Hike Info : Description : Background : Extra Photo's
Please note: This is not a record of the Creek Fire. We were at Delilah Lookout, 25-30 miles away from the action. Below is a combination of my recollection, Forest Service radio communications, text and e-mail conversations with those who know fire. Consequently, this blog entry should be read from the perspective of a person who had a narrow, but interesting window into fighting the Creek Fire and the rescues which all the first responders achieved.
Got up at 0615. Looked around
and saw smoke, lots of smoke. Also did my lightning report which came
back negative. Buck
Rock and
I talked some. He has some pretty clear air, I cannot even see
McKenzie
Ridge,
which is just across a valley from us. This may be a long day.
Went down out of Delilah for a
few minutes. Made sure we had enough water for the day. Then back up.
Sherri also goes down, but needs to stay down a bit longer. You know the bugs I talked about from yesterday? They have invaded the lookout cab. So we spend some time exuviatingg them as we find them. |
| Pumpkin Bugs |
I go into services at 0800 with 3-4 miles of visibility. Also this bodes ill for today: the RH is 18%-getting pretty low. I can taste a bit of the smoke in the air from the SQF Complex fire. But that is not the excitement. Even before I go into service, Buck Rock and I are talking about the Creek Fire. He has a fabulous picture of the cloud from it. I get my view in. They both look awesome and ominous. I would guess the pyrocumulus rises up at least 6,000’ up in the area. Later we hear this guy is huge, maybe the biggest pyrocumulus cloud in the United States, ever! That cloud continues to morph, shapes and grows all day until it gets hidden by, ironically of all things, smoke. Eventually it goes up to being 50,000’. We have heard that the fire is now 500 acres.
There are a couple of different threads on the fire which I was participating in. The first is to the OSHER book group. You know this is the one I talked about yesterday. Kay was wondering if there were any suggestions about the Zoom meeting. Well I just noted that if anybody was thinking of going to Shaver or Huntington, don’t. This helped one of the people’s granddaughter to get prepared to evacuate even before the warning was given. And then for the next several days, there was concern about us and the fire. We are over 30 miles away.
Even before the Creek Fire gets going, Sherri is wondering ab
out the smoke. Our friend and fellow lookout, Judy, offers to come up and take Sherri back to Fresno. After a couple of hours, Sherri decides it is not getting worse, so she will stay.
That will pretty much be the story of the morning and actually most of the day. But most of the afternoon we are voyeurs. We listen to the happenings going on across the way. We heard them fighting the Creek Fire, calling in air drops. By 1020, the reports were that the fires had leapt up to 2,000 acres. A little after noon time, the fire is at 6,000 acres. We are getting winds up to 25mph from the south. And we are hearing that the air tankers are having to back off due to turbulence.
That is wild. Then the winds start to pick up. This starts to drop fire six miles away at Clearwater and Hogue Ranch. The first responders try to get as many people out as they can. Both sides of Road 81 are burning. Tees are falling, blocking access and more importantly, ways of escape.
Then smoke is reported from the Cascadel Woods area. First responders are sent to that area and evacuations are started there as well. Then another spot fire is north about five miles. More first responders are called in. Now the first priority is to get people out of Mammoth Pool. But when the first rescuers get there, the road is blocked with burning trees having fallen across the road, fire raging on both sides. They cannot get in that way, and there is only one way in or out.
The rescuers retreat and continue on up Road 81 They are directed up and down these little dirt roads, telling people to get out. There are dispersed campsites where people are staying, there are people out hiking. There are people coming in on horseback. The first responders are searching them all out. Now roads are getting closed down because the fire is rapidly expanding.
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| Smoke Main fire on right and spot fires |
To complicate the matter, there is a bridge under reconstruction near Bowler, so they cannot take people out the best way and the way mostly away from the fire. So they need to go over Grizzly Meadow Road, through Lower Chiquito Campground. But that quickly gets shut off by a spot fire surrounding a small segment of the road. There is one other dirt road which skirts the fire, road 6S44. But you hear comments to make sure they have a high clearance vehicle. Evidently it makes an already nerve-wracking experience even more so.
