Monday Morning National Wildfire Update, And A Workout:

Crews still being called and Pre-Po'd in the Southwest.

As the small but frequent human-caused fires continue in the southwest, Hotshot crews are still being rotated out in Region 3. Seven Hotshot crews time out in the next 24 hours, and yesterday, a handful of crews were ordered up to backfill.

Snake River, Tatanka, Inyo, and Roosevelt Hotshots got the call to respond to the Southwest Region. You even have a few solid Type 2 IA crews called in from out of state, including Vegas Valley, Twin Peaks, and Salt Lake 1. But really, it hasn’t been that busy across the nation when it comes to wildfires and big campaign fires. The busiest resources this year have been the retardant tankers and SEATS.

But even talking to aviation folks, they say it’s been slow. Not too surprising since it’s only June 10th, but some folks have started to get antsy. The majority of the fires that have started have been 1-3 day desert fires minus the Blue 2 and Indios. The Top Fire in Arizona burned 3,375 acres over the weekend and cost $1M so far… but she’s basically done.

The Top Fire: Subscriber Submitted

The Bravo Fire ripped almost 1,000 acres outside of Flagstaff, but it’s already 72% contained. The Bear Fire is an interesting fire…. It started this weekend and quickly brought in a Team plus local and out-of-region Hotshot crews, but it fell on its face after tankers slammed it before sundown the first day. They currently have 203 people assigned to that fire.

The Bear Fire: Arizona, subscriber submitted

Then you have the wild card… The Pioneer Fire in Washington. It started off the shoreline of Lake Chelan and quickly grew to 300+ acres. The next day a Complex Incident Management Team was ordered. I was a little surprised by that, but logistically, and with the location of the fire, I can understand that decision. Plus, it’s slow… might as well bring some PNW folks in. Baker River Hotshots were called to that, and in total, there are 100 people assigned to that scenic fire already.

Here is the origin photo of that incident sent in by a subscriber: Interesting…

Pioneer Fire, origin photo

Utah had a small lighting bust, but nothing got that big; Idaho City Hotshots got to put in some work on the Rockville Fire. It was a classic Utah fire, steep, rocky, and hot.

Idaho City Hotshots working the Rockville Fire, Subscriber submitted

Other than that, Florida has a handful of fires, Alaska has an 8,000-acre lightning bomb, Nevada has a small desert fire, and California is chasing around a bunch of 1-day grass fires.

So if you’re on a crew that’s still sitting, you might as well give something back to Big Ernie and crush out a workout.

Get yourself a good soundtrack or podcast.

Let’s do it.

Round 1: Three Times