Wildfire Today

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Wildfire Today

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U.S. Supreme Court Denies Air Tanker Pilots’ Widows Death Benefits

Author BillPosted on Categories Uncategorized

For some reason there have been a lot of stories about air tankers recently.

From the Redding Record Searchlight Online, an excerpt:

The Sonoma County widow of one of two air tanker pilots killed while fighting a fire in Mendocino County in 2001 has lost her bid to seek federal death benefits.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday denied an appeal filed by Christine Wells-Groff of Windsor to seek federal death benefits for her and other widows of firefighting pilots, including the widow of a Redding man, killed in the line of duty.

The widows are not entitled to federal death benefits — about $250,000 — because, unlike other public safety employees killed on the job, the pilots worked for a company that contracted with the state and were not public employees.

Wells-Groff’s husband, Larry, 55, and 45-year-old pilot Lars Stratte of Redding, were killed near Hopland on Aug. 27, 2001, when their air tankers collided while fighting a 242-acre brush fire. Both men were employed by San Joaquin Helicopters, a Delano-based company, under contract with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The Aerial Firefighter Relief Act, which was introduced in December, would extend federal death and disability benefits to contract pilots and air crews killed or injured while flying official firefighting missions for state or federal agencies. It would also make the coverage retroactive to 1976.

The legislation is a companion to legislation introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo.

Wells-Groff and Stratte are among dozens of tanker pilots’ widows denied death benefits since 1980, when the U.S. Department of Justice decided that tanker pilots are excluded from federal death benefits.

Pincha-Tulley in the News

Author BillPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags

Jeanne Pincha-TulleyJeanne Pincha-Tulley, Incident Commander of one of the Type 1 Incident Management Teams in California, was featured earlier in a story in The Union in Grass Valley, California.

Here is an excerpt:

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Years of sleeping in the dirt and spending weeks away from her family haven’t extinguished Jeanne Pincha-Tulley’s love of corralling blazes.

The 49-year-old mother of two boys has followed fire all of her adult life, a passion that has led her to become the first and only woman incident commander of a national fire team.

“Does it take a lot of brains to do that? No. It takes a flak jacket and lot of Motrin,” Pincha-Tulley joked from her office as forest fire chief at the Tahoe National Forest headquarters on Nevada City’s Coyote Street.

“You don’t camp out in the dirt for nothing. You want to do something for the common good,” Pincha-Tulley said.

Last summer, Pincha-Tulley led her team in Ketchum, Idaho, during the 48,520-acre Castle Rock Fire, which singed the outskirts of the resort community of Sun Valley. Local celebrities Bruce Willis and Steve Miller threw a concert in honor of the firefighters after the team saved their homes.

Pincha-Tulley’s team arrived in Mississippi four hours after Hurricane Katrina devastated the coastline.

“We had a grand time. There was devastation everywhere. We were literally saving people from trees,” Pincha-Tulley said.

Satellite Re-entry; Information for First Responders

Author BillPosted on Categories Uncategorized

The out of control satellite that was hit by a missile last night will most likely re-enter the earth’s atmosphere in the form of hundreds of pieces of debris, some of which may be extremely hazardous. Wildland firefighters, protecting millions of acres of real estate, should know what to do if they encounter some of this debris.

FEMA, working with the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, has issued guidelines, HERE, for first responders.

Some highlights from the information:

Information for the Public
A United States satellite is falling back to earth and could potentially impact almost anywhere on the planet.

The satellite has hazardous materials on board that could pose immediate hazards to people if they come in contact with the material.

Specifically, the satellite contains fuel and metal containers that are considered hazardous materials and could survive entry intact.

Any debris should be considered potentially hazardous, and should not be touched, handled, or moved.

Citizens who observe or encounter falling debris should notify your local public safety agency and stay away from it.

Information for First Responders
The satellite that is degrading from orbit has hazardous materials on board that could pose immediate hazards to people if they come in contact with the material.

The craft contains fuel and specialized containers that are considered hazardous materials and could survive entry intact.

Any debris should be considered potentially hazardous, and first responders should not attempt to pick it up or move it.

First responders should secure a perimeter and control access around any debris. DO NOT pick up any debris. Notify your local emergency manager of its location immediately.

The concerns are similar to those encountered after the space shuttle Columbia entered the atmosphere.. However, this craft has far less hazardous materials and is much smaller in size.

The potential hazardous materials include: Hydrazine (anhydrous).

This is important information for wildland firefighters. Click on the little envelope below to email this post to your colleagues.

