Whittier Fire (7/10)

[John]

Here's my first attempt at posting fire news here on SBitz.NET rather than SBCitizen.com, and if it goes well I'll redirect SBCitizen.com here for my future stuff.

At 2pm I gathered some info, starting with this:

I think you can click to enlarge the above image, but haven't tested it yet. :)
Anyway, the yellow is the official fire perimeter outline (from last night I think). The only active burning (don't know the time) was detected by the hi-res IR satellite, indicated by the red circles. I turned off the low-res big circles since they didn't show any red and obscured the image. This map may be helpful for anyone familiar with that terrain. The main area seems to be at the West end near the ridge line, with some also at the East end. So next I checked the remote cameras at Santa Ynez Peak, and sure enough there's smoke to the West.

It's also collecting in the back eddy all along the North slope and mingling with the smoke from innumerable little spot fires and smouldering hotspots. There's a similar area of thick smoke to the East beyond the broadcast towers, though that camera's lens got painted with red PhosCheck fire suppressant by an aircraft.

As you can see, there's also some smoke coming up the South slope in places but nothing that looks major. This description on InciWeb was interesting to me:

The slope that the fire is primarily burning on is comprised of Oak trees and brush that has not burned since the Refugio Fire in 1955. Over the last several years these fuels have been stressed by the exceptional drought conditions and a high percentage of the fuel bed is dead. The combination of old, dry fuels with a newly cured heavy grass crop contributed to the rapid growth of this fire.

They also report 734 personnel, about 11,000 acres, and 5% containment.  Next I checked the very low resolution but frequently updated IR satellite that covers the area of all three main regional fires (Whittier, Alamo, and Stone up in SLO County).

An hour earlier it had barely registered Whittier, and Stone (near top edge, left of center at the intersection of two highway gray lines) was about the same. At 2pm Whittier was showing a pretty significant flare. I'm going to post this and look for more info.

Please let me know what you think of this interface. :)

[John]

The FAA "TFR" to protect aerial firefighters by keeping other aircraft at a distance was expanded. Here it is on a basic map.

As you can see, the yellow areas correspond to the outlines of cities. Trivia: The FAA charts show cities in yellow as an approximation of the shapes formed by highly lit areas (homes, businesses, etc.) that pilots will see at night. Anyway, note that the Alamo Fire though larger by acreage has a smaller TFR (red outline). Much of that relates to the fact that KIZA (Santa Ynez Airport) has a temporary "control tower" (normally there isn't one, and pilots just talk to each other directly). The last time I flew there when they had a "tower," it was a really cool trailer parked near the runway. A guy sat under an umbrella on the roof doing Air Traffic Control (ATC), and the whole thing was kinda fun. :)

The reason for the extended TFR and ATC is almost certainly due to the aerial fire suppression having shifted to mostly or all helicopters. They can make less expensive and more precise drops of water on individual hotspots than the fixed wing aircraft. In the FAA chart of the Whittier Fire area (below), you can see that the TFR has been extended to touch KIZA. This provides more safety for everyone flying in the area, since they're all communicating with ATC when near or in the TFR.

All of this indicates to me that thanks to the valiant firefighting in extreme heat and wind, and relief from that scary weather - this fire might soon be controlled. We can hope. :}

[John]

Here's a downsized version of today's 11MB Operations Map of the Whittier Fire.PDF from the InciWeb page for the Whittier Fire. The file name indicates it was produced at 8:24am Central Daylight Time. Hopefully this may be helpful for anyone with limited internet access or speed during the fire. Mainly of interest is the red edge.

[John]

There's an 8pm update from the command team, though when I read it just now there were a few differences between the text and the chart. Guess they're a tad bit busy still. :)

InciWeb 8pm:
10,823 acres, 842 firefighters, 97 Fire Engines, 11 Hand-crews, 8 Dozers, 8 Helicopters, 2 Water Tenders, and fixed-wing tankers if needed. A Type 1 Incident Management Team has assumed command.

Here's the latest IR sat composite I downloaded about 10:30pm:

I've pumped up the color a bit so you can more easily see the red (more recent heat detection) circles at the right end of the main fire area. This matches what we saw flying South of the restricted area this evening. We got some pix I'll post later, and after dark we could see a small patch of flames (too far and dark for a decent pic). For now I'm going to look for news from other sources. It wasn't nearly as hot up at 4,000' feet today, so I'll be the firefighters are having an easier time!

[John]

The 11:30pm low-res IR satellite shows only the Stone Fire hot (white dot), with the faintest wisps of lighter areas around the Alamo and Whittier Fires.

This is of course Good News!

As for the aerial views I mentioned in the previous post, here are a few I like. First, one showing the pall of smoke hanging in the foothills and completely blanking out the peaks beyond.

Notice that there are several layers visible, including the thin white one in the canyon at the left. There was a deeper thin layer below us, the thicker one over-exposed (to show hillside detail) above us, and at least two more above that. Between layers it was slightly clearer, so after briefly climbing into that layer above we quickly descended again due to smoke smell and fuzzier views. I've uploaded a bigger version of the above pic that you can see via the View button in the Attachments gallery below this post, if you're reading via the web interface. If you're reading as we do via an email client, you probably have your own options for viewing full-size depending on your app. Here's a different angle giving a better look at some small smoke plumes from smouldering spot fires.


Next a closer look at that thin white layer, so horribly beautiful in the evening light.


Then a look at how they managed to stop the fire before it reached the power lines nearby to the East.


Now something completely different. The series of waterfalls and pools beneath those power lines father East to the North of the airport. We were startled to discover they still have water!


As sunset approached back on the ground, I paused to snap the sunset and felt a wave of relaxation looking at this orange sky as art rather than the major disaster it so easily could have become.


Then I felt a wave of sadness for the lost structures and displaced people, mixed with foreboding about the Summer ahead.