Firefighters Brace for Harsh Weather
Aug. 27, 2000 -- — Hard, dry winds and rainless lightning are stoking wildfires in the Northwest, in some cases kicking up tornadoes of flames and ash that are starting new fires.
The weather is blowing fire across northwestern states faster than rain falling to their south can help put other fires out. In 24 hours, the amount of American acreage with wildfires burning increased from 1,514,453 Saturday to 1,637,495 acres this morning.
“The weekend’s not over and we expect problems today,” said E. Lynn Burkett, a public information officer at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. “As the sun rises, so does the heat. The beast resurfaces.”
“As of this morning, we have 79 large fires, seven of which are new, burning across 10 western states plus Texas, South Dakota and Florida,” Burkett added.
Too Dangerous for Firefighters
As a safety precaution, officials are suspending firefighting efforts at some blazes until the weather calms down, she added.
That may not happen right away, as a “red-flag” alert continues to threaten Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Wyoming with violent weather friendly to fires, including high winds and dry lightning. There also are winds and lightning south of Idaho, Montana, and Northern California, Burkett said, but there, rain is falling.
In many cases, the dry wind is kicking up “fire whirls,” Burkett said, which are “spinning, rising column[s] of hot air and gasses that carry smoke, debris, cinders and possibly flame.”
“It carries them up and out past containment lines and sometimes a half-mile to several miles ahead of the fire,” she added. “That sparks new fires. Not only that, it increases the uncontained perimeter of the fire.”
Huge Fire
As a result, many of the existing fires are growing. The largest fire, in the Bitterroot National Forest area of Montana, grew from about 244,000 to 259,000 acres overnight as it formed from the collision of two separate large fires Saturday.
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