Rim Fire

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The Rim Fire and American Fire on a satellite image taken on August 23, 2013, about a week after the Rim Fire erupted

The Rim Fire was a forest fire in the Sierra Nevada . The fire was started on August 17, 2013 by an illegal, runaway fire by a hunter in the Stanislaus National Forest and was the third largest forest fire in California history, covering an area of ​​more than 1,012 km 2 . On October 25, 2013, the forest fire, which caused total damage of $ 127.3 million, was completely extinguished. The name of the fire is derived from a lookout point in the Stanislaus National Forest known as the "Rim of the World". The fire gained international fame when it spread to the Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada .

Causes of fire

The Rim Fire in the Stanislaus National Forest

The Rim Fire erupted in a remote gorge in the Stanislaus National Forest east of Groveland on the afternoon of August 17, 2013 . After initially speculating whether the outbreak of the forest fire was linked to the illegal cultivation of marijuana in the Stanislaus National Forest, investigations into the cause of the fire revealed that a hunter's fire, which had got out of hand, was responsible for the fire.

The reasons given for the rapid spread of the fire are the extraordinary heat and drought in the summer of 2013 in California and earlier fire-fighting measures in the national parks of the Sierra Nevada. According to Hugh Safford, an expert with the US Forest Service in California, the rapid and effective measures taken to extinguish forest fires over the past few decades had "grown" the "pile of wood" available to the Rim Fire. According to John Buckley, managing director of the Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center , the fact that planned measures to thin the vegetation could not or only partially be implemented due to a lack of funding from the United States Congress made matters worse . Implementing controlled fire projects, Buckley said, "would undoubtedly have made the Rim Fire easier to control and possibly prevented a major catastrophe."

At the time of its discovery, the fire covered an area of ​​40 acres , but within the next 36 hours - favored by the dense vegetation in the steep gorges of the Stanislaus National Forest - spread explosively to 10,000 acres.

Fire-fighting measures

Fire-fighting units on the ground and in the air took part in the measures to combat the Rim Fire. A total of more than 3,400 volunteers included 673 inmates from the California Conservation Camp initiative , which enables convicted criminals to help fight fires in California for one dollar a day. The ground units were supported by the California Air National Guard fire-fighting aircraft equipped with the Modular Airborne FireFighting System (MAFFS), a special system for fighting fire from the air. In addition to Lockheed C-130J fire-fighting aircraft, fire - fighting helicopters were also used.

  • Firefighters creating a firebreak

  • Parts of the California Army National Guard's 1-140th Aviation Battalion fight fires from the air

  • Firefighters back to the Sequoias in the Tuolumne Grove ago

As the fire also threatened some of the thousands of years old giant sequoia trees in Yosemite Park, the fire department and park administration installed sprinkler systems in two groves. By deliberately placing three counterfires , the danger to the sequoia trees was finally averted. Giant sequoias usually survive forest fires unscathed. However, the Rim Fire created temperatures that would have meant the destruction of these trees as well.

The fire brigade initially expected to have the fire completely under control on September 20, 2013. After the fire spread to high-lying and difficult-to-reach sections of the forest, it was assumed that the fire would be contained at the end of the fire on October 1st. The fire was not completely extinguished until October 25, 2013.

Effects

The fire reaches the Groveland Ranger Station

On August 23, California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for San Francisco after the fire damaged several high-voltage lines in the Sierra Nevada that supplied electricity to the city and two hydroelectric plants in Hetch Hetchy Valley had to be shut down. As a result of this measure, the city of San Francisco had to buy electricity for around $ 900,000 on the open market. Fears that falling ash in the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir  would negatively affect the quality of drinking water in the San Francisco Bay Area were not confirmed.

After the fire spread to Yosemite National Park, California State Route 120, and thus one of the main access roads to the park, was closed to car traffic east of the village of Groveland for two weeks and only reopened on September 6th. The closure of the western park entrance, combined with a temporary deterioration in air quality due to smoke, led to a significant decrease in the number of visitors to the national park.

By September 5, the fire had destroyed a total of 111 buildings, including 11 residential buildings. After the extinguishing work was completed on October 25, 2013, the total cost of the damage was estimated at $ 127.3 million.

Investigation of the ecological consequences and reforestation measures

During the last phase of the forest fire, a team of around 50 scientists began to investigate the effects of the fire. The focus is on analyzes of possible damage from erosion along the Tuolumne River and the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.

