Wildfire news, March 4, 2009

Posted on March 4, 2009 by Bill

Aerial firefighting conference

Fire Department Network News has an interesting video report about the Aerial Firefighting Conference that was held February 19-20 in Garden Grove, California. This was the second of at least three that are planned. The first one was in Athens, Greece last year and the next one will be in Australia.

Partners for the conference were the UN-ISDR, Global Fire Monitoring Centre, and the International Association of Wildland Fire.

Australia fires

A map showing the current fires in Victoria, Australia late on Wednesday afternoon. Click on it to see a larger version.

Australia cancels order for Global Hawks

Global Hawk, Northrup Grumman photo

The Australian government canceled an order they had placed with Northrop Grumman for some Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) because the delivery date was pushed back to 2015. They had planned to use the aircraft for monitoring bushfires and for maritime surveillance.

Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said the order was canceled because the delay meant the arrival of the aircraft would conflict with the introduction of a new manned surveillance aircraft.

Senator David Johnston spoke out against the decision, saying they had been working on the project with the United States for 10 years, and:

“Plus it had a fantastic capability with respect to bushfire monitoring, and the Californians had been using it very successfully. I actually think it would have gone on to have been able to provide evidence as to arson.”

Occasionally in 2007 and 2008 the United States used a Predator B UAV operated by NASA for monitoring forest fires. In their flights the Predator stayed aloft for 10 to 20 hours while transmitting real-time data to ground forces.

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

Colorado: 6,500-acre Fort Carson fire

The Quarry fire that started Tuesday on the Fort Carson military base south of Colorado Springs has burned 6,500 acres and is 10% contained. Portions of the fire burned off the base into the city limits of Fountain, prompting some evacuations.

Yesterday the area had record high temperatures, and today there is a red flag warning for strong winds and temperatures in the 70s.

You may remember Fort Carson as the place where a single engine air tanker crashed last year, killing pilot Gert Marais.

Esperanza fire trial

The jury in the trial of Raymond Oyler, accused of setting the 2006 fire in which a U.S. Forest Service engine crew of five died, deliberated for a third day in southern California on Tuesday without reaching a decision.

Thanks Dick.

Wildfire news, January 21, 2009

Posted on January 21, 2009 by Bill

Sprint asks for $2 billion for emergency communications network

Sprint Nextel sent a proposal to Obama’s transition team on January 6 asking the government to fund a $2 billion emergency network to improve communication among first responders during disasters.

The system would consist of 100 satellite-based light trucks and 100,000 mobile handsets to be staged at 40 sites around the country. Sprint claims the system could be programmed to be interoperable with existing public safety networks.

Fire on Moore Air Base

A 2,500 acre fire on the former Moore Air Force Base 14 miles northwest of Mission, Texas destroyed four structures, including one aircraft hangar. Initial estimates placed the damage to the base at $10 million.

A recent picture of Moore Air Base

The Air Force used the base for training pilots off and on between 1941 and 1962, when it was turned over to the U. S. Department of Agriculture to be used as a base for aerial screwworm fly control. It then became known as Moore Air Base. The USDA ceased using the base in 1982 and it is now a private airfield.

Esperanza fire opening statements expected on Thursday

Jury selection in the trial of Raymond Lee Oyler, accused of starting the fire that killed the 5-person USFS engine crew in 2007, is almost complete. An additional 80 jury candidates will be interviewed today, Wednesday, with Thursday being the likely day on which the actual trial will begin with opening statements. Oyler faces the death penalty and has been charged with 45 counts, including five first-degree murder charges.

The Press-Enterprise has been providing excellent coverage of this fire, the fatalities, and the legal proceedings.

Hydrogen-powered UAV may stay aloft for 7 days

The AeroVironment company is developing an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) named the Global Observer that will be powered by liquid hydrogen and will be able to cruise at 65,000 feet for up to 7 days. The primary use of the aircraft is for the military, but it may also be used for civilian operations including wildfires–for detection, monitoring, and communications.

