Sunday, April 17, 2016

And fire season is ON!

There's smoke from the fire in the "remote area" AT THE END MY STREET!

Here we go again. KTUU television reported a 10-acre fire burning in "a remote area near the Knik River" today. The GD river is 25 MILES LONG and I live near the Knik River. For crying out loud, where along those 25 miles is the fire?


Orange marks Leaf Lake, the general fire area. White marks
my house.
It's called the Leaf Lake fire and after a minimal search I located Leaf Lake. It's on the south side of the river, 4.9 miles from the Butte. That puts it about 2.9 miles east of my house. Easterly winds are common in this area, though it's calm today. If winds pick up it would blow this way for sure. For those familiar with the area, Jim Creek shows up on the same map. So if the wind kicks up, I (and a ton of neighbors) are in direct line with the fire.
And that's just the people. With all the lakes and wetlands in the area, it is prime habitat for nesting swans, geese, ducks and many other birds.  

Why can't news people go one step further and give an accurate location? Near a river indeed. At least tell us which side of the river. Next we'll hear of a fire near the Yukon River. 

No reason to panic, no wind and the smoke appears to be drifting to the north. Maybe time to look around the house for a safety zone and then a mental inventory of what to take if evacuation becomes necessary.

UPDATE AT 6:30 PM: Here's an update on the Leaf Lake Fire outside of Palmer:
Smoke jumpers called in. BLM photo.
The fire has not grown substantially and is still estimated at 10 acres. A helicopter has been dropping water on the fire most of the afternoon and that work has been effective in slowing growth of the fire, with the exception of occasional uphill runs on the slope it is burning on. Winds have been fairly light at 5-7 mph with gusts to 8 mph and temperatures in the low 60s. Relative humidity has been in the high 20s.
There are nine people on scene - 7 smokejumpers and 2 State Forestry personnel - and three more DOF firefighters should be arriving shortly via helicopter. A second helicopter will join the fray tonight for transport and bucket work, also.Fortunately there is a lake at the base of the slope the fire is burning on so it makes for quick turnaround time.
The forecast is calling for windier conditions tomorrow afternoon, which could provide a test for firefighters.

ANOTHER: A lot less smoke over that way at 8:30 p.m.

UPDATE: 4/18:  Bit of an update Monday: No smoke visible from the house today. Drove the four-wheeler down to the river where there's a less obstructed view of the area and couldn't spot any smoke from there either. Size was updated to 25 acres due to better mapping, not spread. Cause has been listed as "human," but no more detail than that. Guessing that it's under control, Wind blowing upriver away from the house. Several reports today say fire is still being fought, generating lots of smoke, but no flame visible at least from the air. KTUU still locates it "near the Knik River."

UPDATE 4/19: Wildfire east of Butte making headway on its containment.

Alaska DNR- Division of Forestry (DOF)
3 hrs
The 25-acre Leaf Lake Fire near the Knik River outside Palmer (4.9 miles due east of the Butte) is now 80 percent contained and fire managers are projecting 100 percent containment by the end of the operational shift today if the winds don't get too strong. The 13 personnel working on the fire have mopped up 20-30 feet in around the fire and are concentrating on the lower end of the fire.


4/19 3 p.m.: This post from earlier in the day says it will be contained if the winds don't get too strong. Unfortunately at 3 p.m. winds have picked up considerably. River basin is full of a dust cloud (hope that's not smoke) and no report yet of how this has affected the fire. Oh yeah, it is blowing from the east directly toward this area.

4/20 A.M.: LEAF LAKE FIRE ALMOST OUT: Fire personnel continued to work the interior where fire activity was observed as smoldering and creeping in the unburned fuels. Winds picked up around 1400 with gusts of up to 20 mph, however, personnel were still able to achieve their goals. The fire was called contained at 1626, and plans for today consist of demobing the seven smokejumpers, while still planning for a complete demob of the fire by Thursday.

UPDATE 4/21: Fire personnel continued their mop-up operations throughout the day. 7 smokejumpers and 2 additional firefighters were demobed off the fire, and complete demob is scheduled for today, 4/21. Total cost to date: $105,643.

Alaska wildfire information

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Memorable quotations

The best way to know you are having an adventure is when you wish you were home talking about it." — a mechanic on the Alaska State Ferry System. Or as in my own case planning how I will be writing it on this blog.

"You can't promote principled anti-corruption without pissing off corrupt people." — George Kent

"If only the British had held on to the airports, the whole thing might have gone differently for us." — Mick Jagger

"You can do anything as long as you don't scare the horses." — a mother's favorite saying recalled by a friend

A poem is an egg with a horse inside” — anonymous fourth grader

“My children will likely turn my picture to the wall but what the hell, you only get old once." — Joe May

“Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.” — Ernest Hemingway

When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth. Kurt Vonnegut

“If you wrote something for which someone sent you a cheque, if you cashed the cheque and it didn't bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you talented.”Stephen King

The thing about ignorance is, you don't have to remain ignorant. — me again"

"It was like the aftermath of an orgasm with the wrong partner." – David Lagercrants “The Girl in the Spider’s Web.”

Why worry about dying, you aren't going to live to regret it.

