Fire or Control Burn on Apache Peak?

[cynthia23]

They just now (at 11.30 am) posted it at 600 acres and moving south. Certainly it looks big. There is no word on how it started.

[asabat]

...maybe a PCT hiker let something loose.

I sure hope not. The photos at http://www.towncrier.com/pctfire.html taken by a PCT hiker seem to suggest it was not a stove fire, given the jagged stump on a steep slope. Perhaps an old lightning strike fanned by the recent winds?

[scottmac]

Skyline - today / 8:45am at 4300 feet cairn.

[cynthia23]

I am going to start a new post about this. I just checked FightOn's link and the MSJ park is currently closed. Many people doing C2C this weekend; they need to be aware of this ....

[AlanK]

The Tramway Web site says that the backcountry areas are closed but Long Valley is open.

[Tim Le]

The photos at http://www.towncrier.com/pctfire.html taken by a PCT hiker seem to suggest it was not a stove fire, given the jagged stump on a steep slope.

Yeah, looks like just the stump was on fire. Would it have been possibly to have put it out by throwing a lot of dirt on it?

[cynthia23]

Yeah, I wondered that too, Tim! It looks like you could just dump some dirt on it and I puzzled why the hiker didn't try to put it out. But maybe it was already more extensive than the picture shows, in which case I don't blame him at all for getting the heck out of dodge. Wish we could hear more about it, but of course the local paper, with their usual lethargy, has barely found a way to report even a few (wrong) facts.

[asabat]

Yeah, looks like just the stump was on fire. Would it have been possibly to have put it out by throwing a lot of dirt on it?

No, although they did try. Large logs are very difficult to extinguish. Firefighters use chemicals to break the surface tension so the water penetrates the wood. A smaller log could be rubbed into the ground to rub off all the embers. Obviously this stump was immovable and too big to move anyway.

On another list someone asked if they could have covered it with a blanket. Again, I think this would have been difficult even if they had a suitable blanket rather than a nylon sleeping bag that would just melt.

[dhstein313]

According to
http://inciweb.org/incident/1236/

Cause has just changed to HUMAN CAUSED.

Not good news.

According to the Idlywild Newspaper the cause implied not human.

http://www.towncrier.com/

D

[dhstein313]

http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a ... GECAROUSEL