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Fire season (?) apparently is upon us ... many uss/??, not just Man-ee-toe-bah. 
Here's a pic and accompanying information from one of MB's fires. Part of the info is: "... The base of the tree is still on fire and rain has no impact. It has to be addressed with hand tools and hoses by Initial Attack crews. If these type of “hot spots” are not addressed they could blow up into a full fire ... ."
Besides the tree itself, what would burn if the hot spot wasn't "addressed"?
Edited by - Owen on 05/21/2025 09:31:44
If one base of a tree can burn like that...then alot of others in a forest probably will too. When the base burns enough...the trees will fall over and continue to burn. All those downed trees...burning away...I can see would resume a forest fire that can spread at the periphery.
On the GOOD side:
Once the base fire is safely OUT, the gnomes have a place to set up housekeeping.
I dunno Tom ... it seems to me that the susceptible trees would have stayed burning when the initial fire passed through.
Would it be "a lot of others" or a relatively small proportion? I realize boreal forests can have peat deposits, and other build-up of combustibles at their base, but that pic looks to me like even if you tried to make a fire spread you'd have considerable difficulty, though I suppose it's theoretically possible for a tree like the one in the pic to fall precisely onto another hollow tree, which would fall precisely onto another hollow tree, and so on.
Do forest fires actually burn the same area more than once in a relatively short time frame?
Edited by - Owen on 05/21/2025 10:51:48
Hmmmm...
Sawmill ..fodder...
Looks to me like there's lots of unburned, dead grass right up to the tree. If so, that could catch fire and it wouldn't take much of a breeze to set it off headed on every direction, which would start the fire blazing all over again. Just my take.
Sherry, what is preventing the fire from spreading to the dead grass (?) before the crews can "address" it?
I haven't spent mucho time in a boreal forest lately*, but I'm thinking it might be some type of moss or lichen, [which still might be flammable] but in any event it looks pretty patchy [i.e. far from "lots of" ... a relatively poor candidate to "carry" a fire any significant distance], and if it was decent fuel for a fire, wouldn't it have burned during the first go-round? I heard the conditions in E. MB and N.W ON described as "the perfect storm" ... hot, dry [fuel] and windy. The readily available fuel is largely burned up, so ......??
Do forest fires actually burn the same area more than once in a relatively short time frame? I'm not saying they don't, just asking, as I don't recall having heard of such an event.
* We worked on remote reserves from 2000-2012 ..... boreal forest [i.e. spruce, jack pine, water and rock] farther than the eye could see. The fires this year seem to be a couple of weeks ahead of ^^ years; there were evacuations on some reserves most years, but never the one we happened to be on.
Edited by - Owen on 05/21/2025 15:20:18
I know the fire department out here cautions about burning tree stumps. They say the root system can burn for days and start another fire. I guess where the root may get near the surface???Other people have told me they have seen it happen??
Jack, did the fires from the stumps burn, or spread through, areas that had recently been burned over?
Fwiw, when we were trying to farm a neighbour had burned grass one year.... he "thought" it was out when it came to a manure pile, but apparently smoldered all winter. The next spring a strong wind "revived" it and carried embers onto the old, d-r-y cedar shingles on the house roof. Thankfully somebody noticed in time and neighbours pitched in to extinguish both [roof and manure pile] with no major loss/damage.
Edited by - Owen on 05/21/2025 15:46:50
It seems that the logical folks to ask would be the people who actually work to put out the fires. I think that - when they're not too busy fighting the fires - they can provide you with answers from the experts.
Well, I don't necessarily regard it as illogical to ask here and see if some common sense percolates to the top. Surely it shouldn't hurt, IMNSHumbleO.
But speaking of experts (?), the local RM just rescinded it's most recent fire ban, and included a reminder that fires should only be lit/burned during daylight hours.
When we were in N.S., the municipal permits specified that burning NOT take place during the day.
I asked [a bureaucrat, not necessarily an expert??] and was told that the rationale was that the volunteer firemen were at their jobs during the day, and would be less available to fight fires. I mentioned the "benefits" of fighting them after sunset, in untended or roughly plowed fields with poorly maintained [i.e. falling down] wire fences, but I'm not sure it registered. 
