News and opinion about wildland fire
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Wildfire1 Comment on A brief look at large wildfires in the United States this week As of August 5, 2022
Here is a quick two-minute review of wildfires over the last week, produced by the National Interagency Fire Center August 5 2022.
Currently there are 32 large uncontained fires in the United States that are being fully suppressed. Another 39 are not being fully suppressed: 17 in the Alaska Geographic Area, 3 in the Southwest, 5 in the Great Basin, and 4 in the Northern Rockies.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized1 Comment on Cresson Volunteer Fire Department’s engine burned over in brush fire Southwest of Fort Worth, Texas
From the Cresson Volunteer Fire Department, August 3, 2022
“This afternoon we sent 3 trucks to help on a wildfire reportedly started by welding north of Tolar. While working with a group of other trucks in a clear area extinguishing spot fires one of our trucks stalled and lost mobility. Seeing that the fire was approaching, our crew left the truck on foot and retreated to a safe area. Another truck picked them up and our firefighters were evaluated by EMS. One of our firefighters did inhale some smoke and had burns on a small portion of his face and arms. He was flown to Parkland, and his evaluation is excellent. We don’t know yet, but he may be released without even spending the night. These are dangerous fires for all of us, and our guys’ training and decision making kept a bad incident from getting worse. UPDATE: just received confirmation that our firefighter is being released and heading home from the hospital.”
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized34 Comments on The Staging Area, August 5, 2022 
This weekend we are continuing an occasional weekend feature we started a few weeks ago. This post can serve as the beginning of an open thread where our readers can talk about issues that we have, or have not, gotten into yet. This is literally an off-topic thread. You have the floor.
The usual rules about commenting apply. And remember, no personal attacks or politics, please.
Let’s enjoy a wide-ranging conversation!
(Oh, and send us pics of staging areas — date, location, and photographer’s name would be nice.)
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized11 Comments on New fire shelters are on backorder at many suppliers One manufacture said shelters ordered today will be shipped in March, 2023
Anyone attempting to purchase a new wildland fire shelter may find that many retail fire equipment suppliers do not have any in stock. Of the eight online suppliers we checked, five had them on back order. The three that estimated when they would be available said it would be four to eight weeks.
I called Anchor Industries, the larger of the two companies that make fire shelters, to find out why. I asked John Montrastelle, Government Sales Manager, why there was difficulty in keeping them in stock at retailers.
“Most dealers buy from me,” Mr. Montrastelle said. “We are in our second year of another record fire shelter season. I mean, it is ginormous. My lead time right now on fire shelters is March 3, 2023. If a dealer was to order today, it’s March 3. I have got thousands of fire shelter orders in house here, and we churn out 500 a week. We need to be making twice that just to catch up with the demand. Just two years ago, my lead time, no matter the quantity, because I had a decent amount of inventory, was usually five days or less.”
“We just have a high demand for them right now, which has created a longer lead time from us,” Mr. Montrastelle said from his office in Indiana. “It’s not so much the raw goods, it’s more of a labor problem. We just need to figure out how to add a second shift and get another 15 people that are good workers that will stay with us. And sometimes it’s not just the money. It’s crazy.”
Why are there shortages?
Mr. Montrastelle thought the increased demand was partly due to more firefighters being hired and an increase in acres burned.
Another likely reason is the advisory issued March 16, 2022 by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group’s Equipment Technology Committee. It reported that in reviewing shelter deployments in 2020, it was determined that shelters made prior to 2006 “function as intended” but may experience greater delamination between the silica cloth and aluminum foil when deployed.
The scary looking two-page advisory document, surrounded by yellow and gray slashes, appeared to indicate it was an urgent concern. But surprisingly, there was no recommendation in the NWCG advisory. It didn’t say to replace the pre-2006 shelters. It took the timid step of “providing technical information to support agency-specific decision-making regarding replacement of fire shelters manufactured prior to 2006.”
However the meeting notes posted online by the NWCG Equipment Technology Committee after their meeting of November 2-3, 2021 had been more definitive, and used clear text:
“Recommend discontinue the use of shelters made prior to January 2006 via an equipment advisory.”
