Spokane fires today. | Golden Skate

Spokane fires today.

CoyoteChris

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
Spokane County experienced 3 major fires today and one they Jumped on. Many homes were lost from these mysterious fires. With High winds, the power company was wise to cut the power to many areas. Fortunately, our home was spared...so far.....We are at the blue dot.


Quite the air show.
 
Yikes. Stay safe! 🍀
Thanks! Safety is always a relative thing. The first time we saw fire sweep by our home, we knew it was a downed power line. (1991) The second time, 1996, it was someone who lit a burn barrel in a 30 mph wind. Luckily, a trooper helped me shuttle my state patrol vehicle through the flames....he later went on to rescue 5 carfuls of people and got lots of paint burned off his car....Both firestorm 1991 and 1996 were bad....as was the year 2015 when WA state lost 800 square miles. But the Fires had causes that were knowable. Here, the night before firestorm 2026, 3 mysterious fires sprouted up over 30 min but the winds were light....Then yesterday, 4 more sprouted up, all with no witnesses...all from forest edge lines....leading to vast fields of tall dry grasses.....Luckily, the winds will be light for quite awhile now...but we always keep an eye on certain apps so we are not surprised by a fast moving fire.
We feel for all those who lost homes and those who dont even know if they lost their homes.....I do what I can to keep my 15 acres wacked, trimmed and thinned, but so many people dont. Once the fire crowns in a 35 mph constant wind of choked forest, nothing can stop it.
Today with the dry cool front, I was able to work some more using a 3M N100 mask, which works really well for smoke...not cheep at $5, but somewhat reusable. We count ourselves lucky again....and have good thoughts for our fire fighters....
 
I never get tired of seeing these pics I took during Firestorm 1991. We actually had a shake roof. The fire swept past our house quickly and was small but blew up in the tall dry grass. Looking east from my back yard.


1991 Looking up to see a super PBY from WWII making a drop to the east of my house. The first scene of the Steven Spielberg movie "Always" Shows a PBY making a water pickup run on a local lake here, dumping 2 fishermen into the lake. The whole movie was filmed here.
 
glad you are wearing a mask. I hope the Canadian firefighters will come and give a hand (despite what has been said by you know who).
Canada is having another hard year....One year they lost more land than the size of the whole state of Missouri.
2004.....nighttime...I climbed up my roof with the shallow pitch and shot this fire probably a mile and a half away.
Fires without alot of wind are very common and they can be jumped on and handled.
 
Monday Morning. Cool and light winds. Air is unhealthy. . 60,000 now under level 3 evacuation orders. Go now. Level 2 is get ready to go. 26 drone incursions yesterday. You cant fly heavy turbine aircraft with drones being sucked up up in the compressor.

Fires still growing. We are safe for now. Expecting another 1,000 fire fighters this week.
 
Monday Morning. Cool and light winds. Air is unhealthy. . 60,000 now under level 3 evacuation orders. Go now. Level 2 is get ready to go. 26 drone incursions yesterday. You cant fly heavy turbine aircraft with drones being sucked up up in the compressor.

Fires still growing. We are safe for now. Expecting another 1,000 fire fighters this week.

Hoping you stay safe (but puzzled by what looks like so many fire symbols covering up part of Vancouver's name on the map. Nothing burning near here that I'm aware of.)
 
One question I am asked as a pilot and aircraft mechanic is why dont we just buy more planes. Some states, like Montana , take their Air guard C130 transport aircraft and shove in firepacks, and use IR equipment to fly through smoke and drop retardant on fires. WA air guard has no C130s. The exquisit Canadair CL415 was built from the ground up as a fire fighter. It takes 12 seconds to scoop up 1400 gallons of water (11000 pounds) and then climb out and drop it and come back to our lakes. The whole dance takes 6 minutes. The problem is the plane costs $30 Million just to buy, let alone operate. If you are trying to protect 400-500 million peoples property and lungs, I say buy a bunch of them.

By contrast, the DC10 can hold 9400 gallons of fire retardant...much more effective at fire suppressioin than water...and can lay a mile long path.
None of this is cheep.
As I have shown before, Barb and I saw this coming home from a dinner in 2015. DC10 still in use over WA st today. I can not understand why my neighbors dont wack, thin and trim.
 
Hoping you stay safe (but puzzled by what looks like so many fire symbols covering up part of Vancouver's name on the map. Nothing burning near here that I'm aware of.)
I will assume that you are talking about Vancouver CA. I am puzzeled. There are pleanty of 10 square mile fires , bigger and smaller, around you. In years past, I have seen terrible fires on Vancouver Island. I would suggest you load the app "MyRadar", turn on the fire layer, then pinch and spread to nearby fires and click on them. Lytton fire V30941 is out of control at over 3,000 ha. That is less than a 100 miles from you as the ember flys.
 
