News and opinion about wildland fire
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized1 Comment on Using a flare pistol to ignite burnout operation The video above is a slide show of a series of photographs shot in very quick succession while a member of the San Juan Hotshots used a flare pistol to ignite areas along Cold Creek Canyon during a burnout operation on the Myrtle Fire, July 22, 2012. The photos were taken by Bill Gabbert.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized1 Comment on Photos of air tankers being reloaded at Rapid City Air Tanker Base 
On Saturday we had the opportunity to visit the Air Tanker Base at the Rapid City Regional Airport. The crew, led by Base Manager Gordon Schaffer, was busy keeping three P2V air tankers reloaded with retardant as they returned from fires, paused on the ramp to get another 2,000 gallons of the red stuff, and took off again.
On Saturday the three air tankers working out of the base were from Neptune, Tankers 43 and 07, and 48 from Minden. The staff at the base consisted of the Base Manager, the Ramp Manager, a radio operator/dispatcher/office-assistant, and a 2-person reloading crew. In addition, there were three to four mechanics checking the aircraft every time they reloaded. The mechanics work for Neptune and Minden, the companies that operate the air tankers which are contracted to the federal government. The Minden mechanic said that when the tanker relocates to another air tanker base, which happens frequently, he usually travels with the aircraft, and a chase vehicle with additional mechanics and equipment follows on the ground, sometimes arriving a day or two later.
On Sunday, July 22, two of the three air tanker crews will be on mandatory days off, and another will come off of their days off, resulting in Tankers 45 and 48 being available at the base beginning at 9 a.m.
All of these photos were taken by Bill Gabbert.
(More photos are below.)
Continue reading “Photos of air tankers being reloaded at Rapid City Air Tanker Base”
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized1 Comment on Update and map of the Myrtle fire in South Dakota, July 22, 2012 
UPDATE at 5:21 p.m. MT, July 22, 2012:
This afternoon firefighters conducted a large burnout to tie in a fireline on the southeast side of the fire in Cold Brook Canyon, and from there north along Song Dog Road (didn’t this used to be called Shirt Tail Road?). It put up a great deal of smoke and looks bad if you don’t know what’s going on, but I was there on scene and the portion I saw went very well.
No time for more right now. Will post photos later.
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Original article at 8:40 a.m. July 22:
The incident management team assigned to the Myrtle fire in the Black Hills of South Dakota is calling the fire 20 percent contained and 9,075 acres. It is likely that much of the fire received some rain from 6 to 8 p.m. on Saturday as thunderstorms with a great deal of lightning moved through the Black Hills. The Elk Mountain weather station 1 mile east of the fire measured 0.28″, and the BKF1 Portable weather station 4 miles west of the fire recorded 0.16″.
The most current map the team has provided, below, was current as of 11:56 p.m. June 20.
An update from the Incident Management Team:
Date: July 21, 2012, at 10:00 p.m.
Current Situation: Firefighters continued to make progress on containment of the Myrtle Fire today. Containment of the fire was increased to 20% this evening with additional containment on the northern perimeter of the fire. Firefighters and crews were able to construct hand line and dozer line on the western perimeter of the fire. Afternoon thunderstorms prevented a planned firing operation to occur this afternoon on the eastern perimeter of the fire. Overnight, firefighters will improve containment lines and patrol the fire perimeter.
On Sunday, firefighters plan to improve and hold containment lines on the northern perimeter of the fire. On the western side of the fire, crews will continue line construction to the south. On the eastern side of the fire, crews are planning to conduct a firing operation that was delayed today due to weather and safety considerations. Public Information Officers will be available for media tours at 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. on Sunday at the staging area in Pringle. A community meeting will be held in Pringle tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. in the community building next to the fire station.
Weather: Scattered thunderstorms developing in the afternoon is anticipated to continue on Sunday and through the first part of next week. Temperatures will be in the 90’s tomorrow with a minimum relative humidity of 30% and increasing in the afternoon with the development of the expected thunderstorms. Winds will be light and variable throughout the day.
Information about the status of evacuations can be found at InciWeb.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized3 Comments on Update and map of the Myrtle fire in South Dakota, July 21, 2012 Our previous updates on the Myrtle fire:
Originally posted at 3:00 p.m. MT, July 21, 2012
The Myrtle Fire, between Pringle and Hot Springs, South Dakota grew substantially on Saturday while being pushed by strong winds coming out of thunderstorms. The approximate size, from the map we constructed, is 11,000 acres. According to the incident management team on Saturday morning the fire is 15 percent contained.
Some areas on the east side of the fire received about 0.3 inches of rain late in the day on Friday, but much of the fire remained dry as thunderstorms passed through the area.
Today there are two large air tankers working the fire, both P2Vs — Tankers 07 and 43. A third, Tanker 48, is expected to arrive later on Saturday.
It was Tanker 43 that had the engine problem just after taking off on Friday, which caused the crew to jettison the load of retardant so they could return and land safely. The engine has been repaired and it is back in service.
A Type 1 Incident Management Team, led by Incident Commander Bill Hahnenberg, assumed command of the fire at 6 a.m. on Saturday. There are currently 249 personnel assigned to the fire and additional resources will be arriving throughout the day.
Some areas are still under evacuation notices. More information about evacuations can be found on InciWeb.
