Never Thought It Would Happen to Us

Our hall (I'm a 30 year volunteer firefighter in Windermere) sent a tender and 2 firefighters your way yesterday, as did Invermere. We have 3 fires surrounding us at the moment, all around 4,000 Ha. Fortunately, we didn't get the big winds with the front, only 30-40 kph gusts. We've cooled significantly and the winds are calm now, so the 200+ wildland firefighters camped out in town are able to do some effective work. Fall can't come soon enough. We're all starting to dread summers with the increased fire risk. 

Forecast for tomorrow is 5 to 10 mm of rain.  For Tuesday 15 to 20 mm.  

Hope you get it, with no lightning. The last few days have been below the 30/30 cross (higher than 30c and below 30% RH) which makes fire behavior much more moderate, so that's been a big help around here. I was shocked to hear that gear from structural protection units, water tanks, pumps, hoses and sprinklers that is set up ahead of the fire front and activated when needed, is being stolen and or relocated. WTH are people thinking?

BCScott wrote:

Hope you get it, with no lightning. The last few days have been below the 30/30 cross (higher than 30c and below 30% RH) which makes fire behavior much more moderate, so that's been a big help around here. I was shocked to hear that gear from structural protection units, water tanks, pumps, hoses and sprinklers that is set up ahead of the fire front and activated when needed, is being stolen and or relocated. WTH are people thinking?

 

There are roughly 300 people that refused to leave when the order came down.  The road in is sealed off so that no one can go in, which means the "stolen" gear has been taken by those people and used to fight blazes that continue to spring up inside the fire zone.  An elected councillor was on CBC radio this morning saying that the fire service refused to give them any equipment, so I suspect they are "borrowing" it for their efforts.  The fire service also refuses to allow any food or fuel into the area and they are beginning to run low, which will affect their ability to fight fires to save homes.  I also heard this morning that last Thursday the fire service set some back fires in an attempt to choke off the two main fires.  But when the wind shifted on Friday they lost control of their back fires, which raced through the forest and caused all the damage.  I think it's too early to judge the fire service but when it's all over I hope there is an investigation into how these fires were fought.

 While I feel for the people trying to save their properties, when you decide to ignore an evacuation order to protect your own place, you must be self sufficient with your efforts. A lot of coordination goes into fighting these huge interface fires. We have a structural protection unit at our hall which has been deployed a few times these past few years. When it is set in place, incident commanders count on that protection to perhaps cover a flank of the fire. If it gets removed by desperate people, that might open up an exposure that was covered. Firefighting in these extreme conditions has to be coordinated. Otherwise, a free for all results in a lot more damage.
Weather at the time and the forecast for the coming days is always taken into consideration before controlled burns take place. With the extreme winds predicted for the 17th and 18th, I very much doubt they would have risked back burning on Thursday, but who knows. There is always a thorough debriefing and investigations after these events. People are trying their best to learn how to control these firestorms and to minimize damage. Thankfully, no loss of life has been reported yet. We're getting a bit of drizzle at the moment and I hope you are, too.

I can certainly understand and sympathize with people who stay to protect their property.  What I don't understand is why, after the main fire has gone through that firefighters don't re-enter the area to work on the pop ups.  Glad to know there will be an investigation and hopefully the results will be made public.

We got a few minutes of rain this afternoon.  More expected tonight.  Thankfully the rain has knocked the smoke down a bit.

Just saw this, posted by the BC Wildfire service. It's from Gun Lake, north of Whistler, BC on the 17th when the front came through.
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It won't let me post the link but you can see it here  bc.ctvnews.ca/fire-tornado-caught-on-cam...-b-c-blaze-1.6530525

My birthplace is about 10 miles from Gun Lake.  As a youngster my Dad owned a cabin on the lake.

Very interesting news article.