From PBS. Afterburn – The Start of the Creek Fire.
Jeff Aiello, a producer from Fresno, California, created a 26-minute film for PBS about the Creek Fire northeast of Fresno, California that last year burned 379,895 acres to become the largest single fire in the recorded history of the state.
“Afterburn — The Creek Fire Debate” includes opposing points of view about fire and forest management — for example from a fire ecologist and a forester. You might find yourself picking sides, or not agreeing with either side.
Click here to see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Creek Fire.
Their primary jobs were to fight wildland fires for the U.S. Forest Service
Brian Gold. Photo courtesy of Mr. Gold.
Two Forestry Technicians hired by the U.S. Forest Service to fight wildland fires found out last year that posting criticism of the agency on social media can cause them to lose their jobs. Both of them, one in California and the other in Arizona, wrote about what they perceived as inadequate procedures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. They were worried about their own health plus co-workers, their families, and the public they came in contact with while on firefighting assignments.
Arizona
While en route to a fire last year, Brian Gold, a GS-5 assistant Captain on a 10-person initial attack fire crew on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona, was ordered to return to the district office immediately. He was then fired and told to hand over his government licenses, equipment, credit card, and ID. He did not even have time to bring his time and attendance report up to date.
From what Mr. Gold told me, the working conditions on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest during the COVID-19 pandemic in Arizona in 2020 were similar to those experienced by Pedro Rios on the Klamath National Forest in Northern California whose story is farther down in this article. On a number of occasions he suggested to his supervisors that there were several specific COVID related improvements that could be implemented to safeguard the health of his crew and others on the District.
He meticulously documented events during the fire season — for example:
“I directly addressed numerous concerns including inconsistency of agency policy between forests and districts, a lack of protocols for our district, the absence of discussion of how to address the subject of Covid-19 with seasonals, concerns that politics and conspiracy theories were dominating informal discussions at our office, and my view that there was a lack of leadership and direction from our line officer and District Ranger, Ed Holloway. I suggested we needed to have a serious conversation about our Covid-19 mitigation and develop a plan of action. We didn’t have thermometers, we didn’t have masks, we didn’t have disinfectant supplies. We couldn’t enforce any type of isolation upon the arrival of new employees. We were really actively discouraged from promoting social distancing.”
Mr. Gold, who worked in multiple states in 2020, said the differences within the U.S. Forest Service in how seriously they take the necessary pandemic precautions is like night and day. Some Forests, he said, are more proactive to maintain a safe working environment, while at other work sites he “was made to feel like I was an outright coward for suggesting there was merit in wearing a mask.”
Last week I talked with another firefighter who had assignments in many western states in 2020 and has firefighter friends who had been on the road for quite a bit of the summer. He had similar observations about how fire business was being conducted in the time of COVID. He prefers to remain anonymous when criticizing the U.S. Forest Service.
“If you happen to be from Montana,” he said, “literally nobody even cared about COVID. And if you were in Washington [state], in particular Region 6, I think there was a relatively high level of awareness of COVID. But I went down to Northern California and had somebody trying to hug me. I’m going, ‘What in the hell are you thinking, man, we’re not doing hugging!’ ”
Brian Gold on a fire on the Tonto National Forest, Summer, 2020. Photo courtesy of Mr. Gold.
On March 17, 2020 the National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group (NMAC) assigned three Area Command Teams to work with partners at all levels in the fire community to develop protocols for wildfire response during the pandemic. The teams worked directly with each Geographic Area’s Coordinating Group Chair, dispatch/coordination centers, and local units. Their products for each Geographic Area, titled “Wildland Fire Response Plan COVID-19 Pandemic” were released between April 8 and May 4; the plan for the Southwest (Arizona and New Mexico) was the first and California’s was the last.
On May 5, 2020 District Ranger Edwin Holloway and District Fire Management Officer Justin Thompson arrived unannounced at Mr. Gold’s workplace while he was instructing a unit of a chainsaw refresher class. Ranger Holloway explained that he wanted to talk with Mr. Gold about a Facebook post and one of his emails.
Mr. Gold sent us the text of the Facebook post from his personal Facebook account which included a link to an article on Wildfire Today. He said he added a comment “expressing concern about the interagency wildland fire response in the face of the coronavirus outbreak. Here is the text that was posted May 2, 2020:
“I hope they are able to get some answers…because the silence has been deafening at the field level. From local line officers to Regional and Washington Office staff, the lack of leadership, failure to anticipate challenges, lack of finite protocols, and fundamental inconsistencies between districts and forests is staggering. Guidance and best management practices amount to a pile of shit without any enforcement power. Our forest service leadership needs to start making real decisions that will protect the health and wellbeing of our fire service staff. I hear a lot of lip service about hiring and retention issues within the agency. This is already a high risk job with variable pay, questionable benefits, a difficult and cumbersome HR and Workers Compensation infrastructure, and a difficult to sustain lifestyle. If the agency is truly interested in hanging on to us and continuing to fulfill its critical mission to the American public, it needs to start leading from the front. If not there are going to be a lot more dead firefighters this summer and many more Forestry Technicians wondering if this the right agency or career field for them.”
