June 16, 2021 - Delilah Lookout

Title: June 16, 2021 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description :  Extra Photo's 

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

I will start with the next day. When I went out for my walk on Thursday, I felt pretty sore, much more sore than after backpacking or hiking. Is being a fire lookout that rough on my body?

This is a day a long time a-coming. First, it is the first day at Delilah this season-we have been to Park Ridge twice this season. Last season we were pretty much on our own. But in the prior two seasons, we were able to refresh with others, primarily Judy. Today Judy will be joining us. It should be a good day. Except, that it is scheduled to be pretty warm and maybe with low humidity.

My day starts at 0545 when I wake up. I packed most of my stuff last night, still, this morning I am bugged because I realized that I needed to pack my sleeping bag-just in case. The “in case” is that there is a major concern that if a fire breaks, it would turn into a major conflaguation in a short amount of time. So the “in case” is that if they needed someone in the tower, I would be available.

By the time 0700 rolls around, I think I am ready. Well almost-where is my wallet? I look around my desk. Not there. I cannot find it. Sherri gets smart and looks in the car-where I had already put it. We get off around 0720. It is an uneventful trip up to Delilah. We get there right about 0900.

Before we go up, we make a short trip into the radio room and look at our “home” in case of a critical emergency. This is a change from previous years where it seemed like the lookouts were left to our own wits. Mind you, it is not going to be comfortable, but we hope we never need to use it. But it is comforting knowing there is a plan. Last year there was one incident which could have had us cut off from our escape route.

Now we can get into the serious task of refreshing our lookout skills. Each year our base knowledge increases so our questions get more focused and technical in nature. We spend some time going over settings on the radio. We talk about the emergency plan and make sure we understand it as well. Sherri listens in and does the other lookout chores. Kathy wants to be called-she asks us some questions and then we question her about some of the issues we could not resolve.

 

Our  view of the Deck Fire

Same View, put filtering out haze

Location of Fire in Auberry

Lookout and Auberry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is past noon now. And we hear three beeps from Sierra. This says there is a fire. We hear Auberry and start looking in that direction. There.some haze over there and we have a hard time seeing any smoke against the gray background. A few minutes later, Shuteye Lookout chimes in with a report of the visual on the smoke. We report no visual. A few minutes later, there is a black column in the area. We report what we saw, as well as the azimuth. The fire is called the Deck Fire.

This now becomes a learning time. We already had a lat-long from the initial announcement. I have a spreadsheet which gives the azimuth and distance, so that leaves us just looking for the smoke. But what if we saw the smoke, but had not heard the report. How would we describe the fire, particularly the location? We talked about it. I suspect that our distance would have been very unreliable, particularly because of the haze. By the way, the fire was 27 miles away.

We continue to listen to the activity on the radio. We note there is now aircraft responding.But where exactly is the fire? So far no clue. But Judy hears there are people being evacuated. I brought up an app called FlightRadar24. We see that there are two helicopters dipping and three fixed wing aircraft. Judy sees a splotch of orange-fire retardant-being dropped. Exciting stuff.

Helicopter Track on Deck Fire

 

 

 

After driving this into the ground, we continue with our refresh. Actually, I take a break and have lunch.

Sherri and Judy Leaving

Judy needs to leave early and Sherri will be leaving with her. So I get the tower to myself for 4 hours. Wonder how calm it will be?

Actually it is pretty calm. I start doing the regular scans. Also there are places which I am now naming off to myself, to get refamiliarized with them. Even though Park Ridge Lookout and Delilah share some of the same territory, the profiles and aspects are different. Time to get reacquainted with them. I do lay down and rest during one 15 minute interval. Then around 1800, I have a sandwich for dinner.

At 1816, I hear three beeps from Sierra’s radio. Another fire. I listen to try to identify where it is. Burroughs Valley, a transformer has caught fire. Can I see anything is the big question. The haze has gotten worse. Before I can pick up the smoke, another grayish image shows up in the haze, in the same general direction. Is this a third smoke? I lose the image and then regain it. I think they are some whitish rocks to the east of Hacker Peak. But I make a mental note to check to see if that area looks any different in 20 minutes.

And now back to Burroughs Valley. I line up the firefinder to the Burroughs Valley area. Yes there is a column of white smoke against the light gray background. I do not think I would have seen it if I had not heard the initial Sierra report. I report my findings to Sierra. I continue to monitor the smoke-it does not seem to be getting larger. Also my other “smoke” is still there, unchanged. So I think it is a rock masquerading as smoke.

 I start to get things somewhat cleaned up to leave at 1900. We are to sanitize the cab on our way out. So I spray the alcohol mixture on various surfaces and get it cleaned up. I hear Sierra itching to go out of service for the night, so I go out of service with an update to the Fallen Fire-it is off of Fallen Oak Road. Not much more to report. Sort of funny, the azimuth for the Fallen Fire was within a degree of the Deck Fire at noon. But they were ten miles apart.

Then when I am just about to start mopping, BC31 calls up and wants to know about some brush he is sending a crew up to wack. It looked OK to me coming in, but I directed him to talk with Buck Rock since that is who initiated the report. At 1922 I go out of service with Porterville. I do give Buck Rock a call to see what BC31 may have been talking about. After getting an understanding, I tell her that I will check on the way out.

It does not take long to get the rest of the cab ready for the next lookout. It has been a long day. Glad I was able to share it with Sherri and Judy. On the way out, I understand what the concern is. The road is badly rutted on one side, causing vehicles to lean into some brush-I took the rut on an edge and avoided the issue. I report that to Buck Rock on the way out. By the time I get to Fresno, it is 2115. After unpacking, I take a shower and am ready for bed.

Extra Photo's

Change in scenery-circled area has trees and stuff

Where did they go?