3-D Map of the Cooks Peak Fire, 8 p.m. MDT April 20, 2022.
The Cooks Peak Fire in Northeast New Mexico 16 miles south of Cimarron has been very active Thursday afternoon, with reports of pyrocumulus clouds topping the large smoke plume blowing off to the east-northeast.
The blaze was reported at 4:15 p.m on April 17, 2022. Several ranches are under evacuation orders. The Type 3 Incident Management Team said on Thursday that the fire has burned 21,200 acres.
Cooks Peak Fire. Satellite photo at 3:46 p.m. MDT April 21, 2022.
Resources assigned include 6 hand crews, 11 fire engines, and no helicopters for a total of 198 personnel.
There are no reports of structures burning.
Based on reports of the fire activity on Thursday and the satellite photo of the large smoke plume, the perimeter is most likely significantly different from the one below, mapped Wednesday evening. It likely spread further to the east-northeast.
Map of the Cooks Peak Fire, 8 p.m. MDT April 20, 2022.
Almost all of New Mexico is under a Red Flag Warning Thursday, with a prediction for 20 to 25 mph winds gusting out of the southwest to 60 mph, with 5 to 10 percent relative humidity. The forecast for Friday calls for stronger winds, from the southwest at 40 mph gusting to 57 mph. It will also be very windy on Saturday.
Yesterday the Department of Labor announced that they have implemented important changes for processing Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA) claims submitted by firefighters. FICA can pay medical expenses and compensation benefits to injured workers and survivors, and helps injured employees return to work when they are medically able to do so. The new policy eases the evidentiary requirements needed to support claims filed by federal employees engaged in fire protection and suppression activities for certain cancers, heart conditions and lung conditions. In essence, to an untrained observer, the new program looks similar to the presumptive disease policy employed by many fire departments and governments.
The new Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs FECA Bulletin, No. 22-07 “Special Case Handling in Certain Firefighter FECA Claims Processing and Adjudication” issued April 19, 2022, establishes a list of cancers and medical conditions for which the firefighter does not have to submit proof that their disease was caused by an on the job injury. The requirements to qualify for this new policy are that the condition must be diagnosed by a doctor, the person was engaged in fire protection activities for at least 5 years, and the diagnosis must have occurred no more than 10 years after employment.
If these requirements are met, the employee’s claim would be deemed “high-risk” and qualify for expedited processing.
Hypertension, coronary artery disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pulmonary fibrosis, asthma, or a sudden cardiac event or stroke.
To implement the policy changes, OWCP has created a special claims unit to process federal firefighters’ claims. The unit consists of existing staff specifically trained to handle these issues. The agency is also providing comprehensive training to the unit’s examiners on the impacts of the policy changes, and working with federal agencies including the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Homeland Security and Interior to explain the changes in policy and procedures.
These two major changes in how the OWCP handles illness and injury claims from firefighters appear to be monumental improvements if they pan out as advertised. In recent years the reputation and services provided by the agency for injured or sick firefighters, or the surviving spouses and family members of those killed on the job, has been abysmal. Too often they have been driven to beg for money at GoFundMe just to pay medical bills after being hounded by bill collectors when the federal government did not fulfill their legal obligations.
NFFE and IAFF met with Labor Secretary Marty Walsh (wearing the red tie) and Department of Labor officials in Los Angeles, April 20, 2022 to discuss processing of firefighters’ injury claims. NFFE photo.
Some of these changes and improvements are due in part to efforts that have been going on behind the scenes by members of the Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, International Association of Fire Fighters, and the National Federation of Federal Employees. In the last month they have traveled to Washington DC and Los Angeles (at least) to meet with federal officials who can make things happen. For example they have met with Marty Walsh, the Secretary of Labor, twice. These folks deserve your thanks.
One of the causes of the slow response to firefighters’ injury and death claims has been a reduction in the number of OWCP claims examiners due to declining budgets over the last few years. It is critical that the President and both houses of Congress follow up and ensure that the agency is appropriately funded so that they can perform their required duties, assisting employees injured or sickened on the job.
