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Jay Esperance named Director of Wildland Fire Suppression in SD

Bill GabbertFebruary 2, 2012March 3, 2017UncategorizedJay Esperance, South Dakota

Jay Esperance has been selected as the new Director of the Division of Wildland Fire Suppression in South Dakota. Mr. Esperance replaces Joe Lowe who retired January 23.

Mr. Esperance will begin his new job on February 13. His present position is Fire Management Officer for the Bureau of Land Management’s High Plains District out of their Casper, Wyoming field office. He has had some fire experience in South Dakota, most recently being assigned as the Incident Commander on Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team C the day following the death of Trampus Haskvitz, August 11, 2011 on the Coal Canyon fire north of Edgemont, SD. He was also the Deputy Incident Commander on the Whoopup fire several miles north of the Coal Canyon fire in July, 2011 (slide show of photos of the Whoopup fire).

Below is the news release from the South Dakota Division of Wildland Fire Suppression:

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Esperance Named Director of Wildland Fire Suppression for SDDA

PIERRE, S.D – Jay Esperance has been named as the new Director of Wildland Fire Suppression for the South Dakota Department of Agriculture (SDDA). He will begin his duties on Feb. 13.

“Jay is a great addition to the department,” said South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture Walt Bones. “His experiences in fire management will be an asset to residents of the Black Hills and the forestry industry.”

Esperance, who has a bachelor of science degree in Resource Management from the University of California-Sacramento, has spent the past 11 years as a fire-management officer for the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. Prior to that, he spent 23 years with the U.S. Forest Service in the Pacific Northwest working primarily in reforestation and timber stand improvement and later in forest genetics.

As director of Wildland Fire Suppression, Esperance will oversee a number of wildland fire prevention and suppression programs on state and private lands.

“It’s an honor to be selected for this position,” he said. “I’m excited to work with the professional staff in the Division and anxious to work closely with the cooperating agencies and to provide fire protection for the residents of South Dakota.”

Esperance was the Operations Section Chief on two assignments to Australia; he also assisted with emergency support and recovery in New York City after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and he has responded during five hurricanes.

Wildfire potential, February through May, 2012

Bill GabbertFebruary 1, 2012February 1, 2012Uncategorizedpotential, weather1 Comment

The Predictive Services section at the National Interagency Fire Center has issued their National Wildland Significant Fire Potential Outlook for February through May, 2012. According to their prediction, several areas of the United States will have above normal wildfire potential during this period.

Here is an excerpt from their report:

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La Niña: La Niña remains at near moderate strength and is expected to slowly weaken during the spring months. Classic weather patterns of wet and cold in the northwest and warm and dry in the south are expected, although intensity of these cannot be directly correlated to the strength of La Niña.

Drought: Significantly above normal precipitation fell January across parts of West and North Texas and southern Oklahoma. The Northwest also received significant precipitation. However, large parts of the Southwest and the Plains states remained much below normal. Severe to exceptional drought continues across the south central and far southeastern parts of the U.S. and over parts of the upper Mississippi valley.

Fuel Dryness: Late January and early February have brought a transition to much of the U.S. The southern tier continues to see drier than normal conditions, except across some portions of Texas, where precipitation is moistening fuels even though drought conditions remain prevalent. Also, tree mortality from drought will continue to be problematic. Across much of the west, including the Great Basin fine fuels remain heavy and continuous and are largely dry or capable of quickly drying. Significant fires will be possible with the combination of ignitions and windy conditions. The formerly dry Northwestern quarter of the country has begun to see significant moistening and snowpacks are beginning to increase. In the east the northern tier will largely be near normal seasonal fuel conditions with some dryness lingering across the Great Lakes states. The southeast will continue drier than normal fuels conditions south and east of the Tennessee Valley.

