Notices by Douglas (douglasvb@mastodon.social)

Not much growth in the #GarnetFire overnight. It continues to slowly back down a couple of ridges into Dinkey Canyon.

The fuel break that was built behind my parents place a half dozen years ago is having significant improvements made as the last line of defense. Lots of logging equipment and bulldozers and whatnot are in the area doing heavy work.

There's still no evacuation order but the campground and general store nearby are closed to everyone except fire fighters.

I suppose it's a good sign that the fire camp around the #DinkeyCeeek area keeps growing for the #GarnetFire. I would hope that they wouldn't put it right in the path of the fire.

But things aren't looking good at all.

I expect the mandatory evacuation notice for that area will happen tonight or tomorrow.

The shaded fuel break that was put on seven years ago very close to my parents property is now being prepped as a last line of defense.

The fire of still seven or eight miles away.

Waiting for the morning #GarnetFire update but from the overnight map update, it's clear they did back burns along McKinley Grove Road where the 11S12 road connects and out along 11S53. A spot fire slopped over 11S53. Hopefully they can catch that. Otherwise I would expect 10S24 to be the next place they try to catch it.

Hopefully the contingency lines downstream of Camp El O Win are done and ready. I wonder if those will get back burned today.

It's got a real Halloween vibe on the #GarnetFire at night on the fire cams.

This is burning into the bottom of Dinkey Canyon. There isn't a camera to look around the bend and up into the canyon to see how things are going there.

Those red dots are the fire coming down the ridge into Dinkey Canyon. 😬

#GarnetFire

The newest map of the #GarnetFire shows the fire is within a couple hundred feet of McKinley Grove Road on the southwest side of the straight stretch. Hopefully they can hold it there. Otherwise the fire will continue on until it hits the timberline in the vicinity of Nelson Mountain where I was a few weeks ago: https://mastodon.social/@douglasvb/114999823375544423

I'm pessimistic that the fire will stay out of Dinkey Canyon over the next 48 hours.

Well at least the pyrocumulous cloud coming off of the #GarnetFire is pretty in the evening light.

... If luck is on the side of the sequoias in McKinley Grove, the big thunder storms in the area will dump a bunch of rain soon and it'll all be over. Otherwise a bunch of new lightning fire starts might happen. And the downburst threat from a collapsing thunderhead or pyro cumulous cloud is a big threat.

A fire fighter had to be airlifted out today due to a massive reaction to a bee sting 😬

The evening #GarnetFire update will be very interesting.

... straight portion of road where it splits to go to Wishon Lake or Courtright Lake), it's getting close. The fire might be close to jumping that straight road, too. We'll know more when the next fire map comes out.

My parents took their 5th wheel to a campground about ten miles away so it's already staged there when the evacuation order comes. I think they'll pull my dad's friend's trailer out soon, too.

There was just a tiny bit of rain earlier but not enough to register in the rain gauge

It's not looking good on the #GarnetFire. There was a pyro cumulous cloud all day. Some spot fires got into Dinkey Canyon.

Sawyers are working along McKinley Grove Road felling dead trees and machines are going in behind to clear brush to get ready for a back burn either tonight or tomorrow.

The contingency below Camp El O Win is being extended to the south to tie in with lines coming from Wishon.

If the fire hasn't made it to the Helms Work Center near Wishon (southeast end of the ...

...if everyone gets lucky, this will be a repeat of the #RoughFire in 2016 when storms showed up and dumped somewhere between a half an inch and an inch of rain across the region which stopped that fire in its tracks. The #GarnetFire is burning at least partially in the same footprint on the south side of the North Fork of the Kings River

Otherwise if this is not a lucky day, the storms could cause high winds, lots of lightning, and big downbursts which would blow the fire out in all directions

The #GarnetFire looks like it's just tickling Dinkey Canyon north of Balch Camp from the overnight updated fire perimeter map. The fire camera feeds are inconclusive because it looks like there was a strong inversion overnight which kept the smoke close to the fire and makes it hard to see where the smoke is coming from.

There are big thunderstorms starting up in the valley to the west and some huge ones down by Palm Springs. I think the valley storms will miss but the others might hit...

... This is just the new norm compared to what we were used to for 100 years of fire suppression. It's going to probably take through my lifetime and beyond to get to some semblance of a more natural fire cycle in the region. And it'll take SO MUCH MONEY if people are still going to be able to live and work and play in the woods, and be safe doing so while fires are allowed to happen.

This all makes me wonder if I should be looking for property in a rainforest like in Washington, BC, or ...

... Dinkey Creek area. A few years ago SCE cut in huge shaded fuel breaks through their timber stands. Now with the #GarnetFire, the combined USFS, CalFire, and SCE crews are connecting those shaded fuel breaks across USFS land to tie everything in. Otherwise it would have been many more years before those would have been built through the normal process of environmental review and whatnot.

In some ways, these big fires are useful because a lot of needed work can get done in a hurry.

...

... my dad, when asked by the guy above him if they should do something about SCE burning up USFS trees, said not to do anything because it actually helped that part of the forest. Otherwise John's program of controlled burning probably would have been shutdown in the 70s and it would have been MUCH worse during the #CreekFire. Without all the work that SCE did under John, Shaver Lake would almost certainly have been lost.

That same work has gone on quietly for decades out in the...

The air attack channel is getting pretty interesting for the #GarnetFire https://www.broadcastify.com/webPlayer/38264

Sounds like they're trying to paint a line from the communications tower (the thing that's about to get crispy in the attached photo) as far north as they are able to go. They must be trying to keep it out of the Big Creek drainage.

@watchduty_bot The #GarnetFire is putting on one heck of a show right now. The one photo from about 15 minutes ago shows flames clearly visible from the Fence Meadow Lookout camera.

Ash is currently falling at #ForkedMeadow in the #DinkeyCreek area.

There's an air attack scout plane over the Nutmeg Saddle area.

It looks like the tankers are still focusing on the east side of the fire. Too much smoke on the west side to fly low.

I think we're entering the doomsday scenario.

If @watchduty_bot is to be believed, the #GarnetFire has now crossed the powerline right-of-way by Oak Flat Campground which would mean it's firmly established on the west side of #DinkeyCreek and approaching the contingency line at Nutmeg Saddle.

If that is what's happening, things are about to get extremely spicy.

How long does it take to evacuate a 1000+ person fire camp? Because that might have to happen today...

The #GarnetFire has now made the air quality index at #ForkedMeadow #DinkeyCreek max out on the instruments. On the Ambient Weather sensor it's at 999.9 µg/m3 for pm2.5.

I think you're probably able to chew on the air at this point.

Air attack is working the eastern flank of the fire this morning trying to keep it from running over the control lines and into the wilderness. The west side of the fire is still socked in with an inversion layer down in Dinkey Canyon so no flying there.

Air so thick you can cut it with a knife. #GarnetFire