scilly

That fire destroyed most of Monte Creek overnight, and that isn't that far from Kamloops, is it?

I heard someone on the radio this morning say that it had travelled 18 km in 8 hours. That's fast!

Stay safe.

Danny B

Almost the entire city of Vernon is under an evacuation alert today, that’s about 40,000 people. Thankfully the wind Gods feel sorry for Kamloops and pushed it in another direction…for now.

CanadaJimmy

The one positive thing about all this is it seems the fires are finally waking some people up to climate change. Some people are still wilfully blind or in denial of course ("it's just weather") but others are demanding we do better, such as this article written by a BC journalist.



https://www.nationalobserver.com/202...el-advertising

scrubbedexpat091

I had no idea this was a record that was tracked but apparently so, Kamloops broke a record today.

scrubbedexpat091

This is an interesting write up, cutting down mature forests can actually lead to worse fires.

Not just some random person either in regards to the fire hazard increase, but a fuels specialist who testified under oath in Oregon who works for the US Government.

"The change from a ‘mature’ to an ‘early successional’ stand structural stage would change the associated stand-level hazard from low to moderate/high. The stands would go from a timber model to a slash fuel model with higher predicted flame length, fire duration, and intensity and decreased ability to control a fire, with the greatest risk of a fire start during the first 5 years following harvest."

" Overall fire hazard would increase for 5 to 20 years following planting, then drop from high to moderate after the next treatment.”

scrubbedexpat091

People are being asked not to travel to certain areas of the interior.

Emergency Management BC urged travellers to stay away from the communities of Armstrong and Spallumcheen, as well as the Okanagan Indian Band, Enderby and parts of the Regional District North Okanagan.

Danny B

The fires are closing in on Kamloops.....we need rain, and lots of it.

scrubbedexpat091

Might be time to rethink interior living,

I am happy about the fact we no longer live in west end of West Kelowna, the fire there tonight is not far from where we lived before moving into our current place, as really not far at all from area under evacuation and evacuation warning. Only about 10-15 minute drive from our old place being evacuated.

Fire was always a concern when we lived in that area, you could still see the fire damage from a fire a few years ago, it was a little close for comfort. (the little red dot with the bad arrow is approx. location of our last apartment building.)

caretaker

Merritt's under an evacuation alert since last night. I keep imagining there must be some way to stop a whole town from burning. The area to be protected is so small in relation to a big forest fire, if a densely populated area is in danger of being burned up why can't they blanket the place with fire retardant? I've seen pictures of houses in California saved like that, and it's messy but effective.
edit; looks like they do it all over
https://www.govtech.com/em/disaster/...retardant.html
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=houses+cov...ages&ia=images
https://globalnews.ca/news/8114940/c...lert-wildfire/

Danny B

The main Coquihalla highway to Vancouver is closed in both directions, I cannot imagine the extra load that this will put on the other roads that are still open. What a mess this Summer has been so far.

scrubbedexpat091

And google maps is confusing people by saying Hwy 1 closed, but DriveBC says its open.


Last night on Coq at Exit 256.

scrubbedexpat091

They will do their best I imagine to save the town, but I also imagine resources are being stretched thin as this point as well.

Also keep in mind Cal-Fire which is California's fire management agency operates the largest civil aerial firefighting fleet in the world (plus their contract planes + US military if needed) so they have resources at their disposal that BC may not have.

caretaker

The only thing I've seen delivering retardant in BC is helicopters (though they probably drop it from water bombers too), and they can't take many of those away from other fires for long. Bring that beautiful DC-10 up here and do a pass, land and load then do 1 more and Merritt would probably be good. If there was a way to modify a Hercules so it shook retardant out the back like the street gritter they could get the air force involved. Make it a modular system like their water purification rig, just roll it up to the back and winch it in and fly. Make spare hoppers so they can have a full one waiting and reduce turn around time. Thunderbirds are Go! It's the sort of operation you don't want to perform until the last minute when you're sure a town is going to burn, so whether or not they can fly and bomb at night is a consideration (but planning it out in advance with gps may make that easier). I've watched water bombers practice lots of times, and while they used the lake most, they also tried dropping on land targets using instruments. I never saw them do it at night though.

scrubbedexpat091

Night flying is tricky in general, but does seem with the right aircraft and equipment its possible. BC based Coulson has contracts in California for their night flying Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter that can drop 3,000 gallons of water or retardant in one drop, as well Cal-Fire is spending $300 million to buy their own choppers capable of night flying going into service over the next couple of years.

C-130 Hercules can and is used as air tankers, California has some, and I think Coulson does as well which have been used in Australia, US Dept. Of Defense has 8 C-130 aircraft available to supplement civilian firefighting aircraft.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/featu...ring-advantage

https://www.nationalguard.mil/News/A...ting-training/


Looks like Coulson got a small contract from BC Government this year for a few days using Sikorsky S-61 near Kamloops last month. First time Coulson has had a contract in their home province since 2015, looks like the rest of their fleet is on contract in California, about dozen aircraft there, 4 of which can operate 24 hours a day.

https://www.saanichnews.com/news/b-c...nces-interior/

Danny B

I have never been so happy to see rain in all my life it poured down the entire night!! Hopefully this has helped get some control over the fires.