DSLR Photography Forum

Burns Bog is the largest undeveloped urban landmass in North America and is home to many beautiful and rare plants and animals. It is located in Delta, which is just south of Vancouver, or west of Richmond where I live. Below is a map showing the area:



The numbers indicate where I was when the image was taken, to give you a sense of size of the fire. The red in burns bog, is the approx location of the fire.

1: I first noticed the cloud of smoke once I arrived back home from the ferry. I initially thought it was a TCU cloud, but then I thought 'nah' too close to the ground, so I turned on the radio, and they mentioned a fire had been started in burns bog 3-4 hours earlier.


2: I decided instead of going home, I'd move in for a closer look.


3: One we got to the closest accessible road, you can image it was closed. That didn't stop the 40+ cars parked on the side of the highway to catch a better view:

4: Picture of one of 4 Firecats and one of 2 Convair 580 fighting the battle. By the time we had reached here, there was at least 3-4 of them in the air at a time flying in and out of the smoke. It was AMAZING to see them fly right out of the clouds in a steep turn. What fun!


5: A panoramic shot of the area. I made the mistake of using my wideangle when taking the shots, but Photoshop's Merge option did WONDERS for stiching this image together. (click on image to see a larger version)



All these images were shot yesterday. I took more shots today during the day, will post them up later on tonight. Currently the sky is pretty brown in most areas. The change in wind has taken the smoke everywhere across the lower mainland, and there was a air quality advisory put out today as well.

Great documentation Amish. I've been watching it all day from where I work. In the afternoon the wind shifted and things got worse. You could see the orange glow in the smoke. I work approx 8kms away straight down 64 ave. so I get a fairly good view.

We regularly get wildfires here in the Sierra's and Yosemite national park. The smoke drops ash as much as 40 miles away.

Are any structures in danger?

As far as I know there isin't at the moment, however I could be wrong. I know there are farmhouses in the area, but I know the firefighters have done a pretty good job in containing the fire, from not allowing it to spread, but because of the thick peat on the ground, it really keeps that fire burning.

This morning was really interesting. I opened my window to see thick fog, or smoke shall I say. Its really sitting around here in Richmond this morning, but I think there is a small wind shift so it may clear up. Its all I can smell right now.

Btw, here is a video clip from the images above. Its of one of the Firecats in a steep turn, moving intowards the fire.

Bog fires are more difficult to bring under control. The fire below ground continues to burn and can pop up anywhere unexpectedly. They'll be there for a long time after the visible fire has been put out pumping water into the peat.

Gujustud Wrote:Btw, here is a video clip from the images above. Its of one of the Firecats in a steep turn, moving intowards the fire.

Great clip... I can really see the heavy smoke from the fire...

"Burns bog" ... bit of an ironic name isn't it...

The panorama pic is impressive.. Difficult to me to understand how fire can start in wetland...

I love the shots of the tall smoke plume, especially thwe last one with the fire actually visable.