A view of the Yarnell Hill tragedy from another hotshot

Members of the wildland fire community contemplating the tragic deaths of the 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots are being affected in similar but usually different ways — we see the event through a prism, everyone with a slightly different vantage point.

Jenna Penielle Lyons, a young firefighter like many of the Granite Mountain 19, is in her third year, with two of those being on a hotshot crew. In a very well written piece titled To the Hotshots Who Died, from Your Sister, she sheds some light on what it was like to be working on a fire as a member of the Snake River Hotshots and hear the news about the 19.

Below is an excerpt; you can read the entire article at elephantjournal.com:

…After the Granite Mountain Hotshots died, I looked at my job differently. I wondered how it happened—how the wind and fire could have changed so quickly and unexpectedly. The entire Hotshot community was thrown for a loop when that incident happened. The day of the memorial, we sat at 11,000 feet and listened to the C-SPAN live feed of the service. I watched 19 men sit in complete silence for two hours, obviously contemplating the tragedy at depth. Whatever happened at Yarnell Hill, those men died doing what they loved.

You can check out Ms. Lyons work and follow her adventures at www.thelyonsroarliterature.wordpress.com, which she describes like this: “The Lyon’s Roar: A blog about a little girl creating art, living from the earth and imagination, and fighting fire in the great states of Montana and Idaho.”

Nevada: Carpenter 1 Fire

(Originally published at 12:55 p.m. July 13, 2013)

Carpenter 1 Fire as seeb from Red Rock National Conservation Area. DOI photo.
Carpenter 1 Fire as seen from Red Rock National Conservation Area. DOI photo.

The Carpenter 1 Fire has been burning since July 1 and in those 13 days has grown to 27,881 acres. Over those two weeks it has moved to within 9 miles of the western suburbs of Las Vegas but was relatively quiet Friday due to higher relative humidities and as much as half an inch of rain that fell on the southeast portion of the fire.

Today structure protection will continue in Kyle Canyon and at the Harris and Prospect Ranches. Firefighters will construct fire line and will cold trail along the South Loop ridge line on the north and west side of the fire. The forecast for Saturday calls for warmer and drier weather with the possibility of isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon.

Map of Carpenter 1 Fire
Map of Carpenter 1 Fire, 12:01 a.m. MDT, July 13, 2013 (click to enlarge)
3-D Map of Carpenter 1 Fire,
3-D Map of Carpenter 1 Fire, 12:01 a.m. MDT, July 13, 2013, looking northwest. Las Vegas is in the foreground.  (click to enlarge)

One commercial building and five out buildings burned at the Prospect Ranch on July 9.

Rich Harvey’s Type 1 Incident Management Team is calling the fire 45 percent contained.

Man arrested for impersonating a firefighter at hotshot’s funeral

James Patrick Brown, 29
James Patrick Brown

At the funeral procession in Marana, Arizona for 25-year-old William Warneke, one of the 19 firefighters who died June 30 while fighting the Yarnell Hill Fire, James Patrick Brown, 29, was arrested for impersonating a firefighter. Here are the details as reported by KGUN9-TV:

It was a somber procession that led mourners, including hundreds of firefighters, to the Marana Mortuary. And it was here that an assistant fire chief for the city of Tucson noticed someone darting in and out of the procession, taking pictures. What’s more, he was wearing a tucson fire t-shirt and hat.

When approached, our ‘photographer’ said he was a Tucson firefighter, for the city’s fleet services division. Little did he know, he was talking to the top dog in that division. In other words, he was asked to try again. 49 year-old James Brown’s story continued to crumble, when police searched his pockets.

“We found him in possession of two different fire department badges,” said Alvarez.

They also found brown had a lengthy rap sheet, complete with an outstanding felony warrant from Maricopa County for theft. Police arrested our fake firefighter and charged him with impersonating a public servant.

 

Report: six air tankers requested before Yarnell Hill Fire entrapment, but they were not available

(UPDATE at 10:20 a.m. MDT, July 16, 2013)

The Arizona State Forestry Division has issued a report that summarizes information about some of the major events and the firefighting resources that were deployed for the Yarnell Hill Fire. This new document corrects some of the information reported by the Associated Press below.

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(UPDATE at 10:15 a.m. MDT, July 13, 2013)

We checked with Rick Hatton, CEO of 10 Tanker Air Carrier, the company that operates the two DC-10 air tankers, about the use of their aircraft on the Yarnell Hill Fire. Mr. Hatton said each of their two DC-10s, which carry 11,600 gallons, made five drops on the fire. Throughout the day on Sunday June 30, the day of the tragedy, they made a total of eight drops, and then made two more on July 1.

