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California passes bills boosting mental health support for firefighters

Bill GabbertOctober 2, 2019February 12, 2020Uncategorizedcancer, firefighter health, presumptive disease2 Comments

The legislation addresses peer support and treatment for post-traumatic stress

Legion Lake Fire South Dakota — A firefighter at the Legion Lake Fire in Custer State Park, South Dakota, December 13, 2019. Photo by Bill Gabbert.

Yesterday the Governor of California signed into law two pieces of legislation that can improve support for the mental health of firefighters.

The California Firefighter Peer Support and Crisis Referral Services Act authorizes state, local, and regional public fire agencies to establish a Peer Support and Crisis Referral Program to provide an agency-wide network of peer representatives available to aid fellow employees with emotional or professional issues. The bill also provides that emergency services personnel have a right to refuse to disclose, and to prevent another from disclosing, a confidential communication between the emergency service personnel and a peer support team member, crisis hotline staff member, or crisis referral service.

A second bill, SB-542 Workers’ Compensation, classifies post-traumatic stress as an “injury”, like conventional physical injuries. This will allow compensation for hospital stays, surgery, medical treatment, disability indemnity, and death benefits.

The bills do not apply to federal employees, with a few exceptions for some NASA and Department of Defense firefighters in the state.

These bills are a step toward recognizing presumptive diseases or injuries that when suffered by a firefighter are presumed to be an on the job injury, and would be treated as such. Montana, British Columbia, Washington, and other jurisdictions have presumptive disease programs for firefighters. Of course the key is the list of diseases that are covered. Listing one or two would leave out the eight or ten others that can be caused by serving the public as a firefighter.

California and the Southeast expected to have above normal wildfire activity

Bill GabbertOctober 1, 2019Uncategorizedpotential, weather

On October 1 the Predictive Services section at the National Interagency Fire Center issued their Wildland Fire Potential Outlook for October through January. The data represents the cumulative forecasts of the ten Geographic Area Predictive Services Units and the National Predictive Services Unit.

If NIFC’s analysis is correct, the Southeastern United States and areas of California will have areas with above average potential for wildfires through December.

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;
Vegetation greenness map;
Keetch-Byram Drought Index.

From NIFC:

“Both [California and the Southeast] appear to have areas of elevated large fire potential entering the fall, especially across the Southeast where drought is emerging in the Appalachians. In California, fuels remain receptive to fire activity under critical fire weather conditions in the middle and lower elevations. The grass crop remains dense. This should remain a concern heading through October, November, and into December. In the Southeast, the persisting dry conditions will allow for the fuels to continue to dry which will allow for the large fire potential to continue to gradually elevate until the frequency of passing weather systems begin to increase in December and January.”

Continue reading “California and the Southeast expected to have above normal wildfire activity”

Overview of Rapid Extraction Module

Bill GabbertOctober 1, 2019October 1, 2019UncategorizedRapid Extraction Module1 Comment

https://wildfiretoday.com/tag/rapid-extraction-module/ — Rapid Extraction Module. Screenshot from the video below.

It has been a while since we covered Rapid Extraction Modules. Here is a video describing one that was assigned to the Maple Fire in Washington last year.

The Incident Command System Position Manual (ICS-223-12) describes a Rapid Extraction Module as “a pre-staged rescue team assigned to a wildland fire to provide firefighters a safe, effective and efficient method of egress off the fireline in the event of injury or illness incurred during firefighting operations.”

Kari Greer took photos of an REM going through proficiency practice.

All articles on Wildfire Today tagged Rapid Extraction Module.

Backup copy of the video.

Photos of homes being rebuilt after the Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa

Bill GabbertOctober 1, 2019September 30, 2019UncategorizedCalifornia, tubbs fire2 Comments

Map Tubbs, Nuns, Atlas Fires — Map of the Tubbs, Nuns, and Atlas Fires. October, 2017.

When the Tubbs Fire burned through Santa Rosa and Sonoma County, California in October 2017, it destroyed over 5,600 structures and burned almost 37,000 acres.

Photographer Kent Porter has documented some of the rebuilding efforts in Santa Rosa with photos taken soon after the fire and again recently.

Nearly two years after the #Tubbsfire plowed through Santa Rosa, #coffeyparkstrong is being rebuilt at a steady pace as are sections of Fountaingrove. @NorthBayNews pic.twitter.com/iCkThOXueZ

— Kent Porter (@kentphotos) September 30, 2019

Park Service, still without a Director, gets a new Acting Director

Bill GabbertSeptember 30, 2019UncategorizedDavid Vela, National Park Service2 Comments

The NPS Director position has been vacant since January 2017

David Vela NPS acting director — David Vela. NPS photo.

The National Park Service has not had a Director to lead the agency since January 2017, when Jonathan Jarvis left the job after serving as director for eight years under President Obama.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt announced September 30 that David Vela, already serving as one of three deputy directors in the NPS, will now also exercise the delegated authority of the director. In other words, he was appointed to the Acting Director position.

Mr. Vela was nominated for the Director position in 2018 and was approved by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, but the Senate declined to take a vote. When the new Congress convened in January he would have had to have been nominated again by the President, but that did not happen. When he was nominated he was the Superintendent of Grand Teton National Park. After the Senate confirmation fell through, according to EENews he joined the NPS Washington Office anyway serving as the Deputy Director of Operations.

On October 1, 2019 Mr. Vela will take the place of the current acting Director, P. Daniel Smith who has been a controversial figure.

National Parks Traveler has three examples of recent forced transfers of high ranking NPS employees that resulted in them choosing to retire rather than agree to the moves.

Former paratrooper on extended motorcycle trip visits wildland firefighting sites

Bill GabbertSeptember 30, 2019September 30, 2019Uncategorized

(Above: screenshot from Cannonshot’s wildland fire tour article. Click to enlarge.)

After a military veteran, a retired Colonel, learned that there are similarities between warfighting and firefighting, he decided to visit scores, if not hundreds, of locations around the western United States that are related to wildland fire. He departed from Southeast Wisconsin on his BMW GS Adventure motorcycle and returned 22 days and 10,000 miles later having accomplished about a third of his goal. He visited fire stations, notable fires, fatality sites, as well as helitack and air tanker bases. He also stopped at, photographed, and wrote about other sites of general interest in between. He identified locations to visit all around the western United States. His first article documents his travels through the Northwest, including Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, and parts of South Dakota, Utah, Nevada, and Colorado. On two more trips next year he plans to cover the Southwest and California.

It is interesting to hear how someone with a military background, in this case a paratrooper, perceives wildland firefighting. In this case the writer is known only by his “Cannonshot” handle at the Adventure Rider website, which is usually frequented by long distance or “adventure” motorcyclists, who are not often seen on Harley-type loud-pipe bikes. That’s my impression of the site anyway, after a quick perusal.

Cannonshot’s writings and photographs of this 22-day trip are very extensive, covering 14 lengthy pages. You’ll need to schedule some time if you intend to read it all. But if you’re into wildland fire or motorcycles, or both like some of us, it will be a good way to spend an evening.

Above is a quick screen grab of one portion of the piece. Here is a link to the article.

Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Eric. Typos or errors, report them HERE.