Fire in Muir Valley

Post by **weber** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 5:56 pm

Will write more details later but wanted to take a minute here at Jeff Kennedy's computer to express heartfelt thanks from Liz and me to all of you who helped fight the forest fire at the north end of Muir Valley. After a long hard day fighting this monster, and with the help from Sunday's rain, the fire has been extinguished other than the hot spots, which we are going to be knocking down for the rest of today.

An incredibly thoughtless act by a neighbor -- starting a bonfire during a strict burning ban down here due to the long drought, was allowed to gather steam up the mountainside for two hours before we discovered it. (Although we had 150 climbers in the Valley, they didn't even bother to report it to us!) But, once we sounded the alarm, in 15 minutes, about 50 climbers were at the scene with trail building tools building fire breaks. The local firefighters were busy on fires elsewhere and didn't show up until late in the evening after most of the fire was out. So without the extremely heavy and dangerous (fighting hot fires above sheer cliffs!) work by these wonderful climbers, we may have seen much of the valley burn. As it is, all the mountain laurel and ground cover above the north cliff at Coalbank hollow is toast. What once was a beautiful upper meadow is black. Overall about 36 acres were burned. With a little time and effort we hope this area will come back.

There were too many volunteers to keep track of who was there. I'm sure we missed saying thank you to some of you. For all of you who were there, please accept our deepest appreciation for your efforts!!

More later. It doesn't look like any climbing areas will need to be closed -- just a few projects.

Rick Weber

Post by **Artsay** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 6:30 pm

Wow! It's a blessing that it rained today! I'm so glad it turned out okay!

Post by **meetVA** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 6:53 pm

Glad to know that the community rallied to help you in Muir's hour of need.

Glad to hear too that the damage didn't spread farther.

And I'm glad to hear that it rained today, sure I wasn't saying it this morning when I canceled climbing today but looks like that was what was needed.

Post by **captain static** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 7:03 pm

That is truly scary and puzzling why climbers didn't report this to you. It has me thinking that you could quickly become trapped and/or overtaken during a forest fire in the gorge. Another area to consider for emergency planning. Certainly nature will recover. Just look at the area of the Nada Tunnel fire.

Post by **Stewy911** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 10:24 pm

Im glad to hear the hot spots are gone. Im sure glad after the "fight" the fire didnt flare back up. It was amaziong to see all the climbers and locals come together and fight this thing, Glad to hear it is contained.

Post by **StephyG** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 10:33 pm

I think it was the neighbors who failed to report it to him.

Its definately cool to see people pull together like that in a time of need. The red river climbing commuity, though it has its flaws, never ceases to impress me. Theres alot of good people here. Thanks to all who helped out .

On another note, fire can be good for an ecosystem. It'll be interesting to see the forest regenerate.

Post by **pigsteak** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 1:25 am

StephyG..just not in my backyard

Post by **dipsi** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 2:11 am

Now I am happy that I couldn't climb because of rain today.

We do have a great community!

Post by **flashmaster** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 2:29 am

Just wait till the spring it's going to look great! It's actually going to benifit the forest in the long run. As long as no one and nothing gets hurt/damaged.

Post by **Saxman** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 2:39 am

In the spring the wildflowers will go wild. Great to hear people pitched in to help.