Whitlow incident 30% contained

From Fire Captain Steve Richardson:

CAL FIRE Siskiyou Unit

2h  · Update: #WhitlowIncident Near Bear Mt area 8 miles Northwest of Pondosa. Fires size is 10 acres in timber with 30 %containment. Firefighters were able to stop the forward rate of spread with a hose line all the way around as well a a dozer line. Due to heavy mop up and remote access it is hampering firefighters to gain full containment. The cause remains under investigation. #CALFIRESKU2022

Working on Defensible Space to help protect against wildfire

Jay Perkins

Admin  · 9h  · Numerous escaped burns over the past 10 days have kept firefighting forces and volunteers busy! Exercise caution when burning and follow the advice of local fire agencies.The Yreka Area Fire Safe Council wants to continue to encourage you to perform your Defensible Space work. This week’s focus is on the Intermediate Zone or the Zone from 5 feet to 30 feet away from buildings, decks and other structures. Visit the attached links for ideas on what you can do in the Intermediate Zone.https://ucanr.edu/…/Prepare/Landscaping/DefensibleSpace/https://www.nfpa.org//-/media/Files/Firewise/Fact-sheets/FirewiseHowToPrepareYourHomeForWildfires.pdfhttps://disastersafety.org/wildfire/wildfire-ready/

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The direct costs of those big fires

From the Sacramento Bee:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Two of California’s largest wildfire incidents in 2021 cost fire agencies more than $500 million apiece to suppress, and a third cost more than a quarter-million dollars to fight, according to new federal data.

The massive Dixie Fire, which burned from mid-July through late October in Northern California, cost an estimated $637 million to combat, according to an annual report from the National Interagency Fire Center.

The Beckwourth Fire Complex, which scorched 106,000 acres from July to September in Plumas National Forest, cost about $543 million.

And the Caldor Fire, which burned more than 220,000 acres in El Dorado County along Highway 50 and into the Lake Tahoe Basin, cost $271 million.

Those are just the suppression costs for fire agencies — they don’t reflect property damage, or base operating costs such as equipment. All three fires were fought by the U.S. Forest Service. Cal Fire battled the Caldor and Dixie fires in tandem with the Forest Service.

Weather forecast now includes possible heat wave

Summer looking worse

Daniel Swain@Weather_West·Despite a couple of weak systems affecting NorCal with some modest showers, the next two weeks are looking much drier than average across CA–meaning that March is likely to become another key wet season month with well below average precip. (1/2) #CAwx#CAwaterDaniel Swain@Weather_WestMoreover, a significant statewide early season heatwave is possible next week, with at least some daily record highs possible. This will further accelerate vegetation drying and mountain snowmelt (and snowpack is already down to 57% of avg for date). (2/2) #CAwx#CAwater1:14 PM · Mar 16, 2022·Twitter Web App

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Wildfire fighter critical staffing shortage–people needed!

Admode (Oroville)5 hours ago

I’m on break from our annual fire refresher. The Plumas National Forest currently has 50 unfilled permanent fire fighter positions that are vacant. Despite having the biggest advertisement/recruiting campaign for on call fire fighters my district was able to get 8. Incident command teams are extremely thin. When we are neck deep in fire season and you see people inevitably crying that they could put out fires better than the gubment, or that the Forest Service just lets them burn, please encourage them to apply. It takes people to fight fire and we just don’t have any.

Important NWS video on smoke from wildfire

Smoke has become increasingly impactful to the communities in our forecast area, and addressing smoke impacts is a significant part of our job here at NWS Medford. We want to invite you to a presentation of some exciting research at the intersection of meteorology and air quality that could potentially help our communities. Rick Graw, Air Quality Program Manager for the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region, will be giving a presentation about meteorological and land management influences on wildfire smoke. He will present an analysis of the frequent air pathways which bring wildfire smoke into individual communities in Southern Oregon and Northern California. He will then share a case study which demonstrates how much wildfire smoke could be reduced into a community through fuel treatments within a frequent air pathway.

Now is the time to prepare for fire season

From Jay Perkins in Yreka: Have you been thinking about the approaching fire season? The Yreka Area Fire Safe Council wants to partner with you again in 2022 with thoughts, ideas, tasks you can do to get ready for wildfire. It appears we may get some well needed moisture this weekend and coming week but we are into a third year of drought and the stage is being set for another long fire season.Over the next 16 weeks, we will provide you with useful information. The idea is to present the information in small, doable tasks. Yes, some tasks may require a little more time. We will again be following the preparedness advice found in the Ready, Set, Go information that is available on readyforwildfire.org Let’s all do our part to assure that we are Ready, Set and can Go at the appropriate moment. Let’s do all we can to get ourselves, our family and our community Ready for Wildfire.https://youtu.be/dcf8FRAqUww

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Vegetation flammability across NorCal has now increased to levels typical of peak fire season

US StormWatch@US_StormwatchVegetation flammability across NorCal has now increased to levels typical of peak fire season, especially in the Bay Area. Peak fire season is still 4-5 months away. #CAwx#CAfire6:00 PM · Mar 13, 2022·Twitter Web App

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The somewhat good news here in Siskiyou County is that we can expect between a half and three quarters of an inch of rain over the next 48 hours (which will put us above last winter’s total) and more rain on Saturday.