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A trailblazing firefighter provides training for women

Bill GabbertDecember 22, 2017August 25, 2019UncategorizedBequi Livingston, women4 Comments

Above: the USFS engine crew at Descanso, California in 1990. In the front row, L to R., Bequi Livingston, Maureen, Chris Anderson, Bill Gabbert.

Today I ran across an article that initially got my attention because it mentioned a firefighter I worked with who had an unusual name: Bequi Livingston. I worked with Bequi in 1990 on the U.S. Forest Service engine crew at Descanso, California. Already having a great deal of experience, she came to that position through the apprenticeship program, a way to get her permanent appointment, and it was obvious that she was destined for something greater.

The article below, reprinted with permission, was written by Zöe Rom for the December 20, 2017 edition of REI Co-op Journal.

Bequi Livingston is an old-school badass. She spent her career fighting fires alongside the most respected crews in the West. Today, she’s dedicated to training more women in backcountry firefighting.

She began working with the U.S. Forest Service in 1979 in New Mexico’s Smokey Bear Ranger District. After serving on the Young Adult Conservation Corps, she became a seasonal firefighter, eventually working her way up through fire engines, helitack crews, hotshot crews, fire prevention and fire lookout. Livingston went on to become an assistant fire management officer and later, a prescribed fire operations specialist. She was one of the first women to ever serve on the Sandia Helitack crew, and one of the first two women to ever serve on the prestigious Smokey Bear Hotshot Crew. In 2008, Livingston earned the Paul Gleason Award for her service in the wildland firefighting community.

After retiring, she started the Women In Wildland Fire Boot Camp in 2004, a program still running today in the USFS Southwestern Region (and modeled by other agencies throughout the West) to recruit and train women for success as backcountry firefighters.

She lives in Albuquerque with her husband, competes with the New Mexico Track Club and recently qualified for the National Senior Olympic Games.

Did you dream of being a backcountry firefighter when you were a little girl?

I was lucky to spend all my childhood summers at a remote family cabin in New Mexico where I learned to love nature and the woods. I loved to hike and fish and just spend time in nature. I was also an elite athlete and loved outdoor physical activities. When I was a senior in high school (in El Paso, Texas), I knew that I wanted to be a firefighter but only knew about the city structural firefighters and didn’t even know that wildland firefighters existed.

The vice principal at school would do everything to talk me out of it, saying you are too small, you’re a woman in a men’s profession and it’s too dangerous. He even lent me library books about catastrophic firefighting events. It only fueled my interest more. Then I went to college on an athletic scholarship, and my boyfriend worked as a wildland firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service. That’s the first I even knew about the job. That really sparked my interest because he loved it so much.

What is the job actually like? Can you describe a typical day (if such a thing exists)?

Although wildland firefighting has changed a lot, one typical day on a large fire with a crew would be like this: Wake up about 4am to get dressed and eat chow before attending briefing for the day’s assignment. Depending on the assignment that day for your crew, you will be transported (bus, van, helicopter or walking) to your division with specific instructions for your crew’s 12-hour shift. Duties vary according to the fire’s progression and objectives and, of course, safety. You are typically working with a variety of other fire crews and resources which are very specific and tactical in nature. Most often, you will take a short lunch break at some point and continue working, depending on the current situation as it continually changes. If all goes well during the work shift, you will typically leave the fireline in order to complete your shift by 6pm. Then, you head back to fire camp, eat dinner, shower if showers are available, have a little down time and bed down in your crew tents. But it all depends, and it can all change in the blink of an eye.

What’s it like being a woman in this male-dominated field?

Continue reading “A trailblazing firefighter provides training for women”

Ponderosa pines are not adapted to high-severity fire

Bill GabbertDecember 22, 2017Uncategorizedponderosa pine, research6 Comments

And this type of fire is increasingly common in the Southwest

Regenerating Ponderosa Pine — Regenerating ponderosa pine in a high-severity burn patch, 13 years after the 2000 Pumpkin Fire. (From the Fact Sheet)

The increasing size and severity of wildfires in the Western United States may have long term effects on species composition. A Fact Sheet published this month by Northern Arizona University and the U.S. Forest Service looks at ponderosa pine regeneration in patches of high-severity areas of the 2000 Pumpkin and the 2002 Rodeo-Chediski wildfires in the Southwest. Below are excerpts from the document written by Suzanne Owen, PhD student, School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University:

Introduction

Over the past three decades, wildfires in southwestern U.S. ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests have increased in size and severity, leaving large, contiguous patches of tree mortality. Ponderosa pines evolved under fire regimes dominated by low- to moderate-severity wildfires. They are poorly adapted to regenerate in large patches of high-severity fire because they are not a sprouting species and do not have serotinous cones or long-lived soil seedbanks. Consequently, the lack of seed-producing trees in high-severity burn patches may prevent or significantly delay ponderosa pine regeneration. Previous studies have documented low ponderosa pine regeneration densities in large high-severity burn patches, but less is known about the spatial patterns of ponderosa pine regeneration and interactions with sprouting species near residual live forest edges or the interiors of high-severity burn patches.

[…]

Results

Ponderosa pines were re-establishing in all of our study plots, however regeneration densities were lower farther from forest edges.
Ponderosa pines seedlings were found in areas more than 980 feet from potential parent trees on all interior study plots.
Regenerating ponderosa pines displayed patterns of small-scale spatial aggregation in all plots, except one edge and one interior plot on the Pumpkin Fire, which displayed random distributions.
Dense resprouting trees dominated tree regeneration on the Rodeo-Chediski Fire, but did not influence the spatial location or height of regenerating ponderosa pine.
Regenerating ponderosa pine height was positively correlated with neighboring ponderosa pine densities and height.

Implications

Tree regeneration densities and species composition in high-severity burn patches are highly variable in different geographic locations.
Regeneration patterns suggest both short- and long-distance dispersal may play important roles in ponderosa pine regeneration in high-severity burn patches.
Ponderosa pine regeneration could be more strongly influenced by intraspecific facilitation than interspecific competition from dense sprouting species.
Future forest spatial patterns and composition are still unclear, but at this stage of development, these heterogeneous patches, characterized by drought-tolerant sprouting species or low pine densities, could be more resilient to climate change and severe wildfires than the overly dense ponderosa pine forests that were present before the wildfires.
Managers may want to use a “wait and see” approach before replanting in some areas to monitor natural regeneration over time.

Three incidents in one night on the Thomas Fire

Bill GabbertDecember 21, 2017December 21, 2017UncategorizedCalifornia, Thomas Fire6 Comments

Four crews had to retreat, and four vehicles were damaged by the fire

On December 10 about six days after the Thomas Fire started it made a significant run to the west while pushed by strong Santa Ana winds. According to a “Blue Sheet” released by CAL FIRE, two strike teams of hand crews, which would normally be four crews of 12 to 20 persons each, had to retreat to a safer area. The report says they went to a “temporary refuge area”, TRA, which is a new term. This is unlike a safety zone where firefighters could stage without a risk of fire impingement or the need for a fire shelter.

In this first incident one of the emergency crew transport (ECT) vehicles sustained minor heat damage when its route was blocked by another ECT.

In two other unrelated incidents on the fire that night involving staged equipment, a dozer and an all-terrain vehicle were damaged by the fire and an excavator was destroyed.

Legion Lake Fire’s effect on bison and ranches

Bill GabbertDecember 20, 2017August 25, 2019UncategorizedLegion Lake Fire, South Dakota4 Comments

Almost 10,000 acres of private land burned in the fire

Above: One of the private ranches on Lame Johnny Road affected by the Legion Lake Fire.

(Originally published at 3:00 p.m. MST December 19, 2017.)

The Legion Lake Fire that burned over 54,000 acres in the Southern Black Hills of South Dakota is 100 percent contained and is just about wrapped up in regards to fire suppression.

But some of the effects will linger on for many months. Fences are being repaired, the entire burro herd in Custer State Park of nine animals is being treated for burns, and private landowners are assessing their losses.

repair fence custer state fence — Workers repair a fence in Custer State Park damaged by the Legion Lake Fire. Photo credit: Custer State Park.

More than half of the portion of Custer State Park that is available for their bison herd burned in the fire, and park officials are asking for hay donations to help the animals get through the winter. (Scroll down to see donation information.) Over 8,000 acres of Wind Cave National Park burned in this fire and in September’s Rankin Fire, but park spokesperson Tom Farrell said they still have plenty of forage in reserve for the 260 elk and 350 bison.

Map Legion Lake Fire — Map of the Legion Lake Fire. Click to enlarge.

Almost 10,000 acres of private land primarily used for ranching burned in the fire east of the two parks and west of Highway 79.

