Battalion Chief fired for forgetting about crew on wildfire

A Battalion Chief for Estero Fire Rescue in Florida has been fired for failing to maintain accountability of firefighters on a large brush fire. Jeannine Horton, a nine-year veteran, allegedly forgot about a San Carlos fire crew that was still working in the woods when she “terminated incident command and left the scene prior to accounting for all resources”.

According to NBC2 News, Horton was also accused of making other mistakes, including entering a home when a fire alarm was going off without the owner being present to change batteries in a smoke detector. On another call she instructed a crew to re-wire smoke detectors, engaging in electrical work that firefighters are not authorized to perform.
NBC-2.com WBBH News for Fort Myers, Cape Coral

Experts convicted of manslaughter for not warning about earthquake

A court in Italy has convicted seven earthquake experts of manslaughter for not warning the public about the April 2009 quake that killed more than 300 people in L’Aquila.

The decision brings to mind the manslaughter charges brought against a firefighter after the fatal 2001 Thirtymile fire in Washington state.

In the case in Italy, the judge sentenced six scientists and a former government official to six years and ordered them to pay court costs and damages of $10.2 million. Most of the seven were seismologists and geologists, members of a National Commission for the Forecast and Prevention of Major Risks that met shortly before the quake struck after weeks of frequent small tremors. But they did not issue a public warning.

The court’s decision shook a community of scientists who evaluate the risks of natural hazards. “This is the death of public service on the part of professors and professionals,” Luciano Maiani, the current president of the risk commission, told the news agency Ansa.

Also shaken was the firefighting community when Ellreese Daniels was charged with 11 felonies, including 4 manslaughter charges, for the deaths of four firefighters during the 2001 Thirtymile fire. After those fatalities, politicians passed a federal law making it mandatory for the Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), which had no experience in wildland fire, to investigate fatalities of U.S. Forest Service personnel that occurred on a fire to decide if any federal laws were broken by firefighters during the suppression of the fire.

After the trainee wildland fire investigator for the OIG finished looking at the Thirtymile fire, on January 30, 2007 Mr. Daniels, the crew boss of the four firefighters that died, was charged with the felony and manslaughter charges. They were later reduced to two counts of making false statements to which Mr. Daniels pleaded guilty on August 20, 2008. He was sentenced to three years of probation and 90 days of work release.

In a case that is similar in some respects to the Thirtymile fire, three senior fire officers from the Warwickshire Fire Service in the UK were charged with gross negligence manslaughter following the deaths in 2007 of four firefighters while they were working a large fire at a vegetable warehouse in the village of Atherstone on Stour. They were acquitted in May, 2012 after a six-week trial.

Better video of the Australian fire tornado

Loyal readers of Wildfire Today will remember back to September 18 when we posted a video of a fire tornado shot by Chris Tangey of Alice Springs Film and Television while he was scouting locations near Curtin Springs station in Australia. Mr. Tangey contacted us to let us know that the Channel 7 video was removed from YouTube due to copyright issues, but a better version of the video, provided by Mr. Tangey, is now available at Vimeo.

We are embedding it below. If you want the very impressive video to fill your screen, hover your mouse pointer over the video then click on the arrows at the bottom-right between “HD” and “vimeo”.

Outback fire tornadoes-Australia from chris tangey on Vimeo.

Below is a description of the video:

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“THERE’S something mean and magical about Australia’s Outback. An Alice Springs filmmaker captured both when a whirlwind of fire erupted before his eyes.

Chris Tangey of Alice Springs Film and Television was scouting locations near Curtin Springs station, about 80km from Ularu, last week when confronted by a fiery phenomenon. He had just finished his tour of the station when workers encountered difficulties with a grader. So he went to help them.

A small fire was burning in nearby bushland, so Mr Tangey decided to start filming. He caught the sight of his life. A twister touched down on the spot fire, fanning it into a furious tower of flame.

“It sounded like a jet fighter going by, yet there wasn’t a breath of wind where we were,” he told the Northern Territory News.

“You would have paid $1000 a head if you knew it was about to happen.”

The column of fire danced about the landscape for about 40 minutes, he said, as he and the station workers stood transfixed. There was talk of making a quick getaway, Mr Tangey said. But everyone was too hypnotised to feel scared – and he continued furiously filming.

“The bizarre thing was that it rarely moved,” he said.

“These things just stood there because there was no wind to move them … but it was flickering incredibly fast.”

Darwin weather forecaster David Matthews said small twisters were common in isolated areas. But the fiery vortex was highly unusual.

“The flames would have assisted by trying to suck in air and that could have helped generate those circular winds,” Mr Matthews said.”

A sunscreen that can set you on fire

Several types of Banana Boat sunscreens have been recalled after five people in the United States and Canada were set on fire after applying the stuff which is supposed to prevent a person from getting sunburned.

Bananna Boat UltraMistSome of the pressurized continuous-spray Banana Boat UltraMist sunscreen products contain a flammable propellant such as alcohol or other petroleum products. Apparently when someone applies the product, and if before it dries they are exposed to an ignition source, the sunscreen can ignite, causing a fire that spreads across their body.

Two people suffered second and third degree burns.