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(Originally published at 8:20 p.m. July 12, 2013)

The Associated Press is reporting that a request for six “heavy” air tankers was placed about 50 minutes before the Granite Mountain Hotshots became entrapped and deployed their fire shelters on the Yarnell Hill Fire. However the request was never filled, and was classified as Unable to Fill, or UTF. There were only 12 heavy air tankers on duty June 30 in the lower 48 states and none were available to respond to the fatal fire near southwest of Prescott, Arizona.

The Granite Mountain Hotshots lost 19 of their 20 crewpersons that day when a passing thunderstorm caused the wind to change direction by 180 degrees and increase in speed, gusting to over 40 mph. In winds that strong it is unlikely that any aircraft could operate safely 200 feet above the ground or effectively drop a liquid that would accurately hit the intended target.

The last retardant drops before the fatal entrapment were made at 12:30 and 1 p.m. by P2V air tankers which carry a maximum of 2,082 gallons. After that the air tankers went back to another fire they had been working in northern Arizona. According to the AP, earlier the two DC-10 very large air tankers had been requested which drop 11,600 gallons each, but they were not available. The AP also said, “Only a spotter plane was in the air when the Prescott, Ariz.-based Granite Mountain Hotshots died. The state’s fleet of small single-engine retardant-dropping planes was grounded in Prescott because of the weather, and no helicopters or heavy tankers were available.”

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In 2002 there were 44 large or heavy air tankers on exclusive use contracts. Today there are 9. The day the 19 Hotshots died, four military MAFFS air tankers had been activated days earllier, but of those potential 13 air tankers, some of them would have been on their day off. And some, or all of those on duty, would have been actively working other fires. There were 50 uncontained large fires in the United States that day. If they all needed air tankers, which is not likely, each of the 12 that were on duty (according to the AP) would have to be shared by 4 large fires.

In 2012 about half the requests for air tankers could not be filled according to data from the National Interagency Fire Center. Of the 914 requests, 438 were rejected as “unable to fill” (UTF), meaning no air tankers were available to respond to the fire; 67 were cancelled for various reasons.

Requests for large air tankers

CNN features Vicki Minor of the Wildland Firefighter Foundation — again

In 2008 CNN did a piece on Vicki Minor, who created the Wildland Firefighter Foundation — they called her a “CNN Hero”. This week they found her in Prescott, Arizona helping the families of the 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots who were killed in the Yarnell Hill Fire on June 30.

If you have not had a chance yet, send a donation to the Wildland Firefighter Foundation. They have an excellent record of doing great things for firefighters who are injured and for the families of those who are killed.

Wildfire briefing, July 12, 2013

Congressional hearing about Wildfire and Forest Management

On Thursday the House Committee on Natural Resources held a hearing about wildland fire and forest management. You can watch a 2 hour and 15 minute video of it at C-SPAN. (Are there any volunteers who would like to watch it and give us a summary?)

Here is how it is described at C-SPAN:

“Wildfire and Forest Service officials testified on ways to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire. The hearing also focused on the increasing number and intensity of wildfires in the West and Southwest.

Representatives Doug Lamborn (R-CO), Scott Tipton (R-CO), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), and Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ) testified in the first panel.

Panel Two:

  • Jim Hubbard, Deputy Chief, State and Private Forestry, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
  • James Douglas, Acting Director, office of Wildland Fire, Senior Adviser, Public Safety, Resource Protection and Emergency Services, U.S. Department of the Interior
  • Phil Rigdon, Deputy Director, Yakama Indian Nation Department of Natural Resources
  • Joe Duda, Deputy State Forester, Colorado State Forest Service, Colorado State University
  • Christopher Topik, Director, Restoring America’s Forestsm, North America Region
  • Chuck Roady, Vice President & General Manager, F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber Company”

NIFC lowers Preparedness Level

The National Interagency Fire Center has lowered the national Preparedness Level from 3 to 2.

MAFFS sent home

By the end of the day the U.S. Forest Service will release the four Modular Airborne FireFighting System (MAFFS) C-130 air tankers being operated by the military. The last four remaining are from California and North Carolina.

Map of Chariot Fire

CAL FIRE, the agency responsible for suppressing the devastating wildfire that spread from the desert to the mountain community of Mt. Laguna east of San Diego, still has not released a current map of the fire showing that it burned significant acreage in the Cleveland National Forest and wiped out much of the Al Bahr Shrine Camp. Their last map is dated July 8. Approximately 149 structures were destroyed and 9 were damaged.

Smoke Map

Wildfire smoke map
Wildfire smoke map at 4:30 p.m. MDT July 12, 2013

The map below shows the distribution of smoke from fires in the United States and Canada as of 4:40 p.m. MDT, July 12, 2013.