Naming of Fires

Carson Iceberg Wilderness on the Stanislaus NF had a fire in Jackass Canyon, and in the mid to late 90’s and the fire was call Jackass.

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I had an Air Attack assignment on the Chicken, then we had new start nearby named Thunderbolt. So in a few days they burned together, and we became the Thunder Chicken AA.

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If it makes a difference, the deleted post about the Starlight Incident was for a structure fire in the Galaxy Mobile Home Park in Nipomo. The post quoted actual radio traffic during the incident.

In the early 2000’s, there were 2 fires, if memory serves, one called the Buck Lake Fire and another the Big Elk Fire. They were combined to maked the Big Buck Complex. The story I heard after arriving at the camp, the name lasted less than a day and was changed to the Mount Hough Complex. The camp grew to 5000+ people so the first name was spot on.

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He was my captain my first season… Those were the days!

I was the PSC(T) on that. It was 1999 and called the MHRD Complex (for the Mount Hough Ranger District). Five fires and seven branches with about 48 divisions and 5,000 folks at the Quincy Fairgrounds. We were maxed out. Plans was frazzled, Logistics was maxed out, Operations was maxed out. That’s when I decided that the idea of having two operations sections or two logistics sections (as still taught in ICS-400) would not work and should be canned. It would have had to be named the “Biggest Buck” or “More Bang for your Buck” Complex.

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I was your Demob - Crews guy. Almost cut my wrists on that one. I remember one of the expanded dispatchers had had enough when I called for the 500th, “I wanna go home now,” I mean Emergency Demob. She told me she was done and I would have to do my own airline booking. She hung up on me when I chuckled louder than I meant to and told her I wasnt a federal employee and had no purchase card. Never heard about it again and we kept rolling, business as usual. Line out the door from 0600 until about 2100.

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We always groaned when the proximity was anywhere near Dillon Creek! Dillon, Dillon 2, Son of Dillon, Dillon Pants, whatever. Most of us remember the first Dillon, the one that would not go away. Kind of like the Biscuit. And now I will be quietly whisked away by the men in black suits …… :zipper_mouth_face:

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Sounds kind of like MVU… Border 16 fire

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And ALL of it SRA. Ain’t they lucky.

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I remember two fires that grew together in Montana, the Snow Fire & the Talon Fire. The District Ranger said during a meeting - Snow-taloning where the fire is going. :wink:

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2 fires currently in the CA General Discussion:
NEU-River
KNF-River Complex

Yep, knew that was going to lead to confusion. Seems likely that the Summer and Haypress fires in the KNF River Complex will grow together, and the other smaller fires in the complex will be contained. Wonder if they will change the name at some point? Summer Haypress fire maybe (like the Red Salmon last year)?

Also, the River fire showing on CalTopo will take you to last month’s River fire in Madera County (Coarsegold/Ahwahnee/Oakhurst area)

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I recall that incident. Retired BFD Captain.

And there was a River in MMU 3 weeks ago

One of the 2 fires that made up the 2018 Mendo Complex was a “River”. Along with the uniquely names “Ranch”. …I don’t remember which is which,
… I ended up on both of them so I guess it doesn’t matter.

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If memory serves me, Christmas 1999 was spent in Ojai, CA on the Ranch Fire.

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Yep, spent Christmas Day as air attack there and had nice dinner prepared by locals at the Goleta AAB. :cowboy_hat_face:

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