The Augusta Chronicle has an update on the firefighter that suffered burns while working on a wildland fire on Monday. The article is dated Feb. 21 at 9:28 p.m.
A Lincoln County firefighter will undergo surgery Tuesday morning after sustaining burns during a Monday afternoon brush fire that damaged 40 acres.
Casey Broom, director of emergency services, said the firefighters responded to a large brush fire aided by heavy winds on U.S. Highway 378 near the county’s water treatment plant.
Perry Kirkland, 50, a veteran firefighter with the Loco Fire Department, was overtaken in the blaze and was transported to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta.
“It’s my understanding that he has burns to 20 percent of his body,” Broom said. “Five percent are third-degree burns at this time, although that can change.”
According to burn center spokesman Jason Smith, Kirkland was listed in fair condition Monday evening.
We announced on February 18 that we had modified the Wildfire Today site to make it more usable for smart phones and other mobile devices. The main advantage is that the site will load MUCH more quickly on these devices. We are still squashing bugs and today we began experimenting with a second software program after encountering a problem with the first one.
We know it works on some smart phones, but one person with a Blackberry 8530 told us that he could not see the mobile version on his device. We resisted the temptation to talk him into getting a modern Android phone, but we got the mobile site to work for him. It turns out that we can tweak the software to accommodate various models of Blackberry (and possibly other) devices, but we have to know exactly what model you are using. This may not work for all devices.
This system will only work for “touch mobile” devices.
If it works on your phone, you should see a screen that looks similar to this:
If you are viewing the site on a mobile device, at the very bottom of every page you will see a button that says “Mobile Theme On” (or OFF).
By clicking that button you can toggle between the mobile theme you see in the picture above, and the conventional Wildfire Today screen.
If you have a “touch mobile” smart phone, visit Wildfire Today and let us know in a comment (or “response”) if it works for you or not. And please let us know exactly what kind of device you have. Examples: Blackberry 8900, Motorola Droid X, or iPhone 4GS.
By the way, the red numbers indicate how many comments have been posted for each article.
Firing out along a sidewalk at the Tarrington fire, Chesterfield County, Virginia, February 19, 2011. Photo: Richard Reuse.
Richard Reuse, an Area Forester with the Virginia Department of Forestry sent us a video and some photos that were taken at the Tarrington fire (map) in Chesterfield County, two miles west of Richmond, Virginia.
Here is a short video that Richard sent us:
From Richard:
This was one of the worst fire days I have ever seen in my 25 years in Virginia. 7% RH is just crazy low for Virginia and add 45mph winds and….. well, welcome to California.
There is some good archived videos on the fires we’ve had during the last week. You can look on the Richmond TV stations websites. NBC12, wric.com, and www.wtvr.com. I’m sure there is good coverage on the Virginia Beach and Charlottesville TV stations too. Most of the fire activity was in the eastern part of the state which is extremely rare.
Richard said it was the first time he had burned out from a sidewalk.
Tarrington fire, Feb. 20, 2011. Photo: Richard Reuse
The U.S. Forest Service has released the Large Fire Cost Review for fiscal year 2009 (Oct. 1, 2008 through Sept. 30, 2009). It is posted on their Publication/Resources page.
Here are direct links to the related documents; they are all .pdf files:
An independent panel managed by Guidance Group, Inc. reviewed the six fiscal year 2009 wildland fires whose suppression costs exceeded $10 million (M). The six fires were: Backbone ($16.9M), Big Meadow ($16.9M), Knight ($12.1M), La Brea ($34.9M), Station ($94.7M), and Williams Creek ($14.2M). The Williams Creek fire occurred in Oregon, the others in California.
The review was conducted by:
Mike Degrosky, founder and CEO of Guidance Group, Inc.; DeGrosky’s emergency service background spans 34 years, including service as a rural fire forester, fire management specialist, unit fire supervisor, fire program manager volunteer fire department captain, career fire department training officer and consultant to fire and emergency organizations. He has served as a member of interagency IMTs and maintains current qualifications as an Operations Section Chief Type 2 and Incident Commander Type 3. DeGrosky has been a principal researcher and interviewer for several milestone Forest Service studies.
Philip Schaenman, President and founder of TriData. He is a senior consultant specializing in risk management for fire operations, and performance metrics for the fire service; Associate Administrator of the U.S. Fire Administration from 1976–1981
Donald Artley, past National Fire Director for the National Association of State Foresters working out of Boise; past Montana State Forester; past Chair of National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group; past NWCG Chair.
Richard Mangan,owner/president of Blackbull Wildfire Services, LLC; Type 1 Operations Section Chief; past USFS Forest Staff Officer; has served on numerous wildfire fatality investigations.
Peter Moy, CPA; has participated in financial and cost effectiveness reviews of many fire departments studies.
