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John
Jul 15, 2017, 3:45:46 AM7/15/17
to Santa Barbara CitiZen Network
I have a little time to check out the fire status right now so for starters, attached is what the remote cameras up on the ridge are seeing at the moment. The sequence from Left is N, E, S, W with color cameras on top and near infrared on the bottom. Fire at the West end of the North slope visible in the North view, East and South views both show fire, and the West view has a hotspot on the South near the ridge with a big fire beyond the lower ridge in the WNW that joins up with the fire visible at the left end of the North (first) view. More to follow...
John
Jul 15, 2017, 4:02:20 AM7/15/17
to Santa Barbara CitiZen Network
The latest low-res IR sat shows the fire still pretty big at midnight. Also attached are the medium-res (large circles) and high-res fire detections. Again, the times of these satellite InfraRed fire detections isn't easy to ascertain but red is the most recent. These two satellite detection passes are apparently captured at different times and depicted with different "expiration" delay between detection and when they're changed from red to orange or black. On both, yellow depicts the most recent fire outline provided. Only the black and white detection is clearly time-stamped as to when it was captured.
John
Jul 15, 2017, 4:33:17 AM7/15/17
to Santa Barbara CitiZen Network
InciWeb has the latest evacuation order that seems to add this area to the earlier order: "Calle Real north to West Camino Cielo from Winchester Canyon Rd on the East to El Capitan Ranch Road on the west." I haven't found a map of it, but here's my approximate guess with a gMaps Terrain view that I marked with a pin at El Cap Ranch Rd and then tinted reddish inside area roughly from there to Winchester and up to the ridge area (Camino Cielo). If you have or find a real map, please post it to help everyone get a quick visual sense of what they're talking about. Presumably those with interests in that area already know they're affected without a map.
InciWeb goes on to say: "Fire behavior has increased on three sides of the fire burning above the community of Goleta and new evacuation orders are in place. The east and west portions of the fire experienced flanking and spotting fire activity. The southern flank of the fire had an active head fire with mid‐range spotting. The north side of the fire was predominately smoldering. Crews continue to increase containment by building direct lines and reinforcing bulldozer lines on the east and west edges of the fire. Crews are using a machine called a masticator that crushes and grinds vegetation to remove the large amounts of dead fuel from a multi‐year drought. The fire is burning in an area above the community of Goleta that has not burned since 1955. Approximately 2,700 people are currently evacuated."
They also report:
I've also attached the latest smoke report from just before midnight.
InciWeb goes on to say: "Fire behavior has increased on three sides of the fire burning above the community of Goleta and new evacuation orders are in place. The east and west portions of the fire experienced flanking and spotting fire activity. The southern flank of the fire had an active head fire with mid‐range spotting. The north side of the fire was predominately smoldering. Crews continue to increase containment by building direct lines and reinforcing bulldozer lines on the east and west edges of the fire. Crews are using a machine called a masticator that crushes and grinds vegetation to remove the large amounts of dead fuel from a multi‐year drought. The fire is burning in an area above the community of Goleta that has not burned since 1955. Approximately 2,700 people are currently evacuated."
They also report:
| Total Personnel | 1,612 |
|---|---|
| Size | 13,199 Acres |
| Percent Contained | 52% |
I've also attached the latest smoke report from just before midnight.
John
Jul 15, 2017, 4:45:19 AM7/15/17
to Santa Barbara CitiZen Network
For anyone watching the Paradise Road area, the North (top-left) view posted in the N,E,S,W composite I posted above showed a bright white spot near the middle that I couldn't identify. By chance the smoke cleared revealing it to be two relatively small fires that had been lighting the smoke from within (larger attached pic). When I looked again it was back in the smoke so I've attached a cropped pic at the same scale in case you'd like to compare it with the earlier one in the composite pic. Looks like whatever's going on there hasn't changed much in an hour.
John
Jul 15, 2017, 5:02:25 AM7/15/17
to Santa Barbara CitiZen Network
I'm offline now until tomorrow, and will post next time I have anything. I've attached a pic from 101@154 taken about 7pm when the sun was blood red and we were hoping that everyone would be safe. We went to look again sometime before 11pm and could see stars in that same area. This gives me hope that although there's still plenty of burning on both sides of the ridge, the fires are much smaller and winds are calmer.
Oh, I forgot to make the link active in the earlier post, so for InciWeb click here.
Oh, I forgot to make the link active in the earlier post, so for InciWeb click here.
John
Jul 15, 2017, 9:05:07 PM7/15/17
to sb...@googlegroups.com
Here are some pix from about 2:45 when we flew West offshore of the fire, then turned North across Gaviota Pass before returning to land at SBA. I'm looking through them and will post more as I go. We saw quite a flurry of medium and heavy air tanker PhosChek drops.
John
Jul 15, 2017, 9:38:38 PM7/15/17
to Santa Barbara CitiZen Network
Here are more pix from our flight offshore past the fire. Most I've edited strongly so that people who know the terrain can more easily spot familiar landmarks to see where flames and PhosChek are. Some look like black and white because it was so smoky at the fire. It appears the fire had burned West to the Sherpa Fire area by 2:30pm Saturday.
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