Wildfire Today

News and opinion about wildland fire

Wildfire Today

Month: February 2011

Wildfire news, February 2, 2011

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized

Fire legislation in Montana

Pat McKelvey of Lewis and Clark County (Montana) Prevention and Mitigation distributed a summary of fire-related legislation in Montana:

HB260 (Revise state spending for wildland fire suppression) – Had a hearing on Wed, Jan 26. This bill would cap state spending at 50 million dollars annually for wildland fire suppression. It is not expected to survive.

HB307 (Prohibit building codes from requiring some mandatory sprinkler systems) – Had a hearing on Friday, Jan 28. This bill would prohibit the Building Codes Bureau from adopting mandatory sprinkler requirements in single family residential dwellings. The bill had massive support from the home builders associations in Montana and major opposition from the fire service, insurance companies and pipefitters unions. It was a lengthy and emotionally charged hearing. Stay tuned for committee action!

LC1150 (Revise emergency response laws including fee) – This potential bill would prohibit governmental units from imposing any fees, other than hazardous materials cleanup fees and ambulance transport fees, for vehicle accident response. It is not yet in bill form, but we anticipate that it will be very soon. We will keep you posted. This potential bill will have interest where departments are using a fee structure to recoup costs in their districts.

Bulldozer cause of fires?

We received the following message from P. Zimmerman. If you can assist “P”, send him or her an email: snapfig at a o l dot com:

I am trying to locate any ‘documented’ case where the tracks (growsers) of a bulldozer or other tracked equipment ever caused a wildfire. Are you or any of your readers aware of such a case? (during my search I found a case where a golf club swing caused a wildfire)

Fire Blog of the Year

Voting for the Fire Blog of the Year ended last night. The results will be revealed tonight, February 2, by FireCritic.com. During the last day of voting the latest numbers were hidden, but as of Monday night Wildfire Today was in third place. Not bad, really, considering some of the other respected, well-established blogs that were nominated and the strategy employed by one of them. We were amused by one Wildfire Today supporter said we were looking at a potential Bronze Medal. Another told us that they had set their alarm to wake up in the middle of the night so they could cast one of their votes, which were allowed every six hours.

Whether Wildfire Today is on the “podium” or not, it was an honor to be nominated. And we REALLY thank those who voted for us.

UPDATE @ 7:16 p.m. MT, February 2

The winner of the Fire Blog of the Year competition was Iron Fireman. Congratulations to him, and a big thank you goes out to Fire Critic and Black Diamond Boots for putting on the event. It was an honor to nominated and then to be selected for the final seven. Thanks again to all of our supporters who voted for us. When the winner was announced on the podcast tonight, they did not mention the ranking of the other six blogs, but Wildfire Today was in a solid third place when the vote numbers began to be hidden during the last 24 hours.

Thanks Chuck, for the information about the legislation.

New supplemental training video for fire shelters being produced

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , , 1 Comment on New supplemental training video for fire shelters being produced
Alabaugh fire near hot springs sd
Alabaugh Fire, photo by Bill Gabbert

The Missoula Technology Development Center is producing a new supplemental training video for the use of fire shelters. Tentatively titled “Fire Shelter Deployments — Lessons Learned”, it will be a collection of stories of recent fire shelter deployments. One of those stories will be the Alabaugh Fire, of July 7, 2007, near Hot Springs, South Dakota in which two firefighters shared one shelter as they were burned over.

The Alabaugh fire has become rather infamous, and has been featured in the 2008 wildland fire refresher training, a staff ride, and a recently released book “Cascade of Flames”.

Some of the 65 photos we took during the early stages of the fire will be incorporated into the new training video when it is released in the next two to three months.

Amtrak sues Detroit over train vs. fire truck collision

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized

Train vs fire truckAmtrak has sued the city of Detroit for a crash in which a train collided with one of the city’s fire trucks last March. The crash occurred because a firefighter parked the truck on the railroad tracks. The train engineer saw the fire engine on the tracks and applied the emergency brakes, but was unable to stop the train to avoid the collision.

Amtrak has sued to collect $75,000 to pay for repairs to the train, while damage to the fire truck probably far exceeded that amount.

Here is an excerpt from the Detroit News:

…At the time of the accident, top fire officials wasted few words in criticizing the firefighter who parked the truck on the tracks.

