Looking at the continental United States, first, starting in the east, which is Washington DC, and looking westward:
{Updated 6/15/2012: Serious concern and consideration for PREPAREDNESS is}Georgia, there is [updated June 15, 2012] the threat of wildfires there. This is based off what occurred this time in June last year 2011, where over 400,000 acres were torched due to fires of different kinds, about 3 quarters of that, the land that was burnt was the Honey Prairie fire on the Okefenokee Swamp .
The two biggest wildfires going on right now are the High Park, Colorado fire, and Little Bear, New Mexico fire.
High Park, Colorado fire, which is in the northernmost part of the state, namely Larimer County, and sits the first county in the center of the state of Colorado right below the Wyoming border. The fire, if 60,000 acres, is about 10miles long and 10 miles wide. Although it is only a few miles compared to the entire land mass of, Colorado or Wyoming, the concern is the 10 miles long and wide, or 100 square miles, is straight fire, nothing but fire, which if not contained and controlled, could expand very quickly, has extreme heat, and could have ramifications that include chemicals mixes in the air that are very dangerous. There is a mountainous range there with fern trees on it, the trees appearing to be the majority of the fire fuel. The area of the fire is about double what it was on Saturday when it is said by media to have started. There are about 12 aerial vehicles working on it. Some fire manager say they have enough of what they need in terms of access to getting what they need. Complete containment, albeit, still has not been reached according to recent reports, as of today 5pm EST June 13, 2012.
Directly below the High Park fire in Colorado, on the exact same longitude line, 105, there is a fire in new Mexico, namely 'Little Bear', which has been raging longer than the High Park fire.
Working from east to west on the continental U.S., after the Georgia fire, [updated 6/152012 up there as the first stop] there is a fire in the northern part of Michigan. The pictures of the fire show that the fire itself, is very violent. Michigan can be deceptive to the eyes in terms of what geographic land masses constitute the state. there is the large part that looks like a bear claw, then, there is another area north of it separated by water that looks like, or shaped similar to a T-bone steak. At the northern central part of this T-bone steak shape, is where the Duck Lake fire is, which is just north of Newberry, Michigan. Duck Lake is northeast of Chicago, Illinois. Duck Lake, when talking about the fire, is a land mass, not the lake; it is not a fire on a lake, such as fire if there was a gas or oil spill on the surface of the water that ignited. Be cautioned that there is another Duck Lake in the southern region of Michigan, which is NOT the location of the Duck Lake fire. Duck Lake fire is the name given to the fire which emergency responders all know what is being referred to; there are other names of this area that are suffering from the fire, such as the Lake Superior shoreline. The top edge of the T-bone shape land mass part of Michigan is bordered with the southern parts of the waters of lake Superior, on of the 'Great Lakes'.
The next stop, moving west from Michigan, drop down to the middle of the country, the Heartland, and there is a fire right in the middle of Kansas. Information on internet is harder to come by for this fire. The fire is named Sylvan fire. The location of the fire is just northwest of Wichita, Kansas, it is north of Hutchison, and west of Salina, probably the closest town to the fire, which is Ellsworth, the fire is just miles east. Again, be careful about matching name with places, as there is another place named Sylvan, [Sylvan Grove], which is in the eastern part of Kansas; that is not where the fire is. The level of containment of the fire, is not found on many national media websites.
After the Sylvan fire, what is arguably the closest 2 fires from it, are both the High park in Colorado, and the Little Bear in New Mexico, which are about equidistant from Kansas, meaning about the same distance away; only thing is, the High Park fire, in Colorado, is obviously more northern in geographic location, and New Mexico, known for its warmer climate, in the southern part of the U.S., or toward it, further, the Little Bear fire is in the southern part of New Mexico. Additional information about these geographic locations, is, Colorado is a large state, and although known for cold winters and dry air, is not exempt from dry climate that facilitates fires. These 2 fires, are the only 2 coded the same according to the report of NIRC June 12, 2012, in terms of how they are being treated by firefighting. Basically, these are the big 2, and of very serious concern, threatening, and very dangerous.
Just above Colorado, and the High Park fire, there are 2 fires burning not too far from each other in Wyoming, in the southeastern part of the state.
Dropping back down to Colorado, there is another fire at the very southern border, the 'Little Sand' fire. The location is about 1 quarter of the way from the very southwestern corner of the state.
Back in New Mexico, which is the state directly south of Colorado, there are several fires burning scattered throughout the state.
Directly left, moving westward from New Mexico, is Arizona, clearly in the southwest. They have several fires burning throughout the state, in different areas. There are ones big enough to be listed, and there seem to be smaller ones, although no less dangerous in their ingredients, that might get put out in a day or so, which might not make the list. Fire '257' toward the center of Arizona seems to be ranked the biggest and most dangerous, while the Gladiator fire, a few miles to the west of that one, and a little more north, still toward the center of the geographic region of the state, received much coverage about 3 weeks ago, and appears to be winding down, getting closer to 100% containment.
Directly north of Arizona, and west of Colorado, is Utah, which has a cluster of several fires burning toward the south central part of the state.
Nevada, west of Utah, is dealing with fires; 'Copper Mountain' fire, looks to be on the border shared with Utah and Nevada, toward the very north of both these states. The is another ['Barnes' fire], that looks almost to be a duplicate situation of the Copper Mountain fire, on the border of these 2 states, only difference in location, is that it is toward the very south of these 2 states.
California has 1 fire right in the very middle of the state, 'George' fire. According to the 'incident report' on June 9, 2012, which was 4 days ago, the fire started on the 1st of June, 2012, about 2 weeks ago; the fire is about 70% contained; not a lot of structural damage; the fire effects mainly Sequoia National Forest, Freeman Creek Giant Sequoia Grove, and Giant Sequoia National Monument; about 1800 acres have burned.
The report is at:
http://www.inciweb.org/incident/article/2885/14151/
For a practical or better idea of the size of the fire,1800 acres is just under 3 square miles, [2.81 to be closer] which means, if the fire was in the shape of a box, on side of the box is the square root of 3, which is about 1.73 miles, or about between 1 and a half miles and 1 and three quarters of a mile, on each side of the box; more precise is 1.68 miles, which is about 1 and 2 thirds of a mile, on each side. The fire is east of Fresno, California near the main highway artery running north of Sequoia National Forest. Mount Whitney and Ovens Lake is right around and to the north of the fire, and to the south of the fire is Owens Lake.
Just as the name implies, the fire there is adjacent the mountainous region of California.
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