#Rockmountainfirevost Summary November 29, 2016

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Basic Information

Current as of 11/29/2016, 5:10:57 PM
Incident Type Wildfire
Cause Human Caused, Under Investigation
Date of Origin Wednesday November 09th, 2016 approx. 12:00 AM
Location Tallulah River Road, in the Straw Mountain Area
Incident Commander Noel Livingston
Incident Description Wildfire

Current Situation

Total Personnel 679
Size 24,725 Acres
Percent of Perimeter Contained 55%
Estimated Containment Date Thursday December 15th, 2016 approx. 12:00 AM
Fuels Involved Mixed hardwood with scattered conifers and brush (mountain laurel) component. Hemlock snags are scattered throughout the fire area. Large diameter fuels are completely consuming. This includes dead/down log bridges across creeks, which makes holding the fire at creeks difficult; as does partially dry creek beds which also contain leaf litter. Duff consumption is high. The terrain is very steep and rugged. Leaf off is at 50-95% increasing with elevation. Additional leaf off increases re-burn and the potential for fire to cross containment lines.
Significant Events Minimal fire behavior today due to high humidity and cloud cover. Fire behavior is described as minimal, smoldering in some areas and slowly creeping.

Outlook

Planned Actions Continue patrol and mop-up on the fire perimeter. Suppression repair efforts utilizing the guidance of Resource advisors are beginning on contained portions of the incident.
Projected Incident Activity 12 hours: Conditions not suitable for fire spread due to rain. Heavy fuels continue to smolder.

24 hours: Conditions not suitable for fire spread due to rain. Heavy fuels continue to smolder.

48-72 hours: Drying conditions with minimal creeping in leaf litter. Heavy fuels continue to smolder.
Remarks Transfer of command to the Southern Area Gold Type 2 team will occur at 7:00 am on November 30, 2016. Acres listed above are based on a infrared aircraft reconnaissance flight that took place at 11:00pm on November 27th. Approximately 12,962 acres are in Georgia and 11,763 acres are in North Carolina, with 3,860 in Clay County and 7,903 in Macon County.

Current Weather

Weather Concerns Showers on the fire overnight dropped 1.50 to 2.50 inches of total rainfall. Gusty winds of up to 30 mph were seen in the evening, but tapered off after midnight. The showers lingered into Tuesday followed by clearing skies. Showers are expected to develop once again after sunset and continue into Wednesday with another inch of rain possible. Isolated thunderstorms are also possible. This rain broke the string of 108 consecutive days without a half inch of rain, yet the drought continues.
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November 28, 2016 Incident Summary for Rock Mountain Fire

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#RockMountainFire Basic Information

Current as of 11/28/2016, 7:30:50 PM
Incident Type Wildfire
Cause Human Caused, Under Investigation
Date of Origin Wednesday November 09th, 2016 approx. 12:00 AM
Location Talulaha River Road, in the Straw Mountain Area
Incident Commander Noel Livingston
Incident Description Wildfire

Current Situation

Total Personnel 668
Size 24,725 Acres
Percent of Perimeter Contained 50%
Estimated Containment Date Thursday December 15th, 2016 approx. 12:00 AM
Fuels Involved Mixed hardwood with scattered conifers and brush (mountain laurel) component. Hemlock snags are scattered throughout the fire area. Large diameter fuels are completely consuming. This includes dead/down log bridges across creeks, which makes holding the fire at creeks difficult; as does partially dry creek beds which also contain leaf litter. Duff consumption is high. The terrain is very steep and rugged. Leaf off is at 50-95% increasing with elevation. Additional leaf off increases re-burn and the potential for fire to cross containment lines.
Significant Events Minimal fire behavior today due to high humidity and cloud cover. Fire behavior is described as minimal, smoldering in some areas and slowly creeping.

Outlook

Planned Actions Continue patrol and mop-up on the fire perimeter. Suppression repair efforts utilizing the guidance of Resource advisors are beginning on contained portions of the incident.
Projected Incident Activity 12 hours: Conditions not suitable for fire spread due to rain. Heavy fuels continue to smolder.

24 hours: Conditions not suitable for fire spread due to rain. Heavy fuels continue to smolder.

48-72 hours: Conditions not suitable for fire spread due to rain. Heavy fuels continue to smolder.
Remarks Transfer of command to a Type 2 team will occur at 7:00 am on November 30, 2016. Acres listed above are based on a infrared aircraft reconnaissance flight that took place at 10:00 pm Sunday evening. Approximately 12,962 acres are in Georgia and 11,763 acres are in North Carolina.