“I’m very upset,” executive fire commissioner James Mack said at the time. He was removed from his post earlier this month.

“I’m going to make it known that this is not acceptable and we’ll do some training,” he said.

The truck was struck by a commuter train late in the morning on March 2 in southwest Detroit.

One firefighter was injured and taken to Detroit Receiving Hospital and treated for a gash to his head, union officials said at the time. No other firefighters were seriously injured, he said.

No injuries were reported aboard the train initially, but about an hour after the accident, one passenger complained of pain, although the extent was unknown, Mack said.

The crash occurred in the city’s southwest side near John Kronk and Lonyo, where police officers and firefighters were responding to an accident involving a car and a tractor trailer.

“The fire truck was parked right on the tracks,” said Willfrido Gutierrez, 27, whose Monte Carlo was struck by the tractor trailer. “I tried to get my wife and kid away from there and I heard a huge explosion.”

The four firefighters jumped in the rig and tried to get it off the tracks in time, but were unsuccessful. The truck, Ladder 13, was T-boned by the westbound train and dragged a considerable distance before coming to rest on the tracks.

“It was a $600,000 truck,” Mack said at the time. “We’re trained professionals. We should always be thinking. I don’t think the citizens of Detroit are pleased that he parked on the tracks.

Thanks Dick

Wildfire potential, February through May, 2011

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags

monthly wildfire outlook February 2011

wildfire outlook March through May 2011

Since much of the central and northeast United States is dealing with extreme winter weather and blizzard warnings today, wildfire potential may not be uppermost on the minds of many of us. However portions of Texas, Florida, and Georgia have “above normal” wildfire potential for the next four months.

According to the National Interagency Fire Center, who prepared this wildfire potential outlook, the primary factors influencing this analysis are:

• La Niña: The ongoing strong La Niña influence is expected to continue well into 2011. This tends to result in drier and eventually warmer than usual weather across the southern tier of states and into the southern & central Great Plains, contributing to increased fire potential.

• Drought: Persisting and developing drought across portions of the southern and central U.S. will promote above normal significant fire potential during the late winter, expanding westward and northward in early spring.

• Fuel Dryness: Dryness across the southern tier of the U.S. this winter will expand areas of above normal significant fire potential westward across southern New Mexico and southeast Arizona and northward into the Colorado Front Range and central plains.

Wildfire news, February 1, 2011

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags

Firefighter burned in Oklahoma

A firefighter working on a grass fire in Rogers County, Oklahoma was burned Saturday. A spokesman for the Tri District Fire Department in Claremore, OK (map) said the firefighter suffered second and third degree burns on his hands, but “is doing fine now”, according to Emergency Management Director Bob Anderson.

Firefighters in Rogers County were very busy on Saturday as strong winds pushed numerous grass fires through fuels that had been “freeze-dried” by snow over a week ago. One of the fires started when a bush hog hit a rock that sparked, and another fire burned over 2,000 acres.

The fire on which the firefighter got burned was started by a resident burning brush. That fire endangered 15 houses, and “probably the only thing that saved them was they were brick”, said Anderson.

Black Hills pine beetle epidemic compared to 10,000-acre fire

On Monday newly elected U.S. Representative Kristi Noem held a roundtable meeting at the Black Hills National Forest Mystic Ranger District office in Rapid City, South Dakota (map). One of the primary topics was the impact of the mountain pine beetle on the forests and the economy. Tom Troxel, director of the Black Hills Forest Resource Association, compared the beetles to a large wildfire:

If there was a 10,000-acre fire in the Black Hills, the Forest Service would have all the people and money they needed. And I think this pine beetle epidemic is every bit as catastrophic as a 10,000-acre fire.

Rapid City Mayor, Alan Hanks said big fires chase tourists away and damage the economy. And the Black Hills is just one big fire away from the kind of economic and social impacts those who care about the area hate to imagine, he said. He advocated increased timber harvesting in order to slow the spread of the beetles.

Noem said she would work on making the administrative process to thin the forests less cumbersome, and would seek to eliminate “job-killing regulations”. She reminded those attending the meeting that her membership on the House Natural Resources Committee and its Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands will provide opportunities to streamline regulations on forest management.