Honeybee WFU Fire
Location: 30 S of Lone Pine, Inyo Co., CA
Specific Location: SW of Haiwee Pass, Inyo National Forest, South Fork of the Kern River
Date of Origin: 05/06/08
Cause: Lightning
Situation as of 05/23/08 PM
Total Personnel: 0
Size: 1,235 acres
Containment: 0%
Costs to Date: $244,000
All personnel have been pulled from the fire. An 8-man fire use module will be detailed tomorrow. The fire will be monitored for future activity. Light snow has damped fire.
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Situation as of 05/23/08 AM
Total Personnel: 81 ?
Size: 1,255 acres ?
Containment: not reported
Costs to Date: $181,300 (not updated)
A shroud of silence has descended on the Honeybee Fire. No daily update report has been posted for 2 days. The USFS has plunged this fire into a black hole of secrecy and deceit. All information from this point on must be regarded as untrustworthy and suspect.
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Situation as of 05/21/08 PM
Total Personnel: 81
Size: 1,235 acres
Containment: not reported
Costs to Date: $181,300 (not updated)
Crews continue to hold E and S containment lines, cooling the interior with helicopter-delivered water on hot spots. No significant growth today. Red Flag Weather warning still in effect, gusty winds and thunderstorms predicted. Winds N 20 to 30 mph, changing to W 10 to 15 mph tomorrow afternoon.
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Situation as of 05/20/08 PM
Total Personnel: 81
Size: 1,235 acres
Containment 0%
Costs to Date: $181,300
Planned Actions: continue holding, cooling the interior and hot spot with bucket when able.
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Situation as of 05/20/08 AM
Total Personnel: 74
Size: 1,225 acres (No significant growth 05/19)
Containment 0%
Additional 8-man crew, helicopter, and helicopter support personnel added today. Currently 1 Type 1 line crew, 4 Type 2 line crews, 2 helicopters.
Maximum Manageable Area (MMA) defined in general geographic terms only, but approx. 30,000 acres.
RED FLAG WARNING
The National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag Warning for much of southern Sierra Nevada, Mohave County, Arizona, and portions of southeast California from 1 pm to 9 pm this evening (Tues. 05/20) for gusty winds and low humidities.
A strong area of high pressure will give way to a strong Pacific low pressure system which will reach Northern California this afternoon. Increasing southwest winds will combine with hot and dry weather to produce critical fire weather conditions this afternoon and evening.
Pacific Crest Trail is open.
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Situation as of 05/19/08 AM
Total Personnel:57
Size: 1,225 acres
Containment 0%
Cost to date $156,000
Fire progression:
05/06 __ 1 acre
05/12 __ 185
05/13 __ 300
05/15 __ 370
05/16 __ 950
05/17 __ 1085
05/18 __ 1150
05/19 __ 1225
Weather: A strong area of high pressure will hold over the region today and then gradually give way to a strong pacific low pressure system which will reach the Sierras Tuesday afternoon. Increasing southwest winds will combine with hot and dry weather to produce critical fire weather conditions in several zones Tuesday afternoon and evening.
Winds currently SW 10 to 15 mph increasing to 20 to 30 mph in the afternoon.
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Situation as of 05/18/08 AM
Total Personnel:57
Size: 1150 acres
Containment 0%
From Cal Fire News [here]: The Sequoia National Forest deployed the Fulton Hotshots and Springville (Type 2 IA crew) into the Kern drainage to keep the fire spread from moving further south. The Inyo has checked fire spread along the crest to prevent fire from running down towards Highway 395.
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Situation as of 05/17/08 PM
Total Personnel:57
Size: 1150 acres
Containment 0%
Fire progression:
05/06 __ 1 acre
05/12 __ 185
05/13 __ 300
05/15 __ 370
05/16 __ 950
05/17 __ 1085
05/17 __ 1150
Two 25-man crews were sent out today to fight the Honeybee WFU Fire. The 8-man fire use management team (FUM) was unable to manage or “steer” the fire as high winds caused the fire to expand nearly 4-fold over the last 2 days.
No notice has been issued regarding the Pacific Crest Trail. The Honeybee Fire has crossed Kern River to the West and is creeping along east flank and South Fork of Kern River.
As far as we know the official status of the Honeybee Fire is still WFU although suppression efforts have been applied.
No mention of this incident on InciWeb.
No cost to date information has been released.
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Situation as of 05/17/08 AM
Total Personnel: 8
Size: 1085 acres
Containment 0%
Fire progression:
05/06 __ 1 acre
05/12 __ 185
05/13 __ 300
05/15 __ 370
05/16 __ 950
05/17 __ 1085
Is the Honeybee Fire blowing up? No listing on InciWeb. Mostly an info blackout, except for Calfire blog. Large acreage expansions in last two days with strong east winds. Does the USFS really expect to Let It Burn until next Fall?