On September 10th, the Tuolumne River Trust , a non-profit organization founded in 1981, launched the Rim Fire Recovery campaign to reforest the area around the Tuolumne River. The initiative has set itself the task of reducing erosion damage through targeted reforestation and ensuring better forest management in the years after the fire.

Web links

Commons : Rim Fire (2013)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b InciWeb, the Incident Information System: rim fire ( Memento of 31 October 2013 Internet Archive ) , last accessed September 8, 2013.
  2. ↑ a b Tracie Cone: Yosemite Wildfire Started By Hunter's Illegal Fire, US Forest Service Announces , Huffington Post, September 5, 2013, last accessed September 8, 2013.
  3. ↑ Top 20 Largest California Wildfires (PDF; 27 kB) on the pages of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), last accessed on October 26, 2013.
  4. ↑ a b c Stephen Caesar: Rim fire in and around Yosemite 100% contained , Los Angeles Times, October 25, 2013, last accessed October 26, 2013.
  5. ↑ Wildfire Rages to Yosemite's Edge in Hot, Dry Weather , Voice of Ameria, August 23, 2013, last accessed September 8, 2013.
  6. ↑ Max Ehrenfreund: Yosemite Rim Fire might have been ignited by marijuana operation, fire chief speculates , Washington Post, September 4, 2013, last accessed on September 8, 2013.
  7. ↑ a b Tracie Cone and Brian Skoloff: Squelching Sierra fires left forest ready to burn , Associated Press, August 27, 2013, last accessed September 8, 2013.
  8. ↑ Jonathan Kaminsky: Failure to thin brush may have worsened California wildfire , Reuters September 1, 2013, last accessed September 10, 2013.
  9. ↑ Rim Fire: Wildfire may continue to grow due to low humidity, other conditions , Southern California Radio, September 7, 2013, last accessed September 8, 2013.
  10. ↑ California Inmates Help Battle Raging Yosemite Rim Fire , Huffington Post, August 30, 2013, last accessed September 8, 2013.
  11. ↑ Cockpit view of Yosemite fire makes for a stunning video , msnNOW of August 27, 2013, last accessed on September 8, 2013.
  12. ↑ Kurtis Alexander: Fire crews rush to protect Yosemite's sequoias , San Francisco Chronicle of August 27, 2013, last accessed on September 8, 2013.
  13. ^ Diana Marcum: Risky measures to save big trees from Rim fire worked , Los Angeles Times of September 22, 2013, last accessed on September 23, 2013.
  14. ↑ Kurtis Alexander: Containment delayed for Yosemite's Rim Fire , San Francisco Chronicle, September 20, 2013, last accessed September 23, 2013.
  15. ^ Gosia Wozniacka: Yosemite fire brings SF utility emergency , Associated Press, August 24, 2013, last accessed September 8, 2013.
  16. ↑ Sasha Lekach: Rim Fire Damages SF Water And Power Systems To Tune Of $ 30 Million , The San Francisco Appeal, September 6, 2013, last accessed September 11, 2013.
  17. ↑ a b Tracie Cone: Yosemite Rim Fire Damage Draws Dozens Of Scientists As Restoration Planning Begins ( September 10, 2013 memento in the Internet Archive ) , Huffington Post September 8, 2013, last accessed September 8, 2013.
  18. ↑ Joseph Serna and Diana Marcum: Rim fire: Authorities to reopen California 120 into Yosemite National Park , Los Angeles Times, September 6, 2013, last accessed September 8, 2013.
  19. ^ Rim fire sends heavy smoke into Yosemite; visitors warned , Los Angeles Times, September 2, 2013, last accessed September 11, 2013.
  20. ↑ Joseph Serna: Rim fire started by a hunter's illegal fire, Forest Service says , Los Angeles Times of September 5, 2013, last accessed on September 8, 2013.
  21. ↑ Wildfire near Yosemite burns into fourth week , KGO-TV San Francisco, September 7, 2013, last accessed September 8, 2013.
  22. ↑ Rim Fire Started Near Yosemite Costs $ 100 Million, Tuolumne River Trust Seeks Aid , NBC Bay Area, September 10, 2013, last accessed September 10, 2013.
  23. ^ Rim Fire Recovery ( Memento of February 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) on the Tuolumne River Trust website, last accessed on September 10, 2013.