CNN story on prescribed fire in Florida

CNN did a story about how the Nature Conservancy, “non-intuitively”, uses prescribed fire to maintain and rejuvenate pine forests in Florida.

In the piece, the reporter is allowed to operate a drip torch, which is a sure way of getting someone hooked.

Thanks go out to Zachary

With Aero Union gone, what is the future of the MAFFS?

MAFFS 5 Peterson AFB Colorado, 9-9-2011
File photo of a MAFFS II unit being loaded into a C-130 at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado, September 9, 2011. Air Force Reserve photo.

The military C-130 air tanker that crashed in South Dakota Sunday, killing four and injuring two crewmembers, was carrying one of the nine Modular Airborne FireFighting Systems II (MAFFS II) that exist. The MAFFS II hold 3,000 gallons of fire retardant which is pumped out the left side paratroop door using compressed air generated by an air compressor built into the system. The U.S. Forest Service had these and the eight first generation MAFFS built by a contractor, Aero Union, which had been converting aircraft into air tankers for decades.

But after the USFS cancelled their contract for the company’s eight P3 air tankers over a safety inspection issue, Aero Union closed their doors, laid off their employees, and a bank took over their assets, including the aircraft and everything related to manufacturing the MAFFS. The bank attempted to sell them at an auction in February, but the aircraft and the MAFFS items were not bought.

The MAFFS units are very specialized, complex systems. Without Aero Union around to provide repairs and parts, now there is a question about how to maintain and repair the systems.

Mead Gruver, a reporter for the Associated Press working out of Cheyenne, Wyoming, has been closely following what I am calling the Air Tanker Crisis and the management of what is left of the air tanker fleet, down to nine full time large air tankers after being cut by 80 percent since 2002. Here is an excerpt from an article he wrote today about the MAFFS:

…Forest Service officials insist the system is and will remain viable for years to come.

Meanwhile, the Forest Service has contracted technicians in California, Wyoming and Idaho to maintain the MAFFS. An in-house engineer at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, can help troubleshoot any bugs, Fisher said.

“In any new system you’re going to have some issues come up, and we’ve been able to work through them,” [Scott Fisher, MAFFS coordinator for the Forest Service] said.

Aero Union’s last chief executive, Britt Gourley of Seattle, declined to comment on the system’s continued viability.

“I may have my personal opinions, but I keep them to myself. I don’t know. I wish the Forest Service well and wish all the folks involved well,” Gourley said.

 

Thanks go out to Chris and Al

South Canyon Fire, 18 years ago today

I still remember that day exactly 18 years ago. I was on the phone with Steve Creech, the Fire Coordinator for the state of Indiana and he told me that 14 wildland firefighters had been killed on a fire in Colorado. I didn’t believe him. I didn’t WANT to believe him.

This was 1994 and we had entered the modern era of wildfire management. Lessons had been learned, I thought. Reports about fatalities and near-misses were being widely distributed to firefighters so they could avoid making the same, too often, fatal mistakes. Communications, radios, training, weather forecasts, personal protective equipment, fire shelters, and fireline protocols had advanced far beyond the point, I told myself, that double-digit fatality incidents could occur.

While all of those factors had changed, fire had not. It still burned as hot as the Loop fire that killed 10 members of the El Cariso Hotshots in 1966 and the Rattlesnake Fire on which 15 firefighters died in 1953 — and many others — too many others. Training and defensive measures are of little help if a firefighter is in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Today I am thinking about those 14 firefighters who lost their lives on Storm King Mountain in the South Canyon Fire.

South Canyon fire victims
Photo credit: Post Independent

On the afternoon of July 6, 1994 near Glenwood Springs, Colorado the South Canyon fire spotted across the drainage and beneath firefighters, moving onto steep slopes and into dense, highly flammable Gambel oak. Within seconds, a wall of flame raced up the hill toward the firefighters on the west flank fireline. Failing to outrun the flames, 12 firefighters perished. Two helitack crew members on top of the ridge also died when they tried to outrun the fire to the northwest. The remaining 35 firefighters survived by escaping out the east drainage or by seeking a safety area and deploying their fire shelters.

You can get a copy of the investigation report HERE (large 4 Mb file).

Wyoming: a little rains slows the Oil Creek Fire

Oil Fire briefing
Morning briefing at the Oil Fire. Photo by WIMT 5.

Morning briefings for firefighters about to go out on the fireline usually involve half-awake men and women cradling cups of coffee standing around a truck or a hastily-erected plywood bulletin board onto which a map has been taped, as the fire overhead tells them what they will be doing that day. But if the Incident Command Post is located at a county fairgrounds, more elaborate accommodations may be available, such as the grandstand in the photo above.

The Oil Creek fire received a small amount of rain Thursday night, but enough to qualify as a “wetting rain”, which should slow down the spread of the fire for a little while. A weather station in Newcastle about three miles away measured 0.02″. Most of the vigorous thunderstorms that prompted flash flood warnings for the White Draw fire area bypassed the Oil Creek Fire to the south.

The fire has grown to about 61,000 acres and is being fought by 719 personnel, 5 helicopters, 14 dozers, 6 water tenders, and 61 assorted wildland and structural engines.

InciWeb has more details about evacuations, which are being re-evaluated today.

South Dakota: Rain and flash flood warnings for White Draw Fire

White Draw Fire

Firefighters on the White Draw fire near Edgemont, South Dakota received a present from mother nature Thursday night in the form of rain. Lots of it, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a flash flood warning. Between 8 and 9 p.m. almost three-quarters of an inch was measured at the Red Canyon weather station 1.5 miles east of the fire. Rain continued to fall until 2 a.m. Friday morning, bringing the total to 1.09″. Thunderstorms delivered the precipitation accompanied by strong winds, with one gust reaching 46 mph. Other weather stations in the area recorded rain amounts of 0.90″ to 1.33″.

There was a great deal of lightning in southwest South Dakota as well, but the widespread rain will reduce the number of new fire starts.

On Thursday the White Draw fire was 95 percent contained. Today they expect to reach 100% as some of the fire crews and engines are being demobilized.

Parker Peak Fire

This fire 2 miles east of the White Draw fire was 100 percent contained on Thursday. Today there will ten people assigned, working on three engines and one water tender.

Highlands Fire

Located about 14 miles southeast of Newcastle, WY and south of US Highway 16, the fire on Thursday remained at 394 acres and  95 percent containment.

Napolitano and Vilsack visit NIFC

National Interagency Fire Center

Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Secretary of the Department of Agriculture Tom Vilsack visited the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise on Tuesday for a western fire season update.

Photo (left to right): John Glenn (BLM), Ernest Mitchell (US Fire Administrator), Dan Smith (NASF), Secretary Napolitano (DHS), Bill Kaage (NPS), John Segar (FWS), Tory Henderson (USFS), Secretary Vilsack (USDA), Tim Murphy (BLM). Photo courtesy of NIFC.