The National Wildfire Coordinating Group has released an update of the Wildland Fire Qualification System Guide (PMS 310-1). The document provides a cornerstone of the National Incident Management System by establishing minimum interagency qualification requirements for national mobilization of resources. While the October, 2014 update closely resembles the previous version, the new edition includes significant changes, including:
• Incident Business Adviser Type 1 (IBA1) and Incident Business Adviser Type 2 (IBA2) have been combined to form the Incident Business Adviser (INBA) position.
• Established the Basic Faller (FAL3), Intermediate Faller (FAL2), and Advanced Faller (FAL1) positions.
• Introduction of Planning Section Chief Type 3 (PSC3), Logistics Section Chief Type 3 (LSC3), Operations Section Chief Type 3 (OPS3), and Finance Section Chief Type 3 (FSC3) position standards.
Oddly, the announcement from the NWCG about the 310-1 revision, which was sent to the entire world of wildland fire, contained numerous typos and misspellings. That made us wonder, until we researched it further, if it was a legitimate directive or a scam.
Eagle Rock High School students dig line during the “Snow Fire” exercise while Alpine IHC Superintendent Paul Cerda coaches them. The Snow Fire was the culmination of the “Fire!” program with Alpine crew. NPS photo.
From the National Park Service:
Sayings like these are more than just words in the world of firefighting: “Punctuality shows respect,” “Train like you fight,” “Crew cohesion is important.” They are life lessons that students from an alternative residential high school in Estes Park, Colorado, learned during a five-week class on wildland fire.
Simply called “Fire!,” the program, now in its second year, linked six students from Eagle Rock school with Alpine Hotshots and ecologists from Rocky Mountain National Park and the Continental Divide Research Learning Center.
An existing relationship between the school, the park and hotshot crew sparked the idea for the “Fire!” program. An Eagle Rock student has been a member of the Alpine Hotshots for the past four fire seasons. In May 2011, Rafael Mcleod graduated before joining the team. Vidal Carrillo became a hotshot in 2012 and continues to work on the crew while also pursuing his undergraduate degree at Colorado State University.
This enthusiasm is part of what ignited the “Fire!” program. Ben Baldwin, ecologist at the learning center, and Paul Cerda, Alpine Hotshot superintendent, discussed opportunities with Eagle Rock School when they came up with the idea for the pilot program. “After Vidal and Rafael’s success as members of the hotshot crew, we knew several kids were interested in wildland fire,” Cerda said. “Ben and I decided we needed to build on that, partly as an opportunity for diversity recruiting.”
Baldwin approached Eagle Rock School with the idea to develop the pilot course for citizen fire science, similar to other citizen science programs offered through the learning center. While the initial idea was to put the students through a 40-hour basic wildland fire course in order to certify them as wildland firefighters, Cerda and Baldwin quickly realized lectures were not going to be the best learning environment for these students.
“These are students who were not going to get much out of sitting in the classroom,” Cerda said. “They are used to more experiential learning through a hands-on approach. That’s also why we incorporated the physical training standards as part of the curriculum.”
This year, learning center staff member Holly Nickel used her expertise in education and curriculum development to refine and develop materials for this course. “Four of the key principles in fire — safety, physical training, fire ecology, and fire suppression — were the goals of the new fire curriculum,” Nickel said.
The Predictive Services section at the National Interagency Fire Center has issued their Wildland Fire Potential Outlook for October through January. The data represents the cumulative forecasts of the eleven Geographic Area Predictive Services Units and the National Predictive Services Unit.
If their predictions are accurate, California will be the only area with above normal wildfire activity.
Here are the highlights from their outlook.
October
Above normal fire potential continues across some portions of northern, central and southern California. Long term drought coupled with increasing potential for offshore winds will keep potential elevated through October.
Below normal fire potential is expected for central Texas as well as the southern Atlantic Coast.
Elsewhere normal fire potential is expected as many areas transition to out of season conditions for the winter.
November
Above normal fire potential will be alleviated in the north, leaving central and southern California as the only areas with continuing threats from dry fuels coupled with offshore flow.
