PINE CITY, Minn. — Pine City firefighter Jeremy Jylka, 34, died Tuesday afternoon en route to a grass fire.
According to the Pine City Sheriff’s Office, Jylka collapsed while riding in the fire truck on the way to a fire between Hinckley and Pine City. Jylka stopped breathing and another firefighter started to perform CPR.
Jylka, 34, was pronounced dead at Kanabec Hospital. He joined the fire department in 2007 and is survived by his wife, Kelly and their 4-year-old daughter, Anica.
Santa Anita fire near Sierra Madre, California: It is now 584 acres and is 88% contained. All of the mandatory evacuation orders have been lifted. Here is an interesting quote from the Sierra Madre mayor:
“Early this morning the flames had raced to within a couple feet of our homes in the canyon and those brave firefighters … formed a perimeter with their bodies and their fire engines. It was a barricade of steel and water and human flesh and blood and they stopped the fire dead in its tracks.”
Just to be clear, there has been very little, if any, blood shed on the fire. They are reporting four minor injuries.
X fire: This fire is just south of Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. It started at noon yesterday, Tuesday, and quickly grew to 2,000 acres. The name of the fire came from the nearby Ten-X campground. The name alone makes this fire interesting.
Local media is reporting that it started from a campfire and that two individuals are being questioned. There is a red flag warning today for winds at 15-20 with gusts up to 40, and an 8% relative humidity. These southwest winds could push the fire into the national park. Reinarz’s Type 2 Incident Management Team should arrive today.
Click on the map of the X fire below to see a larger version. The map shows heat detected last night (the red and orange areas) by satellites. The green area on the map is the Kaibab National Forest, and the gray area north of the fire is Grand Canyon National Park.
At the federal district court today in Spokane, Washington, Ellreese Daniels plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges of making false statements to investigators. The federal prosecutors dropped the four federal felony charges of involuntary manslaughter related to the deaths of the four firefighters on the Thirtymile fire near Winthrop, Washington in 2001.
In addition to the four involuntary manslaughter charges, Daniels had been charged with seven counts of making false statements to investigators, a federal misdemeanor.
Daniels could have faced as much as six years in prison for each of the four manslaughter charges. Now he faces up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine for each of the two remaining misdemeanors, although the standard range is much less.
Sentencing was set for July 23 August 18. Yesterday in an email, Daniels’ attorney, Tina Hunt, said she expected there to be a “contested sentencing hearing”.
I have mixed feelings about the plea agreement. The procedure today means that Daniels will not have to serve lengthy jail time for the felony charges, he will not have a felony conviction on his record, he probably will not lose his job with the US Forest Service, and he will not lose his retirement.
His attorney said that the defense had a strong case. This is also indicated by the fact that the federal prosecutors dropped all of the felony charges and five of the seven misdemeanor charges in return for the guilty pleas on the two misdemeanors.
If I had been in Daniels’ shoes, I may have done the same thing. I can’t imagine what it must have felt like to be facing those four felony charges, serious prison time, and the loss of the job and his retirement.
Looking at the larger picture, and from a selfish perspective, this is a mixed blessing for the fire community. It would have been better for firefighters if all of the charges had been dropped, or if they had been thrown out or defeated in court.
But perhaps the next over-zealous prosecutor seeking to to beef up their resume will be less inclined to throw around ridiculous felony charges when someone makes an honest mistake on a fire.
The International Association of Wildland Fire documented with their survey the fact that many firefighters were very concerned about the harmful effects these charges would have on the fire community. In the survey, 36% said they would make themselves less available for fire assignments because of the charges that were filed against Daniels.
Making an honest mistake on a fire should not have the potential to ruin your life and the life of your family.
Update: Tuesday, April 29, 9:37 AM MT– As of this morning the fire is 538 acres and is 57% contained. Most of the contained fireline is in the eastern areas near the Sierra Madre residences. Southern California Interagency Incident Management Team 3 assumed command of the fire at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday. Approximately 150 homes and 400 people remain evacuated.
Live video from a news helicopter this morning showed no visible smoke, but this was from several thousand feet above the fire.
================================ Monday, April 28 Today the Santa Anita fire near Sierra Madre, California, made some upslope runs and also spread to the southwest. As of 8:00 PM today (Monday) it was 538 acres and 21% contained.
The evacuation boundary now extends west to Michillinda Avenue in Sierra Madre. The southern boundary of the current evacuation zone from west to east, is Fairview Avenue to Grove, north along Grove to Carter Avenue, east along Carter Avenue to Baldwin Avenue.
As of 8:00 p.m. Monday April 28, evacuations will be lifted for homes east of Baldwin Avenue.
Click on the map to see a larger version.
Map of the Santa Anita fire near Sierra Madre, produced by the incident at 3:00 PM local time, April 28, 2008.
The LA Times has a map of neighborhoods that have been evacuated.
Map and details about the fire from Inciweb. Photo from Pasadena Star News.
I’ll find a use for it, I swear!….if I can ever take my eyes off it it. It’s amazing what the Germans can do with a little helium, a lithium-ion battery, and an electric motor.
This is one of the craziest things I have ever seen. To celebrate Easter, two churches in Vrontados, Chios, Greece, shoot thousands of home made rockets at each other. This 1 min. 23 sec. video from Easter 2007 is worth viewing, if you’ve never seen a friendly rocket war involving 50,000 rockets made in people’s basements.
