A television station in Sacramento, California, ABC10, took an extended look at the deaths caused by wildfires started by Pacific Gas and Electric’s powerlines and how the company has avoided serious legal repercussions after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of 84 people.
The video below is a combination of the first four episodes of their series examining the connection between wildfires, PG&E, and its influence on state politics.
Firefighters responding to the Apple Fire. Discovery Channel.
I knew the Discovery Channel’s new series, CAL FIRE, was going to be interesting when the Sunday night premier episode started with a close up of the CAL FIRE director describing his greatest regret.
"My greatest regret in this job is the time I didn't spend with my family. It's hard to describe to somebody why mom or dad can't be there. We run into places that people should't be. And we do it selflessly as if they're our family members. This job is all encompassing. Firefighting is about sacrifice." Thom Porter, Director of CAL FIRE.
The limited series was filmed by camera crews and reporters who embedded, at least in episode 1, with engine crews. Presumably they went through basic fire training and were outfitted with personal protective equipment since they at times were shoulder to shoulder on the fire line with firefighters who had to tell the camera operator to “watch yourself.”
Apple Fire, Engine 3175
The first engine featured was 3175 in Riverside County, California. Engineer Aaron Dudley is on screen often, talking about his family and what it is like to work for 72 hours on a wildfire.
“I could get a regular job, but I love this one. I definitely could not have peace of mind out there without strong family support.”
The camera was rolling in the station when the crew was dispatched to the Apple Fire which started near Cherry Valley July 31, five or ten miles north of San Jacinto. It eventually burned more than 38,000 acres. Cameras mounted inside the engine filmed the crew and recorded their conversations as they drove to the fire.
After they arrived and worked for a while, the engine ran out of water so they protected a structure using the resident’s garden hose.
Several days after the fire started cameras captured crews igniting a large backfire out ahead of the east side to prevent it from spreading into the Morongo Valley.
Firefighters igniting back fire on the Apple Fire. Discovery Channel
“Our objective is to hold it right here at this dozer line,” explained Captain David Mendoza. “So instead of having 10 feet of protection, we’re going to have half a mile of protection.”
At one point the back fire was burning more intensely than desired, so they had a helicopter drop water from a fairly high altitude — not to put it out, but to slow the spread and decrease the intensity, making it easier to maintain control.
Ponderosa Fire, Engine 47
A camera crew was also in Northern California’s Shasta County as Engine 47 was dispatched to the Ponderosa Fire. It was burning in timber, very different from the Apple Fire which was primarily brush.
When the crew was struggling on the fire’s edge to charge a hose lay with water a helmet cam captured the action.
Firefighters initial attack the Ponderosa Fire. Discovery Channel.
As the flames spread closer to the hose that lay flat with no water, we hear, “Come on boys! Double time it! When you get water take off running”, meaning, when you get water at the nozzle, apply it along the fire’s edge at a fast pace.
“Our life is going to be miserable in a minute if you don’t hurry up.” “We’ve got a busted hose”. “Oh (bleep).”
Firefighters initial attack the Ponderosa Fire. Discovery Channel.
The verdict
The Discovery Channel did an admirable job of capturing a few examples of what wildland firefighters see while actually on a fire, and as Engineer Dudley explains, what they think and how the job impacts a family. It is not a complete picture in 42 minutes, of course, but it is a brief glimpse into some aspects of the job.
The production values were very good and the cinematographers recorded, at times, impressive flames and smoke columns — eye candy, to some. Yes, fires at times can be beautiful.
The 42 minutes of Episode 1 were interesting and I will set my device to record more. But, having been a firefighter, I am naturally drawn toward what was my passion for 33 years. Having video cameras and microphones WITH the personnel as they fight fire without an engine visible is something not often seen.
We’ll have to see if every episode shows pretty much the same thing, putting the wet stuff on the red stuff. Maybe if they can generate interest in two or three firefighters with interesting story lines it could add another element. This is a niche in television, wildland firefighting, however there are lots of niche TV shows that are successful on cable channels.
But there will probably be one or two firefighters who will watch the show and try to demonstrate their knowledge by criticizing what they saw on the screen.