Olla stories, before and after fires

Bill GabbertFebruary 1, 2012December 11, 2020UncategorizedPhoto by Bill G7 Comments

Ollas in Napak — Ollas remaining after a fire that destroyed huts in Napak in northern Uganda. Photo: Steven Ariong

I was surprised when I saw this photo of what was left after 32 grass-thatched houses burned in a wildfire in the northern Ugandan village of Napak. According to a report, the fire may have been started by locals who were hunting for rats. Among the debris and ashes, you can see quite a few ollas, large clay pots. Ancient people used these hundreds or thousands of years ago for storing water. They have a narrow neck to reduce evaporation.

I found it interesting that ollas are still being used today. If I wanted something in which to store several gallons of water I would simply go to a discount store and buy a plastic jerry can, but that may not be feasible for the folks that live in northern Uganda.

It was also interesting to me because I discovered two ollas in nearly mint condition that had been sitting around for hundreds of years.

It happened on April 25, 1989 when I was working as a wildland engine captain on the Cleveland National Forest east of San Diego. During the winter there were few wildland fires, and those of us that were not furloughed during the off-season usually found a special project to work on. The weather in San Diego County in the winter is mild, except in the higher elevations in the Laguna Mountains, so I volunteered to attend paraprofessional archaeologist training. After becoming qualified, it got me out of the office for weeks at a time, doing archaeology surveys in areas where we planned to conduct prescribed fires.

Another firefighter, Dave Volgarino, went through the training with me, and we did the surveys together, hiking cross country all day in very remote areas, busting through brush recording any native American sites or artifacts that we found, which were mostly left there by the Kumeyaay people. The most exciting stuff that we ran across were one or two arrow heads, mortar or grinding depressions in boulders, flakes where ancient people made projectile points, and very rarely some broken pieces of ollas or pottery.

Until…one day Dave and I were surveying in an area that looked like a pretty good place for camping.

The potential camping spot. USFS photo by Bill Gabbert.

It was a flat area under some oak trees about 1/10 acre in size adjacent to a seasonal creek. I was hiking through brush on the hill above the creek looking for any signs of ancient people and saw a rock overhang behind a chamise bush.

Ollas on the hill — The hillside where Bill Gabbert was searching. USFS photo by Bill Gabbert

I pulled the brush aside and could not believe my eyes. Not one but two ollas, in almost mint condition.
Continue reading “Olla stories, before and after fires”

3 firefighters injured while fighting grass fire in Tennessee

Bill GabbertJanuary 31, 2012Uncategorized

Three firefighters from the Braden fire department in Tennessee were injured while fighting a grass fire in the median of Interstate 40 in Fayette County on Monday. At about 5:10 p.m. a pickup pulling a trailer veered into the median and struck the rear of their fire engine, injuring the three firefighters. Two of the firefighters were listed in serious condition at the Regional Medical Center in Memphis while the third firefighter was treated and released from a hospital.

The driver of the pickup was killed and his passenger was transported to a hospital.

Here is an excerpt from the Braden FD’s Facebook page that was updated late Monday night:

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“This afternoon Braden responded on a grass fire on I-40 at the 40 mile marker in the median. Many times if in a pumper we will use the deck gun to quickly hit the fire to limit our exposure on the interstate. That is what they did today. While putting flaps back and shifting out the pump, Engine 2 was rear ended by a truck and trailer. Three of our brother firefighters were injured and taken to hospitals. Two were flown to the Med and one was taken to Somerville were he was treated and released. The two at the Med are in serious condition.

Our apparatus is Lime Green, we wear yellow turnouts and also wear ANSI vest. All this just to be better seen on the Interstate. We have been very lucky in the past, but the Interstate is just a dangerous place to work.

I want to thank everyone involved in this incident tonight whatever part you played. A ton of people stepped up and offered help. I also want you to think outside of this tragic event that happend to Braden Fire Department tonight and include those who lost their father and husband in this accident.

We will try to keep you posted on Mack & Josh’s condition and request you keep them and their families in your prayers.”

Google launches Public Alerts

Bill GabbertJanuary 31, 2012January 31, 2012Uncategorized

Google has launched a service that displays emergency alerts on a map. According to Google, if you go to Google Maps and search, for example, for “Flood Indiana”, it will display icons at locations that have flood warnings or advisories. Or, you can go directly to the Google Public Alerts page and see the alerts that have been posted. Zooming in sometimes causes more alerts to be displayed.