Below is a screenshot of the top portion of the referenced Wildfire Today article:
May 1, 2020 Wildfire Today article, partial screenshot.
From Mr. Gold’s notes about the meeting on May 5, 2020:
“[Ranger Holloway] repeated that he was worried my ‘head was in the clouds’ about coronavirus. He stated that one of his intentions in visiting me today was asking me to ‘prove’ to him that I was competent to lead the crew during this fire season. He said he wanted to make sure that I was not going to be so distracted by coronavirus that “someone doesn’t get burned up or hit by a tree. I stated I did not wish for this conversation to be political and raised the concern that there had been a lot of political discussion in our office regarding the federal coronavirus response. I stated this was unproductive and we should be focused on the health of our employees and the community. I asked why our district had waited to tell at risk non-essential employees to work from home, why we were not wearing face masks when we were operating in non-operational settings, and why we were not social distancing. I also asked why there was so much inconsistency between how Forest Service offices were managing their coronavirus response and why there was so much inconsistency in interpretation of guidance. Ed repeated that I had a mission critical role and expressed concern that my head was ‘in the clouds’ about this ‘coronavirus thing.’ He said maybe next year there will be ’11 or 15 fire orders’ about Coronavirus but ‘we’ve only known about this since mid-March, only six weeks’ and everyone is working on it right now. What I was told was that ‘higher ups’ had seen my facebook post and it had gained attention. At one point it was stated that this has caught the attention of people at the region.”
Mr. Gold said the District Ranger and the Fire Management Officer were much more concerned about the comment he wrote on the Facebook post than the inclusion of the Wildfire Today article. He said he deleted the Facebook post soon after the May 5 meeting.
The email referenced by Ranger Holloway was sent April 26 by Mr. Gold.
“While at work at the Clifton Ranger District Office,” Mr. Gold said, “I authored an email to district staff talking about [my crew’s] best management practices during the Coronavirus pandemic. I sent this email to staff members that routinely interact with our fire crew.”
On May 8, three days after that meeting, he was told to turn around while en route to a fire and at the District Office was given a termination letter, that read in part:
“This letter is to notify you are being terminate [sic] from your Career Conditional appointment and from Federal Service…
“As a public servant you are held to a high standard and your actions are to be above reproach. Your misconduct is unbecoming of a federal employee and has reflected negatively on the Forest Service.”
The termination was effective at the close of business that day, about one day before his probationary period ended, Mr. Gold said. During federal civil service career conditional employees’ one-year probationary period, it is relatively easy to be fired. After that, it becomes much more complex and a series actions, rules, and procedures must be followed.
Fairly soon after the termination, Mr. Gold worked as an Administratively Determined (AD) employee, then got hired again by the U.S. Forest Service in a career conditional fire position in another state.
Northern California
After 12 years as a wildland firefighter Pedro Rios acquired quite a bit of fire experience. He had worked on a contractor’s hand crew for six years, after which he spent another six years working on a hand crew and engines with the USFS on three National Forests — Lassen, Plumas, and finally on the Klamath.
Pedro Rios
It can be difficult for a seasonal or temporary employee with no benefits like Mr. Rios to get into a permanent position where he and his family could get health insurance and access to a retirement program. He was a GS-4 but was qualified as a Type 5 Incident Commander able to take command of small fires.
When his Northern California crew was sent to Southern California to augment the forces there during a busy part of the fire season he had concerns about some of the procedures put in place by the fire staff on the Klamath. They did not quarantine before or after traveling. After they were told to return from what was considered a “hot zone”, and being on standby at a fire station on the Cleveland National Forest where employees had tested positive for COVID days or weeks before their arrival, they were told that instead of quarantining for a week or more, they were supposed to “self-isolate” if they experienced symptoms after return.
Pedro Rios. Photo courtesy of Mr. Rios.
Mr. Rios at that point thought of his son who in 2019 was life flighted to Children’s Hospital in Davis, California and kept for 2 days for labored breathing due to severe asthma. His fiancée also has asthma, but not to the same degree.
