Wildfire Today

News and opinion about wildland fire

Wildfire Today

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.

A cop looks at hotshot fitness

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , 4 Comments on A cop looks at hotshot fitness

A law enforcement officer wrote an article about the fitness standards and programs for interagency hotshot crews. Jim Vaglica is a full-time police sergeant on call 24/7 with a regional SWAT team in the Boston area. He is a strength and conditioning specialist, a police sergeant, and is a cast member of Mark Burnett’s “Expedition Impossible”. The article was published by Bodybuilding.com.

In describing hotshots, he said, “If I had to relate it to my own professional background, I’d say it’s the difference between a squad of police officers and a SWAT team.”

Below are more excerpts from the article:

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“THIS IS UNIQUE WORK. WHAT SORT OF STRENGTH DOES IT DEMAND?

Unlike fighting structure fires, where brute strength is paramount, the physical demands of wildland firefighting are vastly different. You’re not going to be carrying a 200-pound man down a flight of stairs and out of a burning building. No one on the crew gives a crap “How much ya bench?” All they care about is that you can swing a tool all day without bitching and moaning, and then get up the next day and do it again. If you look at most hotshot crews, you’ll see a lot of slender builds. Excessive muscle mass doesn’t get you anywhere. It just slows you down.

WHAT IS THE TOUGHEST PART OF THE JOB?

When you’re actually fighting a fire, the almost unbearable conditions seem to have no end. After a few hours of working in 110-degree heat with no shade, you may start to think that there’s no way you can finish the day, but you know that everyone else on your crew is suffering too. You just push through it for the guys on either side of you. If you go down, they’ll have to pick up your slack. When you’re in the middle of nowhere punching in line, you can’t just jump in your car and go home. You take another big swig of hot water, you deal with it, and you keep going.”

El Cariso Hotshots disbanded

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , 30 Comments on El Cariso Hotshots disbanded

The El Cariso Interagency Hotshots have been disbanded. El Cariso was one of the first two hotshot crews created about 60 years ago after World War II. For many decades they have been working out of the Trabuco District on the Cleveland National Forest in southern California.

El Cariso's logo
El Cariso’s logo, a Ruptured Duck

The El Cariso Interagency Hotshots have been disbanded.

It pains me as an alumni to write that. My first job as a firefighter was on the crew. El Cariso was one of the first two hotshot crews created about 60 years ago after World War II. For many decades they have been working out of the Trabuco District on the Cleveland National Forest in southern California.

The crew ended the 2012 fire season as a fully certified Type 1 Hotshot crew. But they began the 2013 season as a Type 2 crew due to vacancies at critical positions. Throughout the year their organization deteriorated, suffering more vacancies, as well as a lack of consistent supervision and crew leadership according to a high-ranking U.S. Forest Service official we talked with.

The crew lost both of their captains, their superintendent was detailed to the Forest Supervisor’s office, and as the latter part of the fire season approached they were not even qualified as a Type 2 Initial Attack crew. Due to these issues and concerns for firefighter safety, the National Forest shut down the crew when they returned from working on the Rim Fire at Yosemite National Park. The remaining permanent personnel were transferred to engine stations, but the temporary crew members were laid off.

The Forest expects this situation to be temporary, and next year will begin rebuilding the organization. With the long list of interagency requirements for hotshot crews, it will not be an easy task. We wish them luck in reconstituting the El Cariso Hotshots.

The crew has endured other disastrous situations in the past. In 1966 12 people on the crew died as a result of burn injuries on the Loop Fire on the Angeles National Forest in southern California. And in 1959 three members of the crew and four others were entrapped and killed on the Decker Fire just a few miles from their base west of Elsinore, California..

1970 El Cariso Hot Shots
1970 El Cariso Hot Shots. Superintendent Ron Campbell is in the center of the front row (without a hard hat); Assistant Superintendent Al Kuehl is on the left end of the front row; Bill Gabbert is fourth from the right in the front row.

Yarnell Hill Fire report to be released Saturday

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , ,

Granite Mountain HotshotsThe Arizona State Forestry Division has announced that the Serious Accident Investigation report of the Yarnell Hill Fire fatalities is complete and will be released Saturday, September 28. It will be given to the families of the 19 firefighters that were killed before the public sees the document.

