[ARRL-OK] Public Service: Hams Continue to Support Rim Fire Response

[Mark Conklin]

Re Posted by Mark Conklin, N7XYO

From the ARRL Letter 8/29/2013  www.ARRL.org

http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter?issue=2013-08-29#toc01

With California's gigantic Rim Fire still raging, Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) volunteers continued to assist local emergency managers and responding agencies in filling communication gaps. Tuolumne County RACES Radio Officer Phil Fish, WB6GGY, told ARRL that with telephone circuits overloaded and cell service spotty, ham radio is keeping the lines of 
communication open. ARES-RACES members are helping to support 
communication between local government and the American Red Cross 
shelter.

"They were just hungry for hams," Fish said of local emergency 
management officials. "We've had a great response from the local ham 
community." Volunteers, he said, have been putting in "some long days."

Tuolumne County ARES EC Carl Croci, NI6Z, said volunteers from Calaveras
 County ARES also have been pitching in. "We are still staffing the Red 
Cross Shelter and the community information phone lines with four 
ARES/RACES operators on the phones and two in the shelters," Croci said 
August 28. "There are now there shelters open at the Tuolumne County 
Fairgrounds, and the Red Cross is using FRS radios between the shelters,
 so the shelter ops are also monitoring those radios as well. The EchoLink system has seen a decrease in traffic asking about friends and 
relatives." The Red Cross is sheltering approximately 100 evacuees. 
Other ARES-RACES volunteers have been helping to handle telephone 
traffic in the county emergency operations center.

Fish has described the terrain in Tuolumne and Mariposa counties as "very, very, very rugged."

According to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), the Rim Fire as of August 29 covers nearly 192,500 acres, with nearly 
8000 acres burned over in the past 24 hours. The Rim Fire, 30 percent 
contained, has now has claimed more than 110 structures, and fighting it has cost more than $39 million. The NIFC says the fire has been 
crowning. The communities of Tuolumne City, Twain Harte, Long Barn, 
Pinecrest and the Hetch-Hetchy watershed are threatened, as are power 
lines in the region. Evacuations and road and area closures are in 
effect. Th Rim Fire is not expected to be fully contained for another 10 days or so.

A series of time-lapse images has been posted that offer a perspective of the Rim Fire's rapid growth.

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Mark Conklin, N7XYO
Oklahoma Section Emergency Coordinator
Amateur Radio Emergency Service
918.232.8346
n7xyo at arrl.net
Follow me on Twitter @N7XYO

www.ARESOK.org