3 Don't try this at home- Fire in my valley

[christangey]

A wildfire in my valley yesterday, out here we tend to let them run unless there is a reason to intervene. Pilots should NOT attempt this without deep fire-behaviour knowledge and confirmation that the fire is not under legal suppression or other control by your local fire authorities.

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[AlanL]

Wow - amazing to watch. You are quite correct about "Don't try this at home".

Not a sight we often see in the US since fire policies here are to suppress and/or supervise immediately and flyovers for entertaining videos is not a rational thought.

 

[christangey]

Wow - amazing to watch. You are quite correct about "Don't try this at home".

Not a sight we often see in the US since fire policies here are to suppress and/or supervise immediately and flyovers for entertaining videos is not a rational thought.

Yes Alan, the world is a very big place and so is the outback. I know Canada is huge but to give you some real context here is a map of Australia (remembering our country is about the same size as the continental U.S. and that our entire population is less than that of Texas) So, many fires are totally uncontrolled and of course I only film the one's that are.

 

[Rusty_SWO]

Wow - amazing to watch. You are quite correct about "Don't try this at home".

Not a sight we often see in the US since fire policies here are to suppress and/or supervise immediately and flyovers for entertaining videos is not a rational thought.

It's hard to believe, but between forest management and near-instant firefighting work, there's more square miles of forest in North America today than in 1492.

 

[christangey]

It's hard to believe, but between forest management and near-instant firefighting work, there's more square miles of forest in North America today than in 1492.

Sadly, we can only dream of that in Australia. One state, South Australia, now has less than 1% of its original forests.

 

[AlanL]

It's hard to believe, but between forest management and near-instant firefighting work, there's more square miles of forest in North America today than in 1492.

With far too much of those forests ready to burn at a moments notice. Gets a bit freaky towards the end of the dry season up here in the Pacific NW.

 

[christangey]

With far too much of those forests ready to burn at a moments notice. Gets a bit freaky towards the end of the dry season up here in the Pacific NW.

I bet, maybe you need to bring back balloon logging!

 

[Rusty_SWO]

With far too much of those forests ready to burn at a moments notice. Gets a bit freaky towards the end of the dry season up here in the Pacific NW.

Yup. I know that feel- most years, I burn 8 months worth of hepa filters in a single fire season in central California.

 

[Gagey52]

Another great video Chris. Thanks for sharing.
Regards

 

[MS Coast]

It's hard to believe, but between forest management and near-instant firefighting work, there's more square miles of forest in North America today than in 1492.

Hmm. Do you have a source for that?

The information from USFS and others I see says that we have about 75% of what was here in 1600. I doubt that fraction of forested land was much different in 1492 than in 1600. Much of what's considered forest today is monoculture planted pines and not rich natural forest.

Fire does very little to eliminate forested areas compared to what human development does. Where are there examples of fire eliminating forests? It's very easy to see where agriculture, roadways, and development have.

 

[Rusty_SWO]

Hmm. Do you have a source for that?

The information from USFS and others I see says that we have about 75% of what was here in 1600. I doubt that fraction of forested land was much different in 1492 than in 1600. Much of what's considered forest today is monoculture planted pines and not rich natural forest.

Fire does very little to eliminate forested areas compared to what human development does. Where are there examples of fire eliminating forests? It's very easy to see where agriculture, roadways, and development have.

I'm looking for the reference, but there is a reasonable consensus that the introduction of European diseases and the subsequent reduction in indigenous population gave a century or so of re-wilding. Most of the heavy European expansion in North America didn't happen until the mid-late 17th century, which is when the first reliable surveys and maps were done. I do agree that we're at about 75% or so of what was recorded at that time.

 

[Jack43]

A wildfire in my valley yesterday, out here we tend to let them run unless there is a reason to intervene. Pilots should NOT attempt this without deep fire-behaviour knowledge and confirmation that the fire is not under legal suppression or other control by your local fire authorities.

Hi Christan,
holy smoke eerily beautiful and very well presented! I could try this at our place and nothing would happen because we have about 20 centimeters of fresh snow here ❄
cheers Paul

 

[SmilingOgre]

I was having coffee with my father-in-law in Colorado one morning watching a fire at a good distance on the top of a mesa. I asked him how long it will take to put out. He responded "There's nothing up there anybody wants". Same kind of deal. I'm sure somebody was watching it to some degree but no action was taken.

 

[christangey]

Another great video Chris. Thanks for sharing.
Regards

thanks Gagey

 

[chiangmaicharlies]

Very effective soundtrack. What was it please?

 

[RockyMtns]

SmilingOgre, where was the mesa fire......do you recall the year?
Thanks!

 

[SmilingOgre]

SmilingOgre, where was the mesa fire......do you recall the year?
Thanks!

At the time my father-in-law was living in Rifle. Now the date, lol, that's a problem. Had to be maybe about 30 years ago? I wouldn't be surprised things have changed since then given some of the horrendous wild fires they have had out there. Makes me chuckle inside. The memory is like yesterday. One of those things that stuck with me. They also had some long closed mines that were still burning underground and would puff smoke from time to time. I found that amazing as well.

 

[Moving Zen]

A wildfire in my valley yesterday, out here we tend to let them run unless there is a reason to intervene. Pilots should NOT attempt this without deep fire-behaviour knowledge and confirmation that the fire is not under legal suppression or other control by your local fire authorities.

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Great video. You figure that's the lightning strike spot that started the fire.. the top down view at 16 seconds?

 

[DVPOWERS]

Nicely done. At 10 seconds into the video, filming straight down, how high were you?

 

[RkyMtnHigh]

A wildfire in my valley yesterday, out here we tend to let them run unless there is a reason to intervene. Pilots should NOT attempt this without deep fire-behaviour knowledge and confirmation that the fire is not under legal suppression or other control by your local fire authorities.

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Nice video. That's a perspective not normally seen around these parts here in Colorado. I'm a firefighter as well as a wildland firefighter, and I had the honor(?) of getting to work on the two largest wildland fires in our State's history over the past 3 years. One nearly burning down our entire town. I love seeing how other parts of the world deal with these types of fires. Here we try to get them under control as soon as possible, where in other regions they let them burn. Some of your fires are huge and very devastating. Your fire seasons are nothing to balk at. Be safe down there!