Tough Fire Happening In Richmond

[Crabcakes]

Just now, Russ said:

Is that from this or is just just in general today?  Fairly smoggy all in Chilliwack all day today until later this afternoon when it broke up.

I think it's mainly from Richmond.  It's a smokey bog fire.  

 

I hope it's clearing.  Can't tell from my window

 

 

[BPA]

The need a helicopter with a Bambi bucket

[hammertime]

1 hour ago, LordCanuck said:

lmao those are being sold off as museum peices now, there so old, they are useless.

Dropping vast quantities of water on a fire is never useless. I have worked a few seasons as a firefighter not claiming to be an expert as its more of a fling from my usual job for me but anything that smashes fire out is generally frowned upon when it comes to firefighting. Key focus is on containing fire mitigating any possible danger then making sure it burns 14 days so you receive a full paycheque then handing it off the next guy who tries to figure out how to get paid for another 14 days. If we paid firefighters the same amount weather they were fighting fires or playing ping pong on stand by I guarantee fires would get smashed out immediately before the next round robin of their ping pong tournament. 

[-AJ-]

My Dad's been sent out to help out with the Canadian Reserves. Hope it all works out.

[Gurn]

3 hours ago, LordCanuck said:

lmao those are being sold off as museum peices now, there so old, they are useless.

Interesting opinion, but perhaps a bit uninformed. There is only one Mars left, and it is  still a viable firefighting plane. It is limited, in that there are only 8 lakes in B.C. that are long enough for it to load water, however the ocean is still close to Richmond.

A far sighted government/ministry of forest would be talking to the federal government about getting Bombardier to build similar planes at 3/4 or 2/3 the size. I say bombardier because after all the money the taxpayers have spent to prop up that company, they kind of owe us.

[Ghostsof1915]

Maybe its time Canada started building Seaplanes. I know it's a small market, but there's a lot of places in Canada that's one of the few ways in and out. And we can build ones that can be air tankers, water bombers, search and rescue? It would be nice to see a few jobs created in the process.

[Ghostsof1915]

 

[-DLC-]

Reports are that the fire should be out this week.   I've heard that the peat can go down as deep as 90' (I haven't confirmed that, so it's hearsay), so that's a lot to contend with. 

[nux4lyfe]

Sucks having a office around there and being n asthmatic.

[-DLC-]

47 minutes ago, nux4lyfe said:

Sucks having a office around there and being n asthmatic.

Oh God, take care.  My son is asthmatic and the struggle is real.  Sorry to hear that!

[RWMc1]

14 hours ago, hammertime said:

Dropping vast quantities of water on a fire is never useless. I have worked a few seasons as a firefighter not claiming to be an expert as its more of a fling from my usual job for me but anything that smashes fire out is generally frowned upon when it comes to firefighting. Key focus is on containing fire mitigating any possible danger then making sure it burns 14 days so you receive a full paycheque then handing it off the next guy who tries to figure out how to get paid for another 14 days. If we paid firefighters the same amount weather they were fighting fires or playing ping pong on stand by I guarantee fires would get smashed out immediately before the next round robin of their ping pong tournament. 

Years ago, I worked on some large fires. The fires were broken up into zones and different crews were responsible for their own zone. We put out our zone quickly and started going into other zones and making them "cold" as well. These unit crews actually threatened us and told us we were working them and ourselves out of a job. Some of them challenged us to fight them but backed down when we accepted. I and another top guy from our crew went onto to do initial attack. So, yeah, many fire fighters try to prolong fires to get bigger paycheques. It wouldn't surprise me if some of them start some fires in order to get work.

[The Beagle had landed]

15 minutes ago, RWMc1 said:

Years ago, I worked on some large fires. The fires were broken up into zones and different crews were responsible for their own zone. We put out our zone quickly and started going into other zones and making them "cold" as well. These unit crews actually threatened us and told us we were working them and ourselves out of a job. Some of them challenged us to fight them but backed down when we accepted. I and another top guy from our crew went onto to do initial attack. So, yeah, many fire fighters try to prolong fires to get bigger paycheques. It wouldn't surprise me if some of them start some fires in order to get work.

