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2024 Wildfire Season

Kootenays aren’t looking too good right now …

Okanagan is hotter than hades

Chinook making it rain in California.

Yikes!

A buddy is currently e-biking across Canada (he's 73) and had a heck of a time going through the southern interior of BC. Outside of the grades, the heat was affecting both him and his battery.
 
Probably Conair’s Electra (which is the civvie version of the Orion).
Most of the Lockhead L-188 Electra's are operated by AirSpray but they are not the only user. Also operated by Buffalo Airways in the NWT. The airframes have had extensive rebuilds though due to parts issues.
 
And Jasper National Park and townsite was evacuated last night...
Less than 1 hour from the Alert to the Evacuation Order.

Fires north of the townsite and south of the townsite. Highway 16 closed and all residents and visitors to evacuated west to BC....some significant drives to get back to Alberta for those headed that way via either Kamloops-> Banff -> Calgary or Prince George -> Chetwynd -> Grande Prairie.

Le sigh...and the resource demands get larger again. Australia and New Zealand on the ground in BC and AB now but everyone is short staffed.
 
This is could get very ugly. The winds are from the NE today and gusting strong at times.
 

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Attending last week’s 49th Natural Hazards Workshop in Colorado, several sessions discussed the urban interface with wildfires and various topics aligned with preparedness and mitigation for the risks from wildfires. Repeatedly, the message is clear, 90% of a successful effort is accomplished before a fire begins. Programs, such as FireSmart, removing burnable debris to 33 feet from habitable buildings and to use non-flammable building materials reduces the start of ember blown fires.

Once a wildfire begins, there was strong agreement that most firefighting efforts centre on saving lives over property. Therefore, allowing most things, such as buildings to simply burn the fuel sources out. No community has enough resources to save all buildings in any wildfire.

Some of the key experts involved in these panel discussions included, Chief Drew Smith, Los Angles County Fire Department, Sophia Soudani, LA County Board of Supervisors and Chief Kelly Burns, Ashland, Oregon.
 
Attending last week’s 49th Natural Hazards Workshop in Colorado, several sessions discussed the urban interface with wildfires and various topics aligned with preparedness and mitigation for the risks from wildfires. Repeatedly, the message is clear, 90% of a successful effort is accomplished before a fire begins. Programs, such as FireSmart, removing burnable debris to 33 feet from habitable buildings and to use non-flammable building materials reduces the start of ember blown fires.

The BC Wildfire Management Branch has that in their boilerplate...

"Wildfire prevention is a shared responsibility between the public, business, local governments and the Province. The BC Wildfire Service has a multi-pronged approach to prevention that includes education, enforcement and engineering (i.e. planning for and implementing fuel and fire management).

The BC Wildfire Service is tasked with managing wildfires through a combination of wildfire prevention, mitigation and suppression strategies, on both Crown and private lands outside of organised areas such as municipalities or regional districts."

 
Alberta sends out a RFA to the CAF...


Technically it’s an RFA to the Minister of Public Safety who in consultation with various government agencies and departments will determine the best possible ways and means of supporting.

Provinces have been coached in the past to ask for effects vs specific GoC assets.

That’s not an easy briefing point to the media though.
 
And the fire has taken out at least a couple of buildings on the south side of Jasper....

Luckily they've been doing more forest management to mitigate fires in the Parks, but who knows if it will be enough....



Logging in Canada’s Most Famous National Park to Save It From Wildfires​


Still reeling from its worst wildfire season on record last year, Canada is now confronting the quick start of a new one. So-called zombie fires, which smoldered under snow-covered ground during the winter, have sprung to life and forced thousands to flee from affected cities and towns in Western Canada.

Coming out of Canada’s warmest winter in history, communities near forests are bracing for another tough wildfire season, and for a future increasingly prone to wildfires as a result of climate change.

Long-planned measures meant to protect against wildfires — like the fire guard in Alberta’s Banff park and other projects in the town of Banff — have taken on a greater sense of urgency.

Last year, a dozen fires were ignited, mostly from lightning, in Banff and two adjoining national parks, including three near the new fire guard. They were quickly extinguished.

But across Alberta, the impact of last year’s record wildfire season was “massive,’’ said Katherine Severson, director of emergency services in the town of Banff.

The increased number of fires in sparsely populated areas of Canada has affected not only nearby communities, but also distant ones, with the intense smoke they have generated floating into southern Canada and into the United States.

 
There is a high probability that that we won’t have a Jasper in the morning
I don’t like coming out and giving opinions that are that strong, but… There’s a real possibility you’re right. Looking at a map and sat photo of the town, confirmed fire locations in the town proper, and the wind… I’m bracing myself for it to look like Lytton tomorrow. The townsite’s contiguous, has no real natural or artificial firebreaks like, say, parts of Fort McMurray, and basically the whole town of Jasper is packed close together and surrounded by woods and interspersed with trees. It’s one big woodland/urban interface.
 
I don’t like coming out and giving opinions that are that strong, but… There’s a real possibility you’re right. Looking at a map and sat photo of the town, confirmed fire locations in the town proper, and the wind… I’m bracing myself for it to look like Lytton tomorrow. The townsite’s contiguous, has no real natural or artificial firebreaks like, say, parts of Fort McMurray, and basically the whole town of Jasper is packed close together and surrounded by woods and interspersed with trees. It’s one big woodland/urban interface.
Yeah sorry I’m not trying to get some kind of hot take clout or what ever. I love going to Jasper, it’s heart breaking to see this happen.

It also renews my rage about Alberts cutting back on fire fighters, watch towers, and rap attack
 
Yeah sorry I’m not trying to get some kind of hot take clout or what ever. I love going to Jasper, it’s heart breaking to see this happen.

It also renews my rage about Alberts cutting back on fire fighters, watch towers, and rap attack
The wind is literally howling from here straight up the Fraser River Valley into Jasper. A huge lightning storm passed just west of us maybe an hour ago. It’s going to be very ugly anyplace a fire is burning that is in the path of the windstorm and the thunderstorms.
 
Yeah sorry I’m not trying to get some kind of hot take clout or what ever. I love going to Jasper, it’s heart breaking to see this happen.

It also renews my rage about Alberts cutting back on fire fighters, watch towers, and rap attack
No, totally get it. I try to be really reserved with stuff like this because it’s people’s homes and livelihoods and I don’t want to feed excitable speculation. But yeah, you’re probably absolutely right. This is worst case.

They have light rain starting in the next couple hours through til mid Friday, but I doubt a millimeter an hour will make much of a dent in this.

This is Jasper Anglican Church on Miette Avenue looking south:


The fire looks to already be several blocks into the town outright. Immediately out of frame to the left is the downtown commercial core of Jasper.
 
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