Inyo National Forest - Dexter Fire

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es93546

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We had quite a bit of lightning north and east of Mammoth Lakes yesterday after a 5 or more day absence of lightning. This morning the dispatch log shows a dispatch for this fire at 0935. Law enforcement enroute for fire cause investigation. The location is near Dexter Canyon on the north side of the Bald Mountain, Glass Mountain ridge line located north of Crowley Lake and northeast of Mammoth Lakes. Last size given was 116 acres 1.5 hours ago and was moving to the north east given prevailing winds from the southwest. Substantial thunderstorm cells in the area are causing: SEATS (single engine air tankers) can't make any more drops due to squirrely winds from cells and fire is now moving to the southwest due to northeast winds. Helos are not working this fire as there aren't any crews on the ground to back up the drops. Air attack overhead, but with no aircraft on the fire, he might have to move to an "available" status. He feels that if he is released the fire will lose air attack services and unable to return due to getting assigned elsewhere. It sounds like large airtanker availability is quite limited. SEATS came from Stead, Nevada.

IC is patrol 11, he is likely Type IV qualified. The local Type III team was ordered an hour or more ago. The fire moving southwest can pose a threat to structures on private land along the Upper Owens River and Big Springs Campground. Evacuations have been ordered, but I can't confirm where. A person is staffing Bald Mountain lookout as an observer. Some recreational climbers at Bald Mountain Springs. TFR (temporary flight restrictions) are just being ordered by air attack. Air Attack just requested release as winds from a very large thunderstorm cell are making flying unsafe. Cell is parked right over incident. The 116 acre size determined by Firewatch 51. Air Attack is saying the fire has at least doubled in size since then.

Mammoth Mountain Ski Area operations just reported no lightning in 20 miles in last 15 minutes. They operate the gondola to the top of the mountain for the bike park in summer and close it down when lightning is within 10 miles. I think this is the procedure based on listening.

Frequencies

172.4000 Command - Inyo NF Service Net Glass Mountain Repeater
168.2000 Tac - NIFC Tac 2
163.71250 Crew Logistics - National Crew Logistics 1
168.6625 R5 Project - Mentioned but I can't hear it in Mammoth
167.4750 - Air to Ground 41
167.4750 Air to Air FM 46 - Inyo NF Primary - nothing heard as all this traffic has been on air to air AM
135.5750 Air to Air AM - Bishop Airport assigned initial attack AM

Another fire reported to be at the top of Glass Mountain is now staffed. Name: Mountain. Inyo NF Helo 525 is working it.

Frequencies:

173.8000 Command - Inyo North Glass Mtn. Repeater
168.6375 Air to Ground 41

Resources assigned will be shown in next post.
 

es93546

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Inyo NF resources committed to both fires.

Dexter:

-Patrol 11 - IC
-Division 2
-Batt 6117 BLM
-Inyo Hotshots
-Engine 311
-Water Tender 31
-Helicopters: Helo 523 (Sequoia NF - Kernville Helibase), Firewatch 51 (Angeles NF - Fox Field) and Helo 5HT. I think a Type 2 Stationed at the Bishop Airport

All helos grounded at this time due to thunderstorm cell.

Mountain:

-Patrol 21
-Engine 322 - Available on incident
-Water Tender 21
-El Cariso Hotshots - Have been assigned to the Inyo for a couple of weeks or more. They have been split in two, according to crew buggy use. First squad Available on incident, Second committed
-Helicopter 525 (Inyo NF's ship - Independence Helibase)

H525 is able to make bucket drops on fire.
 

es93546

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Evacuations are going to be mandatory. Fire is moving south with extreme fire behavior and continuous crown runs.

CDF:

Dozer 3543 and possibly 3540 on scene.
Owens Valley Crew 1 enroute.
Orders for Type 1, for a structure protection group.
10 single wildland engines ordered, no strike teams available in South Ops. Will include at least one Type 6.

Structure group will be using BLM SOA 1 for tactical - 168.3000.

A Mono County task force is being assembled for structural protection. All traffic is being handled by phone. I'm not sure of the size of the apparatus being sent. Operations Chief just indicated they are to respond "immediate need," i. e., Code 3. Several Mono SO units enroute to staging area at Bald Mtn. Road and 395 to start evacuations.

Some Type 3 engines are assigned to the structure protection group on the Upper Owens River. Will be reassigned when the Mono County task force arrives. I think a Group Supervisor and Task Force leader will be required.

A Type 6 strike team is available. I believe it might be a local agency resource. Ops says we will take any agency, so order them.
 
