A prescribed fire on Fort Ord near Monterey, California escaped Tuesday. The objective of the fire was to remove vegetation to make it easier to clear the area of unexploded ordnance. The plan was to burn 341 acres but it blacked an additional 100 acres. The fire was ignited in the morning and at 6 p.m. the Army said it was contained. Between 9 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. a large smoke plume was seen in the area.
This is the third escaped prescribed fire on Fort Ord in the last 16 years. In 1997, a planned 100-acre burn turned into a 700-acre wildfire. In 2003, a scheduled 490-acre burn jumped containment lines and burned 1,470 acres.
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UPDATE October 19, 2013: Rock, who was at the prescribed fire (see his comment below) sent us this photo taken at about 10 a.m., hours before the fire escaped.
Thanks go out to Rock
Thanks Bill, I have some good photos that could be published but not sure how to send them to you… also a video or two.
I was there, at Fort Ord, for the burn, operating an engine. We were hit with higher than predicted winds. Several engines tried to hold the line but zero visibility conditions for ground pounders, prevented us from picking it up and an escape was declared. All resources at the burn worked their asses off and were successful at stopping the fire at the next containment line. Lots of good work was done, the burn and the slop-over went as planned. The Presidio of Monterey Fire Dept. was great to work with and very professional. Also, three contract engine companies provided additional help and they did a great job in very dangerous and difficult conditions. Nine helicopters were used and they were vital to this Rex burn. The choppers did a lot of work and helped to keep us engine guys safe. An interesting side note; because of the unexploded ordinance in the burn area it was not possible to go direct and we had to wait for the fire to come to us (on roads) to fight it. Despite the slop-over, this burn was a success and we had no injuries to firefighters.
Rock, thanks for the info. It has to be difficult conducting a prescribed fire when firefighters can’t leave the roads.
And, nine helicopters on a 341+ acre prescribed fire? That’s an extremely complex aerial show for a relatively small area.