Brett Sigworth, according to a story in the Daily Mail, sprayed Banana Boat’s Ultramist Sport on his upper body.

…After rubbing the cream in for a few seconds Mr Sigworth told CBS Boston that he walked over to the grill where he ‘took one of the holders to move some of the charcoal briquettes around and all of a sudden it went up my arm.’

Recalling the ‘scary’ experience, Mr Sigworth said the fire spread to wherever he had sprayed the sunscreen.

Mr. Sigworth had severe burns on his neck, chest and back.

Energizer Holdings Inc., the manufacturer of Banana Boat, announced the recall in a press release, which lists the products being withdrawn.

Two men charged with starting 5,500-acre fire using exploding targets

Two men have been charged with starting the Dump Fire near Saratoga Springs, Utah that burned more than 5,500 acres and cost $2.1 million to put out. About 2,500 people were forced to evacuate.

Investigators say the men were shooting on June 21 when they hit an explosive target that started the fire in nearby vegetation. Identified as 37-year-old Kenneth Nielsen of Washington, Utah, and 42-year-old Jeffrey Conant of Woodinville, Washington, they were charged with misdemeanor reckless burning and using prohibited targets,

We first wrote about the surge in popularity of exploding targets and the increasing number of wildfires caused by these devices on October 11, 2012. In that article we listed 21 fires that were either confirmed or suspected to be caused by exploding targets since the first of June, 2012. And these are just the ones that we were able to find using Google.

Car destroyed by exploding target
Car destroyed by exploding target. Credit ABC7.com

These devices are sometimes called “binary exploding targets”, since they are completely inert until two powders are mixed at the site by the target shooter. After they are combined, the compound is illegal to transport. The manufacturers claim that the only way they can be detonated is by striking them with a high-velocity bullet fired from a high-powered center-fire rifle. At least one company has recently started offering targets that will explode when hit with a much less powerful .22 caliber rim-fire rifle.

Most of the wildfire community is only beginning to learn of of this disturbing trend.

Laws regulating the devices vary from state to state. CAL FIRE investigator Capt. Gregory Ewing, issued a safety bulletin following a June, 2012 fire in Riverside County that was started by exploding targets. He suggested that users of the targets could be charged with multiple felonies.

Possessing it with the intent to mix the two parts (thus creating an explosive) is a felony. Actually mixing the two parts is also a felony, and detonating it is yet another.

John N. Maclean, the author of several books about wildfires, in an October 18 OP-ED article on the New York Times’ web site, wrote about penalties that have been assessed against arsonists and others who have started wildfires. He briefly mentioned exploding targets:

Some practice shooters fire at exploding targets — store-bought canisters that blow up when pierced by a bullet. These are largely legal, but they should be banned immediately.

I agree with Mr. Maclean. It is ridiculous that these incendiary devices which have been demonstrated to be extremely dangerous in the hands of the average shooter, are legal. They should not only be illegal to transport after the two chemicals have been mixed, the kits to assemble them should not be legal to sell or possess.

Specific legislation is needed so that a person starting a fire with an exploding target can be charged with a crime that is more punitive than misdemeanor reckless burning or using prohibited targets, as was the case in the brain dead shooters that started the $2.1 million Dump Fire.

Wildfire morning briefing, October 20, 2012

Smoke from the Witch Creek fire
Smoke from the Witch Creek fire as seen from San Diego harbor, October 23, 2007. Photo by Kat Miner

Witch Creek fire, five years later

Five years after the Witch Creek fire burned 197,990 acres and 1,040 homes in San Diego County, most of the structures have been rebuilt and lessons have been learned about how to better manage similar incidents, before, during and after they occur.

Followup on fire in Bucyrus, North Dakota

An analysis after the fire has determined that four residences and 20 outbuildings were destroyed when a wildfire raged through the small town of Bucyrus, North Dakota October 17. It blackened 6,000 acres along a 10-mile long path. NBC News has some photos that were taken after the fire.

Fire in Nebraska jumps Interstate 80

A 10,000-acre fire destroyed three residences and jumped over Interstate 80 near Paxton, Nebraska on Friday.

Photos of effects of winds in South Dakota

The very strong winds that affected wildfires in South Dakota this week also left some other impacts. The Rapid City Journal has some excellent photos, including one that shows four tractor-trailer trucks that got blown over along a 1/4-mile stretch of Interstate 90.

John N. Maclean’s OP-ED

John N. Maclean had an opinion piece published on the New York Time’s web site October 18 in which he wrote about penalties that have been assessed against arsonists and others who have started wildfires. He also provided some thoughts about how to prevent fires through legislation, and wrote about fires started by shooters, exploding targets, and all-terrain vehicles. Mr. Maclean is the author of several books about wildland fires, including Fire on the Mountain, The Thirtymile Fire, and the forthcoming book The Esperanza Fire: Arson, Murder and the Agony of Engine 57, about a 2006 wildfire in California.

Waldo Fire volunteer faces sex assault charge

A man who was volunteering for the Red Cross during the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado Springs earlier this year is facing charges of sexually assaulting another volunteer. The victim told police she believes 71-year old Allen Crabtree drugged her and then sexually assaulted her on July 7.

Thanks go out to Kelly and Dietra