Red Flag Warnings, June 16, 2014

wildfire Red Flag Warnings - June 16, 2014

Warnings for elevated wildfire danger have been issued by the National Weather Service for areas in Nevada, Utah, Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Colorado.

The Red Flag Warning map was current as of 11:52 a.m. MDT on Monday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts. For the most current data, visit this NWS site.

Air Tanker 48 lands on collapsed landing gear at Fresno

Tanker 48 Fresno landing gear problem
Tanker 48 at Fresno, June 15, 2014.

Minden Air Corps’ Tanker 48 was involved in an incident at Fresno, California on June 15. While working on the Shirley Fire near Lake Isabella, the 53-year old P2V experienced a problem with the hydraulic system and diverted to the long runway at Fresno. According to Mike Ferris, spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service, the nose wheel collapsed upon landing. There were no injuries to the crew.

Below is a video report from Fresno’s KMPH:

(The video is no longer available at that site, but here is another link to it.)

Tanker 48 at Rapid City
File photo of Tanker 48 at Rapid City Air Tanker Base, July 21, 2012. Photo by Bill Gabbert.

Minden had a serious incident with another of their P2V air tankers on June 3, 2012 involving malfunctioning landing gear. In that incident only one main landing gear and the nose gear were able to be lowered and locked on Tanker 55, leaving one main landing gear up or not locked. The aircraft landed at Minden on just two of the three landing gears. The pilots skillfully put the aircraft on the runway, finally skidding it to a stop after sliding off the runway into the grass. The crew walked away, but the tanker was heavily damaged and has not been repaired.

T-55 landing at Minden
T-55 landing at Minden in 2012 on only two of the three landing gears.

Below is a video of that incident in 2012.

The same day Minden’s T-55 crash-landed in 2012, Neptune’s T-11 crashed while working on a wildfire near the Nevada/Utah border killing Capt. Todd Neal Topkins and First Officer Ronnie Edwin Chambless. Both were from Boise.

The crash of Tanker 55 in 2012 left Minden with only one air tanker, T-48. For several years they have been working on converting a jet-powered airliner, a BAe-146, into an air tanker. That project is nearing completion and in the next few weeks or months may receive all of the approvals necessary for it to drop retardant on fires.

On June 26, 2010 air tanker 44, a P2V operated by Neptune Aviation also experienced a hydraulic failure upon landing, had no brakes, and went off the runway at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (JeffCo) in Colorado (map). Both pilots self-evacuated and were walking around when the fire apparatus arrived to put out a fire in one of the engines. Neptune repaired the aircraft and put it back into service.

Vehicle fire in the Black Hills

Vehicle fire Hwy 18
Just before the arrival of the fire department.

Today a pickup truck pulling a horse trailer caught fire while ascending a steep grade on Highway 18 a couple of miles west of Hot Springs, South Dakota. When it started I was all set to go out to Wind Cave National Park to take some photos, but I diverted to the fire instead. The truck was fully involved and was a total loss before the fire department arrived. So there was no point in risking anything, to save what amounted to nothing, at least where the pickup truck was concerned. I don’t believe there was much, if any damage to the horse trailer.

Vehicle fire Hwy 18
The Fire Department arrives.
Vehicle fire Hwy 18
Initial attack by the Fire Department.

Vehicle fire Hwy 18

Continue reading “Vehicle fire in the Black Hills”

Shirley Fire, near Lake Isabella, California

(Information about the Way Fire that started August 18, 2014 north of Highway 155 near Wofford Heights and Kernville, can be found HERE. The article below is about the Shirley Fire, of June, 2014))

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(UPDATE at 8:47 a.m. PT, June 17, 2014)

Map of the Shirley Fire
3D Map of the Shirley Fire. The red line was the perimeter at 9:30 p.m. PT June 16. The yellow line is about 24 hours earlier.

Below is an update on the Shirley fire near Wofford Heights, California, provided by the Incident Management Team at about 8:30 a.m. PT Tuesday:

Excellent progress made over the previous 24 hours on all areas of the fire perimeter has enabled firefighters to raise containment to 75%. Burning operations used yesterday to widen lines in Division Y, held throughout the night. A wind advisory issued for the Kern Valley and will remain in place until Tuesday afternoon, wind speeds are expected to reach up to 45 MPH. Crews will be cautious of the possibility of blowing embers causing spot fires outside the line as they work to improve containment. Safety remains a concern as steep rocky terrain, tree snags and rolling material from the fire are in all areas of the fire. Last nights community meeting was attended by approximately 120 people and was streamed live to another 1100 viewers and can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf4hf0WRj8g

Today, crews will continue to hold and improve containment lines and mop up interior to the perimeter. Demobilization of resources will begin today as firefighters return home to prepare and train for the additional wildland fires to come.

