Large Fire in Bishop Creek Canyon, Sierra

Hi All,

Sad news from Bishop this morning. A large lightning caused fire is burning in Bishop Creek Canyon near the settlement of Aspendell. Aspendell has been evacuated, as well as the campgrounds in the canyon. The road into the canyon is currently closed to all traffic except emergency vehicles.

The fire started yesterday afternoon and has grown to approximately 3000 Acres. At least 200 fire fighters, support equipment, and air tankers and copters are working the fire. There is no estimate of containment.

There is also another fire in a canyon west of the town of Independence.

If you are planning to head to the Sierra this week, you'll definitely need to keep abreast of the current situation.

If I get more info, I'll post it.

-Preston

Thanks Preston. A couple years ago I had to exit a trip up Covict Creek early because
of the smoke. Always a risk this time of year. A year before I was heading for Sonora
Pass and some brats ahead of me threw a cherry bomb out the car window and started
a fast moving grass fire slightly below Sonora. Stopped at a forest service office and
tried to tell them but they told me they were busy monitoring a fire on the east side,
so didn't have time to file my complaint! Then I spotted a bunch of highway patrolmen standing around a gas station, and tried to tell them, but they said it wasn't
in their jurisdiction! I asked one of them where he lived, and he said Sonora, so I then
told him if he didn't get moving he wasn't going to have a town to live in. Fires can
move fast. He finally put 2+2 together and put the call through.

Forks Fire Update Monday July 20, 2009 - 8:00 AM As of 8:00 this morning the Forks Fire burning in Bishop Creek Canyon is estimated to be about 2100 acres. Light rain fell on the fire late yesterday afternoon causing the relative humidity to remain high throughout the night, so the fire did not grow significantly.

A mandatory evacuation remains in effect for all campgrounds, resorts, marinas, and pack stations in the Bishop Creek drainage, as well as the residential communities of Aspendell and South Fork. Starlite remains under voluntary evacuation. Fire managers and the Inyo Country Sheriff's Department will be evaluating the situation this afternoon and will attempt to make an announcement by this evening regarding when the evacuation order will be lifted.


-P

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dakotah Jackson

Let it burn. Plant material will grow back. Leaving it be is a lot better than wasting all the money fighting a fire that will burn anyway.

Those who build too close to the brush and fail to clear it away from their buildings shouldn't cry when they burn to the ground. Surprised many can get insurance when they don't clear the area and plan for the fires they know will come.

---

Depends, depends on a lot of other variables. There was a lightening caused fire near Glacier Point road in Yosemite the last time I was up there and it was let alone (well, let alone enough to be managed as a "controlled burn") If the brush is so high and burns so hot that it kills the mature seed bearing trees, the most productive response is to cut and stack the brush and burn it before hand so a fire won't kill the mature trees (that, btw is very hard work and hats off to the forestry crews who handle that task!)

I hope Schaatz Bakery survives!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Drew Wiley

Then I spotted a bunch of highway patrolmen standing around a gas station, and tried to tell them, but they said it wasn't
in their jurisdiction! I asked one of them where he lived, and he said Sonora, so I then
told him if he didn't get moving he wasn't going to have a town to live in. Fires can
move fast. He finally put 2+2 together and put the call through.

---

These guys have been getting paid with IOUs from the State. Poetic justice? Maybe, maybe.

Update:

The fire is 90% contained. Mop up and demob are in progress. Full containment expected early Friday morning.

The area is open to the public. If you travel up Hwy 168, keep an eye out for fire equipment and also for debris that may fall onto the roadway.

"Then I spotted a bunch of highway patrolmen standing around a gas station, and tried to tell them, but they said it wasn't in their jurisdiction!"

The trick with CHP is to tell them the fire is hitting the road and/or people are stopping to watch the fire and are creating a traffic hazard! In all seriousness, the best course of action is to find a phone and dial 9-1-1.

In CA it's drier'n a popcorn fart, and the ease of ignition is very high. Be careful out there everyone!

-P

Dakotah,

Until recently I was a fire fighter here in Northern CA (23 years). I have witnessed structures burn during wildland fires, even with adequate clearance and good access. The problem was older contruction that was not fire-resistive. For example, buildings with eaves, shake roofs, uncovered vents, and light weight curtains can be a recipe for disaster, even with good clearance.

The CA PRC (Public Resources Code) requires 100' clearance (or to the property line), limbing of larger trees, clean gutters, etc. The fire code has been rewritten to exclude shake roofs (or use treated shakes). Many jurisdictions have outlawed shake roofs; treated or not, and have adopted other construction codes to increase fire resistivity.

Homes and businesses in the wildland-urban interface is a complex issue, across the board, but afforts are having positive results. Structure loss has been reduced.

With regard to letting things burn, I agree with John in the sense that there are many variables at play. In areas with high fuel density (tons/acre), 'let burn' may not only threaten regeneration, but spotting may cause new fires that increases risk to fire fighters and/or surrounding areas. Such a scenario also results in the need for additional resources that would then be unavailable for new, and potentially more damaging, fires.

If conditions of terrain, fuels, and weather permit, WFU (Wild Fire Use) for resource management is a good thing. Managing low-intensity fires that remove volatile understory and brush does help prevent damaging high-intensity fires in the future.

-P

What tends to burn on the East Side is pinon pine, which has a high pitch content.
This isn't brush, and Bishop Creek contains only a tiny amount of development.
Many California trees and shrubs are engineered to burn - that's how they propagate.
And most people forget that for millenia the Indians groomed the landscape with fire.
However, since this cyle has been interrupted for a long time, the fires burn much
hotter than in the past and you can actually sterilize the soil. And sadly, I remember
a time when the forest service was itself routinely involved in arson, because they
got double pay when there was a fire, even if the line itself consisted of prison labor.
Nowadays that's unlikely because fires are investigated and most of the fire fighters
are professional. But it's always remarkable how green things become the following year. I myself spend a number of long hard weekends each year on my mtn property
peparing for the fire season. Since I have over forty
species of wildflowers growing on the property at any one
time during the Spring, some rather rare, I let each patch go to seed before weedeating. This means repeat trips, but then, there were several instances when
the light was - you know - all I had to do was set down the trimmer for ten minutes
and grab the 8X10, right there!