Current Weather

Weather Concerns Clouds moved in late yesterday bringing higher relative humidity (RH) to the area while keeping the temperatures up. Most of our weather stations showed a RH recovery up to 100% by morning. Clouds and high RH continue on Monday and expected rain should begin later Monday evening. Rainfall should continue through Tuesday, bringing approximately three quarters of an inch. Isolated thunderstorms are possible Tuesday afternoon. The exceptional to extreme drought conditions continue (107 days since a half inch or more of rain)

Photos from Successful Burnout Operations November 27, 2016

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#RockMountainFire burnout operations were successful again today.  These photos and video were taken from the Betty’s Creek and Kodiak areas.  Firefighters applied fire along all firelines to consume ground vegetation between the active edge of the fire and containment lines.  While more work is ahead to treat unburned pockets of fuel between the treated area and the active fire perimeter, this was an important step forward in protecting homes, structures, and the Coweeta Lab.

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November 27, 2016 Incident Summary for Rock Mountain Fire

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Basic Information

Current as of 11/27/2016, 8:52:57 PM
Incident Type Wildfire
Cause Human Caused, Under Investigation
Date of Origin Wednesday November 09th, 2016 approx. 12:00 AM
Location Talulaha River Road, in the Straw Mountain Area
Incident Commander Noel Livingston
Incident Description Wildfire

Current Situation

Total Personnel 651
Size 23,250 Acres
Percent of Perimeter Contained 45%
Estimated Containment Date Thursday December 15th, 2016 approx. 12:00 AM
Fuels Involved Mixed hardwood with scattered conifers and brush component (mountain laurel). Hemlock snags are scattered throughout the fire area. Large diameter fuels are completely consuming. This includes dead/down log bridges across creeks, which makes holding the fire at creeks difficult; as does partially dry creek beds which also contain leaf litter. Duff consumption is high. The terrain is very steep and rugged. Leaf off is at 50-95% increasing with elevation. Additional leaf off increases re-burn and the potential for fire to cross containment lines.
Significant Events Active surface spread in hardwood leaf litter in all directions, aspects and elevations. General spread of one-half mile during this burn period where not impacted by suppression. Today’s burn period was 14-18 hours. Conditions were favorable for burnout mid-morning and will continue until relative humidity recovers tonight. Much of the fire spread/acres today is due to burnout operations.

Outlook

Planned Actions Continue patrol and mop-up on the southern and western fire perimeter. Structure protection will remain in place and hand ignition will continue as conditions allow. Suppression repair efforts utilizing the guidance of resource advisers are beginning on contained portions of the incident.
Projected Incident Activity 12 hours: Conditions suitable for burnout operations until fire spread diminishes as relative humidity recovers this evening.

24 hours: Conditions for burnout will be marginal early and diminishing later in the day.

48-72 hours: Conditions not suitable for fire spread due to rain. Heavy fuels continue to smolder.
Remarks Transfer of command to a Type 2 team will occur at 7:00 am on November 30, 2016. Acres listed above are based on a multi-mission aircraft reconnaissance flight that took place at noon today. Approximately 12,861 acres are in Georgia and 10,389 acres are in North Carolina.

Current Weather

Weather Concerns There was poor relative humidity recovery in the higher elevations overnight as an inversion brought very dry air to the ridges. Ball Creek, at 4,700 feet elevation, dropped to 4% relative humidity by morning. Meanwhile, relative humidity reached nearly 100% in the valleys. Moisture will mix and an average afternoon relative humidity of 20-30% is expected across the fire. With high pressure overhead, expect light and variable winds in the morning and early afternoon over the ridges becoming southerly 5-10 miles per hour later in the day. Elsewhere, wind will continue to be terrain and temperature driven. Moisture returns on Monday, with rain by later in the day. The exceptional to extreme drought conditions continue (107 days since a half inch, or more, of rain).

 

#RockMountainFire Strategic Burn Operations

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Over the last few days structure protection resources have been working in and around residences in the Betty’s Creek area of North Carolina and Georgia to prepare for the #RockMountainFire to work its way toward those areas.

Strategic burn-out operations have been very successful. If humidity levels lower, fuels dry out enough, and winds are favorable for more burnout today, residents and surrounding communities will continue to see more smoke.