| Subject: |
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I Was There |
| Name: |
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PwrWgnDrvr |
| Date Posted: |
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Jul 2, 05 - 2:28 AM |
| Message: |
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Just got home from a couple weeks at my place in Alaska. Last Sunday I was out fishing on the river when a thunderstorm passed by. About 9pm I went upriver to check out the lightning over the lake. Saw smoke rising from the forest so grabbed the cell and was one of the first to report the fire. I took about 150 pics of the fire as it progressed. Best ones follow.
30 minutes old, about 3 miles away from where the Kenai river runs out of Skilak Lake.(this is just across the west end of the lake - it goes 15 miles to the east.) My place is 7 miles downstream from here, which is 3 miles straight thru the woods. The fire is behind that long peninsula of land u can barely see across the water. I went around the peninsula and watched it for 4 hours. It reached the shore at OO30am.
About 1 mile from shore, first of the bigger flames to be seen.
Forest Service planes and chopper scouted it out but no effort was made to fight it until Wednesday. By then it was over 7000 acres and threatening 700 homes, mine included.
Sun sets at about 2330pm...this is about 2300
The smoke was blowing directly out over the lake. I was under the smoke when it came ashore. Notice how dark it is here...the next pic I moved back out from under it.
It got spookier as the hours went by. I ws not sure what to expect, but the incredible roar of the fire, even as it was a mile away, got my attention.
Its about midnite now, pitch black under the smoke. Tree tops are starting to wave in the heatwind from the approaching flames. Those trees are 50-75' tall. A huge number of the spruce trees are dead/dry from a bark beetle infestation that has decimated the Alaskan forests over the last 5 yrs
I smell the smoke, I feel the heat, I hear the roar, I see the flames, cinders are raining down on me, even some that are still glowing embers....boat motor is on, Im not anchored and Im gittin further offshore!
0030 and it has reached the shore. Check out the corona on those 200' flames! This is night time and I dont need no stinkin flash to get these pics! Im the only human being within 5 miles of this fire at this time.
Its 0100am, Im going home...9 miles of lake and river to traverse, took 30 minutes, this is how much light there is as I come out from under the smoke cloud.
I was not totally prepared to be out this late, temps overnight dropped to low 40's and I had no lights in the boat. But I figured if worse came to worse, I could just hang near the fire for a few hours, stay warm and wait for sunrise at 0400am.
Went back next day and checked it out. This is right where it hit the shore. Crazy how many trees at the very edge of the forest did not burn.
Took a stroll thru the still smoldering ashes. Was very careful to not step in the hot ember piles and really paid attention to the wind as the smoke was pretty thick here and the fire was still raging nearby. The ash was about 6-12" deep.
U can clearly see that the last row of trees at the shore didnt burn. Amazing!
This is ground zero where the huge flames were last night. Ive never seen a tree grow in a complete circle like this.
Smoke Wednesday morning viewed from my front yard. This is the day they started fighting it.
This smoke is a backfire that was set along the first mile of riverbank where it runs out of the lake. This is near the spot where I took the first pic the night it started, looking 3 miles across the west end of the lake.
As of Thursday night it is over 10,000 acres. Supression efforts have been quite successful and it is not currently threatening homes. There have been unprecedented lightning strikes in this part of Alaska this week, with over 100 on Wednesday. 3 new fires were ignited Weds, but they are now being fought vigorously from the start. It is standard practice to allow many lightning fires to burn but with the beetle killed forests, the unusually dry weather the last few years, that policy is being reconsidered when there are homes anywhere close by.
And I did get a chance to catch some salmon and halibut |
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Re: Wow! by Phil Street · Jul 2, 05 - 4:10 AM
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