Prescribed fire along the Fall River

Nearly every year the city of Hot Springs, South Dakota asks the Hot Springs Volunteer Fire Department to conduct a prescribed fire along the Fall River. The burning reduces the woody vegetation which could clog the flood control channel where the river passes through the city. Before it was channelized and the Cold Brook Dam was constructed upstream, the city suffered frequent floods.

These photos were taken by Bill Gabbert, Saturday, March 30, 2013.

Fall River Prescribed Fire

The photo above shows a section of the river just as the burning began. Below is the same area on hour or two after the fire passed through.

Fall River Prescribed Fire

Even though there had been a light rain the night before and the relative humidity was in the mid-50s, the cattails burned very well.

Fall River Prescribed Fire Fall River Prescribed Fire

I shot all of these photos at 1/500th second, and was pleased with the way it captured the flames, such as in the image above where a ball of fire can be seen about 20 feet above the main flame front. I used two cameras, both Canon T3i’s. The lenses were also Canon, 100-400mm and 17-85mm lens.

Fall River Rx fire 034smaller

The flames impinged on the wood deck of the pedestrian bridge, but apparently there was no damage. More photos are below.
Continue reading “Prescribed fire along the Fall River”

New Jersey firefighter killed while conducting prescribed fire

Jeffrey Scheuerer
Jeffrey Scheuerer

A firefighter with the State of New Jersey Forest Fire Service died while working on a prescribed fire Thursday, March 28. Jeffrey Scheuerer, 35, of Raritan Township, died from injuries after being struck by a vehicle near Round Valley Reservoir, according to Hunterdon County Prosecutor Anthony Kearns.

“Mr. Scheuerer and other members were conducting a controlled burn along Route 629 near Round Valley Reservoir,” Mr. Kearns said. “According to our preliminary investigation, it appears that a heavy smoke condition associated with the controlled burn was present at the time of the crash and may have caused reduced visibility when a shift in the wind occurred. Mr. Scheuerer was struck by a vehicle and did not survive his injuries.”

On his days off Mr. Scheuerer served as a member of the Readington Volunteer Fire Company.

Our sincere condolences go out to his family and coworkers.

Using escaped prescribed fire reviews to improve organizational learning

Results have been released for an evaluation of the review process for escaped prescribed fires to attempt to determine if reviews are contributing to or inhibiting achievement of organizational learning. The entire report is here, and below is a very brief summary provided by the Joint Fire Science Program:

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RESULTS: Based on conversations in a series of workshops and follow-up interviews, researchers identified several elements of the review process that best facilitate organizational learning:

Local Leadership: The local leader sets the tone for creating a learning environment in the unit. When an escape does occur, involving the local fire leadership in a discussion about the purpose and process of a review can dramatically improve the local learning environment.

Review Team: Review team members act as witnesses and facilitators to first help the local unit make sense of what they experienced. They do this by providing for psychological safety and by emphasizing listening without judgment.

Boundary Management: Boundaries for information that should be shared and not shared, and with whom, are continually identified and respected.

Transfer: The learning modalities need to simulate the spaces of action in which people actually work.

Follow Through: Just as a burn plan needs to account for mop-up and monitoring, so does the review of an escape prescribed fire need to provide for follow through to promote learning.

Time-lapse video of a prescribed fire in longleaf and slash pine


This is a time-lapse video (spanning over 2 hours) of a dormant season prescribed fire in a mixed longleaf pine / slash pine flatwoods stand in the University of Florida Austin Cary Forest near Gainesville, Florida. This particular stand within the forest is burned on an annual basis during the months of January and February to demonstrate the influence of burn season on vegetative composition, fuel characteristics, and fire behavior. The burn was conducted in January 2013 by Austin Cary Forest Staff along with University of Florida faculty, staff, and students from the 2013 Fire Ecology and Management class.

For more information about fire science and wildland fire management in the southern U.S., visit the Southern Fire Exchange (http://www.southernfireexchange.org/).

via @RMIMTTeamC & @FireScienceGOV

Explaining forest management in 100 seconds

This animated video explains forest management, prescribed burning, fire return interval, and fuel management in 100 seconds.

The video is very well done and gets its point across quite efficiently, however it may be obvious to some that it was produced by an organization like the Oregon Forest Resources Institute which represents forest producers, small woodland owners, forest sector employees, academia, and the general public. The group appears to be similar to the Idaho Forest Products Commission that came up with the “Thin the Threat” bumper sticker last year.Thin the Threat bumper sticker

via @FireAviationNPS

Video: using old burns to help manage new fires

The Southwest Fire Science Consortium has produced a 12-minute video about taking advantage of previously burned areas when managing new fires. Here is the
Consortium’s description of the video:

Over the past two decades the size of wildfires has dramatically increased across the Southwest. These large burned areas have become so common that newer wildfires are burning into and around them. Fire managers increasingly use these previous burns as treatments that either stop or slow fire spread. The interaction of past and current wildfires has important management and ecological consequences.

The video will be useful for anyone who is not aware that the spread of a wildland fire slows when it moves into a previously burned area, or an area with less fuel. The technical aspects of the video are excellent, including the editing, videography, and sound, while the appearance of the subject matter experts is similar to what we saw in another one produced by the Consortium about vegetation mastication.