Fire Scorches 800 Acres In Los Padres

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OS PADRES NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. -- A wildfire broke out in the Los Padres National Forest Sunday afternoon, consuming more than 800 acres so far.

More than 380 firefighters worked through the night, trying to build a line around the blaze at the Escondido Campground about 21 miles west of King City.

No structures are threatened, but 15 summer cabins were evacuated as a precaution.

U.S. and Los Padres National Forest Services officers were not allowing any media access to the area Sunday night, claiming that the fire was unstable.

Forest Service officials said the fire is about 5 percent contained as of Monday morning.

So far 170.550
Still searching for air to air, air to ground, i'm to far for ground tacs :(
 

Big_Ears

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I hope it's not the Ventana Wilderness area just south of Fort Hunter Liggett. Real remote area with alot of stored dry fuel.
 
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I hope it's not the Ventana Wilderness area just south of Fort Hunter Liggett. Real remote area with alot of stored dry fuel.

yup it is :( I love it out there to! it's over 100 degrees over there right now! ouch They said wind over here is going to pick up over the next few days with teps in 90's

Monterey County just had there Wildland Fire School a few miles away from it

As of 9 a.m., the Indians Fire in the Ventana Wilderness about 21 miles west of King City has burned 800 acres on both sides of the Arroyo Seco-Indians Road.
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The fire, first reported about 12:35 p.m. Sunday, has been burning in a southeast direction from Escondido Campground in steep rocky terrain and heavy grass, oaks and brush.

The north side of the fire is now 5 percent contained. Fifteen summer cabins in the Santa Lucia Tract have been evacuated as a precautionary measure.

More than 380 firefighters are assigned to the incident, including 15 handcrews, 3 helicopters, 16 fire engines, 1 bulldozer and 2 water tender. There have been no injuries reported. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

For more information, call the Los Padres National Forest Fire Information Call Center at (805) 961-5770, or visit www.inciweb.org.
 
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Big_Ears

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Too bad. I really feel sorry for the groundpounders. Must be about 140 degrees in the shade. Bad thing about it is the only place for the porta-pumps is the creek on the bottom. Water for the bucket drops is limited. I can see alot more hand crews being brought in.
 
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Firefighters predicted a wildfire in Los Padres National Forest that's burned more than 950 acres since Sunday will continue to spread today.
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Despite the efforts of more than 500 firefighters, the Indians Fire was only 6 percent contained Monday night and was advancing southeast from Escondido Campground, 21 miles west of King City.

Today's forecasted winds will make it difficult for firefighters to bring it under control, said Forest Service public affairs officer Curtis Vincent.

"The weather has the potential to help move the fire faster," Vincent said.

The blaze is burning heavy grass, oaks and brush on both sides of Arroyo Seco-Indians Road, which has been closedand will remain that way until further notice.

The area of Los Padres National Firest where the fire is burning now is steep and rugged, but the area directly to the east is "really really rough terrain," said Jack Owen, a public information officer with the California Central Coast Interagency Incident Management Team. He said crews were hoping to keep the fire from moving east, where fighting it would be complicated futher by the landscape.

At a briefing at base camp Monday evening, about 85 firefighters and other emergency personnel were warned of dangers they faced in fighting the fire: a narrow road, hazardous ground, ticks and snakes, heavy fuel load.

The smoke could be seen from King City, but didn't reach town, said King City resident Patty Jenkins.

"There is no sign of smoke," Jenkins said, "so I'm not concerned."

No injuries were reported Monday, but about 15 recreation cabins in the Santa Lucia tract were evacuated as a safety measure, Vincent said.

The cause of the fire remained under investigation.

About 588 firefighters, three helicopters, four air tankers, 16 fire engines, one bulldozer and two water tenders were being used to work the wild fire.

Ed Kendig, enforcement manager for the Monterey Bay Unified Air Pollution Control District said the smoke from the fire has not affected King City. Kendig said winds will likely blow the smoke north, keeping it from affecting the Salinas Valley.