AeroVironment, based in Monrovia, California, began testing a prototype of the 8-engine aircraft in 2005. It carries 1,000 pounds of liquid hydrogen which is converted to electric energy by an onboard fuel cell, generating electricity for the 8 ironless-core electric motors.

HERE is a link to a 1 minute 45 second video of a 2005 test flight of the Global Observer.

AeroVironment is the company that created the Helios UAV powered by sunlight and batteries which could stay aloft for days at a time. It had massive amounts of photovoltaic cells embedded on the top of the wings and flew unmanned on solar power alone up to 96,863 feet, setting a record in 2001 for sustained horizontal flight by a winged aircraft. It crashed in 2003 off the coast of Hawaii after encountering turbulence.

Helios solar-electric-powered UAV

Helios disintegrates as it falls into the Pacific Ocean

Comic book salutes military firefighters

Posted on November 3, 2008 by Bill

Marvel Comics has created a number of comic books in tribute to our military. Their latest, released free to the military in July, features military personnel, several super heros, MAFFS air tankers, the Ikhana unmanned aerial vehicle (for mapping fires), and a fire which is threatening San Diego.

Above is one page out of the book. The author of the comic book, Stuart Moore, blogged about his creation HERE.

Real time fire information

Posted on September 10, 2008 by Bill

The EurekAlert has a summary of a recent report by the U.S. Forest Service. Here is an excerpt:

The effectiveness of the media to inform the public during evacuations and wildland fire effects on recreation are some topics addressed in a U.S. Forest Service report published this month that is a compilation of 17 studies on the social science aspects of fires.

More than 20 scientists present their work in the 260-page report, entitled “Fire Social Science Research From the Pacific Southwest Research Station: Studies Supported by National Fire Plan Funds.”

The report’s communications research showed the emergence of citizen news producers when public information officers and media representatives do not fill homeowner needs for detailed, real-time information on fire location, size and movement.

“During the initial stages of a fire, people want real-time information specific to a location, such as a subdivision,” said Deborah Chavez, a Forest Service social scientist who helped conduct research in the report.

According to one study, cell phones, digital cameras, text messaging, blogs, personal websites and e-mail vastly improved homeowners’ ability to communicate with their neighbors, during evacuations in 2003 near San Bernardino, Calif.

Residents complained public information officers were preoccupied reporting on which agencies were managing fires, firefighting resources being used and suppression costs. They also said media coverage was often sensationalized, inaccurate and directed to regional audiences and not those affected by local evacuations.

One problem that needs to be solved is how to provide near-real-time information to residents whose safety is impacted by a wildland fire. In the 2003 Cedar fire near San Diego 15 civilians were killed–many of them while trying to evacuate from the Wildcat Canyon Road area with little or no warning. Many civilians were also killed while trying to evacuate from the Tunnel fire in Oakland in 1991. At least twice this year alone people have been burned to death in their homes when a wildland fire burned through their neighborhood.

Making real time information about the fire’s location available, interpreting that data to decide what areas should evacuate and which areas are safe, then providing this data to the public in near-real-time is not a small task. But it could be argued that this should be the most important objective of fire managers, above and beyond the boiler-plate written into every Incident Action Plan of “provide for the safety of the public and firefighters”.

Picture this.

A large fire is directly impacting an urban interface. Unmanned aerial vehicles or other aircraft are 10,000-50,000 feet over the fire 24 hours a day transmitting real time infrared and conventional visual imagery to the Incident Command Post (ICP). Technicians and infrared interpreters are evaluating the data, again in real time, and creating a map showing the fire’s perimeter. Fire Behavior Analysts provide fire spread predictions. An Operations Section Chief at the ICP evaluates all of this information and communicates with the Situation Unit Leader, Division Supervisors, Field Observers, and the Ops Section Chief in the field. Working with the Incident Commander he or she makes decisions about what areas should be evacuated and informs law enforcement to implement the evacuations.

