Above: Firefighters from the Brookings and Colman fire departments in eastern South Dakota patrolled a fire line during burning out operations on the Cold Fire, April 3, 2016.
Some of the firefighters working on the 1,896-acre Cold Fire 8 miles south of Custer, South Dakota traveled long distances to help out the locals.
It is expected that the State’s biggest fire department would send the biggest truck to Cold Fire @SiouxFallsFire pic.twitter.com/BZAnHnVgLC
— Jim Strain (@jim_strain) April 5, 2016
Several fire engines from Sioux Falls, Brookings, and Colman in the extreme eastern part of South Dakota drove more than 400 miles. A hand crew came all the way from Oregon.
Ironically, the closest engine to the fire, at the Wind Cave National Park headquarters four miles away, sat in its garage. The park’s Assistant Fire Management Officer Al Stover said a confluence of factors resulted in none of their firefighters being able to help put out the fire that burned 316 acres inside the park. Their engine boss was at a training class and their seven-person Wildland Fire Module was in Kansas assisting with a prescribed fire. However the park did have at least two personnel at the fire, staffing a road block and serving as an Agency Administrator’s representative. And, we saw the Park Superintendent at the fire Saturday evening.
There are seven National Parks and Monuments in the greater Black Hills area. The firefighters (full time and collateral-duty) and engines in those parks are all coordinated by the Northern Great Plains National Park Service Fire Management Office. It is unfortunate they were not able to at least put together from those seven parks, half a dozen firefighters and a crew boss to lend a hand.
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(UPDATE at 10:33 a.m. MDT, April 7, 2016)
I wrote a comment below the article on April 6. Here is a copy:
“The Park Service is regressing to their roots of 30 years ago. In the early and mid-1980s they only had a skeleton of a fire management organization. Then 1988 happened. When much of Yellowstone National Park burned it got the attention not only of the highest levels of NPS management, but Congress as well. More money flowed into the fire organization. New positions were created.
In recent years Congress has cut the budget for NPS Fire, and many of those new, and needed, positions have been abolished or are not filled if a person leaves. These things run in cycles. When the next 1988 Yellowstone happens, things might turn around. For a while. Until the Administration and Congress lose interest again.
When politicians think of the NPS, they think of beautiful parks and Ranger-led interpretive walks. On the other hand, when the Forest Service is mentioned, they remember the last time USFS Chief Tom Tidwell sat in front of them in a hearing, just months before, when he begged and pleaded for more money for USFS fire management which consumes about half of the USFS funds.
I can’t help but wonder if funding for Department of Interior fire would be different if all federal wildland fire management were in ONE agency. That way it would be more difficult to ignore four of the five organizations.”
Bill and Old Parky–I would , be curious to see what the actual Cold Fire suppression costs will be. An AT from the Southeast, a WT from Sioux Falls, a crew from Oregon–ouch! Probably could have funded some longterm 13/13 ground pounders instead. “Penny wise–pound foolish” is the current national wildland fire management program! Still watching from the retirement sidelines–Eric
The 1 13/13 that the park does have was furloughed still the first couple days of this incident and then was in training so even if they did have multiple 13/13’s in the program the way the schedule was worked out they probably wouldn’t have been around for the initial attack of this fire to begin with. These are some of the issues that most fire programs have in the early season all over the country. The eastern area had a fire in a wilderness last week and the only type 2 IA crew that they could get was from the Lolo in western Montana and had to reach out to Wyoming and the black hills for engines to support not only the fire but the initial attack and planned prescribed fires so this isn’t just an issue at NGP. I am a big fan of this site and you usually do a great job Bill but the blatant finger pointing at NGP floored me from this article. Instead of blaming the local fire organization you need to look at the big picture. You also mentioned that its going to take another large scale catastrophic fire in a national park to bring funding back to the park service? I would think the Rim fire in Yosemite a couple years ago would have fit this large scale category but congress has still done very little to provide more funding. I hate to imagine what it is truly going to take to open the eyes of congress to provide funding at the national level to fill more of these lower level jobs at the local level every where, not just the park service.
The Rim Fire started outside of Yosemite. By the time it entered the Park it was far to big for the NPS to handle, and with their “let it burn” policy it wouldn’t make much difference if they had the biggest and best crew in the world to stop it. And one other difference is the Rim Fire didn’t threaten or “destroy” anything of value in the Park, i.e., the Valley Floor was just fine.
