Whittier Fire (7/11)

[SBitz]

There's been a flareup of the Whittier Fire on the North slope of the mountains, and helicopters are staging at the Salvar Bridge (aka "bridge to nowhere) near Foothill at 154. Here's some info sent to us by a citizen in that area:

The wind shifted on the Whittier fire & they are hitting it
from this side to hold it back. (Per someone who was up at County Fire about 3:15pm)
---
A few "Phos-Chek" trucks took-on water from a hydrant on
Cathedral Oaks / Foothill (across from Sansum Clinic) --
and drove up Via Chaparral to the bridge at the Preserve.

Helicopters are coming in and loading up there -- so  IF
you hear helicopters close-by, that is what's going on. 

The helicopters are heading out to the West.

DJ  --  [RSB DPTeam] (3:45pm)

[John]

Here are screencaps from USGS and USWAPIM taken just now.

[John]

There's a crowd gathering at the helicopter staging area, hopefully not adding to the burdens of the helicopter support crews. Because so many people are wondering what's going on, here are some telephoto pix and a video shot from a distant hilltop so as not to disturb the crews. First a chopper taking off with a fresh load of PhosChek, with the support crew and equipment on the East side of the Salvar Bridge across 154 visible at the bottom of the pic.


Next a pic of the smoke plume with helicopter a speck in the distance, at the right edge of the plume (view the full size image attachment for a little more detail).


Attached is a video of another helicopter approaching to take on a fresh load.

[John]

Edhat has a great 9pm update. I've just downloaded this 9:30pm IR sat image that shows the fire dying down again.

I'm glad to see it, because at sunset the plume over the mountain was still massive and it was raining ash all over town. Now I'm going to rummage the web a bit and will post again if I find anything new.

[John]

The aviation winds aloft forecast looks good, with no strong winds expected up to well above the peaks. Of course there could still be random breezes and maybe even gusts, and a run up-slope like the one this evening can create its own wind. In addition to hope for light wind is the report of temperature around 70F on the ridge. I had a look at the remote cameras on the peak, and they show things pretty quiet too. This one toward the East is pretty much blanked out by the rising moon, so it's impossible to tell if the two bright spots below are fires. They're more orange than the moon, but they could also be night fire crew work lights. (note that I'm duplicating the "inline" images as "attachments" after feedback that some were only visible on the web interface - I'll futz with settings and come up with an image strategy after things calm down)


Looking to the South is just city lights and some smoke. These views to the North and West are both IR (probably near IR) since they show more detail. To the North you can see some small spot fires lingering down in the canyon.


To the West there's a waft of smoke illuminated by fire, and since the layer is level it looks to me like lights rather than fire beneath that flat haze just beyond the ridges in the middle of the pic.

Nice to see how thin the smoke is!

I grabbed this USGS hi-res IR sat image just before 11pm, and it shows fire detections on both the East and West ends of the fire. As previously noted, the reported fire perimeter is in yellow and black circles are the past fire detections. I've tweaked the image a bit to better show the red and yellow.


The USWAPIM map shows better detail, but uses the lower-resolution MODIS IR satellite fire detection so those red hotspots may be less accurate. At some point maybe I'll find details about these technical issues that could prove to be opposite of my current understanding, but for now here it is.


The 8pm InciWeb report says:
---
Containment: 48% Personnel: 721

Structures burned: 8 residences, 12 outbuildings

Current Situation: The return of clear air and light winds today resulted in mostly moderate fire behavior. On the eastern edge of the fire, the winds and slopes combined to push the fire into Hot Springs Canyon, creating dramatic plumes of smoke. ... [snip]

---

The full report is here: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/article/5339/36378/

At the bottom of their incident page they have this in an 8:39pm Basic Info table:

11,823 Acres - Unified Command with CALFIRE, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.

https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5339/

SB County has fire info here: http://www.countyofsb.org/

This beautiful color satellite view with red dots for fire detection (my guess is early afternoon), barely hints at the turmoil going on in our mountains.

If the smoke is bothering you, consider this smoke map's depiction of much heavier smoke (indicated by lighter color) over much of the U.S. and nearly all of Canada.

Not much consolation when we're coughing and suffering I know, but there it is.

That's about all I've found for now, so I leave you with best wishes for a safe and healthy night and hopes for speedy return home for everyone displaced.