Worried about the impact his crew returning without quarantining would have on his home town and his family, on July 8, 2020 he wrote a post on the Siskiyou Coronavirus Community Response Facebook page. He included a screenshot of the top management positions on the Klamath NF.
Pedro Rios Facebook post, July 8, 2020.
In the post, after explaining that the plan was for the personnel to return without a quarantine, he name-checked the Fire Staff Officer on his home forest, “so the public can voice their concerns to him as well.”
On July 14, 2020 District Ranger Drew Stroberg sent Mr. Rios an email regarding the Facebook post, saying he needed to go through the chain of command, rather than directly to the public. “I have determined that you have not broken any written rules and certainly don’t mind you bringing your concerns forward, however the way you chose to do this (via social media) and the tone you used in your social media post was unprofessional and showed a lack of integrity.” And, “I have to let you know that a future failure to meet these expectations may result in disciplinary action.”
After the fire season was over, on December 1 District Ranger Stroberg left a voice mail message for Mr. Rios, saying “We are not exercising, uh, rehire eligibility next year so I’m hoping that you will reapply for your position.”
He did reapply, but as of March 20, 2020 the signs are that the Klamath NF is not going to bring him back to his former job.
“I am being denied rehire rights and blacklisted,” Mr. Rios said. “I have only seen two people denied rehire rights and both were either people who received bad work appraisals for not following orders, were on their phone too much while on a fire, or for drinking in barracks. I only have great work appraisals.”
Mr. Rios filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, stating that he was “discriminated and retaliated against due to protesting lack of COVID-19 protocols and protections for the fire crew, families and the public.”
He also filed a whistleblower complaint with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel alleging that his free speech rights as a public employee were violated.
For the coming fire season Mr. Rios has found a supervisory firefighting job outside of California.
A statement from the U.S. Forest Service
I asked the USFS if considering the “Wildland Fire Response Plans (COVID-19 Pandemic)” that were written for each Geographic Area, does each Forest develop their own plans and procedures about how they will manage mitigations for the COVID-19 issue? The response was from Stanton Florea, Fire Communications Specialist who works for the agency’s Washington, DC office.
The USDA Forest Service is committed protecting all of our employees and communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Preventing the spread of COVID-19 is still our priority among our first responders and communities we serve. The 2020 Fire Year provided many learning opportunities. We’ll continue to employ those successful practices in our firefighting plans for 2021.
The Wildland Fire Response Plans provide broad interagency guidance for wildfire personnel/leadership given the context of COVID-19. The plans provide protocols and best management practices and identify screening and support resources for the prevention of, and response to, COVID-19 illness. The specifics of implementing these plans is left to local units, as circumstances vary when local needs and directives vary from national guidance. For example, where testing resources can be accessed locally, or if vacant government housing is available for quarantine/isolation purposes.
When asked for the agency’s comments about the two firefighters who lost their jobs after posting on Facebook, Mr. Florea said:
Wildfire near a home in Peachland, British Columbia on March 16, 2021 likely started by a sky lantern. Photo by Kevin Tameling.
A flaming object that fell from the sky ignited a fire 10 to 15 feet from a home in Peachland, British Columbia on March 16. Firefighters responded quickly and suppressed the blaze, but after it had burned part of a homeowner’s deck and singed the siding.
Initially some residents thought it was space debris or a meteorite, but video indicates it was most likely a sky lantern.
At seven seconds in the video below several bright objects separate from a single bright object. Most of the new objects disappear but the largest is seen falling to the ground over the next 29 seconds.
This is consistent with what happens when the paper hot air balloon above a a sky lantern is ignited by the flames underneath. Depending on the altitude parts of the paper can burn completely or partially before they hit the ground, and the candle or burning oil may continue to burn as it falls, then possibly igniting any receptive fuel on the ground.
These dangerous devices use burning material to loft a small paper or plastic hot air balloon into the air. The perpetrator has no control over where it lands. Usually the fire goes out before it hits the ground, but not always. Sometimes the envelope catches fire while in flight. Numerous fires have been started on the ground by sky lanterns. Even if they don’t ignite a fire, they leave litter on the ground. Metal parts have been picked up by hay balers causing serious problems when fed to livestock
Sky lanterns are illegal in at least 30 states.
On December 31, 2019, New Years Eve, a sky lantern caused a fire in a zoo in Western Germany that killed more than 30 animals, including apes, monkeys, bats, and birds, authorities said.
In March of 2019 a sky lantern landing on the roof was the most likely cause of a fire that resulted in about $40,000 in damage to a business in Burlington, Vermont.
In October, 2018 surveillance camera footage in Goyang, Korea showed a sky lantern starting a fire in grass that spread to and destroyed a tank holding 2.66 million liters of gasoline, enough to fill 250 tank trucks.
