Caldor Fire explodes

[Cali-Glock]

If homeowners wish to pre-treat their own properties with decent residual effect, Phos-Chek is available in small quantities though I believe it's not pretty pink like the airdropped stuff, I would imagine the pink is a colorant so they can see what they've done.

Here's the SDS:

https://images.thdstatic.com/catalog/pdfImages/8d/8d39a2f5-0f38-4325-8fb2-825b8a2140fa.pdf

Home Depot sells it for about 30 bucks a gallon and that makes about five gallons of spray at an application rate of 100sq/ft per gallon.

I noted the other day Juan Browne did a little episode on this at a friend's home which survived the River Fire and outlined the measures the owner had performed, including spraying the product, to make the property fire-resistant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiUHjtLSZZ8

I watched about half of Juan Brown's video. I checked this out before, and from what I recall I figured offhand I would need a 55 gallon container and a professional mobile spray rig to be able to put out 250 or so gallons of retardant. Really I would want to put out more... and if I am investing the $$, I might as well have a lot more of the concentrate to treat some other properties as well...

Long story but about six years ago I was involved in helping set up a veg management operation that built up a couple of light wildland firefighting rigs for use in the field to fight very small fires while doing their operations. They were set up on new CrewCab F350s 4x4s with reinforced suspensions - the rigs themselves were a few bucks. My email archive no longer goes back that far - I'll try to dig up some photos of one of those rigs or the supplier/builder. My web searches are not being successful.

That prompted me to daydreaming about setting up my own deal and doing some back of a napkin math, and even with bargain basement build it was going to be a pretty penny. It is not like I don't have a dozen other things I need to do around the house and property that costs $$. I shrugged and said to myself it would be nice to have the money to set up a system like that.

[Cali-Glock]

If we both end up unscathed... I'm having you over for a BBQ.

Some things I forgot to mention in my earlier update (I was on my phone, for some reason Safari isn't letting me run Calguns)

1. The smoke was bad... it was like twilight (and not the sparkly vampires) up on Sly Park. The amount of ash on my property was disturbing... thankfully I had a hold-out neighbor go cut my sun-shade down. I did find a burnt leaf on my front steps... I saved it. I'm going to frame it as a reminder. The mid-day twilight reminded me of the oil fires in Kuwait... but my buddy assured me that "Smoke good, fire bad... if it's heavy smoke, it's not burning really hot".

2. They set up a retardant filling station for the choppers at that old poultry farm on Pleasant Valley road... the one with the horses on the gate. I saw choppers come in, drop a hose, suck up more pink snot, then bolt out. While getting my ammo out, we heard choppers about every 3 to 4 minutes... those guys made a hell of a lot of round trips. Suck, fly, dump, fly, suck, repeat. A check of the flight radar showed them bombing my hot spot.... a great relief.

3. That pink snot was also manually sprayed all along Sly Park on the telephone poles, big trees, etc. Good thinking.

4. A little web research shows that this stuff is nasty... it causes cancer, nuerological issues, etc. If your property has been bombed... you might want to reconsider eating tomatoes out of the garden for a while. (still beats a burnt out husk where your house used to be).

5. Next-door is reporting a new fire on Mosquito Road & Highland. So far only one website I've been able to find shows it... no other information... nothing on satellite. This freaks me out a-new, since I'm pretty close by in my buddy's evac house looking down a really big gorge full of nice dry trees. I really don't want to lug all of this crap to a new location.

6. I need a bigger truck, with a big trailer. I think this experience will convince Mrs. 2111 that such a purchase is a wise thing in the future.

7. There's a new waitress at Bricks... can't remember her name, but she's hot. Being able to relax enough to actually eat something was nice... I've dropped 10 pounds so far. New diet plan?

8. I've got a buddy up in the area as a hold-out. He's keeping an eye out for looters and such... should any enter my area, they won't have a good day.

I am glad you were able to get in and rescue your .22LR hoard!!!

