SAN DIEGO GAS & ELECTRIC COMPANY announced Thursday that they will be implementing a new procedure in high-risk areas during a wildfire.

In a report issued back in July, it was disclosed that three of the most devastating wildfires last October were started by arcing or downed power lines.  So the SDG&E has developed an emergency plan that will shut down electric service ahead of time in certain high-risk areas so that the major hazard of live wires will be hopefully eliminated during fire season.

They are sending a letter to about 45,000 power customers who live in the highest fire-risk areas explaining the new procedure and the reasons for it.  In the letter they tell that all of five conditions have to be met before the service will be cut.  They are:

•   The National Weather Service issues a red-flag warning indicating that conditions are highly conducive to wildfires.
•   Sustained winds are greater than 35 mph or wind gusts are greater than 55 mph.
•   Relative humidity is less than 20 percent.
•   The moisture level in “non-living” materials such as sticks, twigs and leaves is less than 6 percent as determined by the National Weather Service.
•   The moisture level in “living” plants and bushes is less than or equal to 75 percent as determined by Cal Fire and the U.S. Forest Service.

A fire already burning will not be a condition for activating a shut-down.

Read the entire public letter which includes a Q and A section from SDG&E HERE.

The House of Representatives passed legislation Wednesday that provides dedicated funding for catastrophic wildfire suppression.

The U. S. Forest Service has been expending much more on some major fires in the past two years than what they were budgeted for.  As a result, they have had to shift funds from other programs to cover the shortfall.  Last year the Federal firefighting costs came to $1.8 billion.  However, only 2% of the fires account for 80% of the firefighting costs.

AFP / Getty image

This new fund would be used specifically for catastrophic fires and would be separate from the funds budgeted every year for wildfire suppression. The emergency fund would be authorized annually based on the average cost of fighting wildfires over the preceding five years.

The bill passed the House on a voice vote and now goes to the Senate for consideration.  If you would like to read the bill in its entirety, click HERE.

THUS SAID CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR ARNOLD SCHWARZENNEGER as he addressed the press on Wednesday.  With more than 1,400 wildfires burning in California alone, thousands of firefighters have been working non-stop for 3 weeks and more.

Monterey Herald photo of Basin Complex fire
in the Big Sur State Park

Yesterday the entire Big Sur State Park area was issued a mandatory evacuation order after the Basin Complex fire jumped a containment line and began moving toward the tourist settlement.  The fire is threatening nearly 1,800 homes and 20 commercial buildings.

The incident commander for the Basin fire said that the No. 1 priority in the battle Wednesday was to protect Big Sur and keep the fire from crossing more lines, especially those in the Dolan Ridge area.  “If the fire gets established there, it’s another 20 miles south to the next containment line,” he said.

Announcing that the state is recognizing that what used to be a forest “fire season” that ran from late summer through the fall, the governor is setting a new policy that recognizes the extension of the fire season to most of the year.  He is proposing a tax of $6 to $10 on fire insurance policies to provide $100 million annually which would allow the state to employ wildland firefighters on a year-round basis and buy hundreds more fire engines.

The Associated Press covered his press conference and the latest on the Basin Complex (Big Sur) fire in this video report:

CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER ORDERED  the mobilization of 200 National Guard troops on Tuesday to provide relief and assistance to forestry firefighters in the state.

CalFire announced that they are currently working nearly 1,500 wildfires with 18,500 firefighters, 1,400 fire engines, 335 bulldozers, 410 water tenders and 100 helicopters.

The Guard units will undergo 5 days of training first and then be deployed for mop-up operations and will also be providing dozens of transport vehicles and bulldozers.

KPIX-TV has the full STORY.

KCRA-TV has this video report:

AS THE WILDFIRE IN THE BIG SUR OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA rages all around, one group of devout landowners has declined to evacuate the area.

The priests and students of the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center are hunkering in for the firefight at their retreat.  Last week 75 visitors and students were evacuated leaving a basic fire crew and cooks.  Located 14 miles from the nearest paved road, the Buddhist community is getting ready to stave off the encroaching flames.

Two Buddhists work to prepare the Tassajara
monastery to withstand the wildfire threat.
(Los Angeles Times / Durell photo)

Equipped with a 50,000 gallon pool, two pumps and hose lines, the remaining monks and priests are shedding their robes and donning running gear.  They have also jury-rigged a system of plastic water piping and lawn sprinklers across the roofs of their log-and-stone buildings.  All their day is spent clearing fire breaks around the camp.

They’re not alone, however.  Cal Forestry has encamped a 30-man inmate fire crew there so that they can be fed at the monks’ mess hall.  This is not the first time the MFD (Monk Fire Dept.) has gone through this drill.  In 1977 and 1999 the monks and forestry crews held off the flames of wildfires that moved through the 160 acre complex that is the oldest Buddhist monastery in the Western Hemisphere.

They won’t be martyrs, however.  If the fire is too large or intense, they will move out along with the fire crew.

The Los Angeles Times has a good background story HERE.

KCBA Ch. 35 has a good video report on the monks’ preparations:

AN UNPRECEDENTED LIGHTNING STORM SWEPT ACROSS Northern California over the weekend and left untold hundreds of wildland fires in its wake.

A heavy thunderstorm on Friday had already created scores of fires and the forestry officials were still discovering and counting them on Sunday when the next big storm swept in from the Pacific Ocean.  Weather systems over the Pacific do not have any identifiable structure nor leave a history as they travel, so there is no advance warning about the severity of the system when it arrives.

Sunday’s outbreak carried over 6,000 lightning strikes throughout the heavily-forested northern section of the state.  By Sunday evening the number of fires identified had risen to 520.  On Monday morning the count was up to 840.

