An Arizona state helicopter paramedic was calm and straightforward as he radioed in the first confirmation that 19 firefighters were dead in a blaze northwest of Phoenix, recordings released Thursday show.
Paramedic Eric Tarr called Department of Public Safety dispatchers after his pilot dropped him off near the site near Yarnell where the Granite Mountain Hotshots had deployed fire shelters on June 30.
After hiking about 500 yards to the site, Tarr radioed his dispatcher and asked her to tell his pilot, “I have 19 confirmed fatalities.”
A man attending a bachelor-bachelorette party in Minnesota was killed June 15 by an exploding target. After someone shot the device, shrapnel struck 47-year-old Jeffery Taylor in the abdomen causing him to collapse. KARE11 reported “he was driven to a nearby location where the Rushford Ambulance and Mayo One helicopter were waiting to transport him, but Taylor was pronounced dead on the scene.”
Exploding targets have become popular in the last year with target shooters who get a thrill from seeing the explosion when their bullet hits its mark. The devices are sometimes called “binary exploding targets”, since they are completely inert until two powders are mixed by the target shooter. After they are combined, the compound is illegal to transport and is classified as an explosive by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and is subject to the regulatory requirements in 27 CFR, Part 555. The manufacturers of the devices claim that the only way they can be detonated is by striking them with a high-velocity bullet fired from a high-powered center-fire rifle. But at least one company has recently started offering targets that will explode when hit with a much less powerful .22 caliber rim-fire rifle.
In addition to the fatality, we are aware of at least two other incidents where exploding targets caused injuries. In October of 2012 Ronald Rofshus was building one of them in Minnesota when it exploded, blowing off his hand and causing severe burns. On October 7, 2012 in Pennsylvania two state Game Commission workers suffered injuries including burns, temporary blindness and hearing damage when an illegal exploding target blew up while the men attempted to put out a fire at a gun range in Pike County.
Safety alert exploding targets. Minnesota DNR
Obviously exploding targets are not only a hazard to our lands, but also to shooters and others who may come in contact with them. Kristin Benson, the Safety Administrator for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, developed a Safety Alert to warn people about some of the hazards. Minnesota has no restrictions on the use of exploding targets.
The U.S. Forest Service has banned exploding targets on national forests in Washington, Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas according to Forest Service spokeswoman Sarah Levy. A violation of the recently implemented ban in Washington and Oregon is punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for organizations, or by imprisonment for not more than six months, or both.
The Bureau of Land Management bans them during certain times on their land in some states — not only the use but the possession of the devices.
They are also banned or soon will be when new legislation takes effect on state lands, at least under some conditions, in Washington, Utah, Oregon, and Idaho.
March 17, 2012, South Dakota. The Beretta II Fire burned 25 acres south of Rapid City near Beretta Road off Highway 16. It took more than 100 firefighters, two air tankers, and a Black Hawk helicopter to put it out.
May 4, 2013, Washington. The Washington State Department of Natural Resources determined that the 200-acre Dog Mountain Fire in Lewis County near Riffe Lake was started by an exploding target; 100 firefighters and two helicopters suppressed it. An article at KING5 reports that two other fires in the state this year were also caused by exploding targets.
The Rapid City Journal wrote an editorial July 9 calling for a ban on exploding targets, disagreeing with Denny Gorton, the president of the South Dakota Firefighters Association who was quoted as saying, “I’m not sure we’ve been able to show enough of a correlation to get it regulated or outlawed.”
The NPR interview that I mentioned in another article aired yesterday. I know because a friend that I had not heard from in over 20 years told me so.
When NPR reporter Nathan Rott called me I was in a sleazy motel room in Prescott, Arizona — the only room I could find anywhere near Prescott. The connection on my cell phone was terrible, so he interviewed me on the motel’s landline phone, which was not much better. In the version that ended up on NPR’s All Things Considered, I was only on for a few seconds, but the rest of the piece with Rott and Carl Seielstad is worth listening to. Mr. Rott said that he had been a firefighter for six years.
UPDATE: July 12, 2013: As a couple of people pointed out, in the interview it appears that Carl Seielstad is saying the concept of “Lookouts, Communications, Escape Routes, Safety Zone (LCES)” resulted from the fatalities on the South Canyon Fire. That apparent incorrect association may or may not be due to the editing process, but Paul Gleason developed the concept after his experience on the 1990 Dude Fire.
The person running the first tractor you will see in this video apparently does not totally understand the concept, but the operator on the other tractor has nerves of steel.
The information on Live Leak said it happened July 9 in Weld County, Colorado.
Most of the funerals are over for the 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots that were killed on the Yarnell Hill Fire June 30. From information provided by the incident management team that organized the services, the firefighters are listed below.
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(Originally published at 5:50 p.m. MDT, July 10, 2013)
Now that the memorial service is over for the 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots that died on the Yarnell Hill Fire, the attention will now turn to 19 funerals that are being held this week. We contacted the Incident Management Team that organized the memorial service to ask about the funerals, but they said no information can be officially released, due to the fact that some of the families want to keep the services low key.
We know that at least three will only welcome their family and close friends. But others, however, may allow the general public to attend. If you know of any families that will allow people they don’t know to be at their services, leave the details in a comment. But, be certain that the family is OK with publishing the information.
Information needed includes:
Name of the firefighter
Will the family allow the general public? yes/no
Name of the church or facility for the service.
Address of the facility.
Date and time.
Information for fire personnel, or departments who plan to bring fire apparatus; where & when to stage, who to contact, etc.
It has been 18 years since John N. Macelan wrote for the Chicago Tribune, but today he has an op-ed column in the newspaper. Naturally, Mr. Maclean, the author of several books about wildfire, wrote on that subject for the Tribune — wildland fire and the Granite Mountain Hotshot disaster.
Below is a very brief excerpt (you may have to register to view it):
Voices from the fire line tell us, again and again, “These are the most extreme fire conditions we’ve ever seen.” Out on the line, global warming is real. But the young love the physical labor and hardship, the discipline, the camaraderie, the incredible rush that comes from close contact with one of nature’s most powerful forces. It’s us older folks who fret.
