Gooooooood Morning Jamesburg Cachagua!!!!

(click to enlarge the map)

July 16, 2008, about 8 am...

If you think that this fire has gone on too long, then I'm with you!

Here's this morning's MODIS and comments from Jim Kasson... then, Eric Walters has submitted a corroborating photo.

Jim comments that this morning's MODIS data shows:

• Lots of activity inside the new RR (magenta) fireline.
  
• Continued activity at Divide Camp – an Energizer Bunny fire.
• Hot spots again to the NE of Elephant Mountain, but about a mile from the fireline.

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From Dr. Eric Walters of Hastings, with morning coffee...

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• Here's the view "on the ground" of the area in magenta - Anastasia Canyon - on the MODIS map above, from Hastings Reserve, courtesy of Eric Walters, taken at about 7:20 am this morning.

Eric comments that it looks "more active" than it did last night.

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Reports from Cachagua Fire say things look as they should...

From reliable sources at Cachagua Fire (are there any UNRELIABLE sources at Cachagua Fire???), come reports that what we see in the above picture from Eric is the result of intentional backburning; and, weather conditions, as of this morning, are developing ideally for an attempt at completing the task of halting this fire right here, within the new 8-mile long dozer lines that Buck Silva and Rick Hutchinson spoke about last night at the Community Meeting in Carmel Valley Village.

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Community Fire Information Meeting this evening...

...at Cachagua Community Park at 6:30pm. Be there or be.... ummmmm ... evacuated??  OK, OK... if you CAN'T make it becuase you're in the Mandatory Evacuation lockdown area, fear not.  Your "Gal Wednesday" - leetell moi - will be there to record the event and publish the audio on KUSP's website ASAP!

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Lest we forget what CAN happen in a Mandatory Evacuation Area...

Here's a telling report from Zen Center Director David Zimmerman, entitled "An overview on the state of Tassajara two days after the 2008 Basin Complex Fire."

While we may have some issue with the state of affairs in Jamesburg Cachagua, this part of the report should bring perspective to the conversation, in a visceral way, by scaring the holy living scat out of you:

"It still amazes us... to recall the speed in which the fire descended and converged on Tassajara simultaneously from four sides... its progress cloaked by the canopy of trees above us.

 It was difficult to determine which head of fire would reach us first, so we split up to protect the hill cabins/satellite dish, the creek side of the Stone Office (our designated safety zone), where the wooden porch and arbor could have caught flame, and the Shop, where our propane and gasoline are stored. 

We fought the fire nonstop for six and a half hours using hoses connected to the standpipe system and Mark III pumps, along with hand shovels and a few fire extinguishers. 

We were stretched very thin trying to engage each new encroachment of the fire into Tassajara, at times with only one person per location struggling to arrest the fire’s progress, unassisted for up to an hour at a time. At 7:30 p.m. we finally felt that the fire was contained enough for us to stop to eat and regroup."

After reading the report, you really have to ask yourself, "would I be prepared to stay and face a situation like this???