Below normal fire potential will expand to include an area stretching from Texas to the Atlantic Coast.
Most other areas are out of season during November.
December and January
The last remaining areas of above normal potential in California will transition to normal during December, leaving only normal to below normal conditions.
Below normal fire potential will continue from Texas to the Atlantic Coast.
Most other areas are out of season December through January.
Engine rollover, Warm Springs, Oregon, July 18, 2014.
*The Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center has published a report on a BIA engine that rolled over near Warm Springs, Oregon, July 18, 2014. Two people were injured, one seriously. The LLC says more than 50 fire vehicles have rolled over in the last 10 years.
*A Colorado artist has created a work consisting of rectilinear pillars suspended from the ceiling, each measuring nine feet tall, meant to convey the idea of a wildfire.
*Fire officials in Washington state suspect an arsonist is responsible for igniting 23 fires in less than two weeks. Most of them have been vegetation fires.
*In other news from Australia, a Senator gave a speech, titled, Thank you For Smoking, praising nicotine fiends for their $8 billion a year contribution to the economy. He said he did the math: Last year smokers cost the health care system $320 million and another $150 million in bushfire control.
*Researchers have found that “recent (2001–2010) beetle outbreak severity was unrelated to most field measures of subsequent fire severity, which was instead driven primarily by extreme burning conditions (weather) and topography.” Unfortunately, to read the article, researched and published by government employees, it will cost you $10 for two days of access. If the researchers, Brian J. Harvey, Daniel C. Donato, and Monica G. Turner, are going to hide the results of their taxpayer-funded research behind a pay wall, what’s the point in hiring researchers? Support Open Access.
*Firefighters are on alert in the Philippines for wildfires that may start from an eruption of the Mayon volcano.
*Firefighters are on lessened alert in the Black Hills after the area received two to five inches of rain over the last few days.
An article in Vertical Magazine, a publication for the civilian helicopter industry, adds more details about the incident that occurred on the King Fire east of Placerville, California where 12 firefighters deployed their fire shelters in front of advancing flames.
On September 15 we live blogged about the deployment while listening to the radio traffic, and the Arizona Republic interviewed the crew boss for an article published on September 29. The story in Vertical, published on September 30 and written by Dan Megna after interviewing the crew boss and the helicopter pilot, recounts what happened, with more details about the aviation side of the story. It, like the first article, is worth your time. It cleared up a few questions I had, such as who programmed the GPS coordinates into the helicopter’s navigation system (it was not a “Command Staff” person), the handoff from the Bell 205 to the Helicopter Coordinator for directing the crew to safety, and specifics about the extraction of the crew from the landing zone.
Below is an excerpt from the Vertical article:
…Within minutes of [dozer] 1642 arriving and beginning work to access the flames, the atmosphere over the fire began to change, and very quickly. Light breezes turned to hot upslope winds as the inversion layer lifted, allowing the smoke to billow up out of the trees.
The clearing visibility through the trees now revealed a much different — and far more menacing — scenario. Fleming and the dozer operator immediately determined they would be unable to hold what was now apparently a large front of fire.
The dozer operator quickly began to back the machine back up the hill, and Fleming ordered his crew back to the designated “safe zone.”
As Fleming began walking up the hill to join his crew, he heard the sound of the dozer accelerating to what he believed to be full throttle, and the tractor’s track squealing to grab traction.
“I turned around to look, and saw sustained independent crown fire [fire jumping tree to tree in 100-foot-plus tall timber] coming right behind him,” Fleming said…
Southern California forecast, Thursday through Sunday. NWS Los Angeles.
The National Weather Service is predicting a mild Santa Ana, or offshore, wind for southern California Thursday through Sunday. The wind will not be strong, but the relative humidity in some areas will be in the single digits along with temperatures around 100, at least in the Riverside area.
The new Santa Ana Threat Index that was rolled out September 17 only lists some “Marginal” to “Moderate” Santa Ana conditions on Thursday and Friday. That could change, of course.
Explanation of Santa Ana or offshore winds. NWS San Diego.