Paul Woodward, Professor in the Department of Renewable Resources at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, and President of Ram Fire International Inc.
Wildfire Today will be covering this 86-page report in more detail in the coming days. Check back later to read more coverage of this important report.
Which large fires are reviewed?
Earlier on Wildfire Today there was a discussion about the policy and thresholds that required these large cost fire reviews. The USFS has a policy requiring that their regional offices conduct reviews. Here is a quote from their “Region Large Fire Cost Review Guidebook, May, 2007“.
Each Region must [review] at least eight fires over 5.0M (if applicable for the region) and no less than 75% of their total fires over $5.0M. For example, if a region has 8 fires that meet the threshold they must do all 8 of them; if they have 15 fires that meet the threshold then 11 fires need to be reviewed (75% of 15 fires).
The conferees reiterate that both the Interior Department and the Forest Service should ensure that cost containment is an important priority when suppressing wildland fires. Both Departments must examine and report promptly to the Congress and on agency websites, using independent panels on each and every individual wildfire incident which results in suppression expenses greater than $10,000,000.
Firehawk helicopter at the Blackjack Bay Complex, May, 2002. Photo: Bill Gabbert
When I was working on the Blackjack Bay Complex in Georgia and Florida in May of 2002 we had a privately-owned Blackhawk helicopter assigned to the fire that was named “Firehawk”, as you can see in the above picture.
The Orlando Sentinel has an interesting article about Firehawk Helicopters Inc., a subsidiary of Brainerd Helicopters of Leesburng, Florida. Here is an excerpt:
Smaller, less-expensive helicopters typically make the initial attack when a wildfire breaks out. Heavy lifters such as a Firehawk, typically hired by the U.S. Forest Service for thousands of dollars an hour, turn out for the biggest, scariest fires.
The Black Hawk is fast, cruising at 160 mph and topping out at nearly 200. At 11,000 pounds empty and twice that loaded, it weighs four times as much as a typical police helicopter. Brainerd’s fuel trucks are labeled “Prey for the Hawk.”
His Black Hawks hoist 900-gallon buckets to unload their water on fires. A few rotorcraft can carry more — but none more safely than the Firehawks. Their seats flex as much as 12 inches to absorb the shock of a crash that could otherwise break a pilot’s back.
“That’s Chuck’s way of doing things,” said George Custer, a Forest Service incident commander. “All contractors want to be safe, but not all of them invest the kind of money that Chuck has invested in his tools.”
Chuck Brainerd had quit yanking timber out of swamps in 1977. The helicopter he had then wasn’t so trustworthy. “I was beginning to feel like every day could be my last.”
He quit transporting heart patients in 1986. “It felt good to help people, but it just wasn’t what I wanted to do.”
He found a better chopper, outfitted it as an airborne firetruck and went to a California blaze. That chaotic first day in September 1987 jarred him. “I thought, ‘Chuck, you’re in over your head.’ ”
Days later, Brainerd managed a difficult drop, soaking a smoldering tree. Ground crews cheered. “I thought, ‘Wow, I hit it.’ Then I was hooked and knew that I wanted to do it for the rest of my life.”
He flew to Yellowstone National Park a year later for the famous inferno that scorched the nation’s psyche and more than one-third of the park’s acreage.
He bought his first Black Hawk in 1995, then another, and then teamed with Brown Helicopters of Pensacola for three more.
All came pre-owned, including one from the Sultan of Brunei with gold-plated door handles still attached, and another from Hong Kong’s harbor patrol with machine-gun mounts still affixed.
Because Black Hawks and replacement parts are hard to get, it can be more challenging for the Brainerds than for the average copter company to keep the fleet in the air.
But Brainerd is a believer in the Army’s choice of aircraft: If the Black Hawk can survive bullet strikes and hard landings, it’s more than able to wage war on wildfires. National Guard units sometimes deploy their Black Hawks to forest fires; Los Angeles County bought two of them for firefighting.
The Brainerds’ copters, now reconditioned, reconfigured and repainted, might sell for $10 million each. It’s hard to say, because few such machines ever come on the market.
Until recently Firehawk Helicopters was the only private company in the country operating Blackhawks. Now, according to the Firehawk Helicopters web site:
Brainerd Helicopters and Brown Helicopters have teamed up.
Now located at Brainerd Helicopters facility in Leesburg, FL are three Sikorsky S-70A Black Hawks, owned by Brown Helicopters. These Black Hawks are going through an extensive inspection process, and are going to be equipped with the same avionics, mission equipment, and fire fighting capabilities as our original two Firehawks. For more information about this important development follow this Link.
Blackhawks, owned by Firehawk Helicopters, Inc. and Brown Helicopter, Inc.; photo: Firehawk Helicopters IncFirehawk helicopter. Photo: Red Huber, Orlando Sentinel, January 25, 2011
