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One Summer all hell broke loose, and half a million
acres of trees got scorched.
I was just getting in tune with the summer rush. Things were moving
right along on the hwy. For once, At last a summer without them paving the
road or fixing a slide in the gulch to the ocean, no rebuilding any
bridges or detours or half hour waits, nothing but clear sailing for the
first month run of tourists. $ signs were everywhere. Thank God, at last a
summer for the merchants. Then on July 13 we had a storm move
through from California that produced 12,000 lightening strikes. (here's
a good page on it) Our glorious Sea O Trees had 375 forest fires
and about the same amount of full time fire fighters, Just kidding, I have
no idea how many fire fighters we have but I am sure that it was not
enough.
I heard there was fire some twenty five miles away to the northwest but
it was in an area that had burned a couple of years earlier and there was
no sweat. It was a little overcast with smoke the next day and I was
carving a nice little bear when this kid from the old hippy days pulled in
for a surprise visit. Always great to see old friends. This fellow was a
fireman now and was working for State. We started to talk about the fire
and he said that he came to warn me that no one was working on the fire
because they did not have any crews and it was put on low priority. He
also said I had better start packing now because by the time they start
working on it the strategy will be get out of it's way, and mop up the
edges. The prevailing winds are usually from the northwest and about 3 to
5 miles an hour. The fire was spreading slowly through the old burn but
the anxiety level was rising. |
A thirty five thousand foot high pyroclastic column of debris, smoke and
ash, from fire storm ten miles away on the other side of 8 Dollar Mountain
peeks at us with a hungry look in it's eye. |
 Taken from Hwy.
199 in Selma, looking down Deer Creek, fire is about ten miles away. |
 Picture taken
about a mile past Deer Creek Ranch on Deer Creek Road, right before a road
block. As it turned out it was a great place to get some pictures as
the fire raced over some twenty miles into the heart of the Kalmiopsis
wilderness. I only wish I had shot more. The lesson is "Always have spare
batteries".
This is a picture of two of the many pyroclastic fire columns that the
fire storms generated when dense canyons full of old growth trees
literally exploded into millions of little pieces of flaming wood that are
perfect for being carried aloft with the tremendous winds generated by the
heat. These pyroclastic clouds of flaming debris built as high thirty five
thousand feet before they would suck up every bit of oxygen out of the
atmosphere and the
superheated debris would extinguish itself and fall back to the earth. As
this smoldering pyroclastic debris crashed back to earth it would
mushroom out at the bottom of the cloud, three or four miles in all
directions and reignite as it found a new supply or oxygen. That's how a
fire burns in the wilderness. Talk about "Spread like wildfire" As it
happened I was in the perfect place to see these things and realize the
fires around here are more like Mount Saint Helens blowing her top and
need to be put out as soon as possible. We need more immediate attack fire
fighters also it would provide more jobs and protect our forests.
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