Maybe this CAL FIRE promotional video will get you fired up for the 2014 fire season… even though it was released five years ago.
Author: Bill Gabbert
After working full time in wildland fire for 33 years, he continues to learn, and strives to be a Student of Fire.
Wildland fire discussion at NFFF conference
The National Fallen Firefighters (NFFF) just concluded a conference they called Tampa 2 this week. It was a followup to the original NFFF Firefighter Life Safety Summit held in Tampa in April of 2004, where the 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives were developed for structural firefighting. The goals of the conference were to continue to work towards firefighter safety, to reaffirm the initiatives, and identify what changes are needed in order to continue the industry’s advances in safety.
Conferences like this usually concentrate on structural firefighter issues, but a panel discussion at least briefly discussed wildland firefighting, according to an article at Firehouse.com. Below is an excerpt:
The Life Safety Initiatives really aren’t relevant to wildland firefighting, and that needs to be changed.
Also, “consistent firefighter medical standards are not being followed by all organizations involved in wildland firefighting resulting in potentially preventable medical emergencies or LODDs.”
Some firefighters in OK want to use drones on wildfires
News9.com – Oklahoma City, OK – News, Weather, Video and Sports |
Some firefighters in Oklahoma are pushing to use unmanned aerial systems to increase situational awareness on wildfires.
Throwback Thursday
Six years ago this week, these are some of the topics we wrote about on Wildfire Today in 2008:
—Ice Storms in Missouri increased the fuel available for wildfires by a factor of 10.
—CAL FIRE was being taken to court, according to a suit, for partially demobing the Piru fire before it was 100% contained. The fire grew from 1,200 to 64,000 acres. Apparently the strategy and tactics that were used on the fire are being questioned in a court of law 4 years after the fact.
—Fire Captain Matt Moore with the Murrieta (California) Fire Department died, succumbing to complications from meningitis, fire department officials said. He had been in various hospitals since November battling an aggressive form of meningitis. It is believed Moore inhaled a parasite while fighting the region’s wildfires late last year. The parasite reportedly caused swelling in his brain.
Red Flag Warnings, March 13, 2014
The Red Flag Warning map today shows a rather unusual pattern. Warnings for elevated wildfire danger have been issued by the National Weather Service for areas in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, and Texas.
The Red Flag Warning map was current as of 10:01 a.m. MDT on Wednesday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts. For the most current data, visit this NWS site.
Random fire photos
Here are some random wildfire photos we ran across. Unfortunately, few details are available about them.