How to file a workers’ compensation claim(From the OWCP):
To file a workers’ compensation claim, you must first register for an Employees’ Compensation Operations and Management Portal (ECOMP) account at www.ecomp.dol.gov. ECOMP is a free web-based application. You do not need approval from your supervisor or anyone else at your agency to initiate your FECA workers’ compensation claim. Once you register for an ECOMP account, you will be able to file either Form CA-1 ‘Notice of Traumatic Injury’ (single event trauma) or Form CA-2 ‘Notice of Occupational Disease’ (repeated exposure).
Strong winds have spread the fire for 12 miles to the northeast
Updated 10:46 a.m. MDT April 21, 2022
From the staff at Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, which was overrun by the Tunnel Fire.
“April 20
“All Sunset Crater Volcano and Wupatki staff are accounted for and safe. We were also able to successfully evacuate all culturally important items from the visitor center. For those who worried, the Kabotie painting, corn rock, Qa’na Katsina doll, and other items are safe.
“As of 4:45 this morning, the visitor center remains unharmed, as well. However, active fires continue to burn nearby. Sadly, Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument has burned in its entirety. The park is closed, and we do not have any estimated timeline for reopening.”
File photo of Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, May 20, 2017.
In the map below, the Monument is inside the yellow border.
7:57 a.m. MDT April 21, 2022
Map of the Tunnel Fire. Looking southwest at 12:30 a.m. MDT April 21, 2022.
The Tunnel Fire five miles north of the Flagstaff suburbs grew by about 3,000 acres Wednesday to bring the size up to more than 20,500 acres.
To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Tunnel Fire, including the most recent, click here.
The fire started during the afternoon of April 17 west of Highway 89. Pushed by strong winds it spread rapidly to the northeast, crossed the highway, burned through Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, crossed major electrical transmission lines, and early Thursday morning was about 10 miles east of Highway 89 approximately two miles from burning out of the Coconino National Forest.
Map of the Tunnel Fire at 12:30 a.m. MDT April 21, 2022. The brown shaded areas represent intense heat at the time the fire was mapped.
On Wednesday crews worked to keep the fire out of the Timberline Estates and Wupatki Trail subdivisions. They encountered natural gas leaking from foundations of burned structures, which slowed suppression activities. On Tuesday fire officials said 24 structures had burned. The number was not broken down by residences or outbuildings.
Strong winds on Wednesday again limited the ability of aircraft to safely and effectively support firefighters on the ground. Conditions are expected to become windier Thursday and Friday. A Red Flag Warning is in effect Thursday until 8 p.m. MST due to predicted gusts of 40 to 50 mph and 10 to 15 percent relative humidity.
Tunnel Fire, April 19, 2022, as seen from O’Leary Lookout in Northern Arizona. USFS photo.
A National Type 1 Incident Management Team was ordered Tuesday. The 76 personnel with the team will begin arriving Thursday, with plans to assume command from the Type 3 IMT Friday morning.
Firefighting resources on scene include three dozers, 24 fire engines, and one Type 3 helicopter, for a total of 260 personnel.
U.S. Highway 89 is still closed from milepost 425 (Campbell Road) to milepost 445 and will likely remain closed for the next several days due to firefighting operations.
Information about evacuations, structures that have burned, and when people might be able to return is handled by Coconino County, which is posting updates online.
Satellite photo showing smoke from fires in Arizona, 6:31 p.m. MDT April 20, 2022.
Eicks Fire, resources dispatched. (from the report)
On May 24, 2021, Smokejumper Tim Hart was severely injured while parachuting in to the Eicks Fire in southern New Mexico and passed away on June 2. Today the US Forest Service released a “Learning Review — Technical Report”. Until now the only information officially released about the accident was that he suffered a hard landing in rocky terrain at the fire.
The 55-page report gets heavily, necessarily, into smokejumper technical information and jargon, but does a pretty good job of explaining so it is fairly easy for non-jumpers to understand.
The fire was in a very remote area on private land in the boot heel of New Mexico seven miles north of the US-Mexico border. Ground resources on initial attack included a couple of engines that were hours away and eight smokejumpers dispatched from Silver City, NM.
