Jury deliberating on $17 million suit related to fatal helicopter crash on Iron Complex fire

A jury in Oregon is deliberating, after a week-long trial, a case related to the crash of a helicopter on the Iron Complex (or Iron 44) fire in northern California in 2008 that killed nine firefighters and crew personnel. The lawsuit was initiated by the surviving co-pilot, William Coultas, and the estate of the pilot who died, Roark Schwanenberg. They are suing the maker of the helicopter’s engines, General Electric, for $177 million, claiming there were problems with a fuel control valve and that the specifications on the fuel filters were inadequate to remove contaminants.

GE’s position agrees with the findings of the NTSB which determined that the owner and operator of the Sikorsky S-61N helicopter, Carson Helicopters, under-stated the weight of the helicopter and over-stated its performance in the documents they provided to the U.S. Forest Service when bidding on their firefighting contract. The NTSB estimated that the actual empty weight of the helicopter was 13,845 pounds, while Carson Helicopters stated in their contract proposal that the weight was 12,013 pounds. For the purpose of load calculations on the day of the crash, the pilot assumed the weight to be 12,408 pounds, which was 1,437 pounds less than the actual weight estimated by the NTSB. According to their findings, for the mission of flying the firefighters off the helispot, the helicopter was already over the allowable weight even without the firefighters on board.

Mr. Coultas has long claimed that Carson Helicopters and the two pilots were not at fault for the accident and that the engines did not provide full power as they lifted off the helispot that day with a load of wildland firefighters. The NTSB disagreed, saying that the engines were operating at full power when the rotors clipped trees as it tried but failed to gain adequate altitude.

Killed in the crash were pilot Roark Schwanenberg, 54; pilot Jim Ramage, 63; Shawn Blazer, 30; Scott Charlson, 25; Matthew Hammer, 23; Edrik Gomez, 19; Bryan Rich, 29; David Steele, 19; and Steven “Caleb” Renno, 21.

The jury began their deliberations on Thursday, March 15. We will update this article when they return a verdict.

Thanks go out to Christian and Dick

Wildfire news, March 16, 2012

Arkansas Fire Chief rolls truck, receives written warning from State Trooper

Pea Ridge Fire Chief Frank Rizzio failed to negotiate a corner and rolled a water tender while responding to a structure fire on Wednesday. The Chief crawled out of the shattered windshield 4,000-gallon truck which was totalled. An officer from the Arkansas State Police issued Chief Rizzio, who was treated and released at a hospital, a written warning for failure to maintain control.

NASA awards grant for monitoring wildfires

NASA has awarded a 10-year grant totaling $32 million to Cal State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB) to continue research on wildfire monitoring, agricultural water management, flood forecasting, and crop yield predictions. CSUMB’s Vince Ambrosia has done pioneering research previously on the use of drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, to monitor and map wildfires, at times using NASA’s aircraft.

NASA's Predator B Ikhana
NASA's Predator B, called the Ikhana; NASA photo

Firefighters resign over poisoning another’s canteen water

Two firefighters in Titusville, Florida have resigned after admitting that they were involved in putting a poisonous substance into another firefighter’s canteen that he would have used on a brush fire. Police said the substance was Gunk, a cleaning product.

Randy Moore, 40, driver and operator, resigned Tuesday. Rod Donhoff, firefighter and paramedic, resigned Feb. 29. Moore faces charges of poisoning water/food and aggravated stalking. Donhoff was charged with stalking and petty theft of government property.

USFS Fire Chief “cautiously confident” about aerial firefighting capability

Tom Harbour, Director of Fire Aviation Management for the U.S. Forest Service, was quoted by the Mountain-News regarding the air tanker fleet:

I’m feeling cautiously confident about our capabilities nationally…

Mr. Harbour is “cautiously confident” in spite of the fact that the air tanker fleet is only 25% of the size of the 2002 fleet.

Red Flag Warnings, March 16

Map red flag warning 3-16-2012

Again, much of the United States is under a Red Flag warning today, and in some areas the high fire danger will last through the weekend. Fire danger like this is unusual for the Great Plains and Northern Rockies this time of the year. Like Havre (Montana) Fire Department Chief Dave Sheppard said earlier this week about the 12,000-acre fire they had on Tuesday:

We typically don’t see these types of fires until May or June. It’s tinder dry out there. It’s like August fuels right now. If we don’t get some moisture, it’s going to be a long summer.

Most of the Red Flagged areas are expected to have low humidities with gusty winds, and some will have near record high temperatures.

Oh, and in case you are planning to travel to Guam they also have a Red Flag warning “for the explosive spread of wildfire”.

NIOSH report — fatality of Cactus, Texas firefighter

NIOSH report, Texas wildfire fatalityNIOSH has released their report on the line of duty death of Cactus, Texas firefighter Elias Jaquez. While working on a wildfire on April 9, 2011 Mr. Jaquez suffered 3rd degree burns over 60% of his body and died 11 days later in a burn center. (Wildfire Today’s original report on the fatality.)

During fire suppression operations, the engine that Mr. Jaquez was in became stuck in sand. Efforts by that crew and a second engine to free the truck were unsuccessful when both became stuck. The crews of the engines fled on foot as the fire approached. Later Mr. Jaquez was found by himself 1.0 to 1.5 miles away lying face down on a road. He was still wearing a structural fire-fighting helmet, bunker pants, T-shirt, and the remains of his metal frames from his safety glasses. His rubber turnout boots had been removed and were lying in the road behind him. He had experienced severe third degree burns on his torso and head; however, he was conscious and coherent.

Here are some excerpts from the NIOSH report:

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