11:47 a.m. PDT Oct. 8, 2021
Four firefighters were injured by a falling tree Thursday afternoon on the KNP Complex of fires in Southern California. The Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks announced Thursday night that the tree struck the firefighters who were then brought to a helispot and flown to area hospitals. The injuries were serious, the Park Service said, but the personnel were all in “stable condition.” Friday morning the agency said all four had been released from the hospitals. One is an employee with CAL FIRE and three are with the California Conservation Corps.
Tuesday, October 5, the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks wrote on Facebook that hundreds of giant sequoias may have been killed in the KNP Complex of fires:
Regarding the trees, there are some groves in the park that we suspect burned at high enough intensity to result in sequoia mortality, possibly for significant numbers of trees (hundreds). However, we are currently focused on prioritization and treatment of groves that are threatened and outside the current fire footprint, as well as mopping up trees that need it. It is not safe right now, nor is it our current priority to fully assess groves that have burned. These groves will be fully assessed from the ground by resource managers when it is possible, but that will be after the fire is basically out cold and conditions allow them to get in there – likely in 2022.
On Friday morning, October 8, that October 5 statement was edited, removing the estimate of trees that may have been killed, and softening the language about assessment of giant sequoia mortality not being a priority.
We suspect that some groves in the park burned at high enough intensity to cause tree mortality. We don’t know yet the extent of the fire behavior or tree mortality. We will gain what knowledge we can with aerial reconnaissance, as smoke conditions allow. These groves will be fully assessed from the ground by resource managers when it is possible, but that will be after the fire is basically out cold and conditions allow them to get in there – likely 2022.
Dozens of media outlets reported on the “hundreds” number before it was removed.
The huge 85,952-acre fire has been divided into two zones and will be managed by two Type 1 Incident Management Teams. California Interagency Incident Management Team 2 (CIIMT2) assumed command of the North Zone Thursday at 6 pm. while the Southwest Area Incident Management Team 2 remains in command of the South Zone.
Friday morning several weather stations in the general vicinity of the KNP Complex recorded less than 0.05 inch of precipitation by 10:15 a.m. PDT. More is in the forecast during the day on Friday possibly amounting to a wetting rain of a quarter of an inch or more over the northern portions of the fire. Lesser amounts of 0.10 to 0.15 inch are likely to the south in the Mineral King and Case Mountain areas. This is not expected to be enough to put out the fire, but it is likely to slow it down for at least several days. The forecast for Saturday and Sunday is for high temperatures in the 40s and 50s depending on the elevation, with very high humidities lowering into the 30s by Sunday. There is another chance for rain on Monday along with humidity in the 50s and 60s. Tuesday and Wednesday will be sunny with humidities of 25 to 40 percent. The wind will be generally moderate throughout this period.
All this adds up to reduced growth through Tuesday, providing opportunities for firefighters to construct direct firelines.
On the north zone Friday the primary focus will be the area where the fire crossed the Generals Highway south of Grant Grove. Thursday night a tactical firing operation from Park Ridge to Redwood Canyon secured that portion of the line. An indirect line is being constructed around Stony Creek Lodge to the Generals Highway. Increased humidity and shading of fuels by clouds will decrease fire behavior Friday and provide more opportunities to build direct line.
On the south zone, heavy equipment and crews are implementing structure protection actions around Case Mountain Grove, Silver City, and Mineral King. Fire spread south of Mineral King Road is being reduced with line construction and hose lays in place.
Evacuation ORDERS and WARNINGS are still in place.
This is obviously another unfortunate incident that is both predictable and preventable. (Risk Management Consultant Gordon Graham) And this far removed from any “hindsight bias.”
In 1985, we established a 19th Watch Out, i.e. Death From Above (Overhead, gravity hazards, trees, snags, hazard trees, widowmakers, lightning, powerlines, aircraft, aerial ignition, etc.)
For the past 20+ years, the mechanism responsible for maiming and killing WFs and FFs every year on wildfires and prescribed (RX) fires involves both dead and green trees.
By definition, a snag is a standing dead tree. Mentioning this on a wildland fire suggests wildlife and the need to “save it” which requires building a line around it. Because of the need to actually fell the “snag” as being critical to “safely accomplish your mission” REQUIRES you to refer to it as a “HAZARD TREE” and thus should “allow” WFs and FFs to fell or cut down the standing dead, alleged “wildlife tree”
Continue to use the phrase “snag the fireline, road, trail, etc.” but refer to all dead standing trees – and now even green trees, due to drought, fire-weakening, etc. as HAZARD TREES to allow you to safely mitigate the hazard by dropping them.
Already this 2021 fire season, there was a fatality on a Northern CA wildfire from a tree (Death From Above) and it was not associated with a felling operation. This suggests that this unfortunate WF or FF was working in an area that had not been properly “snagged” and mitigated prior to entering.
Hopefully, these WFs or FFs will have a speedy recovery from their injuries and there will be some valuable lessons learned from this. Then again – it’s been over 20 years now and we’re still maiming and killing WFs and FFs for the very same reasons, i.e. Death From Above.
Hi Fred,
I have never been on a wildland fire where we were directed to not fall snags due to their importance to wildlife. Perhaps crews were receiving this direction 15 or 20 years ago, but it is not the case today. We are always directed to mitigate overhead hazards by felling trees, or, if the tree is out of scope or too dangerous to fell safely, to flag off the area. The last two years it has often been the direction to fell fire-weakened green trees, too.
The truth of the matter is that crews are not going to find every single snag and green trees that do not appear to be significantly fire-weakened still fall unexpectedly. Last week on the Windy Fire an oak unaffected by fire fell on a pickup truck. As I’m sure you’re well aware, felling trees and cleaning them up afterwards is very time consuming in its own right and opens the door for a whole other set of hazards.
The only time I have seen crews directed to put line around trees instead of fell them is on prescribed fire for resource benefit, but if those trees become a threat to the line or personnel they are also felled.
Thank you for your reporting Bill !