I have not checked any of the fire updates yet.

[user120312]

Yeah, startup for a good sized property could be steep. Those of us who've been in the game for decades and have built the equipment up slowly over time, not so daunting, and I'll bet one could home brew some good fire retardant themselves. It's easy enough to test, spray, let sit, apply heat, see what happens.

I've got a PTO attachment that takes a horizontal 55 with a ag spray pump on it, mostly for spraying that other carcinogen, glyphosate, though lately I just hit the weeds with the flail mower. Thank goodness that era is over in Oregon, just a bit of pruning here and there.
When I looked at property up near Lake Almanor and into Modoc County, fire was on my mind; all it takes is driving through miles of black to see how it changes things in an instant and can be largely out of our control. Beautiful country though, otherwise.

TBH, if in a mountain neighborhood in such circumstances, I'd likely pick up and maintain a used fire engine; for someone with the background they're not too difficult to maintain and are really flexible in fighting small fires. Our local area has a volunteer FD, thank goodness, else help would be an hour or more away. I guess they don't get called much because the tsunami (old air raid) siren is what calls them and I rarely hear it.

Back on the Caldor Fire, it appears to be steadily marching east and GOES has it pretty much getting into Strawberry but I haven't checked ground reports. On the west, it appears Sly Park Road is holding though all current infrared still show heat blooms impacting the easterly side of it. With the wind blowing to the west this morning, I hope that holds.

The east and southeast flanks appear to be burning steadily into unburned areas and I'll bet that'll continue until it runs out of fuel in the timberline.

Here's the directory for this morning's run of CalFire products:

https://ftp.wildfire.gov/public/incident_specific_data/calif_n/!CALFIRE/!2021_Incidents/CA-ENF-024030_Caldor/GIS/Products/20210826/

[Spyder]

It's looking very bad for the next few days. Lots of high winds, traffic in S. Tahoe is getting out of hand with people getting out, evac orders went out for expanded areas, and all around general bad potential. I hope the current dozer lines stop it.

[Section 101]

It's looking very bad for the next few days. Lots of high winds, traffic in S. Tahoe is getting out of hand with people getting out, evac orders went out for expanded areas, and all around general bad potential. I hope the current dozer lines stop it.

Not looking good. Desolation has no toads. Looks like it will also move along through sierra at Tahoe up to echo summit.

[otteray]

It's looking very bad for the next few days. Lots of high winds, traffic in S. Tahoe is getting out of hand with people getting out, evac orders went out for expanded areas, and all around general bad potential. I hope the current dozer lines stop it.

Yikes; that's worrisome. At the update last evening, the CalFire meteorologist said grfeatly diminished winds through the weekend, leading to lower temps under the smoke clouds..
My second home is a few miles from the evac warning area, in Tahoma, Westshore Tahoe. My boat is there too; but too much smoke and not worth the risk of getting trapped in a sudden exodus on the one way out to Truckee. I'm glad that some of my neighbors and I had recently trimmed trees up and cleared pine needles.

[Jason_2111]

I really need to get out of the habit of looking at the satellite imagery first thing in the morning before I'm fully awake. Before I realize the map is not accurate (it's accurate for what it is, not how I'm using it). Dang thing shows fire a couple of hundred feet away, but my hold-out buddy doesn't see any flames.

Apparently they started yet another controlled burn off of sly park... This one closer. I wish they'd stop playing with this damn thing and put it out... There are other ways to clear forest besides risking a ton of homes.

One tiny oops and the freedom bunker burns.

[Cali-Glock]

I really need to get out of the habit of looking at the satellite imagery first thing in the morning before I'm fully awake. Before I realize the map is not accurate (it's accurate for what it is, not how I'm using it). Dang thing shows fire a couple of hundred feet away, but my hold-out buddy doesn't see any flames.

Apparently they started yet another controlled burn off of sly park... This one closer. I wish they'd stop playing with this damn thing and put it out... There are other ways to clear forest besides risking a ton of homes.