Needless to say, the firefighting forces in the state are overwhelmed right now.  Some larger fires only have 10% of the usual number of firefighters on the line and many smaller fires are untended.  Thousands of additional FF’s and more aircraft are being brought into the area today.

AP

The largest of the fires is in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest about 150 miles north of Sacramento where 1,200 homes are threatened.

To keep up to date on the events there, Firegeezer recommends that you check regularly with two Blogs:
Firefighter Blog HERE, and
WilfireToday HERE.

Both of these sites are published by retired wildfire professionals and they do a great job of providing insight into what is going on along with maps and satellite views.

The AP filed this video report on Gov. Schwarzenegger’s press statement Monday morning:

THE 4,270-ACRE FIRE IN SANTA CRUZ COUNTY LAST MONTH burned more than 60 homes and threatened hundreds of others.

But some homeowners are being blamed for contributing to the losses.  For one thing, it was disclosed yesterday after investigations that 87% of the houses that burned had not properly cleared the so-called defensible space around their homes.

AP

State law requires that all combustible ground cover be removed within 30 feet of a structure and reduced within 100 feet.  While fire officials cannot say with any certainty that any of these homes would not have burned if they had been properly cleared, they are saying that their failure to do so greatly increased their chances of destruction.

The San Jose Mercury News covers this recent revelation HERE.

Another contention has just arisen also.  More than half of the destroyed homes were built illegally and should not have been there in the first place.  Some people are saying that these illegal homes caused fire resources to be utilized on them when they could have been re-positioned to protect houses that were legally placed there.

The owners of the clandestine homes say that the costs of getting all the required permits to build in the county can amount to more than $50,000 before you even start building and that is too burdensome to afford.

KCBA Ch. 35 has this video report on the illegal homes and interviews some of the permit-dodgers:

THE HUMBOLDT FIRE IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA is still racing out of control over the mountains of Butte County.

Chico Enterprise-Record photos by Jason Halley

So far the fire has consumed more than 23,000 acres and is 45% contained.  Full containment is projected to be reached by Monday evening.  Over 3,800 firefighters with 521 fire engines are working the fire that has caused the evacuation of 8,000 residents.

Janet Upton, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said  “We’ve always called it the big one, it’s always the one we’ve trained for and it’s been our worst-case scenario; it’s the one we use for our tabletop exercises.  This is that fire.”

The San Francisco Chronicle has an excellent background article along with some personal stories HERE.

KCRA-TV has a very good video report:

THE SUMMIT FIRE IN SANTA CRUZ COUNTY is close to full containment.  During the last night, the fire did not grow any and today the firefighters have been blessed with cooler tempeatures and high humidity.

Fire officials expect that the fire which has burned more than 4,300 acres now, will be completely contained tonight, according to Chris Morgan, CalFire spokesman. 

Members of the Fremont/Hayward Combined
Task Force work the Summit fire near Gilroy.
(AP/Sanchez photo)

The San Jose Mercury News reports that the cost of fighting the Summit fire has reached $11.2 million, and there have been seven firefighters injured, all with minor strains and sprains, Morgan said. Currently, there are 2,631 firefighters assigned to the blaze, and Morgan said that number “will start going down drastically pretty quickly.”

KCBA Ch. 35 in Monterey has this video report:

THE TRIGO WILDFIRE IN CENTRAL NEW MEXICO has slowed down after the wind speeds dropped noticeably late Friday.  However, the firefighters are still struggling to get a containment line around it and have it only 35% contained today.

Wednesday afternoon it had been 95% contained when a spot fire flared up outside the perimeter and the 50 mph winds drove the fire into a larger area.  The fire has covered 14,000 acres so far.

Air tanker drops have been resumed and they have been effective.  The firefighters are currently concentrating on protecting the communities of Torreon and Tajique from the advancing fire.

Forestry officials say that more homes have burned in the past day, but they don’t know how many because FF’s haven’t been able to get into that area yet.

KOAT Ch. 7 has today’s REPORT.

Click to play the KOB-TV video report:

THE TRIGO WILDFIRE IN NEW MEXICO’S MANZANO MOUNTAINS spread out of its containment perimeter Thursday when high winds fanned the fire and spread the embers.

Albuquerque Journal

The fire began on April 15 and was largely confined to uninhabited areas, moving slowly through mountainous brush and woodlands, but had destroyed nine homes during the last week.  The fire had consumed approx. 4,500 acres and was 95% contained Wednesday when the winds picked up.  A spot fire started up just north of the containment and spread rapidly as the winds grew to 50 mph.

The wind continued all day Thursday driving the fire through several communities forcing the evacuation of over 400 homes.  The flames skirted around the Univ. of New Mexico’s observatory on Capilla Peak, but there were no reports of damage.  As of late Thursday night the fire had destroyed 14,000 acres and many more homes including one community of approx. 30 dwellings.

The high winds have prevented any aerial drops and the severity of the fire has kept any firefighting crews from entering the area.  The forecast is calling for the winds to continue through Friday.

The Las Cruces Sun-News has the STORY.

Albuquerque TV station KOB has a full report with some good video coverage of the fire:

A PERSISTANT WILDFIRE IN CENTRAL NEW MEXICO that started last Tuesday has brought an increased attack from both state and Federal firefighting forces.

On Sunday, high winds broke the fire through containment lines and it started moving again, forcing the evacuation of three towns in the area just south of Albuquerque.  Nine homes and several more outbuildings have been destroyed so far.

The fire, named the Trigo fire, is one of three significant fires that are burning in the state.  One of the others is the Pepper fire in the Lincoln National Forest, south of the Trigo fire, and the other is in the southwest corner of the state, the Center Peak fire.

The latest AP report is HERE.

Phoenix tv Channel 13 reports HERE that four Arizona fire departments are sending firefighters and equipment to assist on the fire that has burned over 3,700 acres so far.