Author: Bill Gabbert

Another couple, and a baby this time, get snow-bound, using GPS

When we were putting together the previous post about the couple that took the GPS “shortest” route and ended up snow-bound on a US Forest Service road for two and a half days, we kept finding conflicting information about the names of the people and how they were rescued. Finally we figured out there were two similar incidents, both in the state of Oregon and both occurred on US Forest Service roads.

This second incident began much like the other one. Jeramie Griffin and Megan Garrison had a new GPS receiver, and they selected the “shortest” route–40 miles shorter than the quickest route. They intended to drive on Christmas Eve from Lebanon, OR to The Dalles, OR. The GPS told them to turn off of Highway 22 onto Breitenbush Road near Detroit Lake, then onto a US Forest Service road.

Following those directions, they got stuck in snow and spent the night in their SUV with their 11-month old daughter, Lexi. They had no cell phone service, even after walking for miles along the road, searching for a signal.

Their family was expecting them in The Dalles on Christmas Eve, but when they had not arrived on Christmas day several agencies began searching for them.

Looking for them, Griffin’s uncle, Jim Wiens, used a similar GPS unit and followed its directions for the same route, including driving down the snow-covered USFS road on Christmas day. He was about to turn around thinking the couple could not possibly be that far down a back road when he saw the footprints they had left when they were searching for a cell phone signal. He continued down the road until he found them.

(VIDEO NO LONGER AVAILABLE)

GPS routes couple to a snow-bound 2-day ordeal

John Rhoads and Starry Bush-Rhoads — Starry Bush-Rhoads and John Rhoads

Many of us are abandoning paper maps in favor of GPS receivers. But sometimes, to a GPS unit, a road is a road.

A couple attempting to drive from Portland to Reno relied on their new GPS receiver and became stuck in 18 inches of of snow on a U. S. Forest Service road in the Fremont-Winema National Forest near Thompson Reservoir outside the small town of Silver Lake, Oregon (map).

John Rhoads, 65, and Starry Bush-Rhoads, 67, allowed the GPS unit to select the “shortest route”. But the shortest route is not always the quickest or the safest route.

On Christmas day near Silver Lake, Oregon the GPS directed them to turn right onto USFS road 28. They followed that road and some other spur roads for about 35 miles until they got stuck in the snow after trying to turn around and retrace their route.

For two and a half days they tried to summon rescuers on their cell phones but had no service. They stayed warm by putting on extra clothes they had packed for their trip and by starting the engine and running the heater on their Toyota Sequoia SUV every few hours. They also had plenty of water and food, including lunch meat, salami, and nuts.

On Sunday, December 27, after two and a half days, atmospheric conditions changed, and they had a weak signal on their cell phones. When they finally talked to a Klamath County 911 dispatcher, their GPS-enabled cell phones relayed their location. A deputy Sheriff found them and pulled out their Toyota with a winch.

Klamath County Sheriff Tim Evinger said:

GPS almost did ’em in and GPS saved ’em.

HERE is a link to a video segment from ABC’s Good Morning America about the couple’s ordeal.

UPDATE at 1:55 p.m. December 29

The same thing has happened to another couple, this time with a baby, also in Oregon and also on a USFS road.

Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas wish is for all of our Wildfire Today readers to have a GREAT Christmas and a wonderful 2010.

Here is a little Christmas gift for you. It is Darlene Love singing Christmas (Baby Please Come Home). Make yourself a hot toddy, then enjoy the drink and the music.

And……. THANKS for visiting Wildfire Today!

Man says group started the “Old” fire because they were too stoned to rob his godfather

Rickie Lee Fowler, 28, has admitted to being with a group of men who threw a lit highway flare into some vegetation which started the Old fire on October 25, 2003 in southern California. The fire burned for nine days, charred 91,000 acres, destroyed 1,003 homes, and is linked to six deaths.

In some recently released transcripts, it was revealed that Mr. Fowler has said he and three men in a van had intended to rob John Aylward, a person he identified as his godfather, but realized they were too drunk or stoned to pull it off. Instead, they decided to start a fire, as one person testified before a grand jury, “to burn John’s house down”.

In an interview with investigators, Mr. Fowler said he struck the flare and threw it into the vegetation, but corrected himself and said one of the other men in the van struck the flare. In a later interview, he said he intended to strike and throw the flare, but Martin Valdez Jr. took it from him, struck it, and threw it into the brush. This latest revelation from Mr. Fowler came after Valdez Jr. had been shot and killed in Muscoy.

In October, a grand jury returned an indictment of five counts of murder and two counts of arson. Mr. Fowler has pleaded not guilty.

UPDATE December 24 @ 12:31:

Mr. Fowler could be sentenced to death since there were six fatalities associated with the fire. The San Bernardino Sun has the details from the grand jury testimony about those fatalities HERE.