The weather Saturday afternoon will be less severe than Friday, with a high in the fire area of 92, a minimum relative humidity of 31 percent, and winds out of the northwest at 5 to 9 mph. There is a 34 percent chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. Sunday’s weather will be about the same.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized13 Comments on Tanker 07 drops on the Myrtle fire A video/slide show of Tanker 07, a P2V, dropping on the Myrtle Fire. All photos were taken near Rifle Pit Road on July 19, 2012 at 8:24 p.m. by Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today. And no, it did not crash into the trees; it exited the area safely and went back to Rapid City for the night.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized15 Comments on Update and map of Myrtle fire in South Dakota, July 20, 2012 (Originally posted at 10:10 a.m. MT, July 20, 2012)
Previous updates:
We will update this article throughout the day on Friday as new information becomes available.
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UPDATE at 3:29 p.m., July 20, 2012:
The reason that Tanker 43, one of the two P2V air tankers assigned to the Myrtle fire, is not in operation, as we reported below, is that the 50-year old aircraft experienced a loss of power in one of its two main engines when taking off with a load of retardant at Rapid City Regional Airport. The Rapid City Journal reports that the tanker had to jettison its 18,000-pound load of retardant just after lifting off in order to safely remain airborne and return for a landing. Some of the retardant landed on two runways and a taxiway, closing the runways for about 40 minutes. Two inbound commercial flights orbited waiting for fire trucks and people with brooms to remove the retardant, but they eventually had to divert to Casper, Wyoming to refuel before they were finally allowed to land.
The retardant is very slippery and vehicles and aircraft should not attempt to drive or land on roads or runways covered with the chemical.
These very old air tankers that were discarded by the military 40 years ago have 18-cylinder radial piston engines with many, many moving parts. They frequently have a variety of problems that put the pilots in danger. Thankfully, the air crew survived this life-threatening emergency.
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UPDATE at 1:23 p.m., July 20, 2012:
Only one large air tanker is working on the fire
Smoke fron the Myrtle fire is showing up on radar.
There is only one large air tanker working on the fire right now. There were two, both P2Vs, Tankers 07 and 43, but 43 is down with a mechanical issue. There was a rumor that Tanker 40, the jet-powered BAe-146 was dispatched from Missoula to the fire, but it got diverted to another fire in Montana while en route.
The DC-10 Very Large Air Tanker, which carries as much retardant as five P2V air tankers, 11,600 gallons, was laid off Monday by the U.S. Forest Service. There is currently a very significant shortage of air tankers. We only have 9, plus 3 that are borrowed temporarily from the state of Alaska. That number, 9, is down from the 53 we had in 2002. That is not enough to provide quick initial attack on new fires to keep them small, or enough to support large fires when the small ones become huge due in part, sometimes, to a lack of aggressive initial attack on new fires using overwhelming force. Air tankers do not put out fires, but under some conditions can slow them down enough to allow ground-based firefighters to contain them. The DC-10 is not the perfect tool for every fire, but it works very well on a large number of them. A P2V, BAe-146, or a Single Engine Air Tanker are not perfect for every fire either.
When the air tanker fleet has been reduced from 44 to 9, it’s an All-Hands-On-Deck situation. The DC-10 should not have been laid off from its Call When Needed Contract. There are also two other Very Large Air Tankers that are not being used at all; another DC-10 and a 747.
Hot Springs Fire Department was dispatched at 12:52 p.m. to assist the Minnekata Fire Department (west of Hot Springs) with voluntary evacuations “above Cottonwood”, the dispatcher said.
Only four of the seven military Modular Airborne FireFighting Systems C-130 air tankers are mobilized. If they were assigned to the Myrtle fire, they could not reload at the Rapid City Air Tanker base because the U.S. Forest Service is dragging its feet on approving the base for MAFFS air tankers, in spite of the fact that the base has been approved by the Air Force. MAFFS air tankers have been commonly used since the early 1970s, but the USFS has not gotten around to approving Rapid City for their use during the last 37 years.
Wildfires are very difficult to suppress even when competent leaders make excellent decisions and funding levels approved by Congress and the President are adequate. When the opposite is the case, it puts a tremendous burden on firefighters who are doing the best they can under very difficult conditions.
(End of update.)
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UPDATE at 12:45 p.m. July 20, 2012:
The Myrtle Fire is very close to Wind Cave National Park, but as far as I know has not yet burned into the park, which is closed to the public, of course. On Thursday the staff gave pre-evacuation notices to all park residents. Today the power has been shut off and hand-held radio batteries are being charged off a generator that is running the gas pump. The high today will reach 99 degrees, the minimum relative humidity will be 21 percent, and the winds will be 10-14 mph with gusts to 18 out of the east and northeast. These conditions are conducive to significant fire spread to the west and southwest. HERE is a link to detailed weather forecast information for the specific area in which the fire is burning.
(End of update.)
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Here is some information provided by the Incident Management Team at 10:04 a.m on Friday:
The Myrtle Fire, reported yesterday, July 19, 2012 at 1:30pm approximately 1 mile east of Pringle, SD, has grown to 7500 acres and is 5 percent contained.
Residents north of Argyle road to highway 385 have been placed on evacuation notice. For more information on evacuations, please call Frank at (605) 673-8307. Argyle road remains open.
The American Red Cross has opened an emergency evacuation center [in Custer] at the Armory/Custer Middle School.
Wind Cave National Park has been closed until further notice.
Resources continue to arrive on scene and a type 1 [Incident Management] team [which is used for managing large, complex wildfires] will arrive today.
“Right now we are concerned about the area south of 385 and Pringle,” said Mike Carter, Emergency Coordinator for Custer County. “We have no concerns about Custer,” he said.
The public can go to Denver from Custer via Highway 385 and Highway 89 south to Denver.
People can get to Hot Springs from Custer- by going south on 385 and 89 to Minnekahta Junction.
Approximately 300 firefighter personnel are on scene.