Fwiw, I've helped put out a few grass and stubble fires*, but no forest fires, so I suppose none of what I learned is transferable.
* and one where the guy that was putting up the hay on one of our fields had a baler bearing disintegrate and drop bits of burning hay for several hundred yards along the field. Tends to get the adrenalin flowing, to say the least!!
Edit: Jack, I think [but have never experienced it] that if there's more than one stump in a row or in close proximity, it's possible for the smoldering fire to pass from the root of one to the root of another.
Edited by - Owen on 05/21/2025 19:31:17
This clip demonstrates one of the "concepts" I frequently wonder about. https://www.facebook.com/reel/1585573548795572
News reports try to impress (?) us by giving us the area of a fire ... seems to me the length/distance of the perimeter would be a more important immediate concern than what has already burned.
But I'm no expert ... be it firefighting, or deciding what's newsworthy, or maybe even being a Joe Schmoe.
My SIL and a few of his workers are up at his fishing lodge on Reindeer Lake in northern Saskatchewan getting the place ready for the summer. They barely got there before road closures due to the fires. A grocery delivery is supposed to come in a couple of days,, all they have now is flour and sugar, and of course the walleye, pike, and trout from the lake. There’s a fair-sized fire 40 miles east of the lodge,, they’re hoping for rain.
.... the forecasts [both long/short term] don't sound promising. I guess this is one time we'd like the prognosticators to be wrong.
Weather report for Kinoosao, Saskatchewan,, a few miles north of the lodge … looking better now, but it’ll take a hard rain to really ease the situation
La Ronge airport has burned down. That’s where the shuttle plane for the lodge guests fuels/fueled up. Might be a lost season if things don’t improve soon.
Photo of the wildfire hear La Ronge, Saskatchewan...
Edited by - chuckv97 on 06/02/2025 22:06:47
Is ^^ the "breaking news"? The 13-hour-old info that Google supplies says the airport has been breached .... to me that's cut off from. Not good either way.
There were reports that "fires were breaking out on the tarmack," at one of the airstrips in northern MB, so I dunno.
That authorities only saw fit to bring in military helicopters after citizens at Pukatawagan demanded it makes me "wonder." Apparently the plan was to evacuate several hundred people using a couple of 6-passenger private ones until the citizens said enough of this b.s. ... get the military in @ 50+ per trip.
Not quite on the same scale, but back when I was trying to farm I was shooting the breeze with a neighbour while he was burning some twine and assorted barnyard trash. The fire was at least 2 meters [just for you Chuck] from a fence post, but while we talked we noticed the top of the post start to smoke a bit ... maybe only a couple of minutes until it broke into flame. It surprised me that the heat was still great enough [450 F. (?) ... just for you Chuck] to ignite the post across that distance.
Edited by - Owen on 06/03/2025 07:54:15
Not sure what exactly breached means,, my daughter messaged me saying the airport had burned down, but I’ll double check where she heard that. She likely knows people from La Ronge as the lodge does business there. And as with most unforeseen emergencies there's mis-communication and bad umpiring calls (jest fer yoo, Mr. O.
somebody south of us would say "why didn't you sweep the forest?"
Edited by - chuckv97 on 06/03/2025 08:41:57
My daughter and 14 lodge crew in 4 vehicles are heading up to Southend on Reindeer Lake tomorrow. They’re hoping they can get through La Ronge ,, that looks like the only fire damaged area. At Southend they get picked up by my SIL by boat, then 2 hours up the lake to the lodge.
Edited by - chuckv97 on 06/04/2025 22:16:21
Welcome to UninformedSpeculation Hangout.
We've had air quality alerts down here in the heart of illinois the last couple days. It is very hazy, smoky from the northern fires ??.
quote:
Originally posted by rvroseWe've had air quality alerts down here in the heart of illinois the last couple days. It is very hazy, smoky from the northern fires ??.
The smoke has reached Europe. "The Manitoba and Saskatchewan wildfires have combined to burn approximately 2.3 million acres, which is equivalent to roughly 900,000 hectares.This area is larger than the size of some European countries."
Edited by - chuckv97 on 06/05/2025 22:57:43
youtu.be/QQSqCBhJTB0?si=0O5p0k2wVdOfBdWl
Satellite images of smoke
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