IR from 2240 last night. Isolated heat has been removed for clarity on some pics. Clear areas do not indicate no heat, many reasons for heat not showing on IR runs. Only eyes on the ground can determine when it is safe to enter an area.
Feint white line indicates previous fire perimeter
Continued cooling off above 50. A lot of timber on these side slopes can burn through and roll down posing a threat to vehicles on Hwy 50
Crews doing close in work around all the cabins in the Echo Lakes basin. Minimizing structure damage. Some of the ‘advancement’ of the fire could be the IR plane with just a slightly different angle when its doing its overflight in this steep country. It could also be my Google Earth not cooperating. Tactical decisions are best made with eyes on the ground by the DIVS that roam the areas.
The lower finger looks to be pretty much contained. Its that pesky upper one that continues to give them problems. Looks to be at least a couple of spots out ahead, where the fire advanced yesterday.
IR from 2233 last night. Isolated heat has been removed for clarity on some pics. Clear areas do not indicate no heat, many reasons for heat not showing on IR runs. Only eyes on the ground can determine when it is safe to enter an area.
Feint white line indicates previous fire perimeter
*** Note *** Today we’re supposed to have the start of pattern of possible thunderstorms in this area, both wet and dry. Thunderstorm can bring very erratic and strong winds. A good chance some of the lines will be wind tests today/tomorrow. Any uncontrolled edges can have explosive growth. Head on a swivel!
Still some heat over Hwy 50 and near Wrights lake. They are bringing handline up into the granite. Not expecting much to happen up hear (except a lot of grunt work by firefighters). Not many areas for it to grow as granite doesn’t burn. But interesting enough it does melt at 2300 degrees. This will be the last shot of this area unless something changes.
From @TheBrushSlasher comment yesterday. They have handline down by the lakes in the Echo Lake basin and are letting the fire slowly creep down to it. Hopefully this is doing beneficial work by cleaning up the forest floor and not damaging the trees. Crews are all around this area preventing damage to cabins in the area.
The blue line indicates controlled fire line edge (“blackline”), I tried black but it was difficult to see in some places. Not much to say hear, mop up time.
This is the pocket between the two eastern fingers. Yesterday a larger smoke column than recent was seen. Looks like that finger of unburned fuel in the upper finger didn’t last. In addition some additional spread of the perimeter a little west of that.
Looking over the lower eastern finger. Some additional spread to the north from it. Interesting to see the fires stopping closely to the edge of the 2019 Caples burn (blue area). Reduced fuel load assists with containment in an area.
Only area of interest was between the two fingers (looking to the northwest), some minimal growth and a few spots. The larger one they have lined with dozers. The rain cooled some areas down and surprisingly a few areas warmed up, probably due to the increase in winds. Otherwise the IR looked very similar to two days ago.
IR from 2317 last night. Blue lines indicate contained line “Blackline”, the color blue shows up better. There is no white (previous perimeter) lines as there was no spread to speak of. Clear areas do not indicate no heat, many reasons for heat not showing on IR runs. Only eyes on the ground can determine when it is safe to enter an area.
Looking south over Lower Echo Lake. They’ve mopped up 50’ in and are going for more. General area is cooling off.
Looking south over the basin. Last pic unless something changes which I doubt as most of it is blacklined and wind tested. They opened up the North Upper Truckee Rd to folks. Welcome back. Xmas Valley is the only large area that remains closed for the basin.
Looking north over the catchers mitt of open line. All spots have been ringed. Now they’re trying to connect the all the dozer line with the handlines. The lower blue area is the Caples fire from 2019.
