UPDATED July 20; we added this time-lapse video that was shot by Christopher Redmond Thursday near Highway 385 just north of Pringle, SD. Here is how he described it:
First day of the Myrtle Fire southwest of Rapid City and east of Pringle, SD as it explodes. Fire was pretty much plume dominated until winds shifted out of the east in the late evening. Several large bursts in fire activity caused some pyrocumulus to redevelop during the last gasp of daylight.
Myrtle Fire at 4:12 p.m., about 3 hours after it started on July 19. The photo looks north across Wind Cave National Park. Photo by Bill Gabbert
UPDATED at 11:20 p.m., July 19, 2012
The Myrtle Fire that was reported Thursday at 1:30 p.m. has already burned 1,200 to 1,500 acres and is causing evacuations between Pringle and Hot Springs in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The fire started about 3 miles east of the small town of Pringle between US Highway 385 and Beaver Creek Road.
A wind shift in the late afternoon made things difficult for firefighters. As you can see in the photo above which looks toward the north, the fire was pushed by a west wind when the picture was taken at 4:12 p.m. At around 5 or 6 p.m., when the temperature at the nearby Elk Mountain weather station was 104 degrees and the relative humidity was 9 percent, the wind died and then began blowing out of the north and northeast. This caused spotting across Highway 385 as the fire spread rapidly to the west and south. By 10 p.m. it was approaching Shirt Tail Road and at 10:45 the Hot Springs Fire Department was toned out to assist with evacuations in the “Argyle Road West” area, which is south of Pringle and north of Hot Springs. Some areas north of Argyle Road and south of Wind Cave National Park are affected by the evacuations.
Myrtle fire. Map showing heat detected by a satellite at 10:18 p.m., July 19, 2012. Click to enlarge.
InciWeb should have more information about the fire on Friday.
The first heavy air tankers were requested at about 3:40 p.m., and two were dispatched from Montana, the dispatcher told the Incident Commander. About an hour later two additional large air tankers were requested. The first one, a P2V, arrived at 7:14 p.m., almost six hours after the fire was reported. The second arrived before 8 p.m. As far as I know the additional two that were ordered did not arrive at all on Thursday.
Air tanker 07 dropping on the Myrtle Fire at 8:24 p.m. July 19, 2012. Photo by Bill Gabbert
What’s wrong with this picture: the first air tankers arrived at the fire AFTER a Type 1 Incident Management Team (Hahnenberg) was ordered, which is used for managing the largest, most complex wildfires. Who knows, the IMTeam, with an ETA of 6 p.m. Friday, may arrive before the third and fourth air tankers show up.
W. Scott Olsen, a professor of English at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, is writing a series of articles on “the war on wildfires out west, meeting shot-callers and looking at the operation from the inside”.
The articles are very well-written. If you are involved in fire, you will appreciate the fresh point of view of an outsider. If not, you can learn a lot about how wildfires are fought and how the resources are managed by the “shot-callers”. Here are links to the articles that Mr. Olsen has written so far in this series.
Below is an excerpt from the “Monday” article in which he is describing a meeting of the National MultiAgency Coordination group (NMAC) at NIFC in Boise:
…After the weather, the talk turns to resources. The VLAT—Very Large Air Tanker, a DC-10—has been moved to California. The Rocky Mountain area wants two Heavy Tankers in addition to the MAFFS—Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System, Air Force C-130s—deployed yesterday. Wamack goes around the table and asks what issues others may want discussed and there are very few. Then he suggests they move the national preparedness level from PL4 to PL3. This is not a small issue in that it will change how the entire nation handles its firefighting resources, and it is a step toward a more relaxed readiness. But the numbers from the field do not match the criteria for PL4. No one disagrees. It’s not difficult to move back to PL4 or even PL5. But that’s not where we are.
Without ceremony, the meeting ends and everyone goes back to their tasks. Nearly everyone has a telephone on their desk and a cell phone in their pocket, and both of them ring. This is the whole nation’s firefighting center. I keep thinking the whole thing should lapse into organizational chaos. All it would take is one person with a real turf-issue. But without exception, every person has front line fire experience. Every person has personal history and gut-deep understanding of what’s going on in the field. The federal agencies do not compete here. It’s not a world where the question is “What do you want from me?” It’s a world where the question is “What can I bring to the table?”