This is how the report describes the moment the hard landing occurred:
With Jumpers 4 and 5 on the ground, attention focused on Tim. He was still 200 yards southeast of the jumpspot and three-quarters of the way up the boulder-strewn ridge south of the bowl. He was flying up drainage 200 to 300 feet above the drainage bottom, hands positioned at quarter-brakes to full run. Those who could see the flight remember him flying in this direction for one to three seconds before the canopy turned 90 degrees to the left towards the center of the drainage. The cause of the 90-degree turn is unknown, as no one witnessed a left toggle input initiating the turn. At approximately 200 feet [above ground level] the canopy increased in speed and “came out of the air super-fast, like he got caught in a burble.” The Jumper in Charge (JIC) turned to Jumper 2, who had a streamer held high as a wind indicator for the other Jumpers, and exclaimed, “Are you seeing this right now?” Tim’s hands were on the toggles, and the JIC thought, “You need to turn, anywhere but where you are on final,” and waited for a turn at the last second. The JIC said he had “never seen an angle of attack on a Ram-Air like that before.” The JIC and Jumper 2, without another word, began running towards where Tim was going to land, calling to him without hearing a response. Tim had landed on the side of the drainage, uphill into “rocks the size of garbage pails.”
Thankfully, four of the seven jumpers assisting Tim were EMTs. He had a head/neck injury, was unconscious, had a weak pulse, and other injuries. The jumpers on the ground called for the trauma bag to be dropped from the jump plane. The EMTs stabilized his head and neck, administered oxygen, and splinted what was described as “secondary injuries.” Within 15 minutes of the patient being ready for transport and the landing zone being established, a medivac helicopter arrived on scene. He was extracted from the site one hour and 15 minutes after the injury.
Tim passed away nine days later.
The report describes how increasingly turbulent winds on the lee side of a ridge resulted in very complex wind patterns at the jump spot. Two subject matter experts, W. Kitto and M. Gerdes, wrote in Appendix D:
The accident pilot flew into an area where the conditions were not only challenging, but most likely intolerable (turbulence in excess of the parachute’s limitations), i.e. any pilot of any skill level on any similar equipment would likely have been unable to prevent a hard landing, due to rotor. Mechanical rotor turbulence alone or combined with thermal turbulence can easily create “unflyable” conditions.
From the report:
“Tim began as a smokejumper rookie in 2016 and was trained on the Forest Service Ram-Air parachute system. He was beginning his sixth season as a smokejumper, with a record of 95 jumps (73 proficiency and 21 fire). In 2021, he was on his third stint as a Silver City, NM, Smokejumper detailer. Tim had two previous fire jumps out of Silver City, one each in 2018 and 2019 on the Gila National Forest. Over that same time period, he had three proficiency jumps out of Silver City, all at the Fort Bayard practice jumpspot, the most recent on May 22, 2021.”
A Type 1 Incident Management Team has been ordered
Updated 4:09 p.m. MDT April 20, 2022
The National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag Warning for northern Arizona from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. MST, for 15 to 25 mph winds gusting to 35 and 11 percent relative humidity.
To see all articles about the Tunnel Fire on Wildfire Today, including the most recent, click here.
Here’s a look back at some of the meteorology yesterday that assisted in the rapid expansion of the #TunnelFire just east of Flagstaff on April 19th, 2022. #azwxpic.twitter.com/fyMzri4tdJ
Map of the Tunnel Fire 4 a.m. April 20, 2022. The green line designates the “go”, evacuate now area. The yellow line is the “set”, be prepared to evacuate area.
The Tunnel Fire north of Flagstaff was mapped at approximately 16,625 acres at 4 a.m. Wednesday. The map above shows the go-now evacuation areas in green which affect about 750 homes.
Tuesday afternoon and night the fire burned through the Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument and kept going toward the northeast for another three to four miles. At 4 a.m. Wednesday it was about three miles from burning out of the Coconino National Forest.
The Arizona Department of Transportation reports that US Highway 89 is closed in both directions. There has been no update on the number of structures destroyed since Tuesday when it was announced that 24 had burned. The number was not broken down by residences or outbuildings.
Tunnel Fire, April 19, 2022.