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I will assume that you are talking about Vancouver CA. I am puzzeled. There are pleanty of 10 square mile fires , bigger and smaller, around you. In years past, I have seen terrible fires on Vancouver Island. I would suggest you load the app "MyRadar", turn on the fire layer, then pinch and spread to nearby fires and click on them. Lytton fire V30941 is out of control at over 3,000 ha. That is less than a 100 miles from you as the ember flys.

1. Apologies, I forgot there's a small Vancouver south of the border. The one on the map appears to be the 3.5 million pop one where I live.
2. I've read that there are fires in various parts of BC. It was just that the symbols on the map made it appear that they were close to where I live. Since I don't travel, and don't drive my own car outside my own neighbourhood within Richmond, 100 miles away is to me a long distance, three or so hours away if it were city traffic.. The Island is hours away across the water by ferry. There's no smoke in our air here, and a clear sky.
3. Not owning a cell phone and being way behind on technology, I haven't a clue what a My Radar app is although I guess "loading" it mans you somehow get whatever it is into a phone. "Turn on the fire layer"? "Pinch and spread?" Not an inkling of understanding :slink:. I'll take your word for it. Lots of fires. Just not providing any evidence in the sky I see outside my window, and not mentioned in my main news source, the CBC website.

But scary where you are, especially if you already have breathing problems. That I do get! I hope you don't have to evacuate! My younger son and his wife are vets in the Scottish Highlands, where they normally don't get forest fires. They had to pack up their hospitalized patients and the critters being boarded by holidaying families and ferry them across Loch Ness to his sister's big rural home, and set up a sort of field hospital and summer camp on her property until it's safe to go back to the Cairngorms.
 
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Thanks! Safety is always a relative thing. The first time we saw fire sweep by our home, we knew it was a downed power line. (1991) The second time, 1996, it was someone who lit a burn barrel in a 30 mph wind. Luckily, a trooper helped me shuttle my state patrol vehicle through the flames....he later went on to rescue 5 carfuls of people and got lots of paint burned off his car....Both firestorm 1991 and 1996 were bad....as was the year 2015 when WA state lost 800 square miles. But the Fires had causes that were knowable. Here, the night before firestorm 2026, 3 mysterious fires sprouted up over 30 min but the winds were light....Then yesterday, 4 more sprouted up, all with no witnesses...all from forest edge lines....leading to vast fields of tall dry grasses.....Luckily, the winds will be light for quite awhile now...but we always keep an eye on certain apps so we are not surprised by a fast moving fire.
We feel for all those who lost homes and those who dont even know if they lost their homes.....I do what I can to keep my 15 acres wacked, trimmed and thinned, but so many people dont. Once the fire crowns in a 35 mph constant wind of choked forest, nothing can stop it.
Today with the dry cool front, I was able to work some more using a 3M N100 mask, which works really well for smoke...not cheep at $5, but somewhat reusable. We count ourselves lucky again....and have good thoughts for our fire fighters....

Stay safe Chris - I add my prayers for you and your neighbors and of course our fire-fighting heroes
 
Glad, now that one can't harm anyone else. Now praying the fires are put out soon.
Sadly, there may now be a second arsonist. Thankfully, the Charles fire was jumped on. Arsonist#1 has now admitted to 25 fires over the years and his charge count now is up to 5. Since he shot his father in the jaw and then back, killing him, pointing the gun at this mom, and then shooting himself in the stomach years ago, It is doubtful he is fit for trial. This is not the person who set the fire last year in north Idaho and shot 2 firefighter two battalion chiefs who showed up at close range with a shotgun. He took care of himself.
The winds are up again Friday and Sat but not 40- Plus MPH gusts.
The FBI has been brought in to help my old dept, WSP, and other depts with finding those who are launching drones that ground air tankers. It is ill eagle for anyone or law enforcement agent to shoot down drones, btw. 26 drones were launched in one day.
 
It wasn't clear to me from the news stories that the "caught arsonist" had started all 3 of the recent Spokane fires. So there may be more than just two.

The drones impeding fire fighting is just sad.
 
As of today, we still have a home. We are the blue dot. The arsonist (s) burned 10,000 acres and 600 plus homes. The wind comes up tomorrow. Numbers indicate evacuation areas, like Autum 38. A good N100 mask is necessary for those of us with COPD. My gal pal wears an N95.
On the bright side, my aortic ultra sound shows no big problems. CT scan to follow in a month.
Thanks to the 20 states that sent help with our firestrom. It picks back up tomorrow. Bless out fire fighters.
 
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