Sunday, September 21, 2014
[californiadisasters] King Commentary
We had some lightning and a little rain last night, more spritzes this morning. I got .01" last night and that again so far today. Enough to knock the dust off.
One lightning blast was WAY too close here (less than a mile, under two seconds to boom), my ham radio gear went into fault mode (protective) but it's all good after a linen check. That blast caused a 75 X 75' fire, very close to a fire station and it was quickly put out (on scene in under a minute).
The lightning hit one King fire crew (not mine), the staff are ok, but the electronics in the engine are toast. Two more injured were extracted last night, knees and dehydration.
The miscreant arrested plead not guilty. He's safer in jail now, but not by much. There is SIGNIFICANT anger aimed in his direction (homeowners and recreational area users). I have 'the cure' but it isn't socially acceptable (I'm told it's used in the movie Fargo, I never saw it).
Structure loss is at 32; expect it to climb.
Air attack made a recon lap today, found two new smokes from lightning (Amador county), one was already being dropped on by copters. The other had a 'minimal ROS' (Rate Of Spread) in forest litter (duff). CDF *WILL* get to it, unlike the Forest Sircus ignoring the Meadow fire.
A new fire in Pine Grove (Amador? Don't remember) is utilizing air craft, I'm not listening to it.
A couple copters are working King but the cloud cover negates the tanker use for now. Today it's dozer, hand crew and engines.
I'm not ignoring the CA-Disaster groups, but the bulk of my time has been spent on FB with the El Dorado Incident group, soothing, educating and diverting misinformation (too many self proclaimed 'egg-spurts' out there). Much of the local media is rushed to post, often WRONG information, NOT helpful. There are two official sources, EDSO and the KING FIRE PIO sites on FB and the web (already posted to this list).
Besides FB, I also have two of my scanners running 24/7, one is completely set up just for the King fire, the other defaults to AEU dispatch, command and Tac channels. Keeping normal chores completed plus the above is about my limit at multitasking this week, but I've managed a few hours of sleep.
During a sugar rush, chocolate buzz (WOW!!), last night, I wrote that prose. It may be cathartic, I'm not a shrink, but prose like that, will drive to drink. Burma Shave ;o) It seems popular, over a hundred 'likes' in less than 10 hours.
It's starting to clear overhead (sorta, maybe), so I'm hopeful more copters (at least) will get to work.
The rain does NOT provide help. It dries off quickly, makes things slippery, the dirt more sticky and hand work more tiring and dangerous. If rain is to help, it must be a soaking rain of some duration, not teasing rains. Then everyone can just go home.
The western lines (critical for housing areas) are being built ASAP (hand line in direct attack mode, backed up by a secondary dozer line), some burning out may happen today (needs copter support for safety and CYA) which would improve the lines. The main part of the fire is bumping into old burns, which will slow things down... line is being cut there too, removing recovery growth (good with the bad). There IS burning out in the French Meadow area.
The fire has been split into TWO camps, each with a Fed IMT (Incident Management Team) under Unified Command (they'll work together). Expect that when the SRA areas are no longer a worry, the Fed will take over completely (they don't play well with others and have divergent philosophies). A second (larger) fire camp is being set up.
That's the essence of the day, more when there is something worth posting.
Rick
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Posted by: Rick WA6NHC <happymoosephoto@gmail.com>
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