On a day when a reporter said the winds were so strong that he had trouble standing, there were many large fires in central and eastern South Dakota. Twice on October 5, engines were burned over, causing, thankfully, what sound like non-serious burns for the firefighters, but the total loss of the two engines.
Jim Strain, the Chief of Operations for the South Dakota Division of Wildland Fire Suppression, provides the details:
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“On Wednesday, October 5th, I was working on a 17,500 acre prairie fire in south central South Dakota when I received a report of an engine burn over involving a rural VFD engine and crew on another wildfire 30 miles north of my location. That VFD engine and crew were assisting the BIA on a 5000 acre wildfire. Reports are that a firefighter was trying to restart the pump on the back of the apparatus when the fire started to entrap him. He ran from the engine and suffered burns on the face , scalp and hands. He was later hospitalized that evening and released the next morning. The engine was a total loss.
The second burn over occurred that same afternoon on an 11,000 acre wildfire in eastern South Dakota just south of the North Dakota and South Dakota state line. The Type 6 engine crew on a rural VFD engine was attempting to cut a barbed-wire fence to gain access to a fire area, when the fire circled back and entrapped them, causing them to run to their safety zone. The two firefighters suffered minor burns to their necks and faces, but the engine was a total loss. The engine boss on this engine has over 30 years of experience suppressing wildfires.
We are still trying to gather facts on both situations, but it seems rather apparent that the abundant spring and summer rainfall throughout Eastern Montana and the Dakotas has contributed to above average grass fuel loadings in the area. Coupling that with the normal seasonal fall dryness and warm, windy conditions, create a situation where above normal radiant heat transfer and extreme rates of spread are seen in these grass fuels models. What is deceiving is that in all of our fires this week, fire spread will slow in the green draw bottoms ( or coulees for those of you that speak Eastern Montanan ) and move quickly upslope in the dryer cured fuel beds on the ridge tops. None of this comes as a surprise, but it can happen so fast that firefighters think they are safe one moment and trapped the next. As we move into October, we can expect more of the same on days where the fire danger is high, very high or extreme in our grass fuel models.
We are very grateful that just minor injuries occurred to the firefighters, but it could have been worse. But this serves a reminder to maintain that situational awareness on any grass fire, especially under the conditions that we seeing this fall fire season.”
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UPDATE October 13, 2011: there was a third burnover that day.
Dick,
I agree with you for the most part… except the over-reliance on PPE to keep folks safer.
Folks shouldn’t rely on their PPE to keep them safe. The #1 Safety PPE is the BRAIN (training and experience) and keeping folks out of entrapment situations and NOT needing flimsy wildland PPE to protect them.
Folks were far safer when they had a good LEADER… and a good pair of thick Frisco’s… and a long sleeved (thick weave) cotton shirt. All of those ARE and WERE the best PPE money (and safety) can (could) buy.
P.S. – Do you have links to the “Kelly York” story or “It’s Only a Grass Fire”?? It’s hard to teach or share a story or lesson without a “link” to the info for folks to share. Yes… I’ve seen them both, but they aren’t readily available anymore.
I have a VHS copy of the CDF “Kelly York” video – back in the days before they became Cal Fire, and when they still wore brown shirts and green jeans. Maybe the new “Cal Fire in Blue” office in Sacto may have copies still? The Lessons Learned Center has the “Grass Fire” DVD available.
Dick,
I’ve been checking around for a good copy of that video to digitize for some time. Every copy I have found has been a copy of a copy of a copy… resulting in poor quality.
If you’d be willing (and it’s a clean copy), I’d like to preserve it digitally.
Here is what I did with an old beta-max studio tape approved from the Author/Director/Producer:
http://wildfiretube.com/videos/62/panorama-fire-(1980)
Lots of the “old” VHS lessons learned (among other things as we wear out) are being lost.
I will have to respectfully disagree with the opinion that a paycheck equates to professionalism. There are many highly trained and well equipped volunteer firefighters throughout our state who provide professional fire suppression services.
Well put, SD FD. I’ve seen both professionals and amateurs in both paid and volunteer departments. To suggest that volunteer = amateur or that paid automatically = professional is a slap in the face to the majority of the US Fire Service, and ignores the facts in most of the country.
I wasn’t trying to imply that paid = professional. While I was a fs instructor I worked with many volunteers who put in many unpaid hours of work and training I would stack up against any paid departments. I also came across many who scoffed at the idea of ppe and training. Those were the ones that scared me. Since 9/11 I hope the level of professionalism has been raised across the board.
Thanks for clarifying. I agree, there are certainly those who would do themselves and others a service if they would give up fire and find another way to serve their neighbors! Fortunately, they seem to be getting to be fewer…
Looking around on large T-1 and T-2 wildfire incidents, you see lots of non-use and mis-use of PPE among the “elite” Federal firefighters: gloves off, sleeves rolled up and filthy, oil-soaked used-to-be yellow shirts that will better sustain fire than prevent burn injuries. These are failures of leadership as well as failures of the FFs to follow their training. If you need some visual reinforcement, show folks the CDF “Kelly York” video or the newest one from the LLC “It’s Only a Grass Fire.” A picture really is woth a thousand words to show how bad burn injuries can be, and how fast they happen.
no shelters, limited training, limited equipment. when I left SD it had 374 FD’s only 6 paid. Way too many amateurs.
Tried to bring up the level of training and education.
Favorite local T-Shirt “Welcome to SD. Now set your clock back 20 yrs.” unfortunately often applies across the board
As a firefighter in cali..did these folks have fire shelters?