Mt Whitney Zone Forums The Chat Room Aspen Fire Update

Update #17
Release for Friday, August 2, 2013/Time: 7:00 AM

Incident Statics
Acres Burned:           17,791
Structures Threatened:   3
Containment:             45%
Structures Damaged:     0
Fire Start Date:   July 22, 2013
Injuries:                   2
Fire Cause:       Lightning
Total Personnel:   1941
Cost to date:   $14.9 million

Summary

1. The Fire is located within the Sierra National Forest in Fresno County and is approximately seven miles North of Big Creek. It is currently burning off Stump Springs Road, North of Aspen Springs. The South Central Sierra Interagency Incident Management Team is in command of the Aspen Fire.
2. Last night, the weather was cooler with low temperatures in the mid 40’s. The cooler weather caused smoke to settle into the canyons, reducing visibility.
3. Recreation and businesses remain open in the Shaver Lake, Huntington Lake, Lake Thomas Edison, Florence Lake and the Mono Hot Springs areas.

Fire Update

1. Firefighter and public safety remains the highest priority. Fire crews are being sensitive to environmental and cultural resources in and around the fire area.
2. Last nights infrared image showed the direct line construction in the northwest, near Mammoth Pools is holding. The fire growth continued in the northeast and southeast areas of the fire perimeter. Fire crews continued to make good progress with indirect attack operations, but access and fire behavior are still a major safety concern for fire crews. Air and ground resources continue to construct and reinforce indirect line around the fires perimeter. Helicopters dipped for water out of Huntington Lake this morning.
3. Due to the extremely steep, rugged and inaccessible terrain, fire crews are using a tactic called indirect attack which creates control lines away from the fires active edge. Air resources, including several helicopters and air tankers are being utilized along the fire-line to slow the forward progress of the fire and to cool down hot spots. As the situation changes and firefighters can safely gain access to the fire, a more direct attack will be implemented.
4. Smoke from the Aspen Fire continues to impact air quality in local communities. Crews will utilize firing operations over the next three days to assist with enforcing containment lines. Firing operations are actions taken to remove unburned fuels between the active fire line and the contingency lines which fire crews have been creating over the past several days. The operation will put additional smoke into the atmosphere.

An air quality monitoring device has been installed at the Huntington Lake Volunteer Fire Station. The device will provide smoke data from the Aspen Fire to the air resource advisor and the area air pollution control districts.

Individuals sensitive to smoke are advised to remain indoors and keep windows closed to minimize exposure to smoke. For more information regarding smoke visit: www.valleyair.org

Road and Trail Closures

Roads:

Stump Springs Road is closed to all traffic due to fire suppression activity. Minarets Road (4S81) from Fish Creek to Jackass Rock Organization Campground, Grizzly at Beasore Road to Minarets Road are closed to the public. Residents within the road closure are allowed into the area with valid identification.


Trails:

Per the U.S. Forest Service Closure Order Number 15-13-09, all trails within the Kaiser Wilderness are closed.


Closures

Campground closures within the Sierra National Forest are as follows:

Sample Meadow, West Kaiser
Jackass Rock Organization, Lower Chiquito
Little Jackass, Soda Springs
Place, Sweet Water
China Bar, Rock Creek
Mammoth Pool, Wagners Mammoth Pool Resort
Fish Creek

The following campgrounds are closed to house firefighters for suppression efforts:

Midge Creek, Badger Flat and Rancheria.

Cooperating agencies include
The U.S. Forest Service, National Parks Service, U.S. Department of Defense, National Weather Service, California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, Fresno County Sheriff, Madera County Sheriff, California Highway Patrol, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Southern California Edison, PG&E, California Conservation Corp.
For information, please contact Aspen Fire Information line at (559) 893-7018. Updated information can also be obtained at http://www.inciweb.org/incident/3552/ or by following the Sierra National Forest Twitter Account:@sierra_nf

Yosemite National Park posted this time-lapse video showing Yosemite Valley from their Sentinel Dome web cam. It shows the smoke and haze every morning, and then clearing in the afternoons.

I was hiking from Glacier Point on 7/28, and you can see the smoke conditions that day in the video. It was pretty bad in the morning -- could barely see Half Dome, but then it cleared up in the afternoon.

Here's their text with the video:




Here's the Facebook link. It should work even for non-members: Glacier Point Timelapse

The morning haze/afternoon clearing is the effect of the prevailing winds (southerly) and the daily inversion layer. As the ground air heats up, it pushes through the inversion in early afternoon, and smoke column from the fire becomes well defined and ascends more vertically, near its origin. By morning, the inversion layer is back and smoke spreads horizontally

Net effect is that smoke is often as bad many miles from the fire (Mammoth, Bishop) as it is much closer.

I will be walking through this smoke (or what is left of it) next week, and have been watching the daily incident updates very carefully. The fact that the total area has increased to 17,000 acres is actually a good sign: it means that the active fire front is approaching or reaching the lines that have been established (at about 20,000 ac.) and is beginning to run out of fuel. Could be over by this time next week, if the lines hold. Except for a couple of miles of dozer lines that got blown over a few days ago, this fire has been almost textbook for management in inaccessible area: it has gone almost exactly as mapped out by the management team last week: they and the firefighters on the ground and in the air are truly to be commended.