Just have to say that that the NPS does not have a “let it burn policy,” especially with regard to the Rim Fire. The park and its cooperators used a combination of hands-on techniques, including a large burnout along the Tioga Pass road, to contain it. It would be fair to say that the park’s topography and fuel patterns helped stop the fire, but everyone sure didn’t lay down their tools when the fire entered the park and watch it burn. And Rim Fire aside, managing any natural fire which is in fact being allowed to burn, and that can spread for months and cover thousands of acres, is a lot of work.
When did they change their policy? It’s always been and still is, if it’s a naturally caused fire they monitor and “let it burn” unless it is threatening structures or tourists. No one said it isn’t a lot of work to monitor a large fire, it was simply stated that if Congress was going to increase funding for the Park Service that the Rim Fire would’ve done it. I disagreed since the Rim Fire didn’t really “hurt” anything in the Park therefore Congress couldn’t care less about it.
We very much appreciate you, and the information and pictures you provided of the Cold Fire. We agree with one of the other commenters that information about the fire was very lacking. Even when we called the Great Plains information number, we were told that there would be briefings, but not for the public nor even for local property owners. We saw the steady stream of Fire Vehicles in and out of the fire area, yet were left hungry for information. Reading this particular article and the comments make us even more grateful for this info site, and ever so grateful for those fire fighters who came to work so hard, in a strange, and rugged area. Please help us relay our gratitude!
– Having been employed by two federal agencies, two state agencies, and two private companies (as well as a VFD) throughout my career and across the country, I find the cultural disparities between agencies as profound as the budgetary disparities. You are correct, Bill; People think of beautiful parks and ranger-led interpretive walks until a park unit is blackened (which leads to the perpetuation of the beauty)…at which the time ranger led interpretive walks explain the natural processes at work and the benefits/dangers of fire, both prescribed and wild. I think that a unified fire service is a wonderful concept until you consider the cultural differences driven by differing enabling legislation set forth by congress, the apparent inability of the left hand to talk to the right within the federal government (much less within one agency), and the glaring ignorance that congress expresses in their decisions as it pertains to fire management. The fire service is comprised of patriotic, hard-working, intelligent, creative, and driven individuals (federal, state, VFD, and private contractors alike) who want to do the right thing and are hampered by the system in which we work.
The Park Service is regressing to their roots of 30 years ago. In the early and mid-1980s they only had a skeleton of a fire management organization. Then 1988 happened. When much of Yellowstone National Park burned it got the attention not only of the highest levels of NPS management, but Congress as well. More money flowed into the fire organization. New positions were created.
In recent years Congress has cut the budget for NPS Fire, and many of those new, and needed, positions have been abolished or are not filled if a person leaves. These things run in cycles. When the next 1988 Yellowstone happens, things might turn around. For a while. Until the Administration and Congress lose interest again.
When politicians think of the NPS, they think of beautiful parks and Ranger-led interpretive walks. On the other hand, when the Forest Service is mentioned, they remember the last time USFS Chief Tom Tidwell sat in front of them in a hearing, just months before, when he begged and pleaded for more money for USFS fire management which consumes about half of the USFS funds.
I can’t help but wonder if funding for Department of Interior fire would be different if all federal wildland fire management were in ONE agency. That way it would be more difficult to ignore four of the five organizations.
Bill, I would like to respond to your comments regarding the response efforts of the National Park Service (Wind Cave National Park) during the Cold Fire. What the public doesn’t typically see are the funding decisions from above that are dramatically affecting the “boots on the ground”. So….NGP has taken the hardest hits in the region with regards to positions funded. Within the park group (suppression program), there is an FMO, an AFMO, a Fire Program Management Assistant (non-operational), 1 funded (26/0) Engine Captain located at Badlands, 1 funded (13/13) non-supervisory engine boss located at Wind Cave, and the Wildland Fire Module located at Jewel Cave which is now nationally funded (like a hotshot crew) at a level less than what they are currently staffed. No seasonals are on yet, and the few collateral duty firefighters left have important day jobs as well…The workload seems to grow, but the staffing is insufficient by no fault of their own. There are many pieces of this convoluted puzzle that folks don’t see. Maybe Mr. Thune should get involved again?!
Yes it is sad that the NPS could not help on a fire in their own back yard. I also find it hard to understand why none of the agencies reported on the status of this fire, some of us that own homes in this area but do not live there are just a little curious as to what is going on. Once again Bill you are the go to person to find out the facts. Thanks much and keep up the good work