We hear of the fire’s expanding range. Now it is on both sides of Mammoth Pool. Also it seems to be following the San Joaquin River and route 81. The first responders are not keeping ahead of the fire. Occasionally you hear of someone being reported that someone does not want to evacuate. The law enforcement officer says, take a picture of them. That sounds rather ominous.
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| Lightning map around Mammoth Pool |
If that is not enough, you know that pyrocumulus cloud we saw earlier? It is creating its own weather with lightning strikes just to the north of Mammoth Pool. Truly a dangerous situation. Turns out the strikes were between 1430 and 1500
One of the rangers knows there are backpackers up at Lillian Lake and beyond. He is given permission to hike in and notify them to get out. A couple of hours later you hear that the majority of them do come out. But a couple of them feel they can go further away from the fire. We are only hoping that they made a good choice as there will not be many options open to them otherwise.
The chaos of getting people out and getting in front of the fire is starting to calm down. This is only a relative term. Sierra’s radio continues to crackle on both channels. The air attack has been trying to lay down retardant to slow the growth and to redirect the fires away from places where there are people and structures.
Meantime, lots of people need to get out of Huntington. The fire is threatening to cut off the exit via 168. They have some people at China Peak and plotting how to get them out.
In the middle of the afternoon, Wendy heard of a report of a plane going down in Sequoia. Looking at WildCad, It turns out the plane went down close to Mineral King, around Eagle Lake. Not that everybody did not have enough to do. Found out later the occupants died.
A friend of ours is the campground host for Chilkoot Campground along Beashore Road. This is where our family stayed last June. We text him and tell him what is happening. He says that he will be leaving soon.
By 1735 the fire was 36,000 acres. The conversation thinks it is more. By 2039, it is 73,000 acres. We heard at one point a plane was trying to map the fire. There was so much heat being given off, it sounded like he was giving up mapping it and would return with the data he collected.
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| Looking towards Pinehurst |
By the way, we still did our lookout responsibilities. Taking weather, doing scans, listening to the radio, … But frankly, even during a normal year, Delilah is known for its solitude, broken only infrequently by guests. On the other hand, Buck Rock, close to Big Meadow, can be a hive of activity. He does relays of radio messages from patrols to patrols or Porterville, he has eyes on activities, mostly legals, but sometimes, not so. The patrols in the area are called to break up an argument. Such as a group thought it would be cool to drive on top of Wedding Rock, past barricades and have a good time with a campfire. Buck Rock spotted them and let those in the area know.
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| Fading Sun |
Our day gets done at 2000. But we are slow to turn off Sierra’s radio as I would hesitate to say entertaining, more like mesmerizing and addicting. The activity, the intensity, the calmness they all approach their job with. But with the fading sun, comes darkness. And with the darkness, we look north and see flames surrounding Musick Mountain 27 miles away.
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| Fire around Musick Mountain |
Before I go to bed, I have a text conversation with Kathy. She was wondering how we were doing today. It is exciting to hear the goings on. Also it was hot, but not bad enough for us to leave.
Reflection: Sherri and I have hiked and driven a lot back where this fire is raging. There is a lot of sadness. There is the hope that the land will come back, there is a hope that in a decade it will be restored. But there are also the people who are being devastated. Some have only been there for a few years. But many go back five, six, seven or more decades. Much sadness. We will only know when things open up again, probably next Spring.
Background
Apparently this is not the first large fire in that area. Back in 1994 Buck Rock was able to look down into Big Creek and pick out a smoke. She reported it.
Extra Photo's
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| Afternoon smoke columns |
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| Pyrocumulus |
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| Pyrocumulus |
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| Pyrocumulus |
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| Bear Mountain-Fresno |
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| Bear Mountain-Tulare |
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| Fire on Musick Mountain |
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| Fire on Musick Mountain |
