massive blaze in utah
Rocky Mountain Wildfire Roundup
By Jessica Mayrer, 7-10-07
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The Milford Flat Fire, the largest fire in Utah’s recorded history, has burned over 310,000 acres. The fire is about 10 percent contained as firefighters file into the southcentral part of the state, 120 miles south of Salt Lake City to battle the blaze.
Sparked Friday, the fire has burned one home, several outbuildings, livestock and miles of pasture. The fire is blamed for the death of a couple hit by a car while traveling by motorcycle in heavy smoke on Saturday. Currently no evacuations are in effect for the Milford Flat Fire.
The chance of thunderstorms and high winds hitting the area will increase as the week goes on. Click here for more from the Salt Lake Tribune.
Also in Utah, fire crews are getting a handle on the Neola Fire, now about 65 percent contained after burning over 40,000 acres in the northeastern part of the state. The fire, started on June 29, has killed three people and now has over 700 firefighters on the scene.
Idaho
There are a few large fires burning in Idaho. Two have burned over 45,000 acres, the Black Pine Two in the Sawtooth National Forest (40 percent contained) and the Red Bridge grass fire on BLM land near Shoshone (now fully contained). The nearly 24,000-acre Warm Springs Fire, four miles north of Weiser, is now 70 percent contained and structures remain threatened. And the Tongue Complex Fire 45 miles south of Silver City is up to 18,000 acres and five percent contained.
Oregon
In Oregon, the Egley Complex Fire in the southeastern part of the state has burned 18,000 acres and is now within 15 miles of the towns of Burns and Hines. More than 100 structures, including 30 homes, are at risk.
The fire is moving in on several ranch buildings and summer cabins, but none have been damaged so far. Now three percent contained, the Egley Complex Fire has prompted officials to close of a portion of the Malheur National Forest and several campgrounds. Delays are expected today for U.S. Highway 20, running through the area.
Also in Oregon, crews are making headway on the Bartlett Mountain Fire in the eastern part of the state. It is now 70 percent contained after burning over 30,000 acres. The fire, ignited during a lightning storm last Friday, remains a threat to six homes and several outbuildings.
Montana
In Helena, a 500-acre fire flared up “that burned right up to the backdoors” of homes, the Helena IR reports. The fire, sparked at a National Guard gunnery and driven by 20 mph winds, was quickly contained, but only after authorities sent out 168 recorded calls to residents advising them to evacuate.
The Fool Creek Fire burning within the Bob Marshall Wilderness about 36 miles west of Choteau has grown slightly to 3,850 acres. Being in a wilderness area the fire is being managed for resource benefit and not actively fought, save water drops to keep it from the wilderness boundary. Sudden strong winds—gusts up to 80 miles in the Choteau area—shut down helicopter operations, though the winds did not materialize over the fire area. Visit InciWeb.org for more information.
For updates, check the National Interagency Fire Center and InciWeb.
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Comments
Thanks for the roundup. Thanks for also not generically referring to these as "forest fires," as people often do. As you can see from the information below, many of the largest fires currently burning in the Western US are not even burning in forests, but rather, are burning in grass and brush.
I'm sure this fact will be lost of those who very soon will start to blame environmental organization's for any and all wildfires that burn in our fire-dependent ecosystems.
It's also worth pointing out that the acre figures given below are for the entire burned area perimeter, not for actual acres burned. As anyone who has spent a lot of time in recently burned areas knows, most fires burn in a mosaic pattern leaving many patches of completely unburned vegetation within the "burned" perimeter.
Milford Flat (Southwest Area, Utah State Division of Forestry Fire & State Lands): 282,287 acres. This fire is 3 miles north of Milford and is burning in grass.
NOTE: Info below from http://www.inciweb.org.
Black Pine 2 (Sawtooth National Forest, ID): 44,982 acres at five percent contained. This fire is 11 miles southeast of Malta and is burning in brush and grass.
Boulder Creek (Boise District, BLM, ID): 6,437 acres at 50 percent contained. This fire is 48 miles south of Silver City and is burning in grass, brush and juniper.
Thomas (Winnemucca Field Office, BLM, NV): 20,500 acres at 10 percent contained. This fire is two miles southwest of Winnemucca and is burning in brush and grass.