You can watch the full version of Episode 1 at the Discovery Channel, plus two shorter episodes, 105 and 106, seven and eight minutes long, about the Glass, Blue Ridge, and Silverado Fires that burned in southern California in 2020.
The National Risk Index is a new, online mapping application from FEMA that identifies communities most at risk from 18 natural hazards. The application visualizes natural hazard risk metrics and includes data about expected annual losses, social vulnerabilities and community resilience.
The data is at the county and census tract level and made available via geographic information system (GIS) services for custom analyses.
The system combines the risk from 18 factors to come up with one rating for each county or census tract.
Avalanche
Coastal flooding
Cold Wave
Drought
Earthquake
Hail
Heat wave
Hurricane
Ice storm
Landslide
Lightning
Riverine flooding
Strong wind
Tornado
Tsunami
Volcanic Activity
Wildfire
Winter weather
If you go to the site it may take some time to load. It worked, slowly, on my desktop computer with a fast internet connection, but not at all on my cell phone. At one time I got a “503 Service Temporarily Unavailable.”
You can zoom in and click on a county or census tract to see more details about each of the 18 risk factors that appear in the left sidebar. If you go to the site and the map loads, click on County or Census Tracts, then Info.
It would be helpful if you could toggle each of the 18 hazards on or off. For example, if you simply want to see where the risk is highest for wildfires, you can’t display that risk individually on the map. You have to click on each county then scroll down the left sidebar to see the data just for that location.
Marin County fire history 1917-2020. The blue areas were all prior to 1980. NIFC map.
Many residents and government officials in Marin County recognize the importance of evacuation planning, but there is no agreement on which agency has the responsibility. In March voters approved a parcel tax that would raise about $19 million each year for the newly formed Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority (WPA), but the county’s Civil Grand Jury ruled in December that the agency’s plans do not adequately address the issue.
Marin County, outlined in red. (Google)
From the Marin Independent Journal:
Part of that funding will go toward studying evacuation routes, creating evacuation maps and clearing vegetation along narrow Marin roads. But the agency does not have the authority or the funding to take on infrastructure projects that could create safer roads for people fleeing wildfires, the grand jury said.
“The grand jury is concerned that Marin’s public may have a false sense of security regarding evacuation routes, thinking that all issues relating to the matter will be handled by the new government agency,” the report says.
While Marin County fire Chief Jason Weber agreed that the wildfire authority doesn’t have the funding to take on road infrastructure projects, he said the agency is taking the initial step in addressing Marin’s evacuation safety problem.
Marin County, population 258,826, is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and stretches from the Golden Gate Bridge north to Bodega Bay and east to Novato and San Pablo Bay.
Evacuation planning will likely point out a need for road infrastructure projects, for which the WPA does not have funding. The Transportation Authority of Marin, or TAM, is the only agency in the county with access to funding and authority over countywide transportation projects. The grand jury recommended that a representative from TAM serve as a non-voting member of the WPA.
Marin County Civil Grand Jury, Wildfire Preparedness: A New Approach, Appendix C, April 25, 2019.
Fire officials in Marin County have identified “choke points” where residents are likely to get caught in congestion when evacuating from wildfires. Since many of those run through multiple jurisdictions, the grand jury said TAM should serve as the coordinating agency but TAM officials “continue to deny that the agency has any role or responsibility for considering evacuation needs in its transportation projects.”
Community infrastructure and planning was one of the six categories of actions Wildfire Today pointed out in April, 2019 that must be taken to reduce the impact of wildfires on communities. That category includes:
Road and driveway width, wide enough for large fire trucks
Turnarounds at the end of roads
Signage, and
Emergency water supply.
The other five categories that need to be considered in fire-prone communities are home spacing/lot size; envelope of the structure itself; home ignition zone; wildland-urban interface; and fire codes.
Fire potential will increase in the Southwest in March and April
Fire Potential January through April, 2021. Larger versions of these images are below.
The National Significant Wildland Fire Potential Outlook issued January 1 by the Predictive Services section at the National Interagency Fire Center predicts wildfire potential will be higher than normal in the Southern Plains February through April, 2021. This will include portions of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Most of the southwest one-quarter of the United States is currently experiencing severe, extreme, or exceptional drought.