A hot toddy on a cold night

As we, uh, “reported” a year ago, yes, there really is a beverage called a “hot toddy”. And, except for you folks in the tropics (damn you!), this time of the year a hot drink on a cold night hits the spot.

holiday hot toddy

LA County’s new mobile PIO office

The Los Angeles County Fire Department just put into service a new very high tech mobile office for their public information officers, thanks to a $375,000 grant from the FEMA Assistance to Firefighters program. Fire Department Network News gives us a video tour.

(VIDEO NO LONGER AVAILABLE)

Neptune Aviation gives $22,000 to homeless shelter

Neptune Aviation Services, based in Missoula, Montana, has been supplying P2V air tankers to the wildland fire community for 17 years. Despite having lost two air tankers and six of their employees in crashes over a 7-month period in 2008 and 2009, they still think of others and routinely donate to charities.

This year is no exception. The company has given $22,000 to the Poverello Center in Missoula, an organization that provides “food, shelter, help, and hope” for the homeless and at-risk families and children.

Here is an excerpt from an article by Jamie Kelly in the Missoulian:

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Each month, Ellie Hill opens up the Pov’s NorthWestern Energy bill like everyone else in Missoula, but it’s a good bet that the check she writes is bigger than yours.

Those 12 heating bills this year added up to $22,000.

That is a large stack of money, especially during a recession, for an agency that relies heavily on donations. In last Saturday’s Missoulian, Hill mentioned the Pov’s need in the newspaper’s “We Care” column.

Neptune Aviation saw it. And got out the checkbook. And made out the check for $22,000.

“This donation literally comes at no better time for the Pov,” said Hill, who was taken aback by the gesture. “As you know, with the economic crisis, the demand on our services is totally unprecedented, but financial contributions are down.”

The board of Neptune Aviation, which annually gives thousands to local charities, quickly agreed that the Poverello

Center’s need would be fulfilled.

“We’re just so touched by this community and what they’ve done for us personally and professionally,” said Neptune president Kristen Nicolarsen.

The donation is being made in memory of Nicolarsen’s mother, Jo Rainbolt, who died three years ago and all her life “never turned anyone away,” said Nicolarsen.

Rainbolt, a former Missoulian reporter, was also a philanthropist, artist and lover of nature.

It has not been the easiest year for Neptune Aviation. Last April, Neptune, which employs around 90 people, lost three of its crew members in a plane crash in Utah. Seven months earlier, three others were killed in a crash in Nevada.

Neptune provides air tankers to battle wildfires across the nation.

Four years ago, the federal government grounded Neptune planes, and it was the Missoula community and Montana’s congressional delegation who came to the company’s defense.

“The community is the reason we’re still here,” said Nicolarsen. “We feel like we can’t do enough for this state and especially this community.”

“Their generosity epitomized the spirit of Christmas,” said Hill. “It’ll keep the heat and the lights on for the elderly, poor and out-of-work families, and the homeless.”

Thanks Dick

air tanker

L.A. Times documents delays in the use of aircraft on the Station fire

The Los Angeles Times is continuing to investigate some of the decisions that were made during the first 48 hours of the 160,000-acre Station fire that started on August 26 near Los Angeles and burned much of the Angeles National Forest.

Here is an excerpt from an article they posted today, which includes quotes from Don Feser, the Angeles National Forest Fire Management Officer who retired in 2007.

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Newly released records contradict a finding by the U.S. Forest Service that steep terrain prevented the agency from using aircraft to attack — and potentially contain — the Station fire just before it began raging out of control.

Station fire. Photo from the Station Fire Facebook page

Experts on Forest Service tactics also dispute the agency’s conclusion that helicopters and tanker planes would have been ineffective because the canyon in the Angeles National Forest was too treacherous for ground crews to take advantage of aerial water dumps.

Two officers who helped direct the fight on the ground and from the sky made separate requests for choppers and tankers during a critical period on the deadly fire’s second day, according to records and interviews.

At 12:49 a.m. on Aug. 27, Forest Service dispatch logs show, a division chief made this call for aircraft:

“Fire has spotted below the road, about five acres. Order one helitanker, three airtankers, any type. . . . Have them over the fire by 0700 hours.”

But the airtankers were canceled and the helitanker was significantly delayed, according to dispatch logs, deployment reports and interviews. The Times obtained the logs, reports and volumes of other documents through the federal Freedom of Information Act.

Records of the Day 2 battle do not cite the sheerness of the canyon above La Cañada Flintridge as a reason for withholding the aircraft, which firefighters who were at the scene say might have stopped the blaze from erupting into the disaster that it became. The fire was the largest in Los Angeles County history, killing two firefighters, destroying about 90 dwellings and charring 250 square miles in one of America’s most-visited national forests.

Last month, a Forest Service review endorsed the decision to not send the helicopter and planes but failed to mention the officers’ independent calls, made more than six hours apart, for a heavy air assault.

“It just irks me to see . . . that they’re blaming the terrain for why no action was taken,” said Don Feser, a former fire chief for the forest who retired in 2007. “They’re just making excuses.”

