Fire season has started in the West

Red flag fire warning this weekend. Multiple grass fires within a few miles in the last couple of days. Causes include two arson (same kid), one construction equipment sparking on rocks, and one idiot who thought it would be a good idea to mow well toasted grass in 100 F with low RH and > 20 mph winds :roll:

Currently have 5 separate fires burning along a road west of here, my guess is those are unlikely to be accidental.

Jeez-oh! Hope you’ll be OK.

Do you get fires started by people parking cars on grass with hot catalytic converters in the exhausts?

That does happen, but I don’t recall any recently. Dragging safety chains and carelessly tossed cigarette butts are probably top of the automotive list. The grass everywhere is just so dry it only takes a spark and it’s off to the races. My neighbor to the north always mowed his grass scarily (IMHO) short and sure enough one year his mowing started a 10 acre fire. Recreational campers at the lake accidentally started a fire that burned 100 homes and traveled 20 miles to the edge of my property. We get lightning caused fires too, 2008 was a bad lightning fire year, but it’s the human caused ones that tend to stick in the memory :frowning:

We had a couple of fires just yesterday not too far from me. I believe one of them was started by fireworks.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/two-significant-fires-in-east-contra-costa-county-saturday

But, I’m ready for this year’s fire season. I got the latest statewide incidents map, list of California wildfires, and the national fire weather watches and warnings on my fire weather page http://ucweather.org/firewx.php

Nice page :slight_smile:

Im in the UK and my garden looks like straw, my soil sensors have been at 200 for a few weeks now, be surprised if we dont have any fires soon, more so with this heatwave, wall to wall sunshine for 5 days, so it says, not as bad as you guys over there Niko, be safe!!!

We have the same problem on this island. https://cyprus-mail.com/2018/06/22/fire-near-monagrouli/?hilite='fire'

Despite the wettest June for decades, firefighters here have had to deal with nearly 50 wildfires this month, some destroying large areas of forest and brush. About half of them are arson-related.

I have 2 pages up, one assessment and the other essentially live - http://tiggrweather.net/wxusfswfas.php and https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/ (from my nav bar link).

We get one or two, too. . . https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-44634023

Looks bad, and not easy to fight without being able to call on the air tankers, retardant drops, and other wildland fire resources that are available here :frowning:

Dry peat means you can beat it out on the surface but it burns away invisibly and springs up again when the wind changes. . . you have to get a lot of water on it.

The current big one going in California is the Pawnee Fire.

Acres Burned - Containment: 13,700 acres - 30% contained
Structures Threatened: 600
Structures Destroyed: 22

http://www.fire.ca.gov/current_incidents/incidentdetails/Index/2080

I agree that peat fires are almost impossible to extinguish, the same as coal in bing heaps, without the help of weather. However, it is so rare in the UK that they do not have the equipment or personnel training. This country has 2 or 3 fixed-wing tanker aircraft (small, not Canadairs) and 3 helicopters, as well as ground staff and equipment for brush and forest. The aim is to start ground intervention within 20-30 min, so most fires are contained rapidly with maybe only a hectare or two destroyed. We’ve had one big one this year with large-scale destruction (several km

Today’s newspaper report just 2 hours after the start of the brush fire with major fighting facilities:

[quote]A large fire broke out in Ypsonas close to Limassol general hospital just after 1pm on Saturday.

The Fire Service spokesperson Andreas Kettis said that the

The approach has changed here in recent years, used to be send an engine and see what happens, now it’s an immediate full on response.

I was wondering where all the smoke was coming from yesterday and today. Firefighters are battling a 32,500 acre fire about 60 miles north of me and the smoke and ash is drifting down into the bay area. We went to San Francisco today and after being parked in a lot for about an hour, we came out and noticed a light layer of ash all over the cars.

http://abc7news.com/smoke-advisory-issued-for-bay-area-due-to-wildfires/3687125/

http://www.fire.ca.gov/current_incidents/incidentdetails/Index/2101

That “County” fire is a scarily fast one, 1,000 acres/400 ha per hour 8O

Up to 60,000 acres already and only 5% contained. Not good.

I wish the rain patterns were different and all that rain we had Saturday night went your way. We have flooding in our home, sewers backed up and loss of a lot of stuff. Ankeny had 10 inches in one hour, we had 5 in 45 minutes. ARGHHHHHHHHHH only 1 death too many

July 4th tomorrow :usa Stand by for fires started by fireworks :roll: