Wildfire Today

News and opinion about wildland fire

Wildfire Today

Category: Uncategorized

Five lessons learned at Prescott fire managers meeting

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags 1 Comment on Five lessons learned at Prescott fire managers meeting

State Foresters meeting prescottThis week in Prescott, Arizona the National Association of State Foresters held their annual “Chiefs, Managers and Supervisors Meeting”. The goal of the 120 attendees was to discuss the policies, technologies, and procedures that will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of fighting wildfires.

One product from the event was a list of the top five lessons learned:

  1. Change starts with coordinated leadership. The work the nation’s state foresters are doing together to improve wildfire preparedness, detection, and suppression is critical to protecting communities small and large across the country. When state foresters lead the charge on these issues, and act as one, their voice is amplified in Congress – and more importantly – outside of Congress in the public domain where change-making starts.
  2. Speak the same language and use the same metrics whenever possible. When the states share similar language to characterize their wildfire fighting programs, national and regional wildfire fighting coordination is improved and lives are saved. Additionally, with a standardized method of measuring wildfire costs across the nation, we can track exactly where money for wildfire prevention and suppression goes and to what benefit, ultimately allowing for more efficient resource allocation.
  3. Stay the course on advocating for federal forest management and wildfire funding reform. A positive resolution is closer than ever. The USDA, Department of the Interior, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, and other national partners are in agreement on the broad strokes of federal forest management reform and a wildfire funding fix, which means the state foresters are in a good position to propose and advocate for what specific changes need making.
  4. Words matter; and actions even more. It’s time to stop talking about how we can better support and protect wildland firefighters; how we can better contain costs, employ new technologies, and help prevent catastrophic post-fire damage. In many cases, we have the information we need to set smarter federal forest management and wildfire policies. It’s time to put that information to use – to change policies to save lives.
  5. Sharing processes that work, works. Better decisions and better outcomes come out of sharing experiences and expertise between state forestry and fire agencies. One of the best ways to contribute to cooperative networks is to get connected.

Red Flag Warnings, January 26, 2018

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags

The National Weather Service has issued Red Flag Warnings for portions of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Forecasters expect northwest winds of 15 to 25 mph gusting to 35 with a relative humidity as low as 12 percent.

A Fire Weather Watch is in effect for strong winds beginning Saturday evening lasting until Monday night in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties in Southern California. The forecast is for 15 to 25 percent relative humidity with 25 to 35 mph northeast winds gusting at 45 to 55 mph.

The map was current as of 6:40 a.m. MST on Friday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts.

Grapes exposed to wildfire smoke may produce smoke-flavored wine

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , 4 Comments on Grapes exposed to wildfire smoke may produce smoke-flavored wine
Wine grapes
Wine grapes. Photo by Fir0002.

From CFJC Today:

A new study out of the University of British Columbia Okanagan has looked at what happens to wine grapes when they are exposed to wildfire smoke.

Researchers found chemicals in the smoke can give wine an off-putting smoky flavour and aroma known as smoke taint — and those volatile phenols are absorbed quickly and remain in the grape long after the smoke has cleared.

The authors say while wine from those grapes can be smoke-flavoured, the grapes themselves taste normal, likely a result of the volatile phenols changing during the fermentation process.

Visualizing California fires over the last 18 years

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags ,

I love well designed graphics, and this one from Axios certainly falls into that category. It shows the time of the year wildfires larger than 300 acres occurred in California.

Click on the chart a couple of times to see a larger version.

It is still not clear why CAL FIRE Chief was removed from position

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , 7 Comments on It is still not clear why CAL FIRE Chief was removed from position
CAL FIRE Chief John Hawkins
Chief John Hawkins speaking at the Wildland Fire Safety Summit in Pasadena, April, 2006. IAWF photo by Bill Gabbert.

Friday of last week news broke that John Hawkins, the longtime chief of the CAL FIRE Riverside Unit and Riverside County Fire Department, was suddenly removed from his position. There was no immediate permanent successor identified and he is being temporarily replaced by Deputy Chief Dan Talbot. Chief Hawkins’ firefighting career has spanned 54 years and he had been in his County Chief position for 12 years.

The local newspaper, the Press-Enterprise, published a story late Tuesday afternoon providing a little more information, reporting that it was a CAL FIRE decision, and not a move by the Riverside County Board of Supervisors:

“CAL FIRE made the decision that it was time for new leadership,” said [County Supervisor Kevin] Jeffries, a former volunteer fire captain. “There was no scandalous events that occurred, nothing exciting like that. It was just a leadership change that CAL FIRE felt was important and we were kind of kept in the loop a little bit. But it was a decision of CAL FIRE.”

Chief Hawkins was not only the Chief of the CAL FIRE units in Riverside County protecting state responsibility areas in the Southern California County, but he also supervised the CAL FIRE resources that provide services under contract to Riverside County, which is the 4th-most populous county in California and the 11th-most populous in the United States.

Firefighters and aircraft are being kept busy in New South Wales

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags ,

(This article was first published on Fire Aviation)

A post shared by Charlton Durie (@charltondurie) on

Click on the image above to start the video. Then, to see a second video, click on the arrow on the right side of the image.

Instagram user “charltondurie” grabbed this photo and video of Air Tanker 912, a DC-10, dropping retardant on a fire about 70 miles (110 km) southwest of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia that has burned 1,880 ha (4,645 acres) northeast of Taralga between Bannaby and Wombeyan Caves.

A huge fire in the Pilliga Forest between Coonabarabran and Narrabri has blackened over 57,880 hectares (143,000 acres).

Lightning ignited multiple fires across the Blue Mountains and Yengo National Parks in NSW Monday evening. There are two fires burning in remote areas to the north of the Great Western Highway in the Grose Valley, Blue Mountains National Park and an additional six fires south of the Great Western Highway and north of Warragamba Dam in the Blue Labyrinth, Blue Mountains National Park. The aircraft is named “Nancy Bird” after an Australian aviatrix.

There is also one fire in the Yengo National Park, east of the Putty Road in the Hawkesbury.

These lightning fires are burning in remote areas. NSW  Rural Fire Service and  National Parks and Wildlife Remote Area Firefighters have worked to establish and consolidate containment lines with the support of air tankers.