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Situation as of 05/16/08
Total Personnel: 8
Size: 950 acres
Containment 0%
Fire progression:
05/06 __ 1 acre
05/12 __ 185
05/13 __ 300
05/15 __ 370
05/16 __ 950
Fire is putting up black smoke 1500-2000 feet in the air, picking up on the west side flanking with tree torching, east side making small runs. Fire has crossed Kern River to the West and is creeping along east flank and South Fork of Kern River.
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Situation as of 05/15/08
Total Personnel: 8
Size: 370 acres
Containment 0%
Fire progression:
05/06 __ 1 acre
05/12 __ 185
05/13 __ 300
05/15 __ 370
Summary: The fire is burning in the area between Haiwee Pass and Olancha Pass, towards the south and west. It has reached the South Fork of the Kern River, and is expected to continue growing, burning onto the Sequoia National Forest.
USFS report: A hand crew, specially trained in wildland fire use, is assigned to the fire and is camping out in the vicinity of the fire, providing on-the-ground observations and monitoring of weather conditions and fire spread predictions. A helicopter is also assigned to the fire and will be used for reconnaissance flights as necessary.
With the north winds, smoke from the Honeybee Fire is traveling down-canyon towards Kennedy Meadows and is expected to have some impact on the area.
Pacific Crest Trail is open?
Note: this map (courtesy Cal Fire News [here]) is from when the fire was 300 acres.
The notion that the USFS is going to allow a fire to burn unimpeded from now until Oct/Nov in CA forests upwind of Las Vegas is so stupid and irresponsible as to defy sanity.
We will be posting some severe criticism on SOS Forests soon, unless rational leaders do something immediately. If not, the Inyo and Sequoia NF managers are positioned squarely in front of the fan and when the stuff hits it, they are going to be coated but good.
You dudes and dudettes want to play hardball? I’m ready. Batter up.
Here are some names and numbers. Consider this the opening pitch:
Supervisor’s Office, Inyo National Forest
Jim Upchurch, Forest Supervisor
351 Pacu Lane, Suite 200
Bishop, CA 93514
760-873-2400
760-873-2538 TDD
White Mountain Ranger Station
Garry Oye, District Ranger
798 North Main Street
Bishop, CA 93514
760-873-2503
760-873-2501 TDD
Robert Sommers
Interagency Fire Management Officer
760-872-5007
Honeybee whoofoo fire tripled in size today in strong N and NE winds.
I allow guest editorials at Cal Fire News send me one.
Bob - Editor CFN
Oh Yeah and that map should have a CFN credit on it?… I work hard saving and cropping etc, all those maps, Nice website keep up the good work.
Bob again.
Bob, CFN is 100% great. You are doing a very important job, and ahead of everybody, including me (and InciWeb). Thank you for the good work. We need a CFN in every state.
I have added more credits to you (including the map and post) on the Honeybee Fire. I had already linked to you last week. WISE Fire Tracking is new, only a month old, so still getting all the bells and whistles up.
My (first, not last) editorial on the Honeybee fire is [here]:
You may use all or part of it as you wish.
KUTGW
by Amanda S.
Slow to act, undermanned and under-equipped, Calfire just watched this fire for the first few days to see what would happen. I could have told you what would happen, what always happens: it will spread until someone puts it out.
Amanda, the Honeybee Fire is on the USFS, Federal land, and outside the oversight purview of CalFire. Not their call. The Feds are the dilatory goof-ups on this one.
Although maybe things ought to be different. CalFire and other state fire agencies DO get called when mishandled Fed fires spread to private property. By then the fires are generally raging out of control and the states have to expend considerable resources to put them out.
If CalFire would overstep their authority and put out Fed fires initially, then a lot of expense and grief could be saved. In hindsight, that is true in case after case after case.
It may be that in the future, we will simply do away with Fed firefighting and use the money saved to fund improved state firefighting agencies, who are in most states far better at the job.
And I might note that CalFire responded to the Bighorn Fire and contained it very handily, even though it was on Fed land. CalFire also had a hand in the Apache Fire, also on Fed land. When the cities and communities of SoCal are endangered by Fed fires, CalFire does jump in. The tragedy in the Honeybee Fire is that it is too far from town to warrant CalFire response. Crew for crew, I’d rather have CalFire on the job than most Fed firefighting teams.
If that hurts somebody’s feelings, so be it. CalFire is better at putting out fires, IMHO.
But Amanda, otherwise I quite agree with you. Roasting forests indiscriminately is a horrendous attack on vegetation, wildlife, endangered species, watersheds, airsheds, recreation, historical and cultural sites, public health and safety, scenery, and all other environmental values.
Incineration is the deadly opposite of environmentalism.
A RED FLAG WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 12 PM PDT FRIDAY. EAST TO NORTHEAST WINDS OF 15 TO 30 MPH…WITH LOCAL GUSTS TO 45 MPH…
HOT AND DRY THROUGH MONDAY - A strong ridge of high pressure over California will bring well above normal temperatures and very low humidity to most of the region through Monday.
Temperatures will be 10 to 20 degrees above normal and humidity will be in the single digits and teens across most of the region through Monday.
There will be locally strong and gusty north to east winds over the mountains and below the canyons and passes of Southern California Thursday and Friday.