Grand Canyon North Rim Fire

Smoke billows up over the Grand Canyon in an image released on July 11, 2025 [Handout/National Park Service via Reuters]

Aljazeera has the story.

Fire Season

Rowena Fire - Leslie Lamb

Iowa man has moved to Bingen, Washington. It's across the river from Hood River.

Hood River, Bingen, Rowen Fire, The Dalles

He reports:

Sitting waiting for Angie’s orthopedic consult. Both of us have bum left knees. My xray was yesterday, my consult in September after pt.

Then later today up to the mountain to haul gear for Stephen, our 72 hippy ski bum friend who is going to self build his forever cabin on 15 wilderness acres.  He has a bum knee too. Angie’s bro-in-law, 68, is soon to have both knees replaced. The year of the knee!

Being laid up dampened my plans for exploring on mc, biking, hiking…but there is nice.

Two forest fires either side of us, fortunately no smoke at house. One 50 acres, the other 2500 stage 3 evacuations. I think they are out.  

Our 72 yo ski friend Steven bought 20 acres (cheap) of eastern Oregon sparsely treed dry land, zero population nearby.  Rough road along a dry creek to the no-utility lot, passing a couple of  long disused and deteriorated camper RVs.   

His plan is to build a cabin for off-ski season use,  stay with friends near the ski slopes in the winter (not us).

To this end he has so far had a shipping container placed into a hillside.  He plans on sharing a neighbor's wood mizer (mile away) in exchange for 50% of the cut lumber, sourced from his 20 acres.

He drives a 15 yo Ford Escape, hoping to upgrade to a Ford PU soon.

Fun to visit.  Stephen seems happy but I would want something on the grid and less dry,  it was crackling tinder dry.

On the way home we detoured around the Rowena fire, 3200 acres, 40+ homes destroyed.

Container in hillside

Digging Equipment

Smoke Forecast

Current Wildfire Situation

Linked website has animated map where you can see the situation as it has unfolded.

Via Detroit Steve

If It ain't the Russians, it's Mother Nature

AT-802F Fire Bosses at Ladd Army Airfield in Fairbanks, Alaska, July 4, 2022 - Scott Raymond/U.S. Forest Service

It's forest fire season in Alaska and it's shaping up to be a bad one. The smoke is so bad in Fairbanks (see orange sun in above photo) that aircraft are often grounded.

Forest Fires in Siberia

Vehicles drive along a road covered with smoke from wildfires in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, May 7, 2022 [Alexander Manzyuk/Reuters]

90 MPH winds brought down electrical lines and the sparks started the fires. Sounds like California.

“But there hasn’t been rain for a long time, there were fires, and then strong wind”.

Forest-rich Siberia has suffered from unprecedented fires for several years. - Aljazeera

Krasnoyarsk is 2,000 miles east of Moscow and 1,500 miles northwest of Beijing.

 

Kamov

Kamov Ka-32A11BC C-N 9712

This might have been taken in 2019 on the Canary Islands when they had some severe wildfires. You can see cables hanging from an attachment point underneath the fuselage, for carrying water bags.

Martin Mars

Hawaii Mars

Martin JRM Mars flying boats were developed during WW2 as cargo planes for the Navy. The JR in JRM is just a Navy code for Utility-Transport Aircraft, so JRM just means JR - Mars. Only seven were made. The six production aircraft were all named after Pacific Ocean island chains. The Navy retired them in 1956. Coulson still has two of them at their base on Vancouver Island, 80 miles due west of the city of Vancouver.

The Martin Mars air tankers make their home at Sproat Lake - Mike Youds

The Martin Mars Hawaii drops its load of water - Coulson Company

Coulson Mars FLying Boats at their base on Sproat Lake 
Port Alberni, British Columbia, Canada - 2009 - John Allan

Sproat Lake, the seaplane base and the Port Alberni Airport

The Martin Mars is a very large airplane. Just how big is it? Here's a comparison with a couple others from the same era:

Comparison of Martin Mars, Convair Peacemaker & Spruce Goose
(that little triangle in the lower left corner is part of the Hindenburg)

DC-10 Bombs Lava Fire

McDonnell Douglas DC-10 Water Bomber
Departing Medford for the Lava Fire burning near Mt Shasta.

Fire season is picking up.

The map shows heat on the Lava Fire detected by satellites.
The red dots were detected at 2:54 p.m. PDT June 29, 2021.

