The sheriff of Jefferson County Sheriff told a reporter that no criminal charges will be filed for the escaped prescribed fire southwest of Denver that burned 4,140 acres, and may have caused the death of three local residents at their homes. Sheriff Ted Mink said in an interview conducted by 7NEWS reporter Marshall Zelinger:

We’re not saying that somebody should not be held accountable. All we’re saying is there’s no criminality that we have come up with.

The Sheriff’s office completed their own investigation of the escaped fire, but worked with the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. This was a separate investigation from the one initiated by Governor John Hickenlooper’s office, which Wildfire Today covered on April 16, the day the report was released.

Here is an excerpt from an article at thedenverchannel.com:

“The reports confirm previous assumptions that a prescribed burn conducted by the Colorado State Forest Service caused the fire. Based on the review of all available documents and witness interviews, it was determined that the CSFS followed or exceeded the parameters set by the Lower North Fork burn plan, and that no criminal violation of the Colorado Revised Statutes occurred,” the Sheriff’s Office report said.

However, a report by the governor’s office, released on Monday, showed that the state forest service violated its own burn plan by not patrolling the area of the controlled burn on that third day — Sunday — the day before the controlled burn blew up into the Lower North Fork Fire.

“How can the Forest Service follow and exceed the burn plan and violate it at the same time?” Zelinger asked.

“All I know is they did not go out there on a Sunday,” Mink replied. “The burn plan says periodic monitoring, and it doesn’t give a prescribed day or time or day or whatever the case is. You can interpret it in different ways. We interpreted it that they did follow and exceed it in the criminal part of our investigation.”

The Sheriff is wrong when he said: “The burn plan says periodic monitoring, and it doesn’t give a prescribed day or time or day…” The plan, according to page 50 of the report, states: “The fire will be directly patrolled and monitored for a minimum of 3 days following the initial burn, and then until significant moisture is received or the fire is declared out.”

The fire was not patrolled or checked on March 25, the third day after ignition of the prescribed fire. On that day at 12:15 p.m. the National Weather Service issued a Red Flag Warning for the following day, March 26, the day the fire escaped, for strong winds and low relative humidity. The Colorado Forest Service (CFS) was aware of the Warning and decided that since the fire had been mopped up within 200 feet of the line that it did not need to be checked on the third day, March 25.

On March 26, the CFS planned to check the fire and if there were no new smokes within 200 feet of the control line, they would remove all of the water handling equipment, including the hose lays, portable pump, and a portable water tank. At 5:51 a.m. that day, the NWS issued an updated Red Flag Warning for low humidity and strong winds of “8-13 mph with gusts to 25 mph, increasing to 22-32 mph with gusts to 60 mph in the afternoon”. In spite of that forecast, the CFS stuck with their plan of checking the fire with three people, using a pickup truck instead of a fire engine, and they would remove the water handling equipment.

The report stated that the failure to patrol the fire on the third day did not contribute to the escape on the fourth day, concluding that the strong winds blew burning embers from unburned sections of the fire into and possibly across the 200-foot mopped up area, re-igniting some portions of the blackened area, and ultimately starting at least three spot fires across the line, one of which could not be controlled. It stated that some of the factors contributing to the escape of the fire included:

• Strong winds on March 26.
• Unburned fuels within the burn unit.
• Residual heat remaining within the burn unit.
• Mopping up only 200 feet from the fire line during the wind event.
• The 3-person crew working on the fire on March 26 using a pickup truck instead of a fire engine.
• An inaccurate weather forecast on March 22 (the day of the prescribed fire), which predicted a cooling trend on March 25 and moderate winds on March 25. The wind event for March 26 was first predicted on March 24.
• The unusual method of fire spread consisting of numerous burning embers blowing across the ground “like little burning fleas moving across the ground”.

Colorado’s Department of Natural Resources has released the official review of the Lower North Fork prescribed fire southwest of Denver which escaped on March 26, 2012, burned 4,140 acres, and killed three local residents at their homes, however the exact cause of their deaths has not yet been released. The 152-page report (a very large 11.8 MB file) only addresses the management of the prescribed fire, and does not cover the suppression of the wildfire, the three fatalities, or the controversial evacuation procedures during the wildfire.

