News and opinion about wildland fire
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized7 Comments on White Draw Fire, historic cabins, one year later 
The above photo shows some historic cabins on June 30, 2012 that firefighters worked hard to protect during the White Draw Fire northeast of Edgemont, South Dakota. The photo below was taken yesterday, about 16 months later. Both were shot by Bill Gabbert.
This was the fire on which the MAFFS 7 air tanker crashed on July 1, 2012, killing four crew members and injuring two. In July a memorial was dedicated a few miles away from the crash site in memory of the aerial fighters.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized37 Comments on First claim filed for death on Yarnell Hill Fire 
The first of what could be many claims has been filed for the death of one of the members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots. On June 30, 19 firefighters on the crew died when they were overrun by flames on the fire near Yarnell, Arizona.
According to Azcentral, Marcia McKee, the mother of firefighter Grant McKee, filed the $36 million action.
Below is an excerpt from Azcentral:
The 16-page claim alleges officials “carelessly” allowed the hotshots to move into a chaparral-choked area where escape from the fire was impossible, that officials lost track of the hotshots and that officials failed to understand the “extreme peril” that confronted the hotshots.
The claim names 13 entities or individuals, including Gov. Jan Brewer, Arizona State Forester Scott Hunt, Prescott Wildland Division Chief Darrell Willis, who oversaw the crew, Prescott Mayor Marlin Kuykendall, the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors, and Department of Public Safety.
Mural to be unveiled
In another story related to the fire, on Saturday, November 16 a mural will be unveiled in Prescott memorializing the fallen Granite Mountain Hotshots and all first responders, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Classic Gas, 1310 W. Iron Springs Road.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized9 Comments on Kids propose solutions for wildfire problems A Lego League Team of kids 9 to 14 years old is working on a science project. The task of Team #896 is to develop some innovative ideas to mitigate wildfires. They asked me to give them some feedback on what they came up with.
I complied with their request, and then asked if we could publish what they submitted — they said they would love to see them on this website. So, here they are, as I received them:
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“1) This idea is a dome made out of a very light weight metal with a fire retardant cloth lining the inside. They thought of making this huge dome to be carried by a helicopter or plane. And dropping the dome on the hotspot to snuff it out like a candle snuffer.
2) Another idea is to make lightweight foldable domes for the firefighters to use as protection if they get caught in a wildfire.
3) we talked to some firefighters and they said they get rid of the fuel with chainsaws and axes. This idea is a chemical (not sure what chemical yet) that is sprayed on the trees and shrubbery that they want to get rid of that dissolves it or makes it so it will not burn.
4) idea to get rid of smoke from wildfires. A huge vacuum on a helicopter or truck that sucks up the smoke and filters it, so it’s clean, or filters it and spits it back to the fire mixed with something the help put out the fire.
5) early warning system consisting of cameras and heat sensors that are solar powered to detect and warn when a woodland fire has started and where.
6) idea to make firebreaks better, have a tank or bladder attached to the bushwhacker when making a firebreak to spray a fire retardant chemical to help the firebreak work better. [Note from Bill: I asked about the “bushwhacker”, and they replied: “The bushwhacker is what the kids call the tractor the firefighters use to make the firebreak.”]”
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We also heard from another Lego League team that produced an interesting infographic about wildfires.
“Fire science is not rocket science—it’s way more complicated.”
That quote comes from research ecologist Matt Dickinson of the U.S. Forest Service’s Northern Research Station who borrowed it from Robert Essenhigh, Professor Emeritus, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Ohio State University. Mr. Dickinson was one of 36 researchers who collected data over a two week period during a series of extensively instrumented prescribed fires at Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle last year.
The Joint Fire Science Program organized and helped fund the project, called RxCADRE, which collected 10 terabytes of data using many, many ground based sensors and four orbiting aircraft. Their goal was to obtain a comprehensive dataset of fire behavior, fire effects, and smoke chemistry, using measurements taken systematically at multiple, cascading scales. The information will help scientists and fire modelers test their models and develop better ones, ultimately making them more reliable.
Part of the project included hiring a writer to produce a 12-page overview of their work. It provides a great deal of information about how they planned and conducted the field work, and is for the most part well-written and worth reading, but occasionally lapses into flowery language for the sake of … flowery language.
For example,
36 scientists watch as fire’s ancient energy is captured, photographed, mapped, sensed, counted, measured, weighed, and rendered into data.
and,
The fire catches, wavers, and bellies gently before the wind. It spreads unevenly, then comes together, licking the grasses.
The Joint Fire Science Program deserves kudos for organizing this important research and for arranging to produce the 12-page overview.
Taking advantage of the snow, the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge fire staff is catching up on their pile burning south of Cheney, Washington. Here we see the Engine Module Supervisor burning vegetation that was previously thinned and piled. Photo credit: Ken Meinhart, USFWS.
Higher resolution imagery becoming available from satellites will enable more accurate mapping and spread prediction of wildfires.
Higher resolution imagery becoming available from satellites will enable more accurate mapping and spread prediction of wildfires. Since we created Wildfire Today in 2008 we have frequently displayed maps showing fire data collected by the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument package, such as the one below of the Falls Fire near Elsinore, California in August. The red squares represent heat detected by MODIS before the fire spread east across the South Main Divide and down through the bowl where the Decker Fire fatalities occurred in 1959. Click on the image to see a larger version.
MODIS, launched in 1999 with its 1,000-meter resolution system, is starting to show its age. Better technology is now available and is orbiting 512 miles above the Earth on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite launched October 28, 2011 . The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the satellite is a 22-band radiometer designed to collect infrared and visible light data to observe wildfires, movement of ice, and changes in landforms. It has a resolution of 375 meters, much better than the MODIS. The new Landsat 8 satellite launched in February has a resolution of 30 meters for most of its sensors, and 100 meters for thermal infrared. This will be a game changer. In March we published a test image of the Galena Fire taken with Landsat 8.
Below is a comparison of data from MODIS and VIIRS. Click on it to see a larger version.
Last month we told you about a proposed satellite, called FUEGO – Fire Urgency Estimator in Geosynchronous Orbit, which would survey the entire western United States every two minutes or less and could detect a fire that is about 10 feet in diameter. Assuming that the data from the satellite could be transmitted to the appropriate dispatch center within a minute or two, this could be a major step toward keeping fires small… IF the fire agencies have the appropriate initial attack policies in place and an adequate number of firefighting resources, both ground and air-based, to respond and arrive at the fire within the first 10 to 30 minutes. But since the cost of the satellite could be several hundred million dollars, it probably will never be built or launched.
Two scientists who have been working with some of the new data that is available now are Janice Coen of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and Wilfrid Schroeder with the Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland. They intend to transition the new refined spatial resolution VIIRS and Landsat-8 fire detection data and a new weather forecast-fire spread model into operations in the next two to three years. Mr. Schroeder told us that some of the higher resolution data should replace the MODIS data on the GEOMAC website in the next one to two months. In the meantime you can see some early versions of it on an experimental basis at a website they created.
The two of them recently published a paper documenting the development of a new wildfire spread model (think newer version of BEHAVE) that, coupled with high resolution numerical weather prediction and the actual location of a fire as detected by the 375-meter resolution VIIRS, predicts the fire behavior and spread of a fire, displaying it on a map. The model can be run after the overflights of the satellite every 12 hours using updated weather forecast information and the current location of the fire.
Their paper is HERE, and a description of the concept written by Ms. Coen is below.
Continue reading “Better satellite imagery enables improved wildfire mapping and growth predictions”
