California Burning — Debate rages amid smoke and flames: How do we stay safe?

  • [image collage by Patric Hedlund, The Mountain Enterprise]

    [image collage by Patric Hedlund, The Mountain Enterprise]

By Patric Hedlund and Marcy Axness, TME

Smoke-choked air hid the sun in our Mountain Community’s Labor Day week as the massive Creek fire raged across Fresno County 200 miles to the north. It pushed billowing smoke clouds south while trapping hundreds of campers who had to be evacuated by National Guard helicopters. By Monday the U.S. Forest Service took a nearly unprecedented action. They closed eight of California’s nine national parks, effective immediately.

Worst Wildfire Season Ever

Over two million acres of California had burned as of Tuesday, Sept. 8, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) reported.

Twenty-five major wildfires are savaging the state. Now Santa Ana winds are…(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

Within the Creek fire perimeter (as of Sept. 8), LPFW charts three major prior fires (French, 2014; Aspen, 2013; Big Creek, 1994) and six ‘forest treatment projects’ (Bald Mountain Project, 2014; Coyote Fuel Reduction and Forest Restoration Project, 2013; Dawn Meadow Thinning, 2010; Hazard Tree Removal, 2012; Keola Fuels and Forest Health Project, 2011; plus the Whiskey Ridge Ecological Restoration Project, 2013).

The 2006 Day fire illustrates why the notion of a firebreak is not a cure-all for stopping a fast-moving, wind-driven fire. This fire jumped right across Lockwood Valley Road, right past the firefighters and their equipment. Residents had evacuated. Similarly, the town of Eugene, Oregon, which Timothy Ingalsbee calls home, was badly threatened this week. His colleague, Dominick DellaSala, evacuated from Talent Oregon, where blowing ember storms incinerated homes two miles away from the fire.

Timothy Ingalsbee of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology (FUSEE)

Smoke from the Creek fire blocked the sun in the Mountain Communities at 11:44 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 9. Midday looked like dusk at the roadblock closure of Los Padres National Forest at the turnoff to Cerro Noroeste.
________________________________________________

This story was updated Sunday, Sept. 13, 2020

For the Record: California and Oregon were burning on Wednesday night, Sept. 9, as The Mountain Enterprise went to press. Part One of our Special Report “California Burning — Debate rages amid smoke and flames: How do we stay safe?” contained an error. 

Firefighter and scientist Tim Engalsbee was preparing to evacuate from his home in Eugene, OR, when we interviewed him on Tuesday. It was his colleague Dominick DellaSala whose hometown of Talent, Oregon, was devastated by the Almeda fire. See excerpts of DellaSala’s OpEd about the fires ravaging the west on page 5. Our online archive at www.MountainEnterprise.com has been updated with the correction.

_________________________________________________________

 

To see full stories with photos, please purchase a copy of the newspaper at many locations (click this link for a list) throughout the Mountain Communities.

Or, have your newspaper delivered via mail and include internet access. Just call 661-245-3794. Classified ads are FREE to paid subscribers! See front page at www.mountainenterprise.com for details.

The e-Edition is available now with full photos and stories at The Mountain Enterprise e-Edition. Select the 2020-0911 edition.

(subscriber login required)

This is part of the September 11, 2020 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

Have an opinion on this matter? We'd like to hear from you.