After reading much of the report, which includes a great deal of boiler-plate information not directly related to the escaped prescribed fire, I was able to summarize some of the important points:
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Lower North Fork Fire. Photo provided by Jefferson County Sheriff's Office

On Tuesday afternoon the Colorado State Forest Service released a statement that contributes to the theory that one of their prescribed fires that escaped control may have started the Lower North Fork fire, which as of Tuesday afternoon has burned 4,500 acres and destroyed or damaged 23 homes. An elderly couple was found dead in the burn area, but a cause of death has not been released. The Denver Post earlier on Tuesday quoted Jacki Kelley, a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman, as saying the fire originated from a controlled burn conducted by the Colorado Forest Service on March 19.

Below is the statement from the Colorado State Forest Service:

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“Preliminary reports indicate that on the fourth day of mop-up operations, following a prescribed burn, extremely strong wind appears to have reignited the fire by fanning embers and blowing them into an unburned area outside the containment line. Crews patrolling the area immediately began fighting the fire.

Last Wednesday (3/21), Colorado State Forest Service initiated a controlled burn on Denver Water Board property. The 35-acre prescribed burn was part of ongoing fuels management activities in the Lower North Fork area as part of a service agreement with Denver Water. On Wednesday, March 21, crews built a containment line around the fire area. The actual prescribed fire was carried out and completed on Thursday, with mop-up operations beginning on Friday.

On Monday afternoon (3/26), during the fourth day of mop-up work, a patrol crew reported windy conditions, but no smoke or fire activity as they circled the burn area several times. The crew reported a sudden, significant increase in wind and then reported seeing blowing embers carried across the containment line, over a road, and into unburned fuels. The crew immediately requested additional resources and began aggressively fighting the fire.

As the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office further investigates the cause of the current wildfire, Colorado State Forest Service will also be conducting a simultaneous review of the prescribed burn. Conducting a prescribed burn involves a considerable amount of planning, research and oversight by fire professionals who carefully consider current and future weather forecasts, fuel conditions, and other factors before initiating a prescribed burn. On preliminary review CSFS officials say fire crews followed all procedures and safety protocols in conducting the prescribed burn. An independent panel will now fully review the prescribed burn and the procedures surrounding it.

Joseph A. Duda

Deputy State Forester

Colorado State Forest Service”

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More information about the Lower North Fork Fire, from March 29.

Whiteclay, Nebraska as seen in Google Maps Streetview

A man that was apparently not directly involved with a prescribed fire was entrapped and badly burned on March 7 in Whiteclay, (map) a very small town in the northwestern part of Nebraska. The articles in the Omaha World-Herald and Indian Country are not super clear on how Bryan Blue Bird Jr., 51, of Pine Ridge, SD came to be in the project area, but said the incident occurred in a vacant lot, “where drinkers often end up after buying beer in the unincorporated village”. The volunteer fire department from Rushville, Nebraska, about 15 miles south of Whiteclay, was conducting the prescribed fire, according to both news articles.

I have never heard of an incident like this, in which a civilian is seriously burned during a small prescribed fire conducted by an organized fire agency.

Here is an excerpt from the article in the Omaha World-Herald.

A Lakota Sioux man was seriously injured in a recent controlled burn of vacant lots in Whiteclay, Neb., and family members and friends question whether firefighters were negligent in not checking the area before igniting the blaze.

Bryan Blue Bird Jr., 51, of Pine Ridge, S.D., was hospitalized with burns over 25 percent of his body after the March 7 incident.

Volunteer firefighters from Rushville had been burning off thick grass from vacant lots to reduce fire risks to local businesses when Blue Bird was spotted amid the flames, according to Sheridan County Sheriff Terry Robbins.

He said firefighters doused the unemployed military veteran with water and then pulled him from the fire area.

Blue Bird is in the intensive care unit of a Greeley, Colo., hospital, where he is scheduled for a skin graft on his hands Thursday. He also has burns on his face and back, family members said.

His longtime girlfriend, Patricia White Bear Claw, said firefighters should have more thoroughly checked the vacant lots, where drinkers often end up after buying beer in the unincorporated village.

“They know they sit down there and drink. They know that. They should have checked,” White Bear Claw said.

UPDATE at 12:15 p.m. MT, March 26, 2012:

After a person calling themselves “Felix” made an accusation in a comment on this article that the Bureau of Indian Affairs was responsible for the prescribed fire in White Clay, I heard today from Dave Martin, an Assistant Regional Fire Management Officer for the BIA. He said they looked into this, and confirmed that the BIA was not involved in any way with the incident. The volunteer fire department from Rushville, Nebraska conducted the prescribed fire, not the BIA. Mr. Martin also said the account of the incident in the Omaha World-Herald is essentially correct.

Thanks go out to Mark