“I’ve covered a lot of that ground, and there is only a small percentage of land that is too steep to put firefighters on,” said Feser, who worked in the Angeles National Forest for 26 years, the last seven as fire chief. “And if we can’t put firefighters on it, guess what we do? We use aircraft.”

An officer who took part in the Day 2 operation said the absence of ground crews in the canyon did not keep commanders from using aircraft to bombard the area later in the fight. “We ran helicopters down there all day,” he said.

Choppers and tankers just after sunup, he said, could have slowed the flames’ march through the canyon, doused the surrounding ridges and given ground crews a much better chance of knocking the blaze down along Angeles Crest Highway, a crucial defense line.

“You could have made a stand,” said the officer, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

Station Fire

Cal Fire TV

It turns out that the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has produced a series of videos they call Cal Fire TV. Here are a few of them.

Getting air tankers ready for the fire season.
Cal Fire firefighters receive the Medal of Valor (Dec. 14, 2009)

Defensible Space Public Service Announcement (May 4, 2009)

(VIDEOS NO LONGER AVAILABLE)

Other videos include:
Cal Fire Inspects for Defensible Space

Cal Fire Readies its Seasonal Firefighting Force

Congratulations to Cal Fire for these excellent videos.

I found it interesting that the narration for each of the three videos that are embedded above begins with the words “Every day…” or “Every summer…” But they never expected that these three, produced months apart, would be assembled as a group and viewed consecutively.

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And while we are on the subject of videos, here is one that has NOTHING to do with wildfire. It was shot by Ana Marie Cox, a contributor for Air America and a frequent commentator on news and political shows, including the Rachel Maddow show. It features “bad camera work” and her dog Skeeter, who is enjoying his first snow in the Washington D.C. area. I think Skeeter is about 7-8 months old. The video was probably shot with an iPhone.

Before you watch it, consider yourself warned that Jake Tapper, who may be Ana’s friend Jake Tapper the ABC news correspondent, left the following comment on You Tube about the video:

I just accidentally watched this entire video. Do not make the same mistake I did.

air tanker poll prevention

Researchers: chimpanzees can predict fire behavior

Researchers from Iowa and Pennsylvania have concluded that chimpanzees have a basic understanding of wildland fire behavior and can predict the movement of a fire. Here is an excerpt from physorg.com:

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The use and control of fire are behavioral characteristics that distinguish humans from other animals. Now, a new study by Iowa State University anthropologist Jill Pruetz reports that savanna chimpanzees in Senegal have a near human understanding of wildfires and change their behavior in anticipation of the fire’s movement.

An ISU associate professor of anthropology, Pruetz and Thomas LaDuke, an associate professor of biological sciences at East Stroudsburg (Pa.) University, co-authored the paper, which will be posted online Friday by the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. It will be published in a 2010 edition of the journal.

Data on the chimps’ behavior with seasonal fires was collected by Pruetz during two specific encounters in March and April 2006. She reports that wildfires are set yearly by humans for land clearing and hunting, and most areas within the chimpanzees’ home range experience burning to some degree.

Chimps have calm understanding of wildfires

The researchers interpret the chimpanzees’ behavior to the wildfires as being predictive, rather than responsive, in that they showed no signals of stress or fear — other than avoiding the fire as it approached them.

“It was the end of the dry season, so the fires burn so hot and burn up trees really fast, and they [the chimps] were so calm about it. They were a lot better than I was, that’s for sure,” said Pruetz, who was selected a 2008 National Geographic Emerging Explorer for her previous research on the savanna chimpanzees at the Fongoli research site in Senegal.

“They [the chimps] were experts at predicting where it was going to go,” she continued. “I could predict it, sort of, but if it were just me, I would have left. At one time, I actually had to push through them because I could feel the heat from the fire that was on the side of me and I just wasn’t that comfortable with it.”

Pruetz says it was hard to find previous research on how other animals interacted with fire. But the few examples that she and LaDuke found — such as elephants’ encounters with similar wildfires — reported that those animals were highly stressed and experienced high mortality rates.

In their paper, the researchers wrote that the control of fire by humans involves the acquisition of these three cognitive stages:

1. Conceptualization of fire. An understanding of the behavior under varying conditions that would allow one to predict its movement, thus permitting activity in close proximity to the fire.
2. The ability to control fire. Involving containment, providing or depriving the fire of fuel and perhaps the ability to put it out.
3. The ability to start a fire.

According to Pruetz, the Fongoli chimpanzees have mastered the first stage, which is the prerequisite to the other two. But she doesn’t see them figuring out how to start a fire anytime soon — at least, not without help.

“I think they could learn. It might be difficult only because of their dexterity, since they’re less dexterous than us,” she said. “But naturally, I can’t ever see them making fire. I think cognitively they are able to control it (stage 2).”

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More information

chimpanzee research