The official size is 2,646 acres.

****

(UPDATE at 9 p.m. PT, June 16, 2014)

A community meeting for the Shirley Fire was broadcast live on YouTube Monday night. It started at 7 p.m., and got off to a slow start with a long speech from the Kern County Fire Chief.

Incident Commander Jeanne Pincha-Tulley came on and said they have a line around the entire fire but they are not calling it contained yet.

They said the fire has burned 2,646 acres. The Incident Management Team is calling it 75 percent contained. All evacuations for the fire have been lifted.

Incident Commander Pincha-Tulley in attempting to answer a question about where the three homes that burned were located, said she knew the general area where the losses occurred, but not being from the area, she did not know how to describe the general location to the audience. She said she was not being flippant.

Broadcasting the community meeting live on YouTube was a great idea, at least in concept. On our end, there were quite a few interruptions in the video with a lot of stopping and buffering, while we watched the circle of dots go around and around. Viewers could leave live comments on the website, and many others confirmed that they too were affected by the interruptions in the video.

It was odd that there was no organized attempt to provide a general briefing to the community members about the status of the fire. After they opened it up to questions, one of them, about 30 or 40 minutes into the meeting, was how many acres had burned and how much of the fire was contained. And no one was prepared to answer a question from the audience of where the three burned homes were located.

There may be a recording of the video available later on YouTube, and hopefully it won’t have all of the buffering interruptions. If so we will add the link to it here.

UPDATE at 9:20 p.m. PT, June 16, 2014: A recording of the meeting can be seen on YouTube. In the video, the meeting actually starts at about 48:30. After preliminary information from the host and the Kern County Fire Chief, the meat of the meeting begins at 1:02:33 when the local USFS District Ranger makes a brief comment just before the Incident Commander comes on.

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(UPDATE at 7:42 a.m. PT, June 16, 2014)

Map Shirley Fire 930 pm June 15
Map of the Shirley Fire. The red line was the perimeter at 9:30 p.m. June 15, 2014. The yellow line is from about 24 hours earlier. (click to enlarge)

The Shirley Fire west of Wofford Heights was very active on Sunday, growing by over 1,000 acres primarily on the north side but it also expanded on the southeast side. This brings the total area burned to 2,600 acres according to the map and information we have received, but the Pincha-Tulley Type 1 Incident Management Team reported at 8 a.m. Monday that the fire had only burned 2,200 acres. They are calling it 10 percent contained. New information from the Team has been rather sparse, but the National Interagency Fire Center reports that two structures have been destroyed. It is unknown if they were residences or outbuildings.

The fire is being fought by 1,176 personnel, with 73 engines, 4 helicopters, and 29 crews at a cost so far of $4.2 million. Air tankers, including one of the DC-10s flying out of Santa Maria, also were busy over the fire on Sunday. Night-flying helicopters from the Kern County Fire Department have also been used after sunset when the other aircraft are grounded.

As the fire spreads to the east it moves from conifers above 5,000 feet to lighter vegetation below 4,000 feet. In the lower elevations the fuels transition to brush and grass, conditions under which the air tankers and helicopters working with the firefighters on the ground can be more effective.

On Sunday the firefighters were faced with winds gusting up to 27 mph. The forecast for Monday is somewhat better, but not great, calling for 5 to 9 mph winds out of the west in the morning, becoming stronger by late afternoon at 15 mph gusting to 21 from the west and northwest.

The cameraman in the above photo is wearing an interesting combination of clothing — what appears to be a fire resistant Nomex shirt or jacket, and shorts.

Continue reading “Shirley Fire, near Lake Isabella, California”

Wildfire briefing, June 13, 2014

(Originally published at 9:19 a.m. CT, June 13, 2014)

House teetering on cliff to be prescribed burned

House above lake
NBCDFW photo.

A house at the top of a cliff over Lake Whitney in Texas will be burned intentionally Friday morning. The cliff below part of the house has fallen away, leaving the house precariously teetering. The house will be burned, which is considered a better option than allowing it to fall into the lake where the debris would have to be removed.

A crew is prepping the house by breaking out windows and adding bales of hay soaked in diesel fuel to the interior.

The prescribed fire is being covered live by a television station in Texas.

(UPDATE at 10:15 a.m. CT, June 13, 2014)

Ignition has begun. Firefighters are on scene applying water between the burning home and a nearby house, perhaps to minimize damage to a couple of trees.

House above lake burning

(UPDATE at 11:36 a.m. CT, June 13, 2014)

It’s pretty much over:

House above lake burning House above lake burning

The photos are from NBCDFW.

