Cal fire caldor fire9/15/2023 Typically, lofted burning embers initiate ignitions within the HIZ – to homes directly and nearby flammables leading to homes. This area of a home and its immediate surroundings is called the home ignition zone (HIZ). A home’s ignition vulnerabilities in relation to nearby burning materials within 100 feet principally determine home ignitions. “Surprisingly, research has shown that home ignitions during extreme wildfires result from conditions local to a home. In September of 2021 Jack Cohen and Dave Strohmaier wrote about the Home Ignition Zone on Wildfire Today: When one home ignites, it becomes another ember generator, showering the rest of the community with ignition sources, resulting in the fire growing exponentially. And it only takes one - landing in a leafy gutter, on a deck, on wooden steps, in a vent, on firewood, or dead grass near a structure and the home can be destroyed. Would the treatment have been a mile wide, reducing the number of burning embers landing in the town? Probably not. If the Forest Service had completed the huge fuel treatment project they had promised around Grizzly Flats, that does not automatically mean no structures would have been destroyed in the community. In 44 hours it grew from 781 to 53,465 acres while spotting more than a mile ahead according to mapping data from infrared aircraft. Obviously the burning conditions were in favor of the fire that first night, not the firefighters. I strongly believe in aggressive initial attack “with overwhelming force using both ground and air resources, arriving within the first 10 to 30 minutes when possible.” But it is difficult to criticize, especially a year later, an Incident Commander’s decision to pull everyone off a fire due to concerns about safety. After another 44 hours it had burned through Grizzly Flats, growing to more than 55,000 acres. Later on day 2, according to 60 Minutes, the agency “dismissed a half dozen CAL FIRE engines and crews, letting most of them go before their replacements arrived.”Īs you can see on the map below, about 29 hours after it started the fire was mapped at 781 acres. The reason stated in the log was for “accountability.” 60 Minutes said the Forest Service told them it was for the safety of the firefighters. According to a dispatch log the Incident Commander ordered everyone off the fire at 1:42 a.m., about seven hours after it started. One of the first challenges was gaining access, complicated by a washed out road and others that had not been maintained. The 13-minute piece on 60 Minutes concentrated on the initial attack of the fire, which was first reported at about 7 p.m. Then on September 26 and 27 National Public Radio published articles about the failed project and difficulties in conducting prescribed fires. On August 16 Cap Radio wrote about the fuel treatment program the US Forest Service planned to conduct around the town, but barely started. The latest is a piece aired on CBS’ 60 Minutes yesterday (see video below) about the fire southwest of Lake Tahoe, California. Last year’s Caldor Fire and the community that was heavily damaged by it, Grizzly Flats, has been in the news recently.
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