The U.S. Forest Service has released the “72 Hour Expanded Report — Bull Fire Entrapment”. Two wildland firefighters suffered burns while suppressing a fire which started in Mexico and burned into Arizona near Nogales. Here is the “Summary”:
The Bull fire was initially detected in Mexico on April 26, 2011. The fire eventually crossed the international border from Mexico into the United States, and onto the Coronado National Forest. During suppression efforts on April 29, two USDA Forest Service helitack personnel received non-life threatening burn injuries while staffing a remote helispot on the National Forest. Both firefighters were transported by helicopter to the hospital with first and second degree burns. The firefighter with second degree burns was subsequently moved to and evaluated at a burn center. Both firefighters were released from the hospital the evening of April 29.
Based on the nature of this incident, the Coronado National Forest will be utilizing the Facilitated Learning Analysis (FLA) process to maximize the learning opportunities and to better manage future incidents.
The Bull fire started in Mexico on April 29 and soon crossed the international border coming to within a few miles of Nogales, Arizona. As we reported, on April 29 the Coronado National Forest provided 40 firefighters, 2 helicopters, and one air attack plane to help Mexico firefighters suppress the Bull fire and one other fire that were about 3 miles south of the U.S. border west of Nogales, Arizona. A follow-up report from May 1 is here.
The complete 72-hour report is at the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center. InciWeb has more details about the fire.
The map of the Bull fire, below, shows heat detected by satellites on May 1, 2011.
