Fire and Smoke
Incident: Lion Complex Wildland Fire
Released: 7/31/2009
Fire and Smoke
Kernville, CA...For approximately three weeks, the Kern Plateau and the southern end of the Sequoia National Forest have been experiencing active thunderstorm activity. Approximately half a dozen fires were ignited by lightning. Suppression action was taken immediately on five fires while one fire, the "Lion" was monitored and evaluated by fire managers to become a fire used for resource benefit. The Lion fire is presently 1,700 acres and will continue to have interior burning for the next week or more.
Fire effects have been good and fire managers are keeping daily acreage to a minimum to help minimize smoke impacts. However, as with all fires, smoke can still become an issue of concern. Fire Managers met this morning to attempt to mitigate smoke output concerns expressed over the Lion Fire. Further attempts to mitigate the smoke output in the Kennedy Meadows area will be put in place today.
Incident Commander, Joe Reyes, stated, "We estimate that the fire has about 830 acres left to consume. We are estimating anywhere between 50 to 150 acres a day will burn which would be approximately 5 to 6 days for the fire to burn out interior islands." Incident Commander trainee, Bren Townsend went on to say, "The fire modules plan to burn less acreage per day, than previous days, thus lessening smoke output." The remaining acreage contains a few scattered pockets of concentrated fuel in old logging slash areas, which will put out larger amounts of smoke as fire burns through them. The fire behavior has been mostly backing and creeping with minimal isolated torching.
Fire Managers utilize Sierra Nevada Fire WebCams, a Real-Time Particulate Monitor located on the Southfork of the Kern River in Kennedy Meadows, participate in a daily statewide smoke management conference call where they coordinate with meterologists up and down the state, and talk to air quality regulators at the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (SJVAPCD). Also, the SJVAPCD provides us with a daily fire emission dispersion advisory for the Granite and Lion fires regarding smoke dispersion up to a 7 day range.
Residents and visitors to the area should be advised that occasional flare ups and smoke will be visible for an extended period of time. As time goes by, smoke will be less and less.
Presently the Kern River Valley is experiencing a decrease in air quality as hot and dry winds have swept in air pollution from the San Joaquin Valley. The Kern River Valley also experienced smoke in the area from a wildfire, Wednesday, in Madera.
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On July 22, the "Granite" fire was located by aircraft flying over the Kern Plateau. Unlike the previous week's five suppression fires, the Granite was monitored and evaluated to be a candidate for "use for resource benefit."
The Granite fire is estimated at 30 acres and located northeast of Granite Knob on the Kern Plateau. A hand crew, Crew 6, is presently preparing control lines and monitoring the fire. This fire is expected to burn in a northeast to easterly direction burning in mixed pine, Jeffrey and Lodgepole, and at the higher elevation, Red fir. We do not expect any road or trail closures at this time.
Information can be obtained from the following websites:
Interagency real-time smoke particulate monitoring web site: http://www.satguard.com/usfs/default.asp
Sierra Nevada Fire Web Cams: http://sierrafire.cr.usgs.gov/swfrs/Pages/WebCam.html
InciWeb: http://www.inciweb.org/
For further information, please contact Cindy Thill, Public Affairs - Fire, at (760) 376-3781 or cell (760) 417-0608.
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