Fire in the BWCA

[Gulfstream Driver]

Have any of you firefighter dudes been sent to help out in the Boundary Waters?  I understand it's pretty well contained thanks to a lot of hard working people.  I know they called in help from other states, so I was curious if anyone from Roost Air found themselves in MN for a few weeks.

[Mike]

Panaca Jane never made it over there.
We have too many fires on our own district. I have been to 45 fires already and all of them were between 20 and 30,000 acres.
Only 3 single-tree-fires so far which used to be more common in this area. We are working 14 hour days and flying an average of 6 hours a day since the middle of June .... it's been crazy.
I really ougtha add up how many buckets I flew and how many landing I did...
I am REALLY current right now, let me tell you...

But maybe Jim, Bob, or Firegirl made it over there. (Chuckar101 is with me)

[Gulfstream Driver]

Just curious.  I guess a 6,000 acre fire kind of pales in comparison to the stuff you deal with.

[happylanding]

Gosh! 20000 30000 acres is a real lot.  they happen because of negligence or there are also arsons?

[fireflyr]

Gosh! 20000 30000 acres is a real lot. they happen because of negligence or there are also arsons?

Depends on the area, something like 90 % of acreage burned in California is man-caused (arson, careless campers, car fires, sparks from train wheels, etc) and the rest are natural (lightning).
Throughout the Midwest, most are caused by lightning.
It's not that Californians are more careless but it's just that you have to consider the population density there (especially the Southern end of the state) is higher than elsewhere.  And people that live in citys tend to be less knowledgable of fire-safe practices when they are in urban interface areas.

[Mike]

Gosh! 20000 30000 acres is a real lot.  they happen because of negligence or there are also arsons?

I just got back from a 3,000 acre fire yesterday.
This morning on the sit-report I saw one burning in Southern Idaho that's supposed to be 200,000 acres ...
Now that's a big a$$ fire !!! 

@ Gulf:
You're right, 6,000 acres in Nevada isn't usually much to write home about for us.
Does seem pretty big for MN though....
Last week we sized up a complex of two fires where "the smaller one" was 15,000 acres. That was a pretty big TFR, let me tell you.....
The big one ended up being 30,000 in the end and when it blew up it created it's own cumulus build-up which then caused more lightning which then started 3 more fires in front of the fire created cell. It was pretty impressive.
Of course we don't try to fight these, we just watch in that case and see what we can do in the morning.
Good times, good times, ...

[happylanding]

Thanks for the answer, Fireflyr.    I asked you since every year in tv we hear about fires in california, and I was wondering where did they come from...if there so many arsonists all around california....Damn, fire destroys everything so easily. we once forgot a candle lit in the living room. as soon as we can back (thanks to the cat, that was behaving like a mad) the table and the carpet were burning, maybe one minute and the sofa would have caught fire too.  And I can see your point about about not sufficient knowledge. I burnt my shirt trying to dry it, the first time I lived in a camp 

[fireflyr]

Thanks for the answer, Fireflyr.     I burnt my shirt trying to dry it, the first time I lived in a camp 

Hopefully, you weren't wearing it at the time!!!!!!