The data from NIFC shown here represents the cumulative forecasts of the ten Geographic Area Predictive Services Units and the National Predictive Services Unit.
Below:
An excerpt from the NIFC narrative report for the next several months;
More of NIFC’s monthly graphical outlooks;
NOAA’s three-month temperature and precipitation forecasts;
Drought Monitor;
Keetch-Byram Drought Index.
“La Niña will continue to significantly affect the weather and climate patterns through winter and into spring. Drought conditions are expected to continue for much of California, the Great Basin, and the Southwest through winter into spring with drying expected to increase across portions of the Plains and Southeast. Recent cool and wet weather in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic along with climate outlooks suggest normal to below normal significant fire potential is likely for large portions of the Southeast, Appalachians, and Mid-Atlantic. However, an early and active start to the fire season is expected for the southern High Plains during late winter.
“Given the background drought and anticipated warmer and drier than normal conditions across the Southwest and southern Plains, significant fire potential is forecast to be above normal during the spring. Lower elevations in the Southwest are favored to have above normal significant fire potential beginning in March and April. Oklahoma, eastern New Mexico, and most of Texas are forecast to have an active spring fire season before green-up in March and April and possibly beginning as early as February. Above normal significant fire potential is also likely to extend north into southern Kansas and southeast Colorado in March and April.”
Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes as meals are being prepared by the catering services that provide food for firefighters on large wildland fires?
A journalist from the southern United States drove to Oregon in 2019 to embed with one of the 16 companies that run 29 federally contracted mobile food-service units specializing in fire-camp cuisine. He was hoping to get an inside look at what it was like to work at fire camp.
Jeff Winkler had previous experience working in “slop joints, shopping-center fusion, hippie shacks, and fine dining.” His current occupation, according to The Atlantic which published his long-form article about his adventure, is working as a trash collector back in the South.
During his 19 days feeding firefighters on the South Fire west of Red Bluff in Northern California, Mr. Winkler started in “freight” unloading deliveries from the Sysco semi that dropped off supplies, churning out hundreds of sack lunches assembly-line-style in the semi reefer, deep cleaning, and odd jobs. He described it as “soul-suckingly monotonous”, but after two days he moved up to the kitchen to work for Ruby, the head cook. On his 18th day he found himself in the head cook position.
Here are some excerpts:
Ruby and her second-in-command, Josie, a petite collegiate blonde not a day over 22, were scrambling. For Josie, it was literal. She was quietly pouring bags of yellow liquid egg into a tilt skillet and stirring the soup into a solid using a three-foot-long stainless-steel paddle.
Tilt Skillet
The ovens, I was told, were on the fritz, so Ruby had me drop bacon into the deep fryers.
It didn’t take me long to understand that we were cooking stomach anchors, not taste-bud tinglers. Instead of foie gras and bordelaise, our crew made large batches of heavy sustenance: things such as well-done chicken, powdered potatoes, instant gravy. Canned veggies were heated and dressed in brown sugar and spices. The liquid for Josie’s scrambled eggs came in 20-pound bags, and deep-frying bacon was an hour-long process. This was high-volume catering. The situation, and the contract, demanded it.
The Overhead Boomers were always the first to eat. Their impatience when waiting for us to open for service is a running joke among disaster catering crews. They also ate like picky children: “Nah, I don’t want no vegetables.” Almost all of the young bright-eyed Cs [California Conservation Corps] accepted their plates and ate like college freshmen. We got to know who the vegetarians were, and had their plates ready in advance.
Before the day-13 dinner rush, we’d made the steaks and shipped them out to spike camp but, for whatever reason, had forgotten to package up an entire batch. I found the deep-sixed pan of cooked steaks cooling in one of the fritzed ovens just a little after dinner service had started.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized8 Comments on Review of Discovery Channel’s CAL FIRE series 
"My greatest regret in this job is the time I didn't spend with my family. It's hard to describe to somebody why mom or dad can't be there. We run into places that people should't be. And we do it selflessly as if they're our family members. This job is all encompassing. Firefighting is about sacrifice." Thom Porter, Director of CAL FIRE.
