Kelly Andersson, Author at Wildfire Today

More MAFFS on duty

Kelly AnderssonAugust 3, 2012August 25, 2019UncategorizedMAFFS

The U.S. Forest Service has requested additional MAFFS-equipped C-130 airtankers, and two aircraft from the 302nd Airlift Wing at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado will soon be on duty. MAFFS tankers have dropped nearly 889,000 gallons of retardant on fires in eight states since they were activated on June 25.

Another USFS request recently prompted the Joint Training and Experimentation Center (JTEC) in Wyoming to prepare an unmanned aerial vehicle for recon missions on the Sawmill Canyon Fire. JTEC, which tests and develops unmanned vehicles, is a partner with the Wyoming National Guard, the University of Wyoming, and the Department of Defense’s Joint Ground Robotics Enterprise.

John Offe, senior electronic technician for JTEC, said the request came from the fire’s incident commander. JTEC’s capabilities include aerial reconnaissance, forward-looking infrared cameras, video, still photos, and night flying.

Offe said the JTEC team began preparing the T-16 aircraft for use on the fire, but it was contained before the JTEC aircraft was launched. Limiting conditions that affect the aircraft’s use include a requirement for restricted airspace and maintaining operations inside of their Department of Defense contracts.

“It’s not a service contract,” said Offe. “We don’t have a contract in place where we can go out and do this kind of work for them. We would love to. That’s our ultimate goal, which is to provide a system like this to somebody, be it game and fish, fire, homeland security, whoever.”

The 302nd Airlift Wing in Colorado Springs, Colo., an Air Force Reserve unit, and three Air Guard units – the145th AW in Charlotte, N.C.; the 146th AW in Channel Islands, Calif., and the 153rd AW in Cheyenne, Wyo. – each have two MAFFS-equipped C-130s able to respond to wildfires throughout the U.S.

More information on the 302nd Airlift is available at www.302aw.afrc.af.mil/

Re-visiting Mann Gulch

Kelly AnderssonAugust 2, 2012August 25, 2019Uncategorizedbooks, Mann Gulch1 Comment

The Mann Gulch Fire, 63 years ago this week, took the lives of 13 smokejumpers. Norman Maclean’s 1992 book Young Men and Fire recounted the story of the most deadly event in smokejumper history at that time. Of the four survivors on the fire, only three managed to reach the ridgeline above them and escape the deadly fire.

USFS team recovering bodies from Mann Gulch in 1949. Photo by Dick Wilson, part of the recovery team, courtesy John Maclean.

Norman Maclean re-visited the gulch, in rugged northern Montana, when he was in his 80s. He was accompanied by the two living survivors, Walt Rumsey and Robert Sallee, and they tried to re-create the smokejumpers’ run for safety; Rumsey and Sallee tried to find the “crevice” at the ridgetop where they’d escaped. Maclean concluded, though, that the spot they identified for him on the ridge was considerably east of where they actually were in 1949.

Aerial view of the 1949 Mann Gulch Fire, USFS photo courtesy John Maclean.

H. Wayne Phillips of Great Falls, a former smokejumper, along with two other former smokejumpers and a former paratrooper, recently hiked Mann Gulch looking for answers to Maclean’s questions. The Great Falls Tribune today ran a feature on the hikers’ quest to find the spot where Sallee and Rumsey crested the ridge.

Thanks to John Maclean for use of the 1949 photos.

Montana firefighters expecting high winds

Kelly AnderssonAugust 2, 2012August 25, 2019UncategorizedBIA, Montana

A red flag warning is in effect this afternoon through tomorrow, with a dry cold front predicted to bring strong gusty winds from the northwest at 20 mph with gusts up to 40 mph. Firefighters on the 20,000-acre East Sarpy Fire east of Billings, Montana, will focus on structure protection instead of building fireline. The fire area is not heavily populated, but it includes some ranch homesteads and the Westmoreland Sarpy Creek coal mine.

[UPDATE: The Sarpy Hill Complex is estimated at 51,000 acres this afternoon.]

Portions of the fire over the last two days have jumped dozer lines. “Everything we tried didn’t work,” said a veteran helicopter manager. An additional five crews will work on the fire today, along with 20 more engines. Crow tribal engines worked through the night, along with Big Horn County Rural Fire resources, dozers, graders, water tenders, and local ranchers. A Type 2 team will take over the fire today.

The East Sarpy and West Tullock Creek fires burned together late yesterday, and the Dawes Fire burned actively all night. East of Dunmore, residents could see the glow of the Little Dry Creek fire, which is a priority today.

Three other fires recently burned more than 15,000 acres north of Winnett. Crews have contained the Wolf Creek, 15-Mile, and Dovetail lightning-caused fires earlier this week. To the east, Rosebud County crews are working on 28 fires burning in the county. Carole Raymond, Rosebud County’s disaster and emergency services coordinator, told the Billings Gazette that the largest of the fires is burning between Rosebud and Butte creeks.

“That’s the biggest one and they don’t have it even kind of handled,” she said. “It’s just running on them.”

Eastern Washington fire burning fast

Kelly AnderssonAugust 2, 2012August 25, 2019UncategorizedWashington2 Comments

An incident management team from Spokane is setting up operations in ~~Bridgeport~~Brewster, Washington to coordinate firefighting efforts on a fire that started yesterday north of Wenatchee and quickly grew to over 700 acres. The Sacramento Bee reported that the fire’s burning in grass, brush, scattered timber, and some wheat land. The Crane Road Fire was estimated this morning at about 2,000 acres. The Spokesman-Review noted that Deputy State Fire Marshal Ron Bowen said residents have been evacuated, and the Seattle Times reported that another 45 firefighters have been assigned.

[UPDATE: KING5 news reports the fire grew overnight to 10,000 acres.]

Salt Creek Fire temporarily closes I-5

Kelly AnderssonAugust 2, 2012August 25, 2019UncategorizedCalifornia

A fire burning along Interstate 5 on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest has forced the evacuation of 100 homes. According to the Sacramento Bee, the fire north of Redding has burned 500 acres and is about 20 percent contained. Don Ferguson with the U.S. Forest Service said crews made progress overnight, but 20 more homes were added to the evacuation list.

The Salt Creek Fire started yesterday in the interstate median; it’s threatening about 20 commercial buildings and 100 other structures, and I-5 was closed for several hours. Thousands of northbound travelers were stuck in traffic in triple-digit heat on the interstate.

The fire’s burning between the O’Brien and Salt Creek exits; major KV power transmission lines are threatened. Resources on the fire include 46 engines, five dozers, six crews, three helicopters, and four airtankers. A Type 2 team will take over the fire this evening. The Redding Record Searchlight has a collection of photos online.

More lightning fires in Arkansas

Kelly AnderssonAugust 1, 2012August 25, 2019UncategorizedArkansas, blackhawks, lightning

More than 1,000 wildfires burned this year in Arkansas, according to KAIT8 news, and many were human-caused. But lightning’s rising on the list of causes for fires in the state. State Forester Joe Fox said that 15 percent of Arkansas fires are usually caused by lightning — and some years it’s under 3 percent. But according to Fox, lightning has caused more than half the fires in the last two months.

The Arkansas Forestry Commission yesterday activated military Blackhawks for fire suppression in the state.

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