The House of Representatives narrowly passed the legislation Friday. Now it goes to the Senate.
12:46 EDT, July 27, 2022
Rep. Joe Neguse interviewed on CNN July 27, 2022 about the Wildfire Response and Drought Resiliency Act.
In this video from CNN, Brianna Keilar interviews Colorado Rep. Joe Neguse about the Wildfire Response and Drought Resiliency Act, H.R. 5118, which would benefit wildland firefighters. It boosts their pay and benefits, helps the Forest Service fill gaps in fire management staff, and promotes bigger forest management projects to reduce hazardous fuels.
The bill is a conglomeration of half a dozen pieces of legislation, including the Tim Hart Wildland Firefighter Pay Parity Act (H.R. 5631), all rolled into one. It would require that the minimum basic pay for any Federal wildland firefighter position be no less than the pay for a GS-6 Step 3, which is $42,946 a year ($21.29 an hour). It would also stipulate that the salary be adjusted annually by not less than the change in the Consumer Price Index.
N388RA Boeing CH-47D preparing to take off at Penticton Airport in British Columbia July 16, 2022. Image from VMC Aviation Videos.
The US Forest Service has released a brief initial report about the July 21 crash of the Boeing CH-47D helicopter in the Salmon River while working on the Moose Fire 20 air miles northwest of Salmon, Idaho. The two pilots were killed.
Below is the complete text of the narrative section of the document which was dated July 22, 2022, but was not posted on the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned site until today around noon.
On Thursday, July 20, a call when needed CH-47D Series Chinook Helicopter crashed into the Salmon River, adjacent to the Indianola Work Center approximately 11 miles west of North Fork, Idaho on the Moose Fire. The aircraft sustained severe damage, the pilots were extracted and transported to hospitals but both sustained fatal injuries. The NTSB has been notified and will be conducting an accident investigation. The USDA Forest Service has assigned a learning review team.
The pilots, the only personnel on board, were Thomas Hayes, 41, of Post Falls, Idaho, and Jared Bird, 36, of Anchorage, Alaska.
The helicopter was operated by Anchorage-based ROTAK Helicopter Services.
The FAA confirms that the registration number of the helicopter is N388RA, which is one of two CH-47D ships ROTAK recently purchased from Columbia Helicopters.
The general area where the CH-47D crashed July 21, 2022. Google Earth. The red shading represents an area burned in the Moose Fire.
There are unconfirmed reports that a hotshot crew was nearby when it crashed and they went into the Salmon River and extricated the pilots in an attempt to save them.
The last time Flight Aware tracked N388FA was at 3:02 p.m. MDT July 21. Because of the rugged terrain, it first showed it north of the Salmon Airport. Then it went northwest generally toward the Moose Fire and lost tracking at 3:12 p.m., minutes before it reached the river.
As an example of the terrain here is a photo of the Comet Fire I took a few years ago from Highway 93 just east of the current Moose Fire, 13 air miles north of Salmon, ID. The Salmon River is in the foreground.
Comet Fire, July 28, 2016. Photo by Bill Gabbert.
The video below was shot at Penticton Airport in British Columbia July 16, 2022 when it stopped for fuel en route from Alaska to Idaho.
Three fires in two years that killed giant sequoia trees. The darker green areas represent groves of giant sequoias.
The U.S. Forest Service distributed information yesterday saying there are areas still burning in giant sequoia groves after wildfires that occurred in the Castle and Windy Fires of 2020 and 2021.
From the Sequoia National Forest, July 23, 2022:
Three fires were discovered this week, still smoldering inside the 2020 Castle and 2021 Windy Fires. Firefighters from Sequoia National Forest quickly reached two, and the third could not be reached safely due to the dense stand of fire-killed trees surrounding it.
The 1-acre Cougar Fire was found burning in the Red Hill Giant Sequoia Grove near the Tule River Indian Reservation boundary. Less than a half mile away, the ¼-acre Crawford Fire was reported by fire personnel responding to the Cougar Fire. Both were caused by a smoldering giant sequoia tree leftover from last summer’s Windy Fire.