In September, 2018 a sky lantern was suspected of causing a power outage on a railroad in Hong Kong, causing four trains to be disrupted for 25 minutes until repairs were made.
Prescribed fire in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, March 9, 2021. NPS photo.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park successfully completed a 175-acre prescribed burn along a half-mile of the park boundary in Wears Valley on Tuesday, March 9. The objective of the project was to reduce the amount of flammable vegetation along the park’s boundary near homes, as well as maintaining an open woodland habitat for drought-tolerant trees like oak and pine.
“The wildland fire specialists did an outstanding job planning, prepping, and executing this prescribed burn in an ongoing effort to help communities along our boundary to create Firewise space between their homes and parklands,” said Chief Ranger Lisa Hendy.
Crews established a 3,000-ft hose lay for added protection around homes at the top of the ridge and along the boundary before implementing the prescribed burn. A small test burn was conducted to confirm fire behavior before the prescribed fire was allowed to burn slowly down the slope towards Metcalf Bottoms Picnic Area. As expected, smoke was visible throughout the operations across the Wears Valley area.
Flame lengths and fire behavior were within prescription throughout the operations as the low-intensity fire backed down the slope over a six-hour period until the burn reached the natural and manmade control lines at the bottom. Crews remained on scene overnight and continued to staff the area for several days to check control lines and monitor fire activity.
Crews from the Cherokee National Forest, Bureau of Indian Affairs in Cherokee, Townsend Volunteer Fire Department, Pittman Center Volunteer Fire Department, Waldens Creek Volunteer Fire Department, The Nature Conservancy, AmeriCorp, and employees from Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Congaree National Park, and Chickamauga-Chattanooga National Military Park provided assistance throughout the burn operations including site preparation and post-burn monitoring.
In preparation for the prescribed burn operation, crews spent several days clearing brush and leaf litter along the park boundary and Indian Camp Branch, which successfully served as fire control lines to keep the fire within its planned boundaries. The 175-acre unit was bounded by Wear Cove Gap Road, Indian Camp Branch, Little River, and the park boundary along Roundtop Trail.
In February the park conducted a prescribed burn in the Cades Cove area, 90 acres in the Rowans Branch unit along Sparks Lane and 338 acres of the Primitive Baptist Church unit along Hyatt Lane.
Prescribed burn in the Cades Cove area of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. NPS photo.
Map showing the approximate location of the King Fire 70 miles southwest of Corpus Christi, Texas at 2:42 a.m. CDT March 18, 2021.
The Texas Forest Service said a vegetation fire has burned about 10,000 acres as of 7:30 a.m. CDT Thursday, 70 miles southwest of Corpus Cristi, Texas in Brooks County. The fire started at the King Ranch east of Encino.
One structure has burned and others are threatened. There are two other smaller fires in the area, northwest and northeast of Encino, including the Butterfly 2 Fire which has burned about 300 acres.
Firefighters at the Butterfly 2 Fire. Photo by Texas Forest Service.Equipment arrives at the Butterfly 2 Fire in Brooks County, Texas, March 17, 2021. Photo by Texas Forest Service.
Thursday’s weather forecast calls for 13 mph northerly winds decreasing throughout the day to 5 mph by sunset, with relative humidities in the high teens.
Update: the #Butterfly2Fire in Brooks County is an estimated 300 acres and 70% contained. Crews worked until the early morning constructing containment line around large portions of the fire. #txfirepic.twitter.com/MBUflVGCsp
— Incident Information – Texas A&M Forest Service (@AllHazardsTFS) March 18, 2021
The arrow points to the approximate location of the March 4, 2021 fatality in Kansas.
A report has surfaced showing that a property owner died while conducting a controlled burn on their property in Kansas.
It occurred March 4, 2021 on the “1400 and Julinn Road Fire” in Linn County about 8 miles north-northwest of Mound City.
An Incident Status Summary, ICS-209, for the fire completed March 15, 2021 shows that a report from the local Fire Department did not indicate if the person was killed directly by the fire or if there was a medical incident that led to the fatality.
Preliminary information from the Office of the Kansas State Fire Marshal said, “The victim was badly burned in the fire, and it was believed that he was [conducting the controlled burn], and the fire over took him…When he started the burning, winds were calm. They then [increased] with gusts to 24 MPH.”
The victim was found about two feet away from a shovel.
The weather at the time, according to the ICS-209, was 69 degrees, relative humidity 25 percent, with winds out of the southwest at 15 to 20 mph. The fire was burning in grass.
The name of the victim has not been released and the autopsy report has not been completed.