Still, he advised residents to keep windows and doors closed until the fire is out.

"The air should be good," he said, "but if you can smell the smoke, you are in it and should protect yourself."

http://www.thecalifornian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080610/NEWS01/806100302/1002

So Far all I have

CMD net 170.550
Air to Air 151.2750
 
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UPDATE: Wildfire 8% contained, 800 firefighters involved

The Indians Fire in the Los Padres National Forest had burned 1,200 acres as of 8 a.m., about 21 miles west of King City along the Arroyo Seco-Indians Road corridor.
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Firefighters said they've contained 8 percent of the blaze at a cost of $685,000 so far. Nearly 800 firefighters are working the wildfire.

There was slow but continuous growth through the night. Multiple spots on the east flank have grown together to approximately 100 acres. The northern portion of the fire is holding.

The northeast perimeter, where the fire spotted yesterday across the Arroyo-Seco Indians Road, is of particular concern because of the rugged terrain, poor access and continuous heavy fuels to the east. Structure protection engines will remain in place for the Santa Lucia Summer Home Tract.

Weather predicted for today: temperature 101 degrees, relative humidity 7-10 percent, wind speed 10-15 mph out of the north/northeast.

A total 26 structures are threatened at this point, including residences in the Santa Lucia Summer Home Tract, the Escondido Campground, the Memorial Campground, the Monterey Sportsmen’s Club (a large screened building and picnic tables) and the Indians Guard Station (a former fire station).

Working with the Forest Service, cabin owners in the Santa Lucia Tract have done a very good job of preparing the area around their homes by removing flammable debris and creating a 30 foot clearance. This will be a big help to firefighters should the fire reach the tract. The fire currently is about one quarter mile away. Structure protection engines are in place.

Agencies involved include the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, CAL FIRE, Monterey County, Fort Hunter Liggett and other cooperators.

http://www.thecalifornian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080610/NEWS01/80610008/1002/rss
 
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Los Padres wildfire base evacuating

As of 4 p.m., the Indians Fire is approaching the Incident Command Post and fire camp on Fort Hunter Liggett. The ICP and incident base are the logistical support and planning headquarters for the more than 860 firefighters involved, and where off-shift firefighters rest, eat and retool.
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Firefighters and support personnel are preparing the fire camp for the fire’s approach by moving vehicles, supplies and equipment to safer locations within the incident base, such as away from grassy areas. Fire engines and crews are on hand.

In addition, six residences on private land at the north edge of Fort Hunter Liggett are being evacuated as a precautionary measure.


http://www.thecalifornian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080611/NEWS01/80611019/1002/rss
 

SLOweather

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Firefighters and support personnel are preparing the fire camp for the fire’s approach by moving vehicles, supplies and equipment to safer locations within the incident base, such as away from grassy areas. Fire engines and crews are on hand.

Here's a pic I received for the SLOweather Local Incident Blog from a Vandenberg firefighter, of the fire approaching the camp on Wednesday.

http://franklin2.tbo.net/scanblog/
 

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Firefighters gained ground Thursday against the Indians Fire in the Los Padres National Forest in Monterey County, bringing containment of the wildfire to 40 percent, U.S. Forest Service officials said.
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The blaze, burning since about 12:30 p.m. Sunday, is 14 miles west of King City in the Ventana Wilderness and the Arroyo Seco-Indians Road corridor.

Fire officials said 18,427 acres have burned and suppression costs have reached $3.7 million so far, a Forest Service statement released Thursday night said.

The terrain where the fire is burning is steep, which has made access to the flames difficult, according to the Forest Service.

However, officials reported that the fire was less intense Thursday, allowing firefighters to contain more of the flames and work ahead of the fire to create contingency lines.

Thirty-five residences and 20 outbuildings are threatened by the fire, fire officials said Thursday. One residence has been damaged and one destroyed.