Burning area in giant sequoia grove. US Forest Service. Photo distributed July 23, 2022. (Date of the photo and name of fire not provided)
Fireline was constructed by hand to stop each fire from spreading further. Heavy material: treetops, limbs, and trunks of previous fallen trees continue to smolder underneath these still-standing sequoia trees, weakened by the fire burning inside them. Fire personnel will continue to mop up and extinguish what they can without jeopardizing their safety by having to work under a burning giant sequoia tree. Neither the Cougar nor Crawford Fires pose an immediate risk to nearby communities.
On Thursday, a third fire was reported southeast of Camp Nelson in the Belknap Giant Sequoia Grove. Helicopter personnel located this fire deep inside the burned area of the 2020 Castle Fire. Due to its remote location, numerous standing hazard trees endangering fire personnel, and minimal chance of escape, this fire will be monitored from a distance and by air.
There have been several instances of smoldering trees, most of them large diameter giant sequoias, observed and reported in both the Castle and Windy Fire burned areas. These are likely to continue as dry conditions persist. Firefighter safety is a priority when determining how best to extinguish these types of fires. They may have to be monitored until the trees fall on their own and can be managed safely on the ground.
Smoke forecast for the United States at 7 a.m. MDT July 24, 2022. NOAA.
NOAA has produced a forecast for the distribution of vertically integrated wildfire smoke at 7 a.m. MDT Sunday July 24. Locations to be hit the hardest are areas in Northern California, Northern Nevada, Eastern Idaho, and Montana.
Smoke forecast for Northern California and Nevada at 7 a.m. MDT July 24, 2022.
Staging area, Grant Fire, near the Salton Sea in Riverside County, California June 22, 2022. BLM photo.
This weekend we are continuing an occasional weekend feature we started a few weeks ago. This post can serve as the beginning of an open thread where our readers can talk about issues that we have, or have not, gotten into yet. This is literally an off-topic thread. You have the floor.
The usual rules about commenting apply. And remember, no personal attacks or politics, please.
Let’s enjoy a wide-ranging conversation!
(Oh, and send us pics of staging areas — date, location, and photographer’s name would be nice.)
Fire break under construction in Southwest France. July, 2022. France24.
The Bordeaux region in Southwest France has experienced many fires in the last few weeks that have burned a total of about 50,000 acres (20,000 Ha). Thinking that it will stop future fires, officials are building a large fire break three miles (5 K) long and about 1,000 feet (300 meters) wide.
Red areas on a map of Southwest France represent heat at wildfires detected by satellites during the seven-day period ending July 22, 2022. NASA FIRMS.
In parts of the Western United States back in the 1960s building fire breaks was a common practice. Some were only one or two dozer blades wide scraped down to mineral soil, while others were wider. But in later decades firefighters realized that no firebreak is likely to stop a rapidly spreading blaze.
Fires become large most often because they are burning in copious amounts of vegetation (fuel) during strong winds. Under unusually hot, dry, and windy conditions burning embers are lofted into the air. As they are blown downwind they can ignite new fires, “spot fires”, hundreds of feet or even up to a mile away from the main fire. Usually these embers are small, but can be as large as tree branches or even a four-by-eight-foot sheet of plywood, both of which have come close to or even hit air tankers working over the fire.
Under extreme conditions nothing will stop a large fire unless it completely runs out of fuel over a very large area, or the weather changes. A 1,000-foot fire break can stop a slow moving fire, but not a conflagration of the type that wipes out dozens of structures.
Something that cannot be ignored is that removal of all vegetation can result in severe environmental damage.
In the United States land managers are now more prone to build fuel breaks. They do not attempt to remove all vegetation, but only reduce it to the point where it will slow the spread of a fire enough that firefighters, sometimes aided by aircraft dropping water or fire retardant, can safely move in close to the flanks, make a direct attack, anchor the heel, and work their way along the edges and eventually stop the head of the fire. Fuel breaks helped firefighters last year on the Caldor Fire near South Lake Tahoe in California.
The first video below describes the firebreak in France. The next one is an update on the wildfires in the southwest part of the country.
