At the moment, the temperature is 90 degrees in Coarsegold.
The Big Sur Fire is still a pretty big deal, especially on its northeast end. Awesome coverage of that fire is on the Firefighter Blog. Even better is SurFire2008.org.
All told, these 11 fires on the Sierra National Forest burned 3,825 acres in late June and early July. All of the fires are controlled and mop-up and rehabilitation is ongoing. As of 2 PM July 3, there have been 20 injuries, three moderate and 17 minor, from the Oliver fire, but not one structure has been burned.
Oliver Fire:The cost of this fire has grown to 12.2 million. It was contained on July 5. Right now, the focus is on damage assessment and repair.
I toured the area of the Oliver Fire on July 3. There is not much to see. A bit of smoke can be seen from the Chowchilla River Bridge on Highway 49. You can also see some dead trees if you look closely.
I went up Chowchilla Mountain Road past Ponderosa Basin. Where the road turns to dirt, I drove until it is no longer maintained. Past the end of road maintenance, you can see where the firefighters were starting backfires and cutting down some of the thick brush and small trees. There, you can see the fire on the opposing mountain to the north of the road. It's burning, but not much.
The fire does not appear to have ever gotten close to Chowchilla Mountain Road, at least the portion that I drove. Whereas Ponderosa Basin was well-cleared of vegetation, that part of Chowchilla Mountain Road was incredibly overgrown with live oak, manzanita, Ponderosa Pine and God knows what else.
I then drove down Aurora Court (map). This dirt road was really terrible and was barely even drivable in a regular car. I finally turned around after a mile or so. You could see the fire burning on Crow Peak (map) to the north. At one point, the fire seemed to have burned down to Aurora Court itself.
On the slope opposite, it was still thickly forested, but the trees were brown instead of green because they burned. Actually, a number of the large trees will survive the burn and grow back.
A great deal of underbrush, including berry bushes and oaks, especially Black Oaks, will grow in the aftermath. Around here, wildlife use this type of underbrush quite a bit, and Black Oaks seem to be declining due to excessively thick evergreens, as Black Oaks need some sunlight to grow until they get tall enough.
This was not a fire that denuded slopes. They often don't in the Sierra Nevada because the vegetation is so thick, there is a lot of precipitation and the fires do not tend to burn extremely hot.
At the moment, there were mostly inmate crews working on the fire. These are minimum security prisoners from California prisons who have five years or less on their sentences and in general they are not a problem. They are paid $1/hour to fight fires, which is much more than they usually make. They're all volunteers, and they love to do this work.
Further, after their sentences are over, many go on to work for the CDF fire crews. California's prisons are full and overflowing. It is important for former inmates returning to society to have employment available to them.
I know a lot of young men around Madera who are on probation or have adult felonies on their records. They are finding it almost impossible to find work. It's understandable to punish people for being convicted of crimes. I've been convicted of a couple of misdemeanors myself.
Whether people need to be punished beyond their sentences is a good subject for debate. If we don't let them work, they just turn to sloth, beggary, crime and a sociopathic mindset.
Next I drove over to Jerseydale. You cannot see any of the fire burning in that area, although it is very beautiful.
Silver Knob Fire: This fire is 100% contained. The fire burned 570 acres.
Westfall Fire: This fire is 100% contained. The final tally on this fire was 105 acres burned. I toured the area of this fire from the road that turns off Highway 41 to the west just before Miami Mountain Road. Along the road to the north, you can see evidence of this fire.
It did not burn very hot, and mostly just burned along the ground and scorched some trees. Most if not all of the trees will survive. Even most of the manzanita bushes that burned were not killed, so this was not a hot fire at all. I drove for 2-3 miles west to where the road becomes almost undriveable in a passenger car, and then turned around. There are some really spectacular views to the south on this road.
The Star Fire near Star Lakes burned 400 acres and was contained on July 4.
The Chiquito Fire burned 54 acres and is 100% contained.
The Poison Fire burned 1 acre and is contained.
The Gagg Fire burned 1 acre is out.
The remaining four fires have been contained.
The Oliver Fire or the Oliver Creek Fire (formerly the Aurora Fire) burned on Chowchilla Mountain. The Oliver Fire burned north of Ponderosa Basin at about 3,300-6,500 feet in mixed brush and Ponderosa Pine forest in Mariposa County.
Chowchilla Mountain had not burned in 20 years and there have been very few fires there in the past 50 years. This has caused a huge amount of fuel to build up.
Here is a link to a pretty cool online scanner called the Central California Fire Feed that supposedly has very up-to-date fire information on it. It will play in an I Tunes Player. I wasn't able to get anything useful out of it.
A photo of the Oliver Fire burning around 7 PM June 23. Photo credit John Walker/Fresno Bee. That is the home of Joe and Yuki Carbaugh, and can easily be seen from the Highway 49 bridge. That home is on Harris Cutoff Road, which is one Hell of a crappy dirt road (I just drove it yesterday evening).
The Westfall Fire was located near Westfall Ranger Station on Highway 41 at about 5,000 feet in the mixed conifer forest. That's on the Madera-Mariposa County line.
The Silver Knob Fire burned near the Silver Knob (a 5,300 foot mountain west of Sugar Pine, northeast of Nipinawasee and just off Miami Mountain Road). It burned near a community called Cedarbrook.
Spectacular view of one of the fires apparently burning in heavy timber somewhere in Mariposa County.
Oakhurst FiresThe fires were sparked by dry lighting storms that struck all over the northern half of the state on Saturday amidst record-breaking high temperatures.