But that got watered down in the March 16 Advisory.
The “new generation” of fire shelter first became available in 2003 and since then there have been revisions in addition to those made in 2006. For example, meeting notes from the October 28, 2021 NWCG Fire Shelter and Personal Protective Equipment Subcommittee mentioned that “Fluorine and phosphorus tested too high in recent materials test, concern about off-gassing inside the shelter.” Toxicity thermal testing was scheduled at University of Alberta, Canada. Production of the shelter was paused, and by the January 27, 2022 meeting manufacturing was moving forward again.
At that meeting it was mentioned that “State programs have responded that they may not be able to quickly get [the pre-2006 shelters] out of circulation.”
We asked agencies if they had shortages
In light of the statement above that states will have problems replacing the pre-2006 shelters, we did some checking, and called several agencies on the west coast to ask if they were having difficulty acquiring fire shelters.
Thomas Kyle-Milward, a Communications Manager for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, told Wildfire Today that they have decided that they need to upgrade to the latest version of the shelter. Like many state and federal land management agencies, they order their shelters from the Defense Logistics Agency, which which is one of the 282 fire-related items handled by the DLA. Mr. Kyle-Milward said 900 shelters have been on back order at the DLA for a couple of months.
We also checked with the US Forest Service. “We are not experiencing a shortage of fire shelters,” said Stanton Florea, Fire Communications Specialist. “The inventory of fire shelters in the National Interagency Support Caches is close to maximum levels used for planning.”
Jessica Prakke, Public Affairs Officer for the Oregon Department of Forestry, said, “ODF does not have a shortage of fire shelters. Our fire cache and districts work diligently during the off season to stock up on supplies so that when we are in fire season, our ordering is minimal to avoid potential shortages. Hopefully, the projection of a March 2023 fulfillment of current orders holds true.”
A spot check of a couple of California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection regions found no shortage of shelters.
Update at 9:51 a.m. EDT August 6, 2022. One of our readers told us that the warehouse manager in North Carolina reached out to let them know that they we were down to eight new shelters and were unable to stock up. Some other southern states also have shelters on back order.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Wildfire18 Comments on Elmo Fire spreads toward Lake Mary Ronan in Montana We discovered it is difficult to find evacuation information
Updated 4:33 p.m. MDT August 4, 2022
A satellite overflight at 3:08 p.m. MDT Thursday detected heat from the Elmo Fire very close to the south end of Lake Mary Ronan.
There are many structures on the east side of the lake. The Incident Management Team said Thursday morning they hoped to keep the fire from spreading beyond Camp Tuffit Road.
Updated 3:23 p.m. MDT August 4, 2022
The Elmo Fire which started July 29 continues to spread north toward Lake Mary Ronan. The south edge is secure along Highway 28, but firefighters are having a difficult time stopping the northward progression through the timber as it approaches the lake.
The fire was mapped Wednesday night at 20,616 acres. The east side of the fire is very close to Flathead Lake and it appears likely that the north side will reach Lake Mary Ronan.
On Wednesday winds increased out of the southwest in the afternoon resulting in upslope runs, spotting, and significant growth on the north side, limiting firefighters’ ability to engage directly on the fire’s edge. All areas of the fire were supported by numerous aircraft dropping water and retardant.
On Thursday firefighters are focusing on Camp Tuffit Road and are working to hold the fire as it approaches the southeast shore of Lake Mary Ronan. Firefighters are prepping structures and constructing secondary firelines.
The Flathead Beacon reported that four homes have been destroyed, quoting an information officer at the fire.
Evacuations
It is not easy to find up to date evacuation information for this incident. At InciWeb the last time it was mentioned was on August 2, 2022 (no time was included). It listed a change, then said “all prior evacuations are in effect.” But there was no link to “prior evacuations”. The change at that time was to include “all residents residing north and south of Hwy 352 (Lake Mary Ronan Road) and all residents who live along Lake Mary Ronan. ”
Another announcement on InciWeb said, “At approximately 2 PM, Northern Rockies Incident Management Team 7 recommended the evacuation of the Lake Mary Ronan corridor to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.”
