Month: March 2009

Australian fires update

We received another update from our friend in Australia, Wol Worrell, a Ranger / Fire Management with National Parks Victoria.

G’day

Finally had some rain down under – 30mm / 1.5″ over the fire areas, which has eased the wildfire situation considerably, crews can actually get in and carry out direct attack on the fire edges & start blacking out / mopping up for 30 > 50 metres in from the fire edge.

Should have all five wildfires tidied up within the next five days.

Worked with the United States crew for three days, backburning – hand control lines – patrolling & mopping up.

We have had three wildfires within the Dandenong Rannges National Park itself, two deliberate lights & one (Nixon Road – 410 ha) started by a landowner slashing grass on a total fire ban day.

Nixon Road wildfire was stopped within one kilometre of our property which was a bit of a concern.

Currently having four days off to get re-acquainted with the family

Take care & stay safe.

WOL

Alabaugh Canyon fire staff ride

The materials for the staff ride for the Alabaugh fire have been posted on the FireLeadership.gov web site. You may remember that in 2007 two firefighters shared one fire shelter when they were entrapped on this fire near Hot Springs, South Dakota.

South Dakota receives funds for air attack bases

And speaking of South Dakota, the Associated Press is reporting that the state received $475,000 from the U. S. Forest Service to upgrade six single engine air tanker bases with new retardant mixing equipment, storage tanks and temporary housing for flight crews.

Some of the funds will also be used for training, equipment, and refurbishing crew vehicles used by the state’s two 20-person hand crews.

We were not aware SD had six SEAT bases. Multiple requests to the Wildland Fire Suppression Division for more information have not produced any results after three days.

New Mexico: Picacho fire, 8,500 16,000 acres

The Picacho fire in southeastern New Mexico is about 60% 50% contained and is being fought by 100 250 firefighters. Here is a video with more information from KRQE:

The video is no longer available.

Wildfire-Structure crosswalk webcast available

On January 24, 2008, Wildfire Today had information about the crosswalk:

Today, the U.S. Fire Administration in cooperation with the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, announced a new aid to help local and rural firefighters identify training equivalencies and needs for effectively fighting wildfires that threaten residential areas. The Skills Crosswalk identifies critical wildland firefighting skills that structural firefighters need to be safe and effective when making an initial attack on a wildland fire in their jurisdiction, or when working with state and federal wildland firefighter agencies.

Now the U.S. Fire Administration has a series of webcasts available that explain the requirements, availability, and distribution of these newly packaged Gap course materials.

Women sentenced for looting evacuated home

Two women were sentenced to serve prison time for burglarizing a home near the 10,000 acre Sayre fire which burned about 500 homes in the Oakridge mobile home park in Sylmar north of Los Angeles in November, 2008. A Los Angeles County judge on Thursday sentenced 32-year-old Sabrina Devens of Sherman Oaks to a 4-year term and 19-year-old Gina Samantha Rios of North Hollywood to a 2-year term.

A resident who was returning home after a mandatory evacuation discovered the two women in their house.

Thanks, Wol

There was a 600-acre fire on the big island of Hawaii this week, but by the time this video (no longer available) was shot the fire was mostly out. But take a look at it. You’ll be surprised at one of the engines, which has what appears to be a huge 4-5 foot funnel on top of the tank. Maybe it collects rain water when it is parked outside the fire station, or maybe a helicopter drops water into it while it’s working on a fire. Or maybe it’s just for looks. I’ve never seen anything like it.

The jury deliberated for a fourth day on Wednesday without reaching a verdict in the trial of Raymond Oyler, on trial for setting the Esperanza fire that resulted in the deaths of five U.S. Forest Service firefighters in southern California in 2006. The jury will resume their work at 9 a.m. Thursday.

In a statement issued today by the Obama administration, the President intends to nominate the director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management (DEM), Craig Fugate, to be the Administrator of FEMA.

Fugate has served as a volunteer firefighter, a paramedic, as a Lieutenant with Alachua County Fire Rescue, and was the Emergency Manager for Alachua County in Florida. In 1997 he became the Chief of the Bureau of Preparedness and Response with the Florida DEM and in 2001 was appointed by Governor Jeb Bush to be the Director of the DEM.

Think Progress reported that Fugate spoke with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano about a “high-level position” at FEMA as early as February 12.

Fugate was considered for the position in 2005 when FEMA Director Michael Brown was fired for the agency’s poor response to hurricane Katrina, but according to published reports he was not interested because he was happy with his position in Florida. Another person considered at that time was Iowa emergency manager Ellen Gordon, but she turned it down because she thought the administration would not make FEMA a priority.

We are very pleased that Obama selected a person with significant emergency management experience. This will help move the agency away from the accusations that the agency has been a “turkey farm” during much of the last eight years.

Here is an excerpt of what Wildfire Today wrote on December 12 about the succession of FEMA directors since 1992:

When President Clinton came into office, the Director of FEMA was Wallace Stickney, whose previous job was a commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Transportation. In April, 1993, Clinton replaced Stickney with a person who actually had emergency management experience, James Lee Witt, who had been the head of the Arkansas Office of Emergency Services where he reorganized the state’s emergency management process. During his tenure, FEMA made great progress and lost much of it’s reputation as an inept organization.

President George W. Bush decided to go back to the FEMA as a “political dumping ground, turkey farm” concept, first appointing Joe Allbaugh director in February, 2001. Allbaugh’s main qualifications were that he had been Bush’s campaign manager during Bush’s campaigns for governor and president, working closely with Karl Rove and Karen Hughes, the three of them forming the “Iron Triangle”. Allbaugh called the trio “the brain, the brawn and the bite”, with himself as the brawn at 6 feet 4 inches and 275 pounds..

Bush stayed with this theme, in 2003 replacing Allbaugh with Michael Brown, a long-time friend of Allbaugh. Brown had no emergency management experience. His job before becoming a lawyer for, and then Director, of FEMA, was serving as the Judges and Steward Commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association. He was forced to resign from the horse group after numerous lawsuits were filed about disciplinary actions. Brown was chased out of FEMA in 2005 following the hurricane Katrina debacle, in spite of being praised by Bush: “You’re doing a heck of a job, Brownie”.

Bush redeemed himself somewhat in 2005 with the appointment of David Paulison, formerly the Fire Chief of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, and head of the U.S. Fire Administration.