Never debate with someone who gets ink by the barrel" — George Hayes, former Alaska Attorney General who died recently

My dear Mr. Frost: two roads never diverge in a yellow wood. Three roads meet there. — @Shakespeare on Twitter

Normal is how somebody else thinks you should act.

"The mark of a great shiphandler is never getting into situations that require great shiphandling," Adm. Ernest King, USN

Me: Does the restaurant have cute waitresses?

My friend Gail: All waitresses are cute when you're hungry.

I'm not a writer, but sometimes I push around words to see what happens. – Scott Berry

I realized today how many of my stories start out "years ago." What's next? Once upon a time?"

“The rivers of Alaska are strewn with the bones of men who made but one mistake” - Fred McGarry, a Nushagak Trapper

Many people hear voices when no one is there. Some of them are called mad and are shut up in rooms where they stared at walls all day. Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing. – Meg Chittenden

A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity. – Franz Kafka

We are all immortal until the one day we are not. – me again

If the muse is late, start without her – Peter S. Beagle

Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. ~Mark Twain Actually you could do the same thing with the word "really" as in "really cold."

If you are looking for an experience that will temper your vanity, this is it. There's no one to impress when you're alone on the trap line. – Michael Carey quoting his father's journal

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. – Benjamin Franklin

It’s nervous work. The state you need to write in is the state that others are paying large sums of money to get rid of. – Shirley Hazzard

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence -- Bertrand Russell

You know that I always just wanted to have a small ship to take stuff from a place that had a lot of that stuff to a place that did not have a lot of that stuff and so prosper.—Jackie Faber, “The Wake of the Lorelei Lee”

If you attack the arguer instead of the argument, you lose both

If an insurance company won’t pay for damages caused by an “act of God,” shouldn’t it then have to prove the existence of God? – I said that

I used to think getting old was about vanity—but actually it’s about losing people you love. Getting wrinkles is trivial. – Eugene O’Neill

German General to Swiss General: “You have only 500,000 men in your army; what would you do if I invaded with 1 million men?”

Swiss General: “Well, I suppose every one of my soldiers would need to fire twice.”

Writing is the only thing that when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.—Gloria Steinem

Exceed your bandwidth—sign on the wall of the maintenance shop at the West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center

One thing I do know, if you keep at it, you usually wind up getting something done.—Patricia Monaghan

Do you want to know what kind of person makes the best reporter? I’ll tell you. A borderline sociopath. Someone smart, inquisitive, stubborn, disorganized, chaotic, and in a perpetual state of simmering rage at the failings of the world.—Brett Arends

It is a very simple mind that only knows how to spell a word one way.—Andrew Jackson

3:30 is too late or too early to do anything—Rene Descartes

Everything is okay when it’s 50-below as long as everything is okay. – an Alaskan in Tom Walker’s “The Seventymile Kid”

You can have your own opinion but you can’t have your own science.—commenter arguing on a story about polar bears and global warming

He looks at three ex wives as a good start—TV police drama

Talkeetna: A friendly little drinking town with a climbing problem.—a handmade bumper sticker

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Makeup is not for the faint of heart—the makeup guerrilla

“I’m going to relax in a very adult manner.”—Danica Patrick after sweating it out and qualifying half an hour before Andretti

“Asking Congress to come back is like asking a mugger to come back because he forgot your wallet.”—a roundtable participant on Fox of all places

As Republicans go further back in the conception process to define when life actually begins, I am beginning to think the eventual definition will be life begins in the beer I was drinking when I met her.—me again

Hunting is a “critical element for the long-term conservation of wood bison.”—a state department of Fish and Game official explaining why the state would not go along with a federal plan to reintroduce wood bison in Alaska because the agreement did not specifically allow hunting

Each day do something that won’t compute – anon

I can’t belive I still have to protest this shit – a sign carriend by an elderly woman at an Occupy demonstration

Life should be a little nuts or else it’s just a bunch of Thursdays strung together—Kevin Costner as Beau Burroughs in “Rumor has it”

You’re just a wanker whipping up fear —Irish President Michael D. Higgins to a tea party radio announcer

Being president doesn’t change who you are; it reveals who you are—Michelle Obama

Sports malaprops

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"… there's a fearlessment about him …"

"He's got to have the lead if he's going to win this race." "

"Kansas has always had the ability to score with the basketball."

"NFL to put computer chips in balls." Oh, that's gotta hurt.

"Now that you're in the finals you have to run the race that's going to get you on the podium."

"It's very important for both sides that they stay on their feet."

This is why you get to hate sportscasters. Kansas beats Texas for the first time since 1938. So the pundits open their segment with the question "let's talk about what went wrong." Wrong? Kansas WON a football game! That's what went RIGHT!

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Cliches so embedded in sportscasters' minds they can't help themselves: "Minnesota fell from the ranks of the undefeated today." What ranks? They were the only undefeated team left.

A good one: A 5'10" player went up and caught a pass off a defensive back over six feet tall. The quote? "He's got some hops."

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"First you have to get two strikes on the hitter before you get the strikeout."

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"If they score runs they will win."

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"That was a playmaker making a play.”