August 26, 2016

• Fire

  In the early afternoon of August 18, an old oak tree, weakened by drought and rotten from the inside, fell on top of a power line leading to a ranger station and a campground.  The location was on the north side of the Santa Ynez River behind Santa Barbara, the river that leads to Cachuma Dam.  The spark that resulted from the fall of that tree started a fire that took off and became the Rey Fire.  As soon as we learned of the fire, around 4:30 pm, we began watching the cloud that it generated -- the first group of photos was taken from Shoreline Drive, a park along the top of the cliffs.

  

  

  

  We drove short distances, trying to find the best vantage point.

  

  Oops -- wrong direction -- try the other way!

  

  

  

  

  By this point, we decided to stop, and to see what happened the next day.  On Saturday, the 20th, we went fire-watching again.  By this time, the fire was probably about 20-25 miles from town, over the mountains and up the hill on the other side of the river.  We found a great view point  and  shot the following views from there.  Over the next half hour, we watched the fire cloud move and change -- they call it pyroclastic weather (weather generated by fire).

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  The buildings shown are at the base of the mountain pass road, again, probably 20-25 miles from the fire itself.  We were in their parking lot as we watched the clouds.  It is fascinating to me that the fire clouds act in ways similar to thunder clouds -- they build up into beautiful puffy clouds, then collapse and spread out, only to begin building up again.  The spread depends upon the direction of the winds -- the clouds were blowing towards town for two or three days while the lower level winds drove the fire itself in the opposite direction.  The sun set over the weekend in a brown haze -- I saw one photo that showed a striped sun sinking towards the ocean!

  This fire is still burning -- it has reached approximately 35,000 acres, and is now about 40% contained.  It has burned in wilderness/ranch land, where there are no buildings other than one old  shed on a ranch -- the firefighters wrapped that building with a tinfoil like materials to try to protect it, and I have not yet heard whether that was successful.  The fire will continue to grow to the north and east, because it is impossible to get people in to fight it effectively.  They will continue to drop water from helicopter-transported 'buckets,' and phs-chec from a couple of DC-10's that have been converted for that purpose.  The phos-chec will eventually create a fire-retardant line around the fire that will slow it to the point it may burn itself out or it may be more accessible for more traditional methods of fighting it.

  During the same period of time, there was a small fire that began on a ranch that had not burned in the Sherpa Fire a month or so earlier -- just inland from last year's Refugio Oil Spill.  That one was extinguished quickly, as there was equipment on its way to the Rey Fire that could be diverted to stop this fire.  It turned out that it was caused by a bird coming in contact with power lines -- that happens frequently, and they identify the cause easily when they see burned bird on the ground in the area where the fire began.

  And also during the same period of time, there have been other huge fires -- the Soberanes Fire, near Big Sur; the Chimney Fire, at Lake Nacimiento, and around Hearst Castle; and the Blue Cut Fire north of San Bernardino -- all are huge fires, and are, at last report, still burning as I write this.  As terrible as the fires are, there is benefit to letting them burn, since resources are limited and since the fires clear existing brush and allow for regeneration of the flora.

  • 3:36 pm
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