No date or time was included in the announcement, other than “three days ago.”
Our take
Ordering the public to evacuate and leave their homes is an earth-shattering event for most residents. It can mean the difference between life and death. Then there are the practical logistics of hauling off your critical medicines, documents, family photos, electronics, and pets, then finding a place to shelter which may involve a large expenditure of money.
For the Incident Management Team to treat the evacuation so casually, is not acceptable.
Firefighters do not order an evacuation. They may recommend it, but it can only be ordered and implemented by law enforcement. If the Incident Management Team does not have the current information, they should at least provide a link so someone can easily find this critical data. Assuming that the general public visiting InciWeb will happily mentally cut and paste little bits of evacuation information from multiple web pages to form a complete picture of whether they have to evacuate or not, is poor incident management.
I conducted a search in an attempt to find the information that may have been posted by a law enforcement or emergency management agency, with no success.
When I discovered this issue, I asked the Incident Management Team if they knew of one place where a citizen could get the information, and was told that it was on their InciWeb page under “Announcements.” The email reply was not signed by a person, just “Public Information, Northern Rockies Team 7.” Apparently no one there wants to be held accountable.
“If the announcement is a couple days old, then no changes have occurred to evacuations,” the reply said. “We will continue to post Evacuation updates here as soon as we hear from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.”
An Incident Management Team should either:
If an Incident Management Team finds that their recommendation for evacuation has not been implemented, or has not been communicated to the public in a useful way, the Incident Commander should follow up. Maybe the local jurisdiction rarely has to implement evacuations and does not have a check list of all the steps that must be taken. It can be turned into a teachable moment. But the follow up must occur.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Wildfire1 Comment on Two wildfires are burning in Ellensburg, Washington area Cow Canyon and Vantage Highway Fires. Evacuations are in effect for the Cow Canyon Fire.
Two wildfires are burning in central Washington.
Cow Canyon Fire
The Cow Canyon Fire eight miles southwest of Ellensburg spread rapidly after it was reported Wednesday August 3 at 2:45 p.m. It is spreading through brush, grass, and timber and has grown to approximately 1,500 acres.
Water-scooping air tankers are using Wenas Lake to refill. Recreational boaters are being warned to be aware of aircraft operations and to keep a safe distance. At least three large air tankers were also used on the fire Wednesday, reloading at the airport at Moses Lake, Washington, including a 737, BAe-146, and a DC-10.
Evacuations orders are affecting about 50 homes for a 1.5 mile radius from the intersection of Malloy Road and North Wenas Road. Yakima County Emergency Management has more information. An emergency shelter has been established at the Selah Civic Center. Anyone displaced by the fire can call the American Red Cross at 509-457-1690.
Spectacular smoke plume from the #CowCanyonFire southwest of Ellensburg, as captured by GOES-West satellite before sundown tonight. More on the fires burning east of the Cascades on @KIRO7Seattle at 11 and tomorrow at 4:30 am. #wawx #wafire pic.twitter.com/tvk1kb5J3H
— Morgan Palmer (@MorganKIRO7) August 4, 2022
Vantage Highway Fire
The Vantage Highway Fire 17 miles east of Ellensburg has burned 26,490 acres of brush north of the Vantage Highway since it started August 1. Most of the spread on Wednesday was on the northwest side.
The Northwest Interagency Coordination Center reports that one residence and one outbuilding have been destroyed.
The Vantage Highway will remain closed until at least 3:00 p.m. Thursday, at which point the Southeast Washington Type 3 Incident Management Team, Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office, and Kittitas County PUD will assess if it is ready to open. The highway is closed from Parke Creek Road through Recreation Drive except for local traffic. There are no evacuation orders in effect for the Vantage Highway Fire.
Weather
The weather forecast for the Cow Canyon Fire on Thursday predicts mostly sunny skies, 79 degrees, 30 percent relative humidity, and 15 to 20 mph afternoon winds gusting to 35 mph.
