The service for Dwain Hudson who passed away while en route to the fire has been scheduled
Screenshot from drone footage of the High Plains Fire northwest of Custer, SD at 7 p.m. MDT April 17, 2019. Video by Custer County Search And Rescue. Click to enlarge.
The High Plains Fire five air miles south of Jewel Cave National Monument in the Black Hills of South Dakota has been more accurately mapped at 140 acres. The lightning-caused fire was reported at 12:29 p.m. on April 17.
The photo above is a screenshot from drone footage obtained over the fire by the Custer County Search and Rescue Service at 7 p.m. the day the fire started. The image quality is quite good considering it was cloudy and was filmed 40 minutes before sunset.
Part of the fire is in the footprint of the Jasper Fire that burned 83,000 acres in August, 2000, as indicated by the fallen trees from 0:25 to 1:15.
The service for Dwain Hudson who passed away while en route to the fire has been scheduled, but the family is requesting that it be intimate in nature. Due to that and the limited size of the venue they are requesting that only the three local fire departments and ambulance service attend. The service will be April 27 at 11 a.m. at McColley’s Chapels in Custer, South Dakota.
Condolences can be sent to the Argyle Volunteer Fire Department, P.O. Box 176, Pringle, SD 57773. More information will be at the Department’s Facebook page.
On November 17, 2018 President Trump, California Governor Jerry Brown, and Governor-elect Gavin Newsom (L-R) visited the Incident Command Post at the Camp Fire near Chico, California. Screenshot from CBS video.
Since California Governor Gavin Newsom’s inauguration in January he has proposed a number of initiatives that he hopes will help mitigate the damages caused by wildfires in California. Ten of the most destructive fires in the state have occurred since 2015.
“We are in a very precarious state literally and figuratively,” said Governor Newsom.
Most of the Governor’s recommendations will require action by the state legislature when considering the 2019-2020 budget:
Funding to convert seven HC-130H aircraft into air tankers. The aircraft initially operated by the Coast Guard were transferred to the U.S. Forest Service. After several years the FS decided they did not want them and they were then given to the state of California by an act of Congress.
Funds for hundreds of new fire detection cameras.
A 911 fee on phone bills, starting in 2020, to help pay for improving emergency communications system statewide.
The Governor said he wants to hold “Pacific Gas & Electric accountable” for safety in light of the fact that the company’s power lines have started numerous destructive wildfires in recent years.
“I expect that PG&E is going to get serious, no longer misdirect, manipulate, mislead the people of this state about their resolve and commitment to address reliability and safety,” said Newsom.
However one of the more controversial proposals from the Governor is allocating responsibility for wildfire costs. One of the alternatives is to establish a catastrophic wildfire fund which would potentially spread the cost of damages from wildfires more broadly to ratepayers, investors, insurance companies, local governments, and attorneys representing victims.
In February the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection released a Community Wildfire Prevention and Mitigation Report that outlined plans to reduce hazardous fuels, identifying 35 priority projects that can be implemented immediately to help reduce public safety risk for over 200 communities.
A firefighter that was responding to the High Plains Fire five air miles south of Jewel Cave National Monument in the Black Hills of South Dakota has died.
Custer County Emergency Management reported that on April 17, 2019 Dwayne Hudson, a firefighter with the Argyle Fire Department, experienced a medical emergency while en route as a passenger in one of the vehicles. He was treated by fellow responders and the Custer Ambulance Service on scene and continued to be treated while being transported to Custer Regional Hospital. However, he did not survive.
The High Plains Fire started Wednesday afternoon from a lighting strike and as of Thursday morning had burned approximately 100 acres.
Our sincere condolences go out to Mr. Hudson’s family, friends, and coworkers.
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Matt. Typos or errors, report them HERE.
Map showing the location of the High Plains Fire. The brown dots represent heat detected by a satellite at 1:46 p.m. MDT April 17, 2019. Click to enlarge.
(UPDATED at 1:10 p.m. MDT April 18, 2019)
Wednesday afternoon a firefighter that was responding to the fire, Dwayne Hudson, experienced a medical emergency while en route and passed away. More details.