Rebuilding Homes After the 2003 & 2007 California Fires

Author BillPosted on Categories Uncategorized
Cedar and Witch Fires
Cedar and Witch Fires

There is a very interesting story in the Los Angeles Times about an informal group that had one thing in common….. they all lost their homes during the 2003 Cedar Fire east of San Diego and helped each other through the extremely complex process of rebuilding. The group had an influx of new members following the Witch fire of last October. The article is long, but worth reading.

Here is an excerpt from the story:

LAKESIDE, CALIF. — As firefighters battled flames and evacuated northeastern San Diego County in October, a group of Cedar fire survivors did what they wished someone had done for them five years ago.
They headed out on fire watch.

David Kassel, 53, the group’s founder, drove over to Billi-Jo Swanson’s horse ranch with his fire hose to help wet down brush.

Steven Murray, 54, rode his motorcycle above San Vicente Dam to investigate reports of flames climbing the hill.

Then Kassel and Valentine “Val” Lance, 67, motored out to keep tabs on Wildcat Canyon Road, a major thoroughfare to Ramona that firefighters kept closing. The pair advised residents whether to stay home or evacuate.

That kind of expertise was hard won. Five years ago, they met as shell-shocked strangers, burned out by the Cedar fire — the state’s worst in 75 years — which consumed 273,000 acres, killed 15 people and left more than 3,000 homeless.

Survivors convened on Thursday nights in the Lakeside storefront of Maine Avenue Tax Service. They were academics and ranchers, Democrats and Republicans, exurban neighbors who wouldn’t have said more than hello at Starbucks before the fire.

Week by week, they helped each other through illnesses and other crises. The group grew from 10 to 50, adding an online list of many more. Some rebuilt bigger and better, and dropped out of the group. Others faltered and still haven’t rebuilt.

Then the wildfires returned to San Diego County. New fire victims began turning up at meetings, adrift and alone, and the dozen remaining regulars realized that they had a new mission.

Ex-San Diego Fire Chief: "The Time for Action is Now"

Author BillPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags
Chief Bowman
Chief Bowman

An excerpt from the North County Times:

“RANCHO BERNARDO — In unveiling a report on regional firefighting strategies at a news conference Tuesday, former San Diego fire Chief Jeff Bowman said, “Much of what government does is this.”

Bowman stooped down to pick up a pile of documents nearly a foot thick. “This is what we produced after the (2003) Cedar fire.”

There is no need for more studies, said Bowman, who lives in Escondido.

“The time for action is now,” he said.

Speaking from a hilltop cul-de-sac where three Rancho Bernardo homes were incinerated in the Witch Creek fire last fall, Bowman and other members of a group called the San Diego Regional Fire Safety Forum outlined a checklist of actions they believe the region must take to avoid a similar catastrophe.

They called on the region’s most influential agencies to buy four new firefighting helicopters and 50 fire engines, and consolidate the numerous rural fire districts into a regional fire authority like one in Orange County, among other things.”

Yesterday, Feb. 19, the San Diego City Council unanimously approved the acquisition of a second helicopter for the city Fire-Rescue Department. They estimate it will cost $16 million and should be in service by August.

Photo of Chief Bowman, courtesy of SignOnSanDiego, 2006.

Prescribed Fire Demonstration for Invited Journalists

Author BillPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags ,

The Datona Beach News Journal in Florida has an article about conducting a prescribed fire as a demonstration for a horde of invited journalists. Here is an excerpt:

“TOMOKA STATE FOREST — Mike Stigler watched as smoke and burning embers billowed into the woods. The smoke was supposed to lift into the sky, not curl through the pine trees and palmettos.

The burn boss looked around at his cadre of firefighters and the horde of media standing around in the middle of Tiger Bay State Forest on Tuesday to watch a demonstration on prescribed burning. He wasn’t entirely happy. The woods were too dry, and his firefighters didn’t have enough combined experience to make him comfortable, not that any burn boss ever rests easily once the flames begin.

But Stigler and the other folks charged with balancing wild Florida’s need to burn with its 17 million people get used to conundrums. It’s tough to find a time when it’s not too dry, not too wet and wind conditions are perfect so the smoke won’t close roads and sweep into day care centers and nursing homes.

Stigler, who serves as the senior ranger at the state forest, was asked to burn nearly 23 acres to demonstrate to a group of local journalists how and why government officials and private landowners set prescribed fires. His fire was set to culminate a morning of lectures, but only if the weather cooperated. Otherwise, he’d shut it down.”