The winds on Wednesday are predicted to be less extreme than on Tuesday. The National Weather Service forecast calls for 20 mph winds gusting out of the southwest at 25 mph, with 17 percent relative humidity under clear skies. The wind speeds will increase on Thursday, 23 mph gusting to 35, still out of the southwest and 18 percent relative humidity. Then on Friday the speeds increase to 29 mph gusting to 45 mph from the southwest, but with higher humidity — 30 percent — and a chance for 0.01 inch of rain Friday afternoon.
The Incident Management Team was apparently too busy Tuesday evening to submit the routine Incident Status Summary report, therefore limiting the amount of specific information available. A Type 1 IMT, Northwest Team 3 with Incident Commander Johnson, has been ordered.
10:13 p.m. MDT April 19, 2022
Map of the Tunnel Fire, 6:21 p.m. MDT April 19, 2022.
The Tunnel Fire four miles north of the Flagstaff suburbs was very active Tuesday afternoon, spreading across Highway 89 into Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. Authorities with the Coconino National Forest estimated that by late in the afternoon on Tuesday it had grown to about 6,000 acres.
It was reported at 4:22 p.m. on Sunday April 17 (however some sources say it was on April 18). The cause is under investigation. Coconino County has the official evacuation information.
Tunnel Fire looking north from Lunar Dr. just south of Silver Saddle, April 19, 2022. Photo by Deborah Lee Soltesz.
Strong southwest winds that pushed the fire to the northeast are predicted to continue through Tuesday night at 30 mph gusting at 40 to 54 mph while the relative humidity remains below 30 percent. On Wednesday the winds will still be out of the southwest, but will decrease to 10 to 20 mph with gusts up to 30 mph while the relative humidity drops to 17 percent. With that forecast the fire will likely remain very active Tuesday night moving northeast.
The Forest Service said Tuesday night that 24 structures had burned.
Firefighting resources assigned include five handcrews, 15 engines, and three dozers. Air tankers were ordered Tuesday afternoon but had to be grounded due to very strong winds.
A Type 1 Incident Management Team has been ordered.
The Crooks Fire 8 miles south-southeast of Prescott, Arizona was 1,612 acres when it was mapped at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Most of the growth was toward the northeast as it burned south of Potato Patch and past Mt. Union as it approached Big Bug Mesa Road.
Red flag conditions in rugged terrain on Tuesday challenged firefighters and grounded aircraft through the day. Crews are looking for opportunities to construct indirect line hoping to keep the fire south of FSR 261 road and restrict its spread to the north.
A Type 1 Incident Management Team, California IMT 4, will assume command of the fire Wednesday at 6 p.m.
Resources assigned include 7 hand crews, 14 fire engines, and 5 helicopters for a total of 292 personnel.
Information about evacuations can be found at the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Department Facebook page.
1:16 p.m. MDT April 19, 2022
Map of the Crooks Fire showing heat detected by satellites at 2:39 a.m. MDT April 19, 2022.
A new fire, the Crooks Fire, broke out Monday eight miles south of Prescott, Arizona. Fire authorities said Tuesday the fire had burned 600 acres in the Prescott National Forest.
The fire is about two miles west of the Goodwin Fire that burned more than 28,000 acres in 2017.
The area is under a Red Flag Warning until 8 p.m. MDT Tuesday for 25 to 35 mph winds gusting out of the southwest at up to 50 mph with relative humidity around 10 percent.
Information from the Incident Management organization late Tuesday morning:
Ryan Barela’s Arizona Central West Zone Type 3 Incident Management will assume command of the Crooks Fire [Tuesday] at 6:00 PM. The fire remained active last night as crews worked through the night on structure protection and burning fuels along Forest Road (FR) 261 and along Senator Highway. Firefighters will focus today on keeping the fire south of FR 261 and east of Senator Highway. Fires in Prescott, AZ typically are driven by southwestern winds that push the fire to the northeast, therefore, we are prioritizing working on the northeastern part of the fire.
The Southwest Area Coordination Center said Tuesday afternoon that a Type 1 Incident Management Team from California, led by Incident Commander Gamboa, has been ordered.
(This article was corrected at 1:53 p.m. MDT Tuesday April 19 to correct conflation with the Crooks Peak Fire which is also in the Southwest Geographic Area.)
