Montgomery Woods Fire Update

Aurelea says: NOTE that the land and control-burn referred to in this forward is Running Springs, not Greenfield. Also please note that the map attachment mentioned didn't make it into the forward, so don't bother looking for it.

Subject: Montgomery Woods fire update (6-26 at 7:45pm)

What a day. The fire crews were here working all day, doing great work trying to create a break and an area that they could burn. Then at 2:00 they expanded the area to burn to include our upper hills, and they said they had to burn the area around our pond and road. Then at 4:30 they finished all the dozer work and waited.
It turns out that the fire had come across from Montgomery Woods down below us and burned an old "homestead" orchard on a neighbor's property and then the fire went out on its own at the break. Now they have a burned area below us where they were planning to do the controlled burn, and the burned area up at the top on the Durfee's place, and they are thinking that may be enough. No final decision, but for tonight they are hopeful that they have enough of a defensible "black" burned area that they may not need to do the burn on our place. A bit of a roller coaster of a day, with lots of work running in front of dozers and trying to help show people the lay of the land here, but the end result is very encouraging. Not a major victory yet, but I will take a minor one heading into the night. Thanks for all the wonderful support and thoughts. We do feel them in our

hearts.

(earlier)

They are doing the final cuts for the controlled burn (above our pond),
but may not start it until evening.

Montgomery Woods fire update (6-26 at 12:15pm)
Good afternoon. I have been out with the fire crews this morning (and welcoming some kind neighbors this noon offering help and company), so I have some new information about the Montgomery Woods fire. Attached is a scan of the fire map from this morning (if you want a higher-resolution version, let me know). The legend shows the "Uncontrolled Fire Edge" of two large fires. I shaded Montgomery Woods itself (the red/grey color) and our property #4450 (green). Running Springs Road itself is the squiggly bottom of the green shaded area. Orr Springs Road is near the top, and you can see where the Hot Springs is by the "Orr Springs" label on the map.
Both of the large fires are growing toward Running Springs Ranch from the west. The fire in Montgomery woods is the larger, closer one that I have been describing in previous emails. Yesterday they thought the fire had crossed onto our place at the north-west corner, but this map shows it still a bit away. I don't know anything about the fire labeled "Daugherty/Gates". This morning, they are making a fire break across about the western 1/3 of our parcel, going down to Orr Springs Road by the big old barn that is on Orr Springs this side of Orr Hot Springs. As of an hour ago, they still plan to do a controlled burn of that 1/3 of our place and part of the Weger place to try to stop the Montgomery Woods fire. I don't know for sure if or when they will do the burn. If they tell us, I will try to shoot off a quick email on our way out.

Subject: Montgomery Woods fire update (6-25 at 9:30pm)
Another afternoon at the ranch... I bounced around in the Suzuki taking fire crew chiefs to the corners of our property. It is a wonderful place, even full of smoke and fear. They have decided that we still need to do some sort of controlled burn to attempt to stop the Montgomery Woods State Reserve fire. They became convinced of the need to go ahead with the burn when they returned from fighting the fire at Orrs Hot Springs (which they said they saved from burning this afternoon). After driving around our place looking at the possibilities, fortunately they think they can succeed with a smaller burn.
Tomorrow morning they are going to bring in dozers to cut another fire break from the bottom of our driveway to Orrs Springs Road, connecting up to the break they created this morning. Then they are planning on burning all the property between that line and Montgomery Woods. Although we wish we could have avoided this fire altogether, this smaller burn will only affect about 1/4 of our place, and after looking at the maps of where the fire has managed to expand unchecked, it does look like they
need a big break to try to stop the fire. It has overtaken most of Montgomery Woods. The fire under Peters has been quiet for 2 days now, so there is some
hopeful progress.
We are staying here tonight, with crews watching over us.

A bit more news about the Montgomery Woods fire...
The fire crews did some amazing and daring dozer work to complete a fire break along the ridge border between our place (#4450) and Montgomery Woods. They were hoping to go all the way to the bottom (north-east) end of Montgomery Woods and hook up to Orr Springs Road somewhere to make a complete break, but that did not work out. In any event, the work they did creates a decent fire break for the area it covers. As a result, they are not thinking of doing any controlled burn on our place today. They have not decided if they will do one tomorrow or not. Meanwhile, the fire in Montgomery Woods continues to move slowly east. According to the Parks Service, it has reached the north-west edge of our property now (still at least 1/2 mile from our house).
--Rod