Law enforcement activates reverse 911 to robo-call all of the landline phones in the affected area and sends officers into the field to notify residents to evacuate, but they can’t contact everyone.

The Situation Unit uploads to the Internet a map showing the current location of the fire and which areas are under an evacuation order. This map is available to the world and is updated every 15 minutes if needed. The map could be based on Google Maps, be zoom-able, show evacuation routes, shelters, and have interactive features, rather than the typical static .pdf or .jpg file that incidents usually produce.

The Information Officer’s staff maintains a public blog, updated many times each day, containing the information that the public needs to know. More emphasis is placed on keeping the citizens safe, than providing the number of engines and helicopers assigned to the fire.

All of this technology exists now. It would not take a Manhattan Project to make it happen.

UPDATE September 23: A county in Montana has taken a step in the right direction. Read about it HERE.

Wildfire news, September 1, 2008

Posted on September 1, 2008 by Bill

South Africa: 20 killed in brush fires

(from AHN)

Cape Town, South Africa (AHN) – At least 20 people died in runaway brush fires fueled by strong winds in South Africa over the weekend.

More than 100 fires across the country burned 125,000 acres of land.

In KwaZulu-Natal province 13 people were killed and 25 others after being burned in fires that roared through the area. Elsewhere in the province, another three people were burned to death and five others hospitalized for burns after their shack caught fire in Eastern Cape.

In Mpumalanga province three people were killed by fires.

“This is almost typical weather for August-September with late winds and early spring. There are hot conditions but you still get cold fronts hitting the Cape,” South Africa Weather Service forecaster Evert Scholtz told Afrol News.

But although the windy conditions are common for this time of year, the large number of deadly fires in different parts of the country are not, says Percy Morokane from Johannesburg’s Emergency Services.

“This particular situation has never been experienced before. Reports are coming in from all over the country,” Morokane told BBC news.

Montana: Dunn Mountain fire: contained at 102,383 acres

This huge fire 30 miles northeast of Billings received some rain late on Sunday. The precipitation and cooler temperatures enabled firefighters to make good progress Sunday and Monday, resulting in the fire being 100% contained today. Here is a photo from a couple of days ago:

Wyoming: Gunbarrel fire update

The fire received from a quarter to over a half an inch of rain on Sunday. Paul Broyles’ Type 1 Incident Management Team will transition to a smaller Type 3 Team on Wednesday and the Incident Command Post will move back to Wapiti Ranger Station when that occurs.

Some numbers:

61,923 acres
70% contained
338 personnel assigned
$10,300,000 spent
5 helicopters assigned

California: Burnside fire

UPDATE @ 1:52 p.m. MT Aug. 9

Cool temperatures overnight in the 30s helped to slow the progress of this fire. Some structures are still threatened and the size is reported to be 150 acres.

=============================

A fast-moving fire south of Lake Tahoe had burned at least 125 acres as of Sunday evening. Two resorts, three campgrounds and about 20 homes are being evacuated for the fire south of Highway 88, 6 miles west of Woodfords. Sunday evening the fire was crowning in timber, pushed by strong west winds. A Type 3 incident management team has been ordered. Lat/Long: 38 45′ 28.8″ -119 55′ 23.17″ . HERE is a link to a Google map.

A strong cold front moved through the area Sunday night. Much cooler weather is expected for Monday and Monday night, followed by a rapid warm-up from Tuesday onward. Winds will remain generally light through at least Wednesday.

Photos courtesy of Tahoe Daily Tribune.

Aircraft used during the Seige of ’08

AINonline has an interesting article that summarizes the vast aircraft resources that were used during the lightning bust in northern California this summer. Here is an excerpt:

In addition to the rotorcraft assets, the effort employed a wide range of fixed-wing aircraft–ranging from a DC-10 waterbomber to the Predator UAV–to help control the blazes.

