This video has some good shots from the fireline on the Gladiator Fire in Arizona.

It was shot by Rick Servatius of Bay6 Productions out of Scottsdale, Arizona who has a standing call when needed contract with the Bureau of Land Management to produce videos. The Gladiator fire hired the company under that existing contract to shoot high-definition video at the fire. Ken Frederic of the BLM at Boise told Wildfire Today that he thought the estimated cost was about $4,000 for the five days of shooting, May 17-21, including the post-production tasks. It was Mr. Servatius who uploaded the video to YouTube, not the BLM or the folks at the Gladiator fire.

Here is the description as it appears on YouTube:

This is footage from the fire line at the Gladiator Fire outside of Crown King, AZ. I am a trained fire fighter who carries a camera rather than a shovel and was the only videographer allowed to be on the fire line. I was assigned to the fire for 5 days to shoot footage. At night I would feed this footage to NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN and all the other major networks.

El Capitan Fire, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, NPS photo by Christie La Paz

A 30-person hand crew of Mexican nationals assisted with the suppression of a wildfire in Guadalupe Mountains National Park in western Texas on the New Mexico border (map). The fire started from lightning on May 26 and burned 171 acres before it was contained. Here is an excerpt from an update from New Mexico Fire Information (are you totally confused by all the geographical references so far?):

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The Pecos Zone Type III Incident Management Team will transfer management of the El Capitan Fire back to Guadalupe Mountains National Park at Noon today (LaPaz IC). The Pecos Zone Type III Incident Management Team (Northcott IC) took over management of the El Capitan Fire as of 6:00 AM on 5/28/2012.

Summary: The Park remains under Red Flag conditions, with hot, dry weather and high winds. Los Diablos Type 2 Initial Attack Crew, the Truman Engine (Mescalero, NM) and Chihuahua Engine (Ruidoso, NM) will remain at the park, along with the fire crews from Guadalupe Mountains National Park and Carlsbad Caverns National Park, and will continue to monitor the fire for any hot spots and will also be available for initial attack should there be any new fires. They will also continue trimming and removing vegetation to create defensible space around structures to help protect them from any future fires. The fire burned in steep rugged, terrain and crews hiked to the fire. The fire was on the west side of El Capitan Peak, approximately 1 mile east of historic Williams Ranch. The fire is 100% contained with only a few hot spots remaining.

Los Diablos is a crew of more than 30 Mexican national firefighters, from Boquillas and other villages across the Rio Grande from Big Bend National Park, along with National Park Service firefighting personnel. A cooperative effort between the National Park Service, the Department of Homeland Security, the Border Patrol and Mexico, Los Diablos has provide emergency fire services at Big Bend National Park and throughout the United States since 1990. Their name, Los Diablos, which is Spanish for “the Devils,” comes from their promise to work like devils when they are called upon.

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The above photo of the El Capitan fire reminded me of some photos I took at the Scotts Spring prescribed fire in 2002 in Scotts Bluff National Monument.

Scotts Spring prescribed fire at Scotts Bluff National Monument, April, 2002. NPS photo by Bill Gabbert

Scotts Spring prescribed fire. NPS photo by Bill Gabbert

Whitewater-Baldy, May 28, 2012. USFS photo

The Whitewater-Baldy fire grew by another 18,000 acres yesterday to 170,272 acres, becoming the largest in the recorded history of New Mexico, surpassing last year’s Las Conchas fire which blackened 156,593 acres. The Wallow fire last year was the largest in Arizona history. It burned 538,049 acres and destroyed 32 residences.

A person has to wonder. Is this going to be the new norm — frequent record-setting fires, while the number of federal firefighters and air tankers continue to shrink?

Hawaii fire. Photo by Gardner Kaipo Chung

Police closed a section of the H-3 freeway north of Honolulu on Tuesday when a 350-acre wildfire burned an area behind Kalaheo High School (map) on the north side of the island. The fire reached the ridge above the high school and worked its way down the other side.

Pushed by winds gusting up to 25 mph, it started about 1 p.m. and was mostly contained by 9:30 p.m., coming within 25 yards of some homes.

The fire was fought by eight engines, two water tenders, and two helicopters.
Thanks go out to Dietra

We would like to welcome a new supporter of Wildfire Today, The Supply Cache. The company was founded in 1990 by two wildland fire fighters, Jim and Diane Felix. Beginning with a brochure, they later created a web site in 1994, and after outgrowing several business locations, they built and then moved into their own building in 2004, complete with a showroom and 8,000 square feet of warehouse space. They first concentrated on gear for the wildland firefighter, but over the last four years have expanded their inventory to include all risk and USAR equipment. The company says “We are your number one choice for all risk, USAR and wildland fire safety equipment”.

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Another new supporter of Wildfire Today is MVP Ambry Equipment. Their MVP hose pack was invented and patented by a fire fighter, and has been field tested by fire fighters. It was designed to be safe, ergonomic, multi-functional, comfortable, and easy to use. The MVP hose pack is safe because firefighters do not have to take their gloves off to deploy hose. It is simple and fast to load and unload because of the “release and attack” design that allows fire fighters to engage the hose pack with one hand, and unroll hose with the other hand in one motion. Additionally, the MVP Hose Pack’s “Deploy and charge” design allows fire fighters to fight fire faster because it allows them to grab the second hose with ease. The Ambry MVP Hose pack also allows fire departments the option to add a third hose. The hose pack has a utility pouch large enough to carry “p-hose” (50’x3/4”), inline tees, hose clamp, gated wyes, and various appliances. If the hose pack is not carrying hose, it can be used to carry firing devices, lunches, waters, other types of hoses, medical supplies, extra fire supplies, or rope. Check out their video which has more information about the hose pack.