Wildland Fire.

Bravo to WildlandFire.com for bringing us this most useful tool.

According to the L.A. Times Station Fire commanders failed to call in available air resources on day two of the fire.
Had dispatchers followed through and ordered air tankers, sitting idle in nearby bases, the fire could have been hooked in the early stages, possibly held to a few thousand acres. The fire burned more than 140,000 acres and ended as the fifth largest wildfire in California history.

Disturbingly Cal Fire’s air attack plane, a quarterback in the sky flew overhead on day two and waited for air tankers that never arrived. According to the Times article the morning of day two Cal Fire Air Attack only had one helicopter to direct on the the rapidly growing blaze below.

Much “he said, she said” is taking place in the aftermath as to who ordered or did not order air resources, hence the cover-up allegations.

The crux of the issue is money. Air tankers are expensive. Air tankers also kill fire. In a Forest Service culture where fire is not always a bad thing, read overtime, forest management combined with the reality of pinched budgets it is easy to see how a decision could be made to keep air tankers away.

There are two wildland firefighting cultures at work in California. One is Cal Fire, the state wildland fire force, and the other if the U.S Forest Service. Cal Fire attacks fires with the intent of putting them out as quickly as possible, even beyond initial attack. The Forest Service will attack a fire but has no problem backing off once the initial attack phase ends.

The best comparison between the two cultures took place in 2008. One only has to compare the Basin Complex, a Forest Service fire that devastated Big Sur and the Telegraph Fire, a Cal Fire show.
The differences lie within.

Forest Service and Cal Fire firefighters are equally competent. Both forces are full of dedicated professionals. It’s the difference in fire culture that separates the two entities and it’s been that way for decades.

What the L.A. Times found out about the Station Fire is not at all surprising.

Big Sur Kate alerted her readers earlier today + Cal Fire moving air tankers to Northern California bases.

Per NOAA: “HAVE UPGRADED THE FIRE WEATHER WATCH TO A RED FLAG WARNING FOR ZONE 511. THIS COVERS THE EAST BAY HILLS AND INLAND HILLS OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY ABOVE 1000 FEET. INTEL FROM LAND MANAGEMENT AGENCIES IS THAT GRASSES BETWEEN 1000-2000 FEET ARE CURED AND WILL CARRY FIRE IN WINDY ENVIRONMENT…THE SACRAMENTO OFFICE ISSUED RED FLAGS FOR THE ENTIRE SAC VALLEY SO WINDY WEATHER WILL BE FELT IN THE DELTA AND OUR FAR EAST BAY VALLEYS AS WELL. FAIR AMOUNT OF PRESCRIBED BURNING AS WELL AS HEADING INTO A HOT WEEKEND RAISES CONCERNS. SPC HAS OUR AREA HIGHLIGHTED IN A CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER THREAT. INTERESTINGLY ENOUGH SEVERAL OF THE RECORD HIGHS FOR TODAY ONLY GO BACK TO 2008 WHEN A SIMILAR SYNOPTIC PATTERN TOOK HOLD. JUNE 10TH IS THE DATE THE INDIANS FIRE STARTED IN MONTEREY COUNTY UNDER A SIMILAR WEATHER PATTERN WITH AN UNSEASONABLY STRONG TROUGH OVER THE GREAT BASIN WITH FAVORABLE WIND FLOW ALOFT FOR CREATING STRONG NORTH/NORTHEAST WINDS IN THE HILLS.”

My venture into the central Sierra’s last weekend confirmed we are not yet ready above 3,000 ft.. There is plenty of green around and above Mariposa and Oakhurst. The Central Valley and lowland valleys in SoCal have already burned. 5oo acres of grass rangeland burned near La Grand in Merced County and 300 acres burned in Stanislaus County near Patterson. Both fires were on the valley floor near sea level. It’s a late start in the foothills no doubt but the fuel loads throughout the state is heavy. Once this drys out, watch out.

Nice to see NOAA remembering the Indians Fire of 2008. No one thought that would blow up like it did….

One of the very cool things about operating this blog is the interesting  information that appears in my inbox from time to time.

For instance Jenny from the P.R. Dept at Boston University sent me a link to this fantastic project undertaken by two Boston University alums Kristie Eden O’Donnell and Anya Smolnikova. Well done ladies. The Huntington Avenue firehouse in Boston is better for your efforts.

Monte Stonewall forwarded a list of “famous/infamous” arsonists. Most are well known but I did not know the murderous “Son of Sam” was also an arsonist, not surprised really.

Novelist Kurt Kamm pointed me to two of his books, “One Foot In The Black” and “Red Flag Warning”. I am very much looking forward to reading them both over the summer.  Book reviews to follow.