The Fire Apocalypse?
Say what you want about drought, climate change, general weather weirdness and dogs and cats living together, evidence is mounting this summer, California's four year drought is much more than a water issue. Our forests are tinder dry. That rain we had just a few weeks ago in the mountains? Nothing but a blip on the radar, so to speak. Whereas areas of California received quite a bit of precipitation, the latest dry weather has made a dent in mid-season rain.
The #RockyFire is an example of Lake County's summer parched vegetation. As a kid growing up there, fire (is) always a dry season hazard. The unique terrain, heavy incendiary vegetation, coupled with hot weather and afternoon winds, can lead to explosive fire growth.
Such is the case with the Rocky.
I had all of my assignments completed last Wednesday. Sonoma County had been experiencing several small brush fires, so I was listening to the scanner dispatches a little closer than usual. I've always been a spot news kind of guy, it's important that people know what's going on in their community. So, when a smoke check toned out near Safari West around 3:30 or so, I decided to head that way. It turned out to be nothing, but I was hearing chatter about a fire in Morgan Valley. Being pretty close to Calistoga, I decided to head that way. If the fire was big enough, the smoke plume would rise over Mt. St. Helena and the jagged Palisades cliffs. The plateau of Porter Creek Road before heading in to the Napa Valley is a vantage point which affords a good view. When I saw that header rising over the mountain, I knew the fire was going to go big.
Gut instinct.
I've told several people in the newsroom if you can see the smoke from our second story office windows, most likely it's a big deal. Looking back, I realize that the Safari West smoke check was a person watching the Rocky. By the time I made it over the mountain in to Middletown the header had become a beast and the Incident Commander (IC) was ordering up literally tons of equipment. A Cal Fire Air Attack pilot was asking for the Very Large Air Tanker (VLAT) the new generation of tanker that can drop 10,000 gallons of retardant. Being so early in the firefight with just a hint of immediacy in the pilot's voice was a key indicator that whatever resources they could get, they would need.
I stopped off Butts Canyon Road in Middletown and made a frame, to document it's growth.
The Rocky Fire from Butts Canyon Road in Lake County, Wednesday July 29, 2015. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
You can see a little puff of smoke just above the yellowish barn. That is a second fire, which was reported just a few seconds later by the Air Attack. Later, the two columns would merge.
Anytime I go in to this situation, I run through a mental checklist of what to expect, what to avoid and the inherent risk of covering a wildland fire. However, you never exactly know what you'll come up against. It was easy enough to get to the fire, eventually stopped by a roadblock from the Department of Fish and Game. He told me to leave; everyone to leave. After about 30 minutes I was able to enter the fire area at a close distance (California law is on my side with access). I worked the perimeter of the fire, shooting scene setting photos, being careful to not get in the way of fire apparatus or those evacuating. Eventually, I waded in to the housing areas to make photos. Below is one of the first photos I made after gaining access.
The Rocky fire spots off Morgan Valley Road, Wednesday July 29, 2015. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
It was hot probably close to 106. Not really windy; but as the fire began to increase in size, inflow winds drawn in by the fire interacted with orography of the slopes creating it's own weather, forming huge pyrocumulus clouds.
The Rocky Fire explodes at sunset just outside Lower Lake, Wednesday July 29, 2015. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
Covering smaller brush fires is a real challenge. Most of the time, it's a mop-up type photo; you know, firefighters scraping a containment line. Uh-uh not this time.
The Boggs Helitack crew gets a ride from a battalion chief on the Rocky Fire, Wednesday July 29, 2015. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
A Cal Fire strike team move to an escape zone after a flare up on the Rocky Fire threatened to burn fire hoses near Lower Lake as they try to cut line around the perimeter of the fire, Wednesday July 29, 2015. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
Obviously, firefighters had their hands full. Even backfires were tough to set, the erratic nature of the topography and weather conditions played a huge factor in how it burned.
Smaller backfires were set by dragging burning brush to solidify containment lines on the Rocky Fire near Lower Lake, Wednesday July 29, 2015. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
As twilight faded, the weather turned interesting -if it hadn't been already. It didn't cool down. The temperature climbed, the humidity plummeted and it became very windy. A thermometer on the side of a house said 110 degrees. That's like San Antonio in the summer with humidity. Air tankers eked out the last light of the day and made drops on a flank of the fire at Morgan Valley Road.
Air tankers made drops in the last rays of the day, Wednesday July 29, 2015. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
Nothing felt right, the hair on my neck stood on end. The fire, in search of oxygen, roared down the valley in to a rural sub-divison of homes, spotting 1/4 mile in front of the head.