We seem to have a new technique for measuring wildfire. dailytimewaster will be interested.

Firefighting with a Bell 205A

Bell 205A works Cottonwood Valley Fire on BLM land June 14, 2021

Looks like wildfire season is getting an early start this year. The Cottonwood Valley Fire is in the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area (map), which is just west of Las Vegas, Nevada.

The Bell 205A is the civilian version of the Vietnam War era Huey.

Airplane of the Day - Air Tractor AT-802 Fire Boss

Air Tractor AT-802 Fire Boss In ACTION on Vaseux Lake
VMC Aviation Videos
A new job for the Air Tractor: fighting forest fires. The Air Tractor is a crop duster. This video is a little long and somewhat repetitive. It was recorded in British Columbia.



AT802 Fireboss Scooping Performance
Eder Navacerrada
This video has a different viewpoint and was shot in Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

Water bombers have appeared here before, but they were all larger aircraft.

Via AVGEEKERY.COM

I Smell Smoke Part Seven

 

OHSU Tram

Here is another view of the tram on a smokeless day. The situation might be improving. Yesterday morning the sun was still red and dim, you could look right at it and wonder if maybe the planet Mars had come to visit. Yesterday afternoon it was yellow and considerable brighter, it hurt to look at it for more than a second or two.

I Smell Smoke Part Six

 

Erickson Aero Tanker's Tanker 60 - a 1958 Douglas DC-7B

Operating out of Redmond Oregon

Due to be retired this year

Same image without and with Auto White Balance

Bruce found an explanation about why my photo of the sky showed a yellow sun when it was obviously a red sun.

The Oregonian had a report in this morning's paper about why this years forest fires are so much worse than usual (yes, they are much worse) and what the powers that be are doing about it. The last paragraph is kind of telling.

“I thought the entire [Governor’s Council on Wildfire Response] engaged in good critical thinking,” Donegan said. “They were intellectually honest and took off their partisan hats. It was a big tent approach. Then you get to the legislative process and a lot of those more familiar battle lines reemerged. That was obviously very disappointing.”

 

I Smell Smoke Part Five

 

Water bomber loading up at Henry Hagg Lake, about 30 miles from here.

Washington County Sheriff's Office

Via Iaman

Cloud of smoke from California forest fire. 

Via commenter Bruce.

This is like the fifth day of yellow skies.

I Smell Smoke Part Four

 

Red world in Salem Oregon from commenter Bruce.

I Smell Smoke Part Three

 

Bright Red Sun

The sun appeared red and not that bright when I was looking directly at it this morning. Why the camera thinks it is yellow I attribute to techno mumbo-jumbo.

I Smell Smoke Part Two

 

Areas being evacuated due to wildfires in the Willamette Valley

EVACUATION ZONES:  BE READY  BE PREPARED TO LEAVE  LEAVE IMMEDIATELY

We've had high winds and thick haze the last couple of days in Portland Oregon. It is not unexpected, it is the season for forest fires after all. Seems to me that forest fires in Oregon are usually in Eastern portion of the state, not in the Willamette valley. I don't recall hearing about evacuations this close to Portland.

The map above is just an excerpt of a national forest fire map. There are no forest fires east of the Mississippi today.

I Smell Smoke

 

California Bob reports from San Francisco:

'Come to California,' they said.  'The living is good,' they said.

Elsa woke me up in the middle of the night.  "What's the matter?" I asked.  "Get up, it's 9AM," she said.  Pitch black outside.

It's now 11:45 in the morning and still awfully dark outside.  Evil orange hue in the sky.  Wildfire smoke high in the atmosphere.  The dog seems worried but calm.  Fortunately there's actually minimal smoke down here at ground level, we can still breathe.  For now.

Camp Fire

These guns were in a safe rated at 1400 degrees for 45 minutes.

This is part of the destruction wrought by the Camp Fire in Northern California in November of 2018.

Via Posthip Scott

Paradise

Paradise California

I thought fire season was over. Guess not. Paradise was wiped out.

Flying over Paradise California
Notice the clear view of the ground on the screen

Picking up water to fight the Woolsey fire
Not Paradise, but still California

Zuma Beach is near Los Angeles. Paradise is in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Forest Fire in Croatia

Orebic, Croatia

Iaman is off gallivanting around Europe. He lands in Orebic, Croatia, a nice little vacation spot on an island in the Adriatic. And what happens? The local forest catches fire.


Orebic Croatia forest fire