Sierra Pacific, a timber company in California, has agreed to pay nearly $50 million and donate 22,500 acres of land to settle a federal government lawsuit over the Moonlight fire that burned about 65,000 acres in 2007, including 46,000 acres in the Plumas and Lassen National Forests in the northern part of the state.
U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner said the fire was caused by two dozer operators working on a red flag warning day.
Wagner’s office claimed employee negligence led to the growth of the fire. The person who was designated to watch for fires left the work area and drove 30 minutes to get a soda, and when he returned more than an hour later, there was a 100-foot wall of smoke, he said.
In addition, there was no access to fire suppression equipment at the site, Wagner said.
He estimated firefighting costs at $22.5 million.
The settlement includes a cash payment of $47 million from Sierra Pacific, a $7 million payment from private landowners and managers of the property where the fire started, and $1 million from the logging contractor.
Wagner estimated the value of the land at $67.5 million, but Sierra Pacific challenged that number, noting the U.S. Forest Service has not yet selected the land to be donated.
DC-10 Tanker 911, July 2, 2012 on the Shingle fire in Utah. Photo by Scott G. Winterton (Click to see a larger version.)
The DC-10 Very Large Air Tanker, Tanker 911, was released June 16 from their Call When Needed assignment by the U.S. Forest Service and sent home, told they were no longer needed. Here are some photos of the aircraft in action over the last couple of weeks on the Shingle Fire in Utah and the Robbers Fire in California. Click on the photos to see larger versions.
Between July 9 and 16 Tanker 911 flew 11 sorties and dropped approximately 127,600 gallons of retardant on the following fires in Oregon, California, and Idaho: Sites, Long Draw, Stout, Miller Homestead, Robbers, and Calf.
Earlier we reported that the DC-10 dropped 373,600 gallons on 33 sorties from June 12 through June 21. If all of those 373,600 gallons had been delivered by a P2V it would have taken about 192 round trips to the fires.
HERE is a link to a video news report about the air tanker from a TV station in Sacramento.
DC-10 Tanker 911, July 2, 2012 on the Shingle fire in Utah. Photo by Scott G. WintertonDC-10 Tanker 911 on the Robbers Fire in California July 15, 2012. Photo by David Wilson. (Click to see a larger version.)DC-10 Tanker 911 on the Robbers fire in California, July 15, 2012. Photo by David Wilson. (Click to see a larger version.)
Tanker 123 crash near Estes Park, CO, July 18, 2002. Credit: Matt Inden – Special to The News
Ten years ago today, on June 18, 2002, the second air tanker crash of the year occurred, killing the two-person crew of Tanker 123, as one of the wings fell off of the PB4Y-2 as it was operating over the Big Elk fire near Estes Park, Colorado.
Tanker 123 at Chester, CA in the late 1990s. Photo from Wikipedia
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation found extensive stress fatigue and fractures in key components of the aircraft, which was manufactured in 1945 for the U.S. Navy, transferred to the Coast Guard in 1952, discarded in 1956, and converted into an air tanker in 1958.
This crash occurred just a month after another fatal air tanker crash. Near Walker, California on June 17, Tanker 130, a C-130A, experienced a major structural failure. As you can see in the video below, both wings fell off the aircraft just after it completed a retardant drop. The three members of the crew were killed.
The NTSB also found fatigue cracks on that aircraft, which was built in 1957, discarded by the military in 1978, and converted into an air tanker in 1988. At the time of the crash, the airframe had logged 21,863 flight hours.
Tanker 130, circa early 2002. Photo from Wikipedia
Following the crashes, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management commissioned the Blue Ribbon Fact Finding Panel on Aviation to “identify key information for planning the safe and effective future of the aviation program.” It was led by James E. Hall, who had served for seven years as Chairman of the NTSB. After their December 2002 report, the USFS and the BLM declined to renew the contracts on nine C-130A and PB4Y-2 air tankers, and ordered the remaining large air tankers to undergo an improved inspection program before they returned to active service.
Memorial for the 2002 air tanker crews, at Greybull airport. Photo by Bill Gabbert, July 14, 2012.
