By David E. Hubler
Contributor, EDM Digest
The Mendocino Complex Fire in northern California, which consists of the Ranch and River fires, recently became the largest wildfire in state history. On August 13, the Ranch Fire, the bigger of the two blazes, claimed its first victim.
At a 10 p.m. news conference on Monday, Cal Fire confirmed that a firefighter from Utah, who had been “working on an active portion of the [Ranch] fire,” was injured. The firefighter was airlifted to a nearby hospital where he later died, the Sacramento Bee reported.
The incident is under investigation, the statewide fire agency Cal Fire said. No other details on the firefighter or the incident were released.
Eight other victims died this year in the Carr Fire in Shasta and Trinity counties.
The Mendocino Complex Fire, which extends across Mendocino, Lake and Colusa counties, has also resulted in two injuries and destroyed 264 structures since it was sparked on July 27.
Ranch Fire Reaches Milestone Size
The Ranch Fire became the first California wildfire to reach the milestone size of 305,490 acres, as of 7 a.m. on Tuesday, after spreading another 5,000 acres overnight, Cal Fire reported.
Containment of the Ranch Fire grew from 59 percent to 68 percent from Monday to Tuesday morning, Cal Fire added. But the Ranch Fire continues to threaten more than 1,000 structures, according to the Sacramento Bee.
Scientists Studying How Fire’s Winds Behave to Understand Their Environmental Impact
Firefighters are not the only ones attempting to stem the rash of historic wildfires that are plaguing the western states.
Scientists at the Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory in Montana are recreating and studying the whirls that act like furnaces and produce winds of 140 miles an hour or more. “The scientists are racing to develop a deeper understanding of the combined effects of a warmer climate, massive tree die-offs that feed the wildfires and developments encroaching into the wilderness,” The New York Times reported.
For example, in late July, the Carr Fire in California recorded winds up to 143 miles per hour.They roared and spun for 90 minutes, “scooping up ash, debris and flames.” The winds “uprooted trees, stripped the bark off them and downed power lines. The whirl, sometimes nicknamed a ‘firenado,’ was so large it was picked up on Doppler radar,” the Times said.
In recent years, researchers have found that the energy release rate of a wildfire is variable. “As [the fire] gets bigger, it burns fuel at a higher rate, and that means they are a lot less predictable than we thought,” Research Forester Dr. Mark Finney told the Times.
“Nature hides its mysteries pretty well,” Dr. Finney added. “It’s hard to believe, but the physics of how fires behave is largely mysterious. We’re in the days before the Enlightenment in this field. We need better science.”
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