Acres Acres+ %increase
12AM 6-23 105 --- ---
1PM 6-23 240 135 128%
2PM 6-24 1490 1250 438%
845PM 6-24 1890 400 79%
7PM 6-25 2545 655 35%
9PM 6-26 2942 397 16%
9AM 6-27 2992 50 2%
7PM 6-28 3270 278 9%
845AM 6-30 3775 505 15%
--- 7-5 3775 0 0%
Westfall Fire (100% contained)
Acres Acres+ %increase
12AM 6-23 30 -- --
1PM 6-23 40 10 33%
9AM 6-25 50 10 25%
7PM 6-25 105 55 110%
Oliver Fire (100% contained)
Acres Acres+ %increase
12AM 6-23 75 --- ---
1PM 6-23 200 125 166%
2PM 6-24 1000 800 400%
8PM 6-24 1400 400 40%
7PM 6-25 2000 600 43%
7:30PM 6-26 2200 200 10%
7PM 6-28 2306 106 5%
8:45AM 6-30 2789 483 21%
--- 7-5 2789 0 0%
Silver Knob Fire (100% contained)
Acres Acres+ %increase
5:30PM 6-23 300 --- ---
2PM 6-24 400 100 33%
9AM 6-25 480 80 20%
9PM 6-26 480 0 0%
9AM 6-27 570 90 19%
Star Fire (100% contained)
Acres Acres+ %increase
2PM 6-24 30 --- ---
9AM 6-25 45 15 50%
9PM 6-26 200 155 440%
9AM 6-27 160 -40 -20%
6PM 6-28 330 170 106%
9AM 6-30 350 20 6%
--- 7-4 350 0 0%
Chiquito Fire (100% contained)
Acres Acres+ %increase
9AM 6-25 10 --- ---
9AM 6-26 52 42 320%
9AM 6-29 54 2 4%
The local creek here where I stay sometimes, Oak Creek, went dry on the third week of June. That's about 5 weeks early. It usually goes dry at the beginning of August.
Another view of a typical Oak Creek prefab. A whole lot of these homes are up for sale now, but it seems like nobody is buying. You have to pay $500/month to a homeowners' association, so in a way, it's like you're still renting.
This is what the homes in Oak Creek look like. This pic appears to have been taken in the rain. It rains about 20 inches a year here. This is where I stay when I come to the area.
Oak Creek Village as they were building it. There is quite a bit of wildlife around here. I have seen a bobcat near Oak Creek itself and others have seen a mountain lion around here. There are killdeer and California kingsnakes. Recently, I saw what appeared to be a sharp-shinned hawk attack and kill an acorn woodpecker right near where I was staying. The other woodpeckers mobbed the hawk as it carried away the member of their colony.
Even Coarsegold Creek is dry in much of its course in Coarsegold at the moment. That's awfully strange for the start of summer. Usually it goes dry in late summer to early fall.
Coarsegold Creek. Not sure where this was taken, but it was probably taken somewhere nearby. The terrain here, at 2,200 feet, is pretty much Interior Like Oak Woodland at least on the shady side of the hills. On the dry side, it is more of an open oak savanna.
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View of the smoke from the three large fires burning in the area. Even a relatively small fire can put out quite a bit of smoke if it burning trees and brush.
We're totally used to fires out here in California. I tell my friends in other parts of the country or world about them and they get all freaked out. If your own house isn't going to burn down or you're not going to get burned up yourself, it's no worries. Actually, they're kind of exciting.
One thing that is interesting is that fires create their own weather. For instance, there will be no wind at all, and then you drive over by the fire and there's a bit of a breeze whipping around. The fire is actually creating that wind by itself. Another thing is you really should not get too close to these fires.
I was watching one in Hacienda Heights, California, in 1989. The fire was burning really fast down this chaparral-covered hillside. Then these animals started running out of the brush, one by one! It was a trip to watch them. They'd run out of the brush and then there would be a crowd of people and they would not know what to do.
First a deer came careening out, and then another one. Then a woodrat came running out. That's a furry wild rat that lives in the brush - it's nothing like a dirty city rat at all. It builds huge nests out of brush and everything you could possibly think of, and that's where it lives. That's where the word pack rat comes from, because these rats will grab just about anything weird and stick in their stick houses.
Then a little deer mouse came running out. That's a wild mouse with huge ears that lives in the woods - it's nothing like the pests in your house at all. I've captured them when my cat caught them. Just put on a pair of surgical gloves and pick it up by the tail and put it on your hand. Then you can examine it or measure it or whatever.
If it was really messed up, I just gave it back to the cat, otherwise, I let it go. Then wash your hands afterwards and throw the gloves in hot soapy water, because can carry weird diseases.
Anyway, then this owl starts circling around in the middle of the day! That's the first time I've ever seen a Great Horned Owl in broad daylight, but I guess they figure a lot of rodents are going to come running out of the brush.
Then the fire starting getting closer. Well, at that point, look up in the air. You will see these damned embers flying around, often great big ones. They will start landing all around you and catching stuff on fire. I guess if they land on you, they burn you. These things actually fly like 100 yards or so ahead of the fire and some are big as banana peels.
At that point, you really need to get the Hell out and you're probably going to get a forced evac anyway.
This time of the year, you can look out at the Central Valley any day and see fires burning from somewhere in Central and Southern California. The smoke from a fire looks different from smog, so you can tell where the fires are. It's not scary or anything; it's just normal.
I do have a feeling that this is going to be a long, hot summer though in terms of fires. No way is it supposed to be this bad at the start of summer. Are you kidding? Jesus, I wonder what September will be like?
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