Six homes on the north edge of Fort Hunter Liggett as well as the summer cabins in the Santa Lucia area have been evacuated.

The Arroyo Seco-Indians Road and Cone Peak Road as well as part of the Ventana Wilderness area have been closed, forest officials said. The Memorial and Escondido campgrounds have also been closed.

There is no estimated time for full containment, and the cause remains under investigation.

Around 1,708 firefighters have battled the blaze, and six firefighters have been injured; four suffered minor burns, one endured smoke inhalation and another suffered a broken leg, the Forest Service reported.



Thats a cool blog SLO!
Here is a pic from lake San Antonio on Wednesday went out fishing

lpfirelx0.jpg
 
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Thanks! I've had it running only a couple of weeks. Feel free to send me anything you think is appropriate. I'm working on a better email address for submissions, and possibly post via email.

Is it ok if I post your picture in it, with attribution?

Yeah sure use it and any picture I posted up. It's not the best its from my cell phone crappy 1.3mp.
 
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Indians Fire continues to grow

After doubling in size in one day, the Indians fire at the Los Padres National Forest grew overnight by nearly 2,000 acres and continues to burn uncontrolled west of King City.

"It definitely grew yesterday quite a bit," said Manuel Madrigal, public information officer with the Forest Service. "Today is not doing as much as it did yesterday."

In response to increasing fire danger, the Forest Srvice announced it will impose additional fire restrictions on the Monterey Ranger District of the forest. The district ecompasses all national forest lands in Monterey County, and a small area of national forest land adjacent San Luis Obispo County along Highway 1.

In the meantime, the Monterey Bay Unified Air Polution Control District issued a warning for residents to protect their indoor air from contamination by smoke. Friday's flare up sent copious amount of smoke that darkened the skyies over the Salinas Valley all the way into San Benito CountyAhs fall under the plume as noted as far as 70 miles from the fire. The Air District recommends people cloes their doors and windows and set ventilation systems so they recirculate indoor air as suppoed to brining in outside air, which will be contaminated.

Because the continuing extreme fire danger and potential influx of smoke from other areas of the state — where several fires are burning — the Air District has declared no burn days for all of Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey County until further notice.

http://www.montereyherald.com/ci_9588720?source=rss_viewed
 
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Now that the fire is near me the scanners are going crazy
NIRSC
I'm getting alot of PL tones on all the Tacs
168.050 Tac1
168.100 Tac2
168.600 Tac3
166.725 Tac 5
168.475 Tac 6


166.6875 Air to ground
167.950 BLM Air to ground


169.5375 Fire Camp Service Net ?
164.1250 NTIA VHF Calling?
 
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Firefighters battling soaring temps and wildfire

KING CITY, Calif. (AP) - A shift in the weather is expected to make things more difficult for firefighters battling a wildfire in a remote area of Monterey County.
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Forecasters are predicting a high of 103 degrees with a slight chance of dry thunderstorms in the inland areas of the county, where 2,500 firefighters are struggling to contain a fire in the Ventana Wilderness of the Los Padres National Forest.

Besides hot and dry weather, fire crews are also dealing with rugged terrain and difficult access into the area.

Fire officials say the fire is 35 percent contained after burning more than 49,000 acres.

Two homes and 13 outbuildings have been destroyed since the fire was sparked June 8 by an escaped campfire.

The fire is burning about 10 miles outside of King City.

http://www.thecalifornian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080620/NEWS01/80620008/1002
 

SCPD

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Unless the spread of this fire stops soon, this will be the third year in a row that the Los Padres has had a large fire lasting months. In 2006 there was the Day fire that burned off most of the Mt. Pinos Ranger District. In 2007 there was the Zaca fire that burned off much of the Santa Barbara and Santa Lucia Ranger District. Can this fire grow to more than 100,000 acres and reach the area burned in the Marble-Cone fire of 1977. Only time will tell.
 