A press conference will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Ruth Street Theater at Prescott High School, 1050 Ruth Street, Prescott, AZ. Officials available to answer questions will include:

  • Scott Hunt, Arizona State Forester,
  • Jim Karels, Serious Accident Investigation Team Leader
  • Mike Dudley, Co-lead for Serious Accident Investigation Team
  • Chief Dan Fraijo, Fire Chief, Prescott Fire Department

The Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health, a state version of federal OSHA, is also working on a report. It is required to be complete no later than six months after their investigation was announced, which would make it due no later than the first part of January, 2014.

Fall River prescribed fire — before and after

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , , 4 Comments on Fall River prescribed fire — before and after

On March 30 the Hot Springs, South Dakota Volunteer Fire Department conducted a prescribed fire along the Fall River to reduce the woody vegetation which could clog the flood control channel where the river passes through the city. We covered it then with several photos, but today I went back to see what it looked like. Below are photos taken during, just after, and six months after fire visited the river.

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Carson employee pleads guilty for charge related to helicopter crash that killed 9

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , , , , ,
Carson Helicopters Sikorsky S-61N
Sikorsky S-61N helicopter operated by Carson

One of the two Carson Helicopter, Inc. employees that were indicted in January for charges related to the crash of an August 5, 2008 helicopter crash that killed nine firefighters and flight crew members, pleaded guilty Monday to one charge. Levi Phillips, 45, the former maintenance chief of the company, pleaded guilty to a single charge of fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and now faces up to 20 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines. He will be sentenced on April 14.

Steven Metheny, 42, the former Vice President of Carson, was also indicted in January for conspiracy to defraud the United States, plus 22 other counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, making false statements to the Forest Service, endangering the safety of aircraft in flight, and theft from an interstate shipment.

The Mail Tribune reported that as part of the plea agreement, Mr. Phillips has an obligation to cooperate fully with the investigation and to testify against Mr. Metheny.

The helicopter that crashed was under contract to the U.S. Forest Service and was attempting to transport firefighters from a remote helispot back to the base camp on the Iron Complex of fire (or Iron 44 Fire) in northern California.

According to the findings of  the National Transportation Safety Board in 2010, there was “intentional wrong-doing” by Carson Helicopters that under-stated the weight of the Sikorsky S-61N helicopter and over-stated its performance in the documents they provided to the USFS when bidding on $20 million in firefighting contracts for seven helicopters. According to the indictment, when one of the helicopters was supposed to have been weighed it “was in a different country at the time”.

As a result, when the helicopter attempted to take off from the helispot on the Iron 44 Fire with firefighters and a flight crew of three, it was over the allowable weight even before the firefighters boarded the ship. The helicopter crashed into some trees and caught fire just after lifting off.

Killed in the crash were pilot Roark Schwanenberg, 54; USFS check pilot Jim Ramage, 63; and firefighters Shawn Blazer, 30; Scott Charlson, 25; Matthew Hammer, 23; Edrik Gomez, 19; Bryan Rich, 29; David Steele, 19; and Steven “Caleb” Renno, 21. The copilot and three other firefighters were seriously injured.

In March of 2012, a jury ordered the manufacturer of the helicopter’s engines, General Electric, to pay $69.7 million to William Coultas (the surviving pilot), his wife, and the estate of Roark Schwanenberg (the pilot who was killed).

After the crash, between September 26 and October 3, 2008, the USFS suspended the contract for some of Carson’s helicopters. On February 18, 2009, the USFS canceled their contract (copy of the contract) with Carson (copy of the termination letter) based on inaccurate claimed weights of the helicopters. The company then surrendered their FAA Certificate which is equivalent to an operating license. After that they received a contract for seven S-61s to fly for the military in Afghanistan as a subcontractor for the company formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, which was renamed “Xe”. In February 2010, Sikorsky announced a joint venture with Carson to supply up to 110 modernized S-61T helicopters to the U.S. government, primarily for the State Department.

More about the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation into the crash.

 

Thanks go out to Joseph