Pour Yorick - Alas

Here we go again!

“As we work toward a full respiratory protection program, we’re not going to wait any longer. We think N95s can be used in a practical way that can provide some level of protection and if people are getting overheated, they can take it off,” said Evan Burks, a Forest Service spokesperson. “This is not a requirement, but we are allowing it and basically encouraging it.”

The thing about respiratory protection when wildland firefighting is that a lot of the decisions about it are being made by people who have never done a single day of wildland firefighting. A lot of those people are well intentioned, but without that knowledge their suggestions are going to be pretty useless.

Even when wildland firefighters are basing themselves out of an engine, they are still carrying at least 30lbs of gear and hiking through at least some amount of rough terrain to access the fire. And if they're not basing themselves out of an engine they may be carrying twice that weight, if not more, significantly farther distances in significantly rougher terrain. Adding a full structural fire breathing setup to that is not feasible. It is way to much extra weight.

Then, of course, there's the fact that structural fire breathing setups require tanks that don't last all that long, so to cover the whole time of a wildland fire you'd probably need dozens if not hundreds of tanks per person. Some wildland assignments involve people being in the woods with no access to civilization for days, if not up to two or even three weeks. A tanked system just does not work for wildland.

Okay, so, what about N95s? Probably better than nothing, but they still come with a lot of drawbacks of their own. I've only had a chance to do a quick bit of research, but there seems to be limited public information about flammability testing of N95 masks. There's various FDA standards, and internal testing at companies like 3M, but I could not find a good breakdown of how that testing works. (Could be out there though! Happy to be corrected if it is.) Is it testing every single component of the masks from the elastic straps to the staples holding those straps on? What are the exact temperatures and conditions they are being tested under? A sustained wildfire/shower of sparks from a wildfire is very different than short-term welding sparks or a quick surgical oxygen fire, so how do N95s react to those conditions? (Some of what I found suggested that N95s melt rather than burn, but when the thing is on your face I'm not really sure if that's...better?)

Then there's N95s (or regular respirators with filters) getting clogged. You're not going to be able to just carry a handful, you're going to have to carry A LOT OF THEM, and swap them out consistently. And yes, letting that stuff into your lungs instead isn't better, but the amount of masks you'd need still has to be considered in these discussions. Sure, N95s are much lighter than a full tanked setup, but they still take up space that could be used for other critical needs like water and food (because you've got to carry all that for yourself too!).

And of course you've got the metal nose pieces, which I'd guess aren't going to do anything pleasant to your face in the event flames get close enough to melt the mask.

Point is, with current technology, breathing protection for wildland firefighters is a much more difficult problem than it seems to be on the surface. A lot of the conversations I'm hearing currently are less around encouraging use of them on the line while actively engaged with the fire and more about encouraging them all other times like travel to and from where you're working, and in fire camps, to at least better limit overall exposure.

There ARE some other options out there, like this thing, which is meant to go over an N95:

Source: https://shop.darley.com/product/hot-shield-hs2-wildland-firefighter-face-mask/01t2E00000QZdkVQAT

But they haven't really taken off in any way, and IDK what sort of testing they've undergone either. Also, looking at this one specifically, it kinda seems like it would be a pain in the ass to change out the N95 when it started to get clogged.

There's also these things:

Source: https://o2armor.com/

Which would at least keep gunk out of your nose, and be much smaller, and not be something covering your face and trapping a ton of heat. But I honestly don't know anything else about them when it comes to what they're rated for, how well they work, and how long they last before they're too clogged to breathe through.

Jay Kuo at The Big Picture:

On July 6, Ukrainian drones struck Russia’s largest oil refinery, in the Siberian city of Omsk, some 2,500 kilometers from Ukraine. Until that night, the Omsk facility was one of only two of the country’s top ten refineries Ukraine had not yet hit. Ukraine’s General Staff called it the last of the country’s 11 largest gasoline producers to fall. The same week, Ukrainian drone units struck 21 vessels near occupied Crimea, including 19 sanctioned tankers from Russia’s shadow fleet hauling gasoline to the peninsula. The effect of Ukraine’s escalated attacks on Russia’s oil infrastructure is already visible. Gas lines and fuel rationing have spread across nearly all of Russia’s 83 regions. Yet shortages at the pump are only the beginning. The fuel crunch is now moving into Russia’s farm fields, where the harvest is underway, and from there to Russian dinner tables. Russia’s response to the crisis has been telling: restrict supply, offer half-measures to address the crisis and continue massive fuel subsidies rather than allow prices to rise. That’s a combustible national situation that could endanger Putin’s murderous four-year war against Ukraine as well as his iron grip on power.