(Originally published at 11:18 a.m. MDT April 18, 2019)
A lightning-caused fire has burned 100 acres in the Black Hills National Forest in South Dakota. The High Plains Fire is southwest of Custer near Pass Creek Road five air miles south of Jewel Cave National Monument and Highway 16. It was reported at 12:29 p.m. on April 17 and is being fought by federal, state, and volunteer fire departments.
Erin Considine, a spokesperson for the Great Plains Dispatch Zone, said firefighters expect to have it controlled by 7 p.m. today.
The weather forecast for the fire area Thursday afternoon will not be favorable for the firefighters. It predicts southeast winds of 18 to 21 mph with gusts to 30, humidity in the low 30s, and a high of 53 degrees.
With the passage of Senate Bill 160 Montana becomes the 48th state with some form of presumptive care for firefighters.
The Firefighters Protection Act lists 12 presumptive diseases for which it would be easier for a firefighter to file a workers’ compensation claim if they served a certain number of years:
Bladder cancer, 12 years
Brain cancer, 10 years
Breast cancer, 5 years
Myocardial infarction, 10 years
colorectal cancer, 10 years
Esophageal cancer, 10 years
Kidney cancer, 15 years
Leukemia, 5 years
Mesothelioma or asbestosis, 10 years
Multiple myeloma, 15 years
Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, 15 years
Lung cancer, 4 years
The bill applies to volunteers and local fire departments in Montana, but not to federal firefighters. It is unclear if it affects those employed by the state government.
The federal government has not established a presumptive disease program for their 15,000 wildland firefighters.
At a bill signing ceremony Thursday afternoon Governor Bullock will issue a proclamation ordering flags to be displayed at half-staff in honor of all Montana firefighters who have lost their lives from a job-related illness in the line of duty.
In 2018 the fire burned 229,651 acres at Redding, California, destroyed 1,077 homes, and killed 3 firefighters and 5 civilians
Fire tornado filmed by the Helicopter Coordinator on the Carr Fire July 26, 2018 near Redding, California.
The National Park Service has released an After Action Review (AAR) for the Carr Fire that burned into Redding, California in July, 2018. Ignited by the mechanical failure of a travel trailer, it started within the Whiskeytown–Shasta–Trinity National Recreation Area (WHIS) on National Park Service-administered lands. The fire covered 229,651 acres, destroyed 1,077 homes, and killed 3 firefighters and 5 civilians. Many of the burned structures were in Redding. It became the 7th largest fire in California recorded history.
The decision to conduct a very brief one-day AAR administered by two facilitators for this very large, complex, and deadly fire rather than a conventional-months long investigation was an interesting choice. The reason given, “Unfortunately, incidents of this complexity are becoming more of the norm than the exception, and there is not a realistic capacity within the Service for each qualifying incident to receive the traditional level of review and analysis.”
No names were used in the report and the process was designed to be non-punitive. The goal was to identify issues, successes, and recommendations in planning, operations, administration, or management which could be addressed at the local, regional, or national level to improve future incident management.
The report uses dozens of acronyms, very few of them defined, which may not be familiar to the casual reader. A glossary would have been helpful, or defining the acronym the first time they were used.
All wildland fire management units are encouraged to develop a roster of high-quality, relief duty officers from their interagency organizations as part of their pre-season fire preparedness planning.
Initiate stakeholder engagement early on all incidents that demonstrate a likelihood to impact multiple jurisdictions. Early, forthright, open dialogue is critical, and was cited on this incident with contributing to the success of the IMTs response to multiple firefighter fatalities and incidents within the incident. Consistency of personnel within unified command representation has value and is a best practice worth striving for.
Participation in the cost-share agreement is not a mandatory prerequisite to joining a delegation of authority or leader’s intent letter to an incident management team (IMT). All primary landowners with values at risk in the fire planning area should receive consideration for inclusion in the decision making process. The transfer of DPA among federal agencies is intended to provide efficiency in fire response, but is not intended to replace agency administration on complex, long-duration incidents.
A future topic for discussion within the California Wildland Fire Coordinating Group (CWCG) should be the subject of agency DPA versus agency ownership and how that relates to agency administration, agency representation, delegations of authority, and ultimately unified command. When feasible, a single federal IC should be delegated authority to represent all of the affected federal agencies in unified command.
The Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS) needs to be reviewed annually at the unit level to ensure that management requirements and strategic objectives are current and applicable. Consideration should be given to ordering fire behavior analysts (FBAN), long-term analysts (LTAN), and strategic operational planners (SOPL) to help supplement the planning section within any IMT. These positions need to be well integrated with the IMT, and can assist with communicating the long-term plan for an incident to stakeholders and the public alike. The SOPL position, in particular, can be a highly effective position in bridging any gaps or inconsistencies between the agency administrator leader’s intent and operations on the fire.
Continue to use the right IMT for the job based on the primary responsibility area, relative risk, and anticipated complexity of an incident. The Organizational Assessment and Relative Risk modules within WFDSS and the Indicators of Incident Complexity located within the IRPG are standardized resources to help objectively determine incident complexity. Complexity and risk assessments, as well as any changes, should be documented by ICs. The CWCG should further address the issue of IMT utilization in complex multi-jurisdictional areas to help ensure efficiency of wildfire engagement statewide.
The NPS All-Hazard team and CAL FIRE providing employee support services (ESS) were both considered successes and other units being severely impacted by an event of this magnitude should consider doing the same. Ensure that any IMTs operating within proximity of each other are in strong communication through daily IC calls or meetings to avoid any duplication of effort or confusion to the extent possible in an already chaotic environment.
Expectations of the reassignment of resources needs to be communicated to the GACC early on to decrease administrative paperwork and the chasing down of resources out in the field. Local government fire engines that already have some agreement with a federal agency should be mobilized on that agreement first in preference over the secondary mobilization option provided by the Farm Bill. A mechanism for states to pay for Farm Bill engines would represent an efficiency gain.
There is an opportunity for the CWCG to include direction on fatality response in the CFMA during the next revision. The California Fire Assistance Agreement (CFAA) covers California local government fire response and also needs to include adequate direction on incident fatality response.
Efficiencies need to be built into the dispatch system in regards to contract resources that allow for contract resources to be reassigned by the GACC based upon location, availability, and incident need, and to not cycle back into the Virtual Incident Procurement (VIPR) system for reassignment.
In lieu of an established lend-lease program, GACCs, ICs, unit fire program managers, and duty officers, are encouraged to continue strong daily communication to solve short-term resource shortage issues and address immediate life safety threats posed by rapidly escalating incidents. Resource accountability is especially challenging in these situations and must be stressed among the coordinating entities.
Agencies need to continue to recognize they have differing policies and objectives. Long-term planning tools, including those available in WFDSS, should be utilized by SOPLs and LTANs and communicated to the unified IC for the respective agency. This unified IC would advocate to incorporate WFDSS and PACE modeling into the long-term strategic decision making process during the incident.
A pre-season SOP be developed that articulates that only one incident number be generated corresponding to the jurisdiction of the point of origin of the fire. This is would be incorporated into the LOP/Local AOP which is tiered under the CFMA.
It was agreed that the standard procedure should continue having PIO representation from each participating agency. The need for a joint information center should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis on all complex, multi-jurisdictional incidents.
Expanded discussions with FIRESCOPE and the county sheriffs within California to address consistency of evacuation procedures and communications between the 58 county law enforcement entities across California.
A standard SOP should be implemented, whereby only one incident number is generated according to the ownership of the origin point of the fire. This standard would be incorporated into the LOP/Local AOP which is tiered under the CFMA. This will result in clearer communication and understanding of resources ordered by the fire and from a single dispatch ordering point. In cases where a secondary incident must be created for any reason it must be correctly nested under the parent incident in ROSS and IROC to ensure proper resource statusing and accountability. Incident ownership can be transferred within these systems and should be done as early as possible if need be. Additionally, evaluate and determine best fire management dispatching practices and options for the WHIS program in light of the incident (state vs. federal). Include scenarios revolving around complex DPA and jurisdictional boundary issues in pre-season preparedness planning. Practice how this might look in terms of incident number, accounting information, single ordering point, agency administrator roles, unified command, cost share, and resource statusing and accountability.
Continue early engagement with partners when cost share is anticipated to efficiently come to consensus about cost apportionment early in the incident.
Move forward with the NPS hiring of positions to implement the interagency BAER plan.
Start contracting process early and coordinate use of equipment and resources.