Fire roars in to a valley off Morgan Valley Road, during the Rocky Fire near Lower Lake, Wednesday July 29, 2015. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
At this moment you decide you are a person who values life, a family to come home to with a crazy dog in tow. The trappings of domesticity are real, comforting and safe, food is on the table and milk with your cookies to dunk. Then the photojournalist in you says, okay, that guy down there has defensible space, I have a safety zone and at least one way out of the canyon. I was unsure about the way out, not knowing if the fire ABOVE the canyon to the south had burned over the road, where the fuel load was more dense. I figured it would make a pretty good photo. Firefighters were stationed at every home. I felt reassured. The photo below is the only one of three frames in focus.
A wall of flames lurches over a ridge as a resident of Morgan Valley Road near Lower Lake prepares to evacuate the Rocky Fire, Wednesday evening July 29, 2015. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
Firefighters do this for a living. The utmost respect should be afforded to anyone putting themselves in harms way to protect someone they don't know. It's gutsy at the very least.
Animals were evacuated off Morgan Valley Road near Lower Lake during the Rocky Fire, Wednesday evening July 29, 2015. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
Cal Fire crews from Napa's Greenwood Ranch Station monitor the Rocky Fire, now 8,000 acres, Thursday July 30, 2015. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
So I went back to Clearlake after the fire blew through. I sent the photos, suggesting the evacuation photo be published across the entire page. It was. Still, the adrenaline was pumping, there were more photos to get, to show the fury of what was taking place. I made some photos of the moon and the fire screaming up hillsides and ran in to a fire photographer from SoCal, Stuart Palley, who makes really nice images of just about everything he shoots.
Southern California based fire photographer Stuart Palley photographs the Rocky Fire as it burns up and over a ridge along Morgan Valley Road early Thursday morning July 30, 2015. The fire has grown to 8,000 acres since yesterday afternoon. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
The Rocky Fire burns up and over a ridge underneath a full moon along Morgan Valley Road early Thursday morning July 30, 2015. The fire has grown to 8,000 acres since yesterday afternoon. Lights from a strike team of engines can be seen on the right hand side in this long exposure. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
The city of Clearlake is reflected, along with the Rocky Fire, in the waters of Borax Lake, above Clear Lake, Thursday morning July 30, 2015. The fire has grown to 8,000 acres since yesterday afternoon. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
With no hotel rooms available, I decided to get some rest out of the fire zone in the parking lot of the hotel. After fits and starts, crumpled up in a car seat a little short for my frame, I made one last effort for a room. Luckily a person never showed and I got it at 4:30 am. The next er.. same day, reporter Glenda Anderson and I looked for evacuees, or those that stayed in their homes overnight inside the evac perimeter and made images of a burnout operation with a local strike team from Cloverdale, Windsor and Geyserville to fill out the story I was attempting to tell.
A Windsor firefighter faces down a backfire off Morgan Valley Road on the Rocky Fire, Thursday July 30, 2015 near Lower Lake. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
A dry farm pond underlines the four year drought as a backfire is set by Windsor, Cloverdale and Geyserville firefighters off Morgan Valley during the Rocky Fire, Thursday July 30, 2015. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
The Antonia family and friends watch as the Rocky Fire spots outside of containment lines, Thursday July 30, 2015 from their ranch off Morgan Valley Road. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
A moonscape greets Lonne Sloan at the corner of her driveway and Morgan Valley Road Thursday July 30, 2015 near Lower Lake as she calls 911 to report that fire was bearing down on her house once again. Sloan and her husband Larry stayed behind Wednesday night to put out flames around their home, even so it was touch and go, Sloan lost a barn, trailers and tractors to the Rocky Fire. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
Larry Sloan protected his house with his own fire truck, background, at the height of the Rocky Fire Wednesday night near Lower Lake, Thursday July 30, 2015. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
As the heat ramped up, fire behavior became more erratic. It was crazy. Last year, I thought the fire behavior was the worst I had ever seen. The Rocky Fire, hands down, was 10 times worse than conditions posed last year.
A wind driven smoke tornado dwarfs a water dropping helicopter on he Rocky fire, Thursday July 30, 2015 near Lower Lake . (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
Chinook helicopters make drops on the Rocky fire, Thursday July 30, 2015. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
The Rocky fire threatens the Antonia Ranch, Thursday July 30, 2015 off Morgan Valley Road near Lower Lake. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
The Rocky fire blows up,Thursday July 30, 2015 near Lower Lake . (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
The blue, but smoke tinted moon, rises over the Rocky Fire near Lower Lake, Thursday July 30, 2015. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
The Rocky Fire near Lower Lake, Thursday July 30, 2015. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
Just think. It's only August.
-Kent Porter
Read my blog at http://eclecticarcania.blogspot.com/
My Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/derkimster
Linkedin profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kim-noyes/9/3a1/2b8
Follow me on Twitter @CalDisasters
__._,_.___
No comments:
Post a Comment