Tungsten (Winnemucca Field Office, BLM, NV): 58,000 acres at 20 percent contained. This fire is 3 miles north of Imlay and is burning in brush and grass.
Bartlett Mountain (Burns District, BLM, OR): 2,200 acres at 60 percent contained. This fire is 37 miles northeast of Burns and is burning in brush and grass.
Clark Butte (Vale District, BLM, OR): 40,000 acres at 40 percent contained. This fire is 20 miles west of Jordan Valley and is burning in grass.
Last summer an incredibly huge wildfire burned down Pioneertown in the Mojave desert just north of Joshua tree national park. Along with Pioneertown, many hundreds of thousands of acres of invasive weed choked plant communities that used to be native dessert incinerated as well. These desert ecosystems, some of them as rare or more rare than many of our forested ones, host some of the most endangered habitat for species such as the desert tortoise left in the world. Pictures from these fires showed Joshua trees exhibiting running "crown" fires. I would posit that this is the first time in the history of this type of plant community that the fine fuels (mostly exotic grasses) had ever reached a level where the intense heat that they give off during combustion actually ignited the "overstory" of J-trees. Talk about eerie.
Anyway, all this to say that just cause its burning in grass and brush doesnt make it any less of an ecological anomaly, and ecologically damaging, than many of the uncharacteristically severe wildfires burning in forested ecosystems. Assigning blame for these types of wildfires that are certainly not normal in relation to any previous fire regime is not only counter productive, but next to impossible.
The question before us as humans who are integral and highly influential components of the ecosytem is how we want to move forward in a way that acknowledges that we have fundamentally altered these systems (and continue to do so) and have an opportunity to steer them back onto a course through well-intentioned, scientifically sound, and locally implemented active management.
"The question before us as HUMANS who are INTEGRAL and highly influential COMPONENTS OF THE ECOSYSTEM IS HOW WE want to move forward in a way that acknowledges that we have fundamentally altered these systems (and continue to do so) and have an opportunity to STEER them back onto a course THROUGH well-intentioned, scientifically sound, and LOCALLY IMPLEMENTED ACTIVE MANAGEMENT."
You bring up some excellent points related to wildfire and grassland ecosystems, not the least of which is pointing out the role of non-native, invasive plants such as cheat grass in spreading wildfire like, well, wildfire.
Like I said, my purpose in pointing out all the large grass and brush fires around the west was to get folks to realize that often the media will just generally call all wildfires "forest fires" even if there are no trees or a forest in sight. Unfortunately, those who annually use wildfire season as their opportunity to blame environmentalists for every wildfire, fail (perhaps intentionally) to make this distinction between forest and grassland fires.
One writer said I was perhaps "paranoid" about the impending blame game. Absolutely sick of it is more accurate. Think about it for a second and put yourself in my shoes. We're in the middle of a ten-year drought. In the last twenty five years researchers have found that climate change has added almost 3 months to the length of the western wildfire season. In the Missoula area we've had four days in a row of plus 100 degree weather (not including the all-time record 107 ten days ago) and we've been 90 plus for three weeks in a row with no rain, steady winds and more 90 plus weather forecasted for the foreseeable future. Dry lightening storms - or a careless camper or arsonist - come through the bone-dry mountains..fires start. And somehow that's the fault of an environmental organization such as ours because we appealed a 350 acre timber sale that's nowhere near the fire? If this sounds like a ridiculous, far-fetched non sequitur you'd be right. If you called it my July, August and September for the past ten years, you'd be correct also!
Regarding your final paragraph, which I guess Mike would like me to take a pop quiz about, I don't necessarily disagree with your well-written statement. As you know, the devil is in the details of any proposal. I think it would be helpful if we could acknowledge that there are some "fundamentally altered systems" out there on the landscape. Your example of invasive cheat grass comes to mind as do low-elevation ponderosa pine forests that have been logged and grazed. But I'm pretty sure we could both agree that many of the expansive spruce/fir forests of the northern Rockies, which typically burned every 100 to 300 years, haven't been that "fundamentally altered," and therefore shouldn't be a priority for "fuel reduction" activities. And I'm pretty sure we'd agree that with 85% of the fish-passage culverts in the northern Rockies currently impassible to fish that we've fundamentally altered our watersheds and active management is needed to correct the situation. Again, the devil would be in the details. Stay cool.