One of the strategies used by the Type 2 Incident Management Team was to conduct large-scale burnouts, often from roads some distance from the fire. The fire started Monday December 11, and their plan on Tuesday when the fire was 4,000 acres, was to quadruple the size to 15,000 to 16,000 acres by burning out one to four miles out ahead of the blaze. Strong winds Tuesday night blew the fire past the roads targeted in that strategy. After the rapid expansion the IMT had to choose other roads from which to burnout, which in some cases were also a significant distance from the fire.

Firefighters burning out along Highway 87 on the Legion Lake Fire Wednesday December 13, 2017.

On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday the Incident Management Team (IMT) conducted burnouts in several areas from roads and trails in both parks and on the private land to the east which is primarily used for ranching. This had the effect of containing those sections of the perimeter perhaps more quickly than it could have been done if direct lines on the fire’s edge were constructed by hand crews, engines with water, or by using dozers, but in some cases it burned grass, pastures, and acres that would not have been lost with direct firelines.

Finding enough firefighting resources for a large fire in South Dakota in December is very difficult. The very large Thomas Fire burning hundreds of thousands of Southern California acres could have complicated the process of ordering out-of-region fire suppression resources. In addition to numerous engines, including at least one from New Mexico, the IMT only had portions of three local hand crews.

Two large air tankers arrived at the Rapid City Air Tanker Base late in the day on Monday, the day the fire started. They were not used Monday or Tuesday, and made five drops Wednesday on the south end of the fire north of the 7-11 Road. The 3,000-gallon air tankers were not used after that. The two planes were not available at the same time for part of their assignment at Rapid City. The RJ85, Tanker 163, had a mechanical issue on Tuesday and was down for a few hours, and the MD-87, Tanker 101, was on a mandatory day off Thursday.

tanker 101 retardant drop legion lake fire — Retardant drop on the Legion Lake Fire, Wednesday December 13, 2017 by Tanker 101, an MD-87. Photo by Rob Powell.

We asked Rob Powell, the Incident Commander on the IMT, about burnouts that were used on the east side of the fire, including private land, Wednesday afternoon through Friday.

We tried to keep it from going east any farther. There were some burnouts off highway 79 to strengthen 79… Once it crossed the Wildlife Loop [Road in Custer State Park] our next line of defense was 79 and didn’t want it to get any farther down French Creek, Lame Johnny and all that stuff.

We realized that in order to save grass we were going to sacrifice some but we tried to do as minimal as we possibly could.

Legion Lake Fire South Dakota — Private land on Lame Johnny Road affected by the Legion Lake Fire.

Silvia Christen, Executive Director of the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association, has been in contact with some of the ranchers in the nearly 10,000 acres of private land that burned. She said:

Landowners have lost quite a bit of grass, and that is their grazing for the winter, of course. A lot of hay bales burned up which many ranchers had to purchase this year because of the drought conditions and now they will have to purchase more to replace the hay that was lost.

There has been some concern that in some instances or in quite a few instances especially on the eastern edge of the fire that when the wind had gone down — clearly when it blew up Tuesday night there was very little that could be done — but by Wednesday and Thursday and the fire was relatively under control we’re getting reports that some of the local volunteer departments had extinguished the fire and it was relit in order to burn off certain areas that were on private land. I think that once emotions calm down about the whole situation and we can take a good look at it I think we need to have some discussions about how those decisions were made.

Individuals who wish to donate hay to those impacted by the fire should contact Farm Rescue at info@farmrescue.org or 701.252.2017. They can also visit Farm Rescue’s website to make an online monetary donation.

Red Flag Warnings December 20, 2017

Bill GabbertDecember 20, 2017January 27, 2018Uncategorizedred flag borders, Red Flag Warning

Red Flag Warnings have been issued for portions of California, Nevada, and Arizona today. One of the areas affected is the western part of the Thomas Fire in Santa Barbara County where the winds will be northwest to northeast at 15 to 30 mph with gusts to 50 while the relative humidity lowers to 20 to 40 percent.

The map was current as of 9:15 a.m. MST on Wednesday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts.

After Action Review of the Chimney Tops 2 Fire

Bill GabbertDecember 19, 2017March 18, 2021UncategorizedChimney 2 Fire, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, report, Tennessee5 Comments

An After Action Review has been released for the Chimney Tops 2 Fire that spread from Great Smoky Mountains National Park into the city of Gatlinburg, Tennessee a little over a year ago killing 14 people, forcing 14,000 to evacuate, destroying or damaging 2,500 structures, and burning 17,000 acres. The AAR, completed by ABS Group, was commissioned by Gatlinburg and Sevier County.

You can download the large pdf file (2.8 MB) HERE.

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