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es93546

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Scanner Feed link:

Mammoth Area Scanner

This scanner only has the Inyo NF North Net in it. No tacticals, no air to ground, no Cal Fire. You will only hear command traffic for the Mountain Fire. This is a single tree and some surrounding ground vegetation and not very big. It is a helo and ground crew show. All resources will be spiking out and arranging rest so they can work on it tomorrow without ordering additional resources. Resource availability seems a bit tight.
 

mmckenna

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I've spent a heck of a lot of time camping near Bald Mountain and Big Springs. I've been up to the lookout at Bald Mt. Many times and been in the little log cabin up there a few.
Sad to hear that area is on fire, I hope they get it knocked down quickly.
 

es93546

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Latest estimate of size is 1000 acres. A new start northeast of this fire is now being worked and named the "Sentinel Fire." Units from the Dexter Fire were sent. They are using the same frequencies the Mountain Fire is using.

I've spent a heck of a lot of time camping near Bald Mountain and Big Springs. I've been up to the lookout at Bald Mt. Many times and been in the little log cabin up there a few.
Sad to hear that area is on fire, I hope they get it knocked down quickly.

Forests have to burn and humans have interrupted fire's natural cycles. This leads to a buildup of fuels on the surface and development of a understory tree level. The overstory is the tallest of the trees. The overstory consists of the oldest and most fire resistant trees. The buildup of fuels at the surface are heavy and tall enough (brush) to carry fires into the tree understory. They are now tall enough to ignite the overstory tree foliage. This is a ladder from "ground to crown" and can result in all organic life in a forest burning where as fire is most intense. This was uncommon and small when the natural fire regime governed. The answer is to reduce forest density with thinning of the understory and the ground fuels (mostly dead material). This is followed by burning of the fuels that were piled. The final stage is to ignite a prescribed fire to imitate the effects of natural fire. The area the Dexter Fire is burning have unnatural fuel buildup and an overly dense forest. You can't prevent fires in such areas, except by the methods I mentioned. That effort has not been fully funded, but the effort was greatly scaled up since 2000.

It should be noted that the oldest trees is the most fire resistant vegetation in forests. These are sawtimber sized trees. Thinning does not include removing overstory trees. It does not include timber harvesting. The lack of timber harvesting is not the problem, no matter what timber industry and their political office supporters say. Some thinning in the understory can be commercially valuable for pulp (paper and cardboard) production, sometimes small dimension lumber if the right type of lumber mill is located close enough and for firewood production. The land management agencies attempt to use commercial product harvest to accomplish as much of the fuel reduction as possible. However, the mills for processing some of the material might be too far away to utilize the material. Firewood production is the most common option. Whatever is not commercially valuable must be removed by agency fire crews, gathered into piles and burned during the winter or high moisture periods. It took us humans in the United States about 100-150 years to get into this mess. It will take at least that long to get us out of it.

This is all governed by the "National Fire Plan." written and approved about 2-3 months prior to the 2000 presidential election. This is a brilliantly written plan that incorporates local fire safe councils and public input. Sometimes the local councils can find non federal funding sources to accomplish projects or fund portions of them. The plan makes so much sense fiscally that even Republicans don't object to it.

My hope is that a lot of this fire will burn without intensity and accomplish fuel reduction. This without burning the overstory. I've fiddled around in that area quite a bit, but it was not on my ranger district, so I was not paid to know the land as well. I see some areas of incredibly dense forest with heavy ground fuel buildup. This will burn with ground to crown intensity, also termed "stand replacement" fires.
 

es93546

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I'm scannered out. My wife needs my company and dinner must be prepared. As this goes into extended attack I will listen and report less intensely, using InciWeb to keep track of the big picture.
 

es93546

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Some updates as I'm way behind on household chores and projects, so I don't have time to listen to the scanner carefully.

I've heard that getting air tankers has been problematic. So it came of no surprise that the dispatcher indicated a MAFFS tanker could be ordered, to which, air attack or the IC said yes, we can use it.

The north end of the fire is using the BLM Bishop Field Office, Central California District, radio net. They are using the Potato Peak repeater, which is located SE of the town of Bridgeport, but is the highest point in the Bodie Hills, so it has good sight visibility in the Mono Basin and the north side of the Glass Mountains. As far as I know all other frequency use remains the same. The Type 3 teams I've been on and heard in charge of fires here usually use local frequencies for the duration. Oh, and the secondary CA Initial Attack Zone frequency A/G 44 is being used. I would guess they are leaving the primary, A/G 46, available for new initial attacks. It would not surprise me if they give this fire a new A/G freq. There are enough of them to do that fairly quickly.