Cal Fire fielded a fleet of 23 S2T twin-turboprop waterbombers based out of the former McClellan AFB, along with 14 OV-10 Broncos used for aerial and ground control. Eight C-130 Hercules belonging to the Air Force Reserve and National Guard were quickly converted into fire bombers through the installation of modular airborne firefighting systems and used to great effect, according to authorities.

A pair of National Guard infrared-sensing RC-26s–used frequently on drug interdiction missions–was deployed to identify hot spots in the conflagration and relay real-time images to the crews on the ground. The massive Martin Mars flying boat and a squadron of four Convair CV-580s, each capable of carrying 2,000 gallons of flame retardant, came from Canada.

National fire situation

Posted on June 27, 2008 by Bill

Six MAFFS C-130 air tankers from the military have now been activated and are based at McClellan airport in Sacramento, CA ~~and at Chico, CA~~. They are from Charlotte, NC, Colorado Springs, CO, and Cheyenne, WY.

The National Preparedness Level is now 4. This level can be authorized when:

Three or more Geographic Areas are experiencing incidents requiring Type 1 and 2 IMTs. Competition exists between Geographic Areas. Nationally, 60 percent of Type 1 and 2 IMTs and crews are committed.

Weather forecast for northern California

FIRE WEATHER WATCH
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SACRAMENTO CA
948 AM PDT FRI JUN 27 2008

…FIRE WEATHER WATCH FOR DRY LIGHTNING FOR THE INTERIOR MOUNTAINS INCLUDING THE SIERRA NEVADA FOOTHILLS FROM FRIDAY EVENING THROUGH LATE SUNDAY NIGHT..

.HIGH PRESSURE OVER THE DESERT SOUTHWEST IS FORECAST TO BUILD NORTHWARD ACROSS THE GREAT BASIN AND INTO NORTHERN CALIFORNIA FRIDAY AND SATURDAY. THIS WILL CAUSE SUBTROPICAL MOISTURE FROM THE DESERT SOUTHWEST TO SPREAD NORTHWARD OVER THE SIERRA NEVADA ON FRIDAY…AND OVER THE COASTAL RANGE AND NORTHERN MOUNTAINS OF SHASTA COUNTY FRIDAY NIGHT AND SATURDAY. THIS MOIST AND UNSTABLE AIR WILL RESULT IN SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS OVER THE HIGHER TERRAIN. THE THUNDERSTORMS WILL LIKELY HAVE LITTLE PRECIPITATION ASSOCIATED WITH THEM FRIDAY NIGHT AND SATURDAY. LOW PRESSURE MOVING NORTHWARD ALONG THE CALIFORNIA COAST WILL CONTINUE THE CHANCES OF THUNDERSTORMS ON SUNDAY…WITH STORMS GRADUALLY BECOMING WETTER.

Infrared Aircraft

Both of the U.S. Forest Service infrared line-scanning fixed wing aircraft are working the fires in California and flying out of Redding.

The Ikhana Predator B Unmanned Aerial Vehicle operated by NASA has been ordered and will begin flying fires next week, using it’s equipment to take infrared imagery of the fires and downlink it in real time. Last year it flew missions over fires lasting from 10 to 20 hours before landing.

Update, 11:12 pm, June 27. The Ikhana will fly test flights over the Clover fire on June 28. Their first actual mission will occur July 1 when it will collect imagery over at least 10-12 fires in central and northern California.

Navy and Air Force Global Hawks as well as a U2 airframe will be flying training missions over California on Friday and Saturday.

Fire Summary (Five Day Trend)

Date	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Day	6/23	6/24	6/25	6/26	6/27
Initial Attack Fires	517	312	406	283	226
New Large Fires	25	14	12	10	6
Large Fires Contained	6	3	8	4	7
Uncontained Large Fires	37	48	52	53	56