Must be why killers and pedophiles get such minimal sentences.

[Hamhuis Hip Check]

16 hours ago, LordCanuck said:

lmao those are being sold off as museum peices now, there so old, they are useless.

Only one going to a museum, ouldnt have to if the contract wasnt allowed to run out, they are actually very modernized and still very reliable 

16 hours ago, Russ said:

The problem from the Mars from talking with a chopper pilot who fights fires, he said with the size of it very few bodies of water can have it take water from because of the size of it and as much as it dropped more volume, the smaller water bombers could get get an equivalent amount and were much easier to obtain water from smaller lakes, etc.

The body of water arguement doesnt hold much water actually, we have 6 or so lakes just around here that it can land at, plus it drops so much at a time its way more effective than a bucket from a chopper, the main reason they arent used anymore is because one of the old cabinet ministers(not 100% if it was a minister or someone else high up) from the bc govt who has a personal beef with the coulsons who own the bombers

[RWMc1]

8 minutes ago, The Beagle had landed said:

Must be why killers and pedophiles get such minimal sentences.

Sense make no!!!

[-DLC-]

[-DLC-]

 

http://www.richmond-news.com/news/richmond-crews-continue-to-battle-wild-land-fire-for-second-day-1.23383099

[Ghostsof1915]

Guess my step brother is working OT. 

[SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME]

9 hours ago, debluvscanucks said:

Reports are that the fire should be out this week.   I've heard that the peat can go down as deep as 90' (I haven't confirmed that, so it's hearsay), so that's a lot to contend with. 

I know in some places, peat depth can go up to 40 feet or so (never heard 90’ but I suppose it’s possible), but I don’t think that’s the case in Richmond.

 

The survey from the Garden City Lands project took around 50 measurements throughout the site and found peat depth ranged between 50cm and 100cm.

 

Source: https://www.richmond.ca/__shared/assets/GCL_Biophysical_Inventory_-_July_201341823.pdf

 

(Appendix B on p73 of the above doc has the details)

 

 

 

 

[-DLC-]

1 hour ago, SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME said:

I know in some places, peat depth can go up to 40 feet or so (never heard 90’ but I suppose it’s possible), but I don’t think that’s the case in Richmond.

 

The survey from the Garden City Lands project took around 50 measurements throughout the site and found peat depth ranged between 50cm and 100cm.

 

Source: https://www.richmond.ca/__shared/assets/GCL_Biophysical_Inventory_-_July_201341823.pdf

 

(Appendix B on p73 of the above doc has the details).

 

 

 

Thought it sounded a bit extreme...was on a Richmond site (but in the comments)

 

The Garden City lands are west of and slightly different than the DND land that the fire's on, but your measurement sounds much more accurate.

[SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME]

16 minutes ago, debluvscanucks said:

Thought it sounded a bit extreme...was on a Richmond site (but in the comments)

 

The Garden City lands are west of and slightly different than the DND land that the fire's on, but your measurement sounds much more accurate.

Interestingly (at least for nerds like me ), just a hop over the Fraser to Burns Bog and you’ll find one of the deepest peat bogs in the world (IIRC it’s the deepest in North America). It’s reported to have sections that go down 20m.

 

But it’s also a completely different topography to what we have in Richmond.

 

Burns Bog was formed in a depression left by glacial ice during the ice age, leaving a massive sinkhole that gradually filled with moss over the last 5000 years.

 

I’d imagine the people on the site you were reading were remembering some of the fires in Burns Bog, which continued to burn deep underground for months, and took massive scale firefighting efforts to control.

 

My dad (a former fire chief in Surrey) helped on a few of these fires and I can remember him talking about how hard it was to get them under control.

 

I can also remember some of the more recent ones that covered the region in smoke and left ash everywhere around the lower mainland (and even as far as Nanaimo).

 

Thankfully, it doesn’t look like this Richmond one will be on that kind of scale (although clearly it’s still a concern for many people, especially locals with breathing issues).