Google’s announcement about the service that was posted on January 25 does not mention if wildfires or evacuations would be part of this system, but they do say that “public safety” will be one of their objectives.

Here is an excerpt from Google’s announcement:
Continue reading “Google launches Public Alerts”

Fire channelling — a danger to firefighters

Bill GabbertJanuary 30, 2012October 13, 2012UncategorizedAustralia, open access, research, weather1 Comment

The rapid escalation of a small fire due to fire channelling can result in a catastrophic decay in both firefighter and community safety that is counterintuitive.

That is how the authors of a paper wrapped up their findings about a weather phenomenon that can cause a wildfire to spread in unexpected directions. “Fire channelling” can force a fire on the lee side of a ridge to spread 90-degrees from the general wind direction. For example, if a west wind pushes a fire across a north-south ridge, on the lee or east side of the ridge the fire could spread to both the north and the south, counterintuitively.

Fire Channeling fig 11 — The white arrow shows the general wind direction. The black area was not imaged by the line-scanner on this run. From the Sharples, McRae, and Wilkes paper funded by the Australian government.

Generally a strong wind has the most effect on the direction of spread of a fire — more so than topography or fuel. If a fire is spreading with a strong west wind, the rate of spread on the flanks, the north and south sides, will be much less than the head of the fire on the east side. Unless — fire channelling is occurring.

Firefighters usually face less risk when they attack a fire on the heel or flanks of a fire. In most cases it can be impossible to safely attack the head of a fast-moving fire in heavy fuels. But this fire channelling phenomenon has the potential to present firefighters with unexpected fire behavior, putting them in a dangerous situation on what they expected to be the flanks of a fire that suddenly converted to heads of the fire.

The authors of the paper, which is titled Wind–terrain effects on the propagation of wildfires in rugged terrain: fire channelling, considered several causes of fire channelling, including thermally induced winds, pressure-driven channelling, forced channelling, and downward momentum transport, but they settled on wind–terrain–fire interactions as the most likely mechanism driving the atypical spread. Here is an excerpt providing some details about wind–terrain–fire interactions:

…If a fire happened to spread into a region affected by a separation eddy, then the hot gas from the fire could be entrained within the eddy, with the strong wind shear at the top of the eddy impeding mixing between the synoptic and separated flows. Hence, supposing a fire enters a region of separated flow at the north end of a slope or valley, and treating the air within the eddy as a quasi-isolated system (i.e. a system that involves only limited mixing with the surrounding environment; cf. Byron-Scott 1990), the air within the northern part of the eddy will be at a higher temperature and pressure than the air within the southern part of the eddy. As a consequence, the air within the eddy will tend to move towards the south in response to the thermally induced pressure gradient or simply owing to thermal expansion of the air within the eddy. Based on the available evidence, such an interaction constitutes the most likely mechanism driving the atypical spread.

Access to the research

If you want to read the paper you will have to pay CSIRO Publishing $25, in spite of the fact that the authors appear to be funded by the Australian government. It was written by Jason J. Sharples, Richard H. D. McRae, and Stephen R. Wilkes who are associated with three organizations in Australia, the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy, the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre, and the ACT Emergency Services Agency.

This is another example of government funded research that taxpayers have to pay for twice. Once when the government-paid employees conduct the research and write the paper, and a second time if a person wants to read it. We have written about this lack of Open Access numerous times before. However, this example is a little murky, in that the government sponsored research was published by CSIRO, a governmental body. But many U.S. wildfire researchers who are government employees publish their papers in the same CSIRO publication, the International Journal of Wildland Fire, behind a pay wall.

Sign the petition

At the U.S. White House web site you can sign a petition to make government funded research available at no additional charge to the public. Let President Obama know that you oppose HR3699, the Research Works Act, which is an attempt to put federally funded scientific information behind pay-walls and confer the ownership of the information to a private entity. You will need to register at the site, giving them a name and a real email address.

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