Refineries and Tankers

The Omsk refinery processes more than 22 million tons of crude oil a year, roughly 10 percent of Russia’s total refining capacity. Ukraine’s drones hit the refinery’s primary crude-processing unit, which Ukrainian special forces described as its most vital component. Reuters later reported the damaged unit accounts for roughly 38 percent of the refinery’s total production capacity. By Tuesday, the refinery had suspended petrol and diesel sales on Russia’s main commodities exchange entirely. Omsk supplies more than half of the motor fuel used in Siberia. Omsk was not the only target that night. Ukrainian intelligence units struck another of Russia’s five largest refineries, roughly 700 kilometers from the border, along with a fuel terminal on the Baltic Sea and a petroleum storage facility in occupied Crimea. Ukraine has hit Russian refineries at least 194 times in the first half of 2026 alone, reaching a record monthly pace in May. At sea, the campaign has been brutal for Russia as well. Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces opened an operation on the night of July 6, hitting 12 tankers hauling gasoline toward occupied Crimea over the first two nights. Nine more tankers followed on July 8, bringing the three-day total to 21 vessels struck: 19 sanctioned shadow-fleet tankers, a cargo ship and a ferry. Commander Robert “Madyar” Brovdi identified several of the tankers by name, noting each was sanctioned, roughly 140 meters long, and built between 2006 and 2012.

In a June 26 letter to the International Maritime Organization, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Oleksii Kuleba argued the shadow fleet is “critical to the generation of budget revenues for the Russian Federation.” Industry estimates put the global shadow fleet at more than 1,500 tankers; Ukraine has struck roughly a dozen sanctioned vessels by name since the current campaign began. Occupied Crimea depends on these deliveries because the bridge connecting it to Russia was severely damaged in 2025 and remains closed to heavy vehicles. Russian-installed authorities in Crimea had already introduced fuel rationing in late May, before this latest round of strikes began.

[...]

Warning One: The harvest is being hit

Diesel and gasoline are different products with different supply pictures. Before the war, Russian refineries produced roughly twice as much diesel as the country consumed domestically, a surplus that has been shrinking since 2022 as export markets in the European Union closed, Moscow Times opinion writer Dmitry Nekrasov has noted. Gasoline production, by contrast, barely covered domestic demand even before the war. Arkady Zlochevsky, president of the Russian Grain Union, said the worst fuel shortages are already hitting small and medium-sized farms, which account for the bulk of Russia’s grain production. A Bloomberg survey of eight farmers across several regions found only two had enough fuel to complete the harvest; three had already paid for fuel that had not been delivered; and the remaining three had enough for roughly two weeks before needing to buy again at current prices. One farmer in Russia’s Volga region said growers who didn’t stock up before prices surged will now pay any price, “because nobody will leave the crop in the field.” He said the added cost could push farmers to shift acreage away from winter crops and toward spring planting in 2027. Altai Krai, Siberia’s largest agricultural producer and Russia’s single largest buckwheat-growing region, illustrates how sharply costs have moved. Fuel expenses for the region’s farmers have risen roughly 2.5-fold over the past year, compounded by rising fertilizer costs—after the Strait of Hormuz disruption drove up global fertilizer prices. A regional lawmaker warned the combination could produce what she called a “food catastrophe.” The head of a regional agricultural industry group told a local outlet that, at current fuel prices, harvesting grain is becoming unprofitable, and that some farmers may find it cheaper to leave crops standing in the field than pay to bring them in. One farmer in the region’s Rebrikha district said fertilizer was simply unavailable to buy this year. Altai has since introduced formal rationing, requiring drivers to present vehicle registration to buy fuel.

[...]

What Comes Next

This intensified phase of Ukraine’s campaign against Russian oil infrastructure is only weeks old. Russia’s daily refined oil output fell by up to 700,000 barrels, a 13 percent decline, in April and May alone, and losses deepened further after Ukraine struck two more major refineries in mid-June. In that short span, as discussed above, shortages have spread to nearly all of Russia’s regions. The government has turned to subsidies, export bans and lower fuel quality standards. And a harvest that Russia’s own Grain Union president says depends on farms without adequate diesel reserves is already behind schedule. Nowhere has the strain shown more plainly than in occupied Crimea. The Russian-controlled government there has declared a state of emergency, banned fuel sales outright, and has seen empty shelves and purchase limits on basic goods. But what happens if and when more of Russia’s refining capacity goes offline, and fuel cannot reliably reach every region that needs it? Nekrasov takes the measured view: shortages are likely to worsen each summer through 2027, ease each autumn, and remain unlikely to seriously affect economic activity outside the regions closest to the front. But even that restrained assessment comes with a warning. The Kremlin’s tools are narrowing: lower fuel standards and imports from neighboring countries cannot fully offset a continuing decline in refining capacity. Subsidies that keep prices low are already so costly they constrain the budget rather than relieve it.

There's nothing sadder than a puppet without a ghost, especially the kind with red blood running through them.

The Bourton Oak is a spectacular veteran Quercus robur (Pedunculate oak) located near Stow Bridge in Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire.