In eastern Okanogan County, the saga began slightly more than three weeks ago. A series of fires began almost simultaneously under dry windy conditions. Many were started by lightning. Before resources could be mustered to the scene, vast stretches of timberland were on fire. Homes and sheds were reduced to rubble. Thousands more were in serious jeopardy of joining the toll.
As usual, all images are in lightbox mode. Click on picture for greater detail.
Fires moved too quickly for firefighters to save every structure
The complex of fires grew so large, so fast, that they became the nation’s #1 priority. Fire camps were established; personnel and equipment poured in from everywhere. There were days when the weather was so extreme that the crews could do little besides get out of the way. As time went on, there were more good days than bad ones. Firefighters finally gained the upper hand.
Dugout Mountain, August 16, 2015
Dugout Mountain, September 2, 2015
Smoke still fills the valley on Sept. 4, but there is less fire
This will probably be my last fire diary for the time being. Today’s news is mostly good. For the remainder of the month, I will be working on forestry projects in Idaho and Oregon, and will no longer be reporting from the scene.
However, I intend to follow up in the fire’s aftermath. When the burned areas have been secured and reopened to the public, I will try to make some sense of what happened. How much of the land still has green trees, and why did they survive while other parts of the forest were consumed in massive crown fires?
Here’s a hint, and I have discussed it in previous diaries. Quoting from the September 5 fire summary:
Benefit of fuel treatments: The forest thinning and fuels treatments in the south and east forested edges of Aeneas Valley modified fire behavior, slowing its spread as well as facilitating burnouts and allowing firefighters to establish effective containment lines that protected homes and land.
Yes, in order to reduce the likelihood for future megafires, and to make the fires that occur less destructive, we must cut some trees and make use of controlled burns. It’s that simple.
Getting back to current events, here are the notes I jotted down Saturday while at the cabin.
Around 9:45 Tuesday morning, the cabin rattled. It felt like a minor earthquake. Okay, we’re having fires and earthquakes; is the locust plague next? The yellow jackets are filling in nicely in the plague department while we await the locusts.
A few days ago, from my hillside vantage point at the cabin I heard a helicopter in the valley. It was drawing water from Round Lake, and dropping it near the Tunk Mountain summit. In addition to covering several miles of flight distance, the chopper had to gain more than 3,000 feet of elevation. It made a round every ten or fifteen minutes.
These pictures were taken at Wallowa Lake, Oregon last year, showing a bucket-equipped helicopter dipping water.
At 11 in the morning, the thermometer reads 50 degrees. Light rain taps on the metal roof and cascades onto the flat stones I’ve set along the sides of the cabin. The smoke is nearly gone. There is no wind. A small fire in the wood stove keeps the chill at bay. I’m being downright paranoid about the stove, lest I burn up what I’ve worked so hard to save. But there’s a long list of heat and light sources that could cause a fire: Propane stoves and heaters, Coleman lanterns, generators, and all sorts of electrical appliances.
Welcome relief from the drought
All seems well in Aeneas Valley. But rain only offers temporary relief. A few warm dry days will dry out the fuels and take us right back to dangerous levels.
Despite the rain, fuels under large trees are still dry
Yesterday’s fire report pegged the North Star fire at more than 205,000 acres, and 25% containment. The Tunk Block fire covered over 161,000 acres and is now 50% contained. Ever since the high winds of last Saturday, conditions have been more conducive to stopping their spread. Fire crews and their equipment fill the woods; aircraft ply the skies. The statistics are staggering: 1,700 people, 164 fire engines, 34 bulldozers, 5 helicopters. Using a combination of brute force and favorable weather, crews have thus far saved Aeneas Valley and other populated areas from destruction.
Fire fighting equipment in Aeneas Valley
Fire camp in Omak
To give a sense of scale, the distance between Mallott and Tonasket is 37 miles. From Tonasket to Republic is 40 miles.
Map of Lime Belt, Tunk Block, and North Star fires
Zooming in on Aeneas Valley region
The September 6 report for the Tunk Block and North Star fires informs us how huge these fires are, and how long it will take to fully contain them.
Changes in fire maps from day to day appear minor but mask the huge sizes of the two fires. An apparently small change on a map may be several miles or hundreds of acres on the ground. The fire perimeter is broken into divisions to manage the fires. On these fires individual divisions cover 10-12 miles of fire perimeter compared to 1-2 miles on a more typical size fire. The total fire perimeter of both fires combined is about 380 miles. The fire fits into a “box” approximately 26 miles by 37 miles. These fires are staffed with 1,781 of the approximately 23,500 personnel working presently on fire nationwide. That is about one-half to two-thirds of number of firefighters that would be used on two such large fires if firefighting resources were fully available. It will be some time before the entirety of both fires are contained.
While I’d like to drive down Lyman Lake Road and some of the other roads around Aeneas Valley, I must wait. From a distance I see a mix of green and dead timber. Highway 20 and other routes that are open bring the fires’ aftermath into clearer view. Houses stand as unburned islands amid charred sagebrush. Homes of less fortunate owners are nothing more than a pile of twisted sheet metal. Forested hillsides are mottled with green survivors, brown scorched trees, and blackened remnants of crown fires. Parts of Bonaparte Canyon might be described as a moonscape, if the moon had dead trees.
Irrigated cornfield stands in contrast to burned hillside
Later, at day’s end…
The rain lasted about four hours – never heavy, just gentle showers. I stayed indoors most of that time, and even took a nap. It’s a pleasant change of pace to have nothing to do. Being cut off from the rest of the world allows me to work (or not work) at a different pace.
Across the valley, where smoke once poured from the hills, clouds hugged the peaks. The air was fresh with the smell of rain. A chill ran through the damp air, with the temperature holding near 50 until the rain quit, and then only inching up to around 55. According to the day's fire report, there was even some snow On Tunk Mountain and Moses Mountain.
Clouds have replaced smoke, for the time being
Late in the afternoon I spent about two hours pruning young pine trees. When the fires threatened, such work seemed futile, and I concentrated on more pressing matters. The work is satisfying because I can look around and see the changes: one more pocket of trees free to grow and safer from wildfires.
With the lower branches removed, these trees might survive the next fire
It's time to bid farewell to the cabin, after three sometimes-harrowing weeks. May the next visit be very, very boring.