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Please correct me if I'm wrong or innacurate, but didn't the USFS take quite a bit of fallout over their tactics and stratagies on the Zaca Fire in letting it grow so large? Seems like the fire management over suppression theory has not fared well for them. That be the case, this doesn't seem to be working in their favor as well.
 

SCPD

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Now that the fire is near me the scanners are going crazy
NIRSC
I'm getting alot of PL tones on all the Tacs
168.050 Tac1
168.100 Tac2
168.600 Tac3
166.725 Tac 5
168.475 Tac 6


166.6875 Air to ground
167.950 BLM Air to ground


169.5375 Fire Camp Service Net ?
164.1250 NTIA VHF Calling?

You might want to post this over in the regular California forum. It would be good if you can continue monitoring the frequency use on this fire. The frequencies showing up on large wildland fires are expanding since narrow banding implementation in 2005 and we need to hear from as many people monitoring large fires as we can. I can identify one of your question mark frequencies. 164.125 MHz is Region 5's (Forest Service) work channel. It is supposed to be a non-fire tactical used for maintenance crews, recreation personnel, wildlife, timber, etc. They used to only have the NIFC tacs to use and that had to end as utilization of those frequencies for fire has gotten frequent enough that it was causing problems.

The fire camp service net you listed is not familiar to me. I was aware of only three fire camp service nets in California and 169.5375 is not one of them. What type of traffic are you hearing on it? Normally only the Forest dispatcher and the incident communications or incident dispatch are the only entities heard on fire camp service nets. So you might hear something like "Los Padres, Indians Communications" or "Los Padres, Indians Com", with traffic relating to the ordering of fire resources such as engines, crews, aircraft, and perhaps things like shower units, caterers, etc. Fire camp service nets are used infrequently anymore due to the use of cell phones. When cell phone coverage does not exist the fire camp service net can be quite busy.

With narrowbanding expanding the number of frequencies in use it is possible that the frequency you have listed for this is a new one for this year. The information I received that was current as of last year, from someone on the Los Padres, was that this Forest did not have a fire camp service net in their primary radio program. I haven't received any information for this year yet.

Fire camp service net differs from the logistics net in that logistics nets are generally used for in camp use only between the various logistics entities such as ground support, food unit, supply, fire information, and similar. They are also used to link command repeaters and to set up cross band remote bases. A base station on a "victor" frequency such as 123.050 might be set up on the other side of a major ridge from the incident helibase and linked back to that helibase using one of the logistic net frequencies. Same thing can be done to link more than one command repeater together so that remote locations on the fire can be heard on the same frequency as the primary command repeater.

That air to ground you have listed is not one I remember either. Good work, keep it up!

Is there a forum moderator that can move this thread over into the regular California forum. We need to continue the discussion of large fire frequency use there.
 

SCPD

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Please correct me if I'm wrong or innacurate, but didn't the USFS take quite a bit of fallout over their tactics and stratagies on the Zaca Fire in letting it grow so large? Seems like the fire management over suppression theory has not fared well for them. That be the case, this doesn't seem to be working in their favor as well.

Yes, and I have been thinking that very same thing in the last week as I have observed how large this fire is becoming. The location, burning away from developed areas, makes me think of how the cost factor is going to be evaluated in this case. I would think that the management team on this incident is evaluating this as we type. That type of evaluation can be a slippery slope as long term fires without suppression can change dramatically over time. Suppose the fire burns north and west and two months from now a strong westerly wind system causes a miles long fire front to enter the Salinas Valley. Or it gets really big and burns much of the area that burned during the Marble-Cone fire of 1977 when a strong southeast wind system comes into play and the fire descends on the Big Sur to Carmel area. Then the team making the decision to let this fire burn would be criticized for that too. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. This is an easier call to make when it is September, but in mid-June, this is going to be a very tough call to make. I'd love to be a fly on the wall at the ICP about now.
 
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