More local resources are on the fire, I think all Type 1 engines, Type 2 water tenders and commensurate overhead. This is a great way to support local volunteer fire departments when the needs are there, they can pick up a little more money by doing so. I think the volunteers are paid via the funds used to fight the fire, which are given to the fire department to pay their members. I think most, if not all, coop agreements the feds have with local departments specify the hourly rate for pay.

Wildland firefighting is not a task suited for volunteers and neither is fuel reduction. I don't think anyone in their right mind would ever do either without being paid.

The typical PM southwest prevailing winds are starting to pick up, but thunderheads are building near the fire.
 

es93546

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Another fire reported last night at almost midnight on the north side of the Glass Mountains in light fuels. It is called the Canyon Fire. I've heard no traffic. So the Glass Mountains have had a total of 4 fires so far. I'm "pollen vacuuming" the house this PM. My wife has a significant allergy to Jeffrey pine pollen. mid to late June and early July is when the Jefferys release their pollen and it coats nearly every horizontal surface in the house. I use my big shop vac with the HEPA filter. My wife can't be near the operation or she reacts adversely.

Air Attack just ordered one VLAT. I'm going to go and make noise now, so I won't hear dispatches answer from South Ops after they get an answer from NIFC.
 

es93546

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Lots of news this morning.

National Preparedness Level at 5. This is the highest level and reflects a lot of activity and competition for resources. The Northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest geographic areas are both in PL5.

Dexter Fire is now at 2,000 acres. It is no longer a Type 3 incident as a Type 2 team is now in command. The number of people assigned to the fire nearly doubled yesterday, by 116 people. Now at 266 total.

As of this morning the Inyo National Forest Service Net is still the command channel. A Type 2 team using local comm systems is not the usual procedure so I'm scanning all known federal large fire frequencies. I didn't hear any air to air comms yesterday, which had been on the local air-air AM initial attack frequency up to that point. I have all the R5 FM air to air frequencies in my fed large fire bank being scanned now. I need to set up a search on another scanner to find if a unique AM frequency as been assigned. By the way, the database does not list all the R5 Air to Air FM frequencies, just those assigned to each forest. There are 10-15 others that are approved, but not assigned. I'll add submitting those to the database to my long list of DB submissions backlog.

The ICP and fire camp are being moved to the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area's Canyon Lodge located on the northwest perimeter of the town. I don't know if a caterer will be brought in or if the ski area can staff up the cafeteria inside the lodge, which, of course, can handle the demand of several hundred people wanting to eat all at once.

There is a 5% containment on the fire.

Now for optional reading is the reason the containment percentage is as low as it is. This is based on my knowledge and observations of such situations during and after my U.S. Forest Service career and not anything released by the incident management team.

The fire is in a confine/contain strategy, not a control strategy. It seems as if it is being allowed to expand to the east, away from all development. There is at least one structure on a small parcel of private land (I think 40 acres), a very nice home accessed by a dirt road that is north or northeast of the fire. Protection around that home has been discussed over the air. In a confine/contain strategy an eventual maximum size is planned. Features such as rock formations/areas, roads/trails, bodies of water, areas of sparse vegetation are allowed to confine the fire to a planned perimeter. Some fireline might be constructed to contain the fire when those features will not stop the fire. This is a very good decision as that area has needed to burn for a very long time. Some very overly dense forest and heavy surface level fuel loads exist. It is an ideal location for this strategy. Several thinning, pile burning (dead and down, plus thinning fuels) and prescribed fire projects have been chipping away at that forest density and ground fuel situation that area. The significant and extreme fire behavior observed in some areas slowed considerably in those project areas.
 
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es93546

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Also a couple of VLAT's were used on the fire yesterday. You might not be aware that the sole 747 is not part of the VLAT fleet as of this year, so these were both DC-10's. They made some drop, load and return runs during the day. I think they are operating out of McClellan (Sacramento) which might use Donner Pass to cross the Sierra or Castle (Merced) using Tioga Pass to cross as they did not pass overhead yesterday to and from Santa Maria where they would use Mammoth Pass to cross. They are also in range of the VLAT base in San Bernardino. The regular large and medium air tankers were using Mammoth Pass yesterday to and from Fresno, which is the usual procedure if the reload base at Bishop is not up and running. The Inyo has had a tough time running it due to vacancies and the lack of qualified people to operate it. I wish I could get a Incident Action Plan to see what base they are using.
 

es93546

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Yes, I found this and haven't had any time to post the frequencies. I've been working with some other frequency directories that might become the basis for some database submissions. I've been busier at that than listening closely to the Dexter Fire. Also, there are household projects that I'm way behind on.
 
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