One tiny oops and the freedom bunker burns.

Facebook blew up last night with people in Pleasant Valley posting photos of the fire as it pushed it's way south from Sly Park.

The maps this morning don't look as bad as I thought they might be.

[Jason_2111]

Bad news... While the bulldozer line along sly park is holding... Last night a new fire popped up on the other side of the line to the south and west, and is up to 18 acres. The smoke is too thick for aircraft, so there's ground crew hitting it. This is bad.

This is what happens when I start thinking things are going to be ok.

Well, they were... But they keep lighting more "controlled burns", and then get surprised when "Oh wait, this is bad" happens.

[Jason_2111]

I went up there today to evac a holdout. Fortunately I remembered my p100 respirator... That smoke is terrible.
Good little statist CHP wouldn't let me go in a mile to pull out a guy with a car that wouldn't start.

Got me thinking... If/when they cone for our guns... It'll be this type of guy that won't hesitate to follow orders.

[spegull03]

I just realized this thread got moved, I just thought no one was posting about it anymore. Anyways I've been helping out at the large animal shelter in Plymouth which is rapidly filling, and the one in Placerville off Cold Springs is full. Horses/goats/sheep/pigs/chickens ***** a lot!

I bought P100's last year after being socked in from the lightning fires for a month, they are getting some use today that's for sure. Sending out prayers for you guys up there.

[user120312]

Took a look at the eastern GOES this afternoon and hmm, looks like Strawberry is being overrun right now and, on the southeastern flank, the fire is less than four miles from Kirkwood and appears to be moving steadily in that direction. From my recollection not much understory up there but a lot of standing dead and dying and if a crown fire gets going it could make a real mess in the whole Silver Lake/Kirkwood corridor. Winds appear to be blowing directly east.

[Tere_Hanges]

Took a look at the eastern GOES this afternoon and hmm, looks like Strawberry is being overrun right now and, on the southeastern flank, the fire is less than four miles from Kirkwood and appears to be moving steadily in that direction. From my recollection not much understory up there but a lot of standing dead and dying and if a crown fire gets going it could make a real mess in the whole Silver Lake/Kirkwood corridor. Winds appear to be blowing directly east.

I watched the calfire update from last night and they didnt seem very concerned about the fire in Division J and L around Kirkwood and Silver Lake. They said things were going well and the fire wasnt moving much.

It gets a lot rockier up there and less trees.

8/27 evening update:

https://youtu.be/n39plyVZniE

Just watched this evening's update above. Dozer lines are in on div L tied in to div J. Burn ops tonight on J.

https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2021/8/14/caldor-fire/updates/b7f252b2-644b-4633-8ac6-100899f9bd9a/

[user120312]

Except around the lakes the 88 corridor is pretty sparsely populated in the fire path so any burning won't really affect the human population. Still a lot of timber up there that hasn't burned in decades, if not a century or more. The Hwy 50 corridor is far more concerning. Timber is more dense and there are a lot of structures in those canyons.

Looks like some further intrusions on Division D, Sly Park Road at Pleasant Valley Rd on the western flank....

https://sartopo.com/map.html#ll=38.67264,-120.64061&z=13&b=om&a=structures%2Cmodis_mpg%2Cwxd_wgust-01

Comparing the satellite to the newly prepared map it ooks like it overran their dozer lines...

https://ftp.wildfire.gov/public/incident_specific_data/calif_n/!CALFIRE/!2021_Incidents/CA-ENF-024030_Caldor/GIS/Products/20210828/AIR_OPS_Arch_E_land_20210827_2144_Caldor_CAENF024030_0828.pdf

The 8/28 maps are out now...

https://ftp.wildfire.gov/public/incident_specific_data/calif_n/!CALFIRE/!2021_Incidents/CA-ENF-024030_Caldor/GIS/Products/20210828/

[Cali-Glock]