Funeral services for Nevada firefighter

The funeral services for Donovan Artie Garcia Jr. will be held today, Friday, June 13. Mr. Garcia, the Assistant Chief of the Hungry Valley, Nevada fire department, died of a heart attack while participating in wildland fire training June 5. Services will be in Reno at 11 a.m. at the Hungry Valley Gymnasium, 9070 Eagle Canyon Drive.

MD-87 air tanker makes first drops

Erickson Aero Tanker’s two MD-87 air tankers, T-101 and T-105, made numerous drops on the Two Bulls Fire near Bend, Oregon shortly after they became certified and reported for duty. Wallowa.com has an article in which they quote pilot Brent Conner:

“I mean, I always wanted to be flying propeller planes, so this is new for me, and for most of us in this business,” he said.

“We can hold it in check, as we did with this fire, for about two days with retardant,” he said. “That gave them enough time to get the other flank taken care of.”

While it’s a job he’s done countless times before, it was Conner’s first weekend in real wildfire action with the Aero Tanker.

“It was a little nerve-wracking, actually,” he said. “We hadn’t been on a fire yet, the fire’s only 15 miles away. We barely had time to get the airplane cleaned up and we were already putting the flaps down, slowing down and getting ready to go.”

More information about the MD-87s is at Fire Aviation.

Reward for information about Two Bulls Fire

And speaking of the Two Bulls Fire at Bend, Oregon, the reward for information leading to a conviction of the person or persons responsible for setting the 6,908-acre fire has increased to $31,500. Anyone with information that could help identify suspects in the fire is asked to contact the Crime Stoppers Tip Line at 1-877-876-8477 (TIPS).

Hot pink may be the new color of fire retardant

The Missoula Technology Development Center is testing new colors for the fire retardant that is dropped by air tankers and helicopters. Below are excerpts from KPAX:

Over the last three years, some pilots have been complaining that the bright orange retardant is hard to see. “Particularly in late season when we’ve got grasses and trees that start turning color,” said Zylstra. With that concern, researchers at the US Forest Service’s Technology and Development Center in Missoula began looking into a solution, potentially a hot pink colored slurry. “So we run a product through a variety of different tests in our lab before it’s used out in the field,” said Zylstra.

[…]

The first batch of the hot pink slurry will be tested at four air tanker bases in California in regions predicted to have busy firefighting season.

Helitack crews train in Idaho

MagicValley.com has an article about U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management helitack crews training for the upcoming wildfire season.

Austin, Texas to get wildfire detection system

The Austin City Council voted to purchase a system of sensors mounted on towers that can detect smoke. The approval will allow the installation of two towers which will be tested for a year. At the end of the year they may decide to expand the system. In 2013, West Lake Hills, a community near Austin, also approved the acquisition of a similar system. It can detect smoke within 6 miles by rotating their sensors, completing a 360-degree rotation every 8 to 12 minutes, during which it takes images, analyzes, and then transmits those images for secondary analysis. If possible fire events are detected, the system alerts fire authorities.

Hotshots assist with prescribed fire on military base

The Laguna Hot Shots, based at Descanso, California, helped conduct a prescribed fire at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar on Thursday north of San Diego. Below is an excerpt from an article at 10News:

As a formation of Marine FA/18’s passed overhead to land at MCAS Miramar, members of the Laguna Hotshot crew were setting fire to the east side of the base.

The prescribed burn, as it’s called, is part of an annual brush management system put in place after the 2003 wildfire.

“After it burned more than 17,000 acres, the Cedar Fire really opened our eyes to a strong brush management program at the air station,” said Miramar Fire Operations Chief Paul Thompkins.

Construction begins on firefighter memorial in Prescott

Construction has started on a memorial in a cemetery in Prescott, Arizona for the members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots that were killed while fighting the Yarnell Hill Fire on June 30, 2013.

Below is an excerpt from KJZZ.org:

Construction is starting on a cemetery memorial for 19 firefighters killed in the Yarnell Hill wildfire, nearly a year after the fire started near Prescott. Each firefighter will have a plot and a bronze grave marker at the state-owned Pioneers’ Home Cemetery in Prescott. The plots are surrounded by a two-foot wall where mourners can sit.

Officials say 10 of the Granite Mountain Hotshot firefighters are already buried there. They say there’s room for family members to be buried alongside them.

The state designated a new section of the cemetery for the hotshots and charged $100 per grave site, instead of the usual $900.

 

Red Flag Warnings, June 13, 2014

Red Flag Warnings - June 13, 2014

Warnings for elevated wildfire danger have been issued by the National Weather Service for areas in Nevada, Utah, Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Colorado.

Washington and Idaho are not shown on the map, however they had a great deal of lightning activity on Thursday.




It will be very windy today in parts of southern California and especially the Antelope Valley.


The Red Flag Warning map was current as of 8:52 a.m. MDT on Friday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts. For the most current data, visit this NWS site.