News and opinion about wildland fire
The National Weather service has posted Red Flag Warnings (red areas) and a Fire Weather Watch (yellow area) for areas in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada.
The maps were current as of 12:22 p.m. MDT on Wednesday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts and maps. For the most current data visit this NWS site.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized2 Comments on Jack Fire burns 25,000 acres in central Arizona 
A fire that is under the radar has burned over 25,000 acres in central Arizona 24 miles southeast of Sedona. It is under the radar because the National Situation Report does not list what we used to call “prescribed natural fires”. And the maps on InciWeb are either very inaccurate or they only show the fire itself, with few recognizable landmarks around the fires that would allow a person to determine where it is in relation to important features like major highways or cities.
(Join the discussion — what should we call these fires that are not fully suppressed?)
The zoomable map for the Jack Fire on InciWeb (which is not being fully suppressed) that appears at the top of the page is very out of date, showing the fire to be much, much smaller than it actually is. The .pdf maps do not enable a person to figure out where the fire is or what might be out ahead of the blaze. The June 12 Morning Intelligence Briefing at the Southwest Coordination Center had not updated the acreage on the Jack Fire since June 9, and showed it at 16,500 acres rather than the 25,700 that appeared on InciWeb June 12.
The Jack Fire InciWeb page needs to update the zoomable map, and provide a current Vicinity Map showing the accurate size of the fire and where it is in the world. For example the southeast side of the fire is three miles from a Highway that is known as 209, 65, 87, and 282, but you would not know that by looking at any of the maps.
One thing the incident management team has done well is recently uploading these images to Flickr.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized13 Comments on What happened to “Prescribed Natural Fires”? The federal wildland fire agencies have struggled for decades to come up with a good label for fires that are not fully suppressed but are herded around in order to allow them to replicate how fires burned before humans intervened, to the extent possible after considering and mitigating numerous risk factors.
In the 1970s they were called “Let Burn” fires. That sounded too much like land managers ignored them and let them run amok. Later “Prescribed Natural Fires” and “Natural Wildland Fires” came into vogue. After the 1988 fires that burned a large portion of Yellowstone National Park, descriptions longer than two words appeared, and we saw terms like “Fires Managed for Resource Benefit”. A few others were thrown around over the next 20 years, but what we’re seeing often now is “Managed Fire”. While it is short (which is important) it does not accurately differentiate a “Managed Fire” from other fires… wildfires. All large fires are managed — by Incident MANAGEMENT Teams, for Pete’s sake. So how is the public supposed to know that a “Managed Fire” is different from one that is aggressively managed but fully suppressed?
I think we should resurrect the term “Prescribed Natural Fires”. Of course that would restrict them to fires caused by lightning or volcanoes.
What are your thoughts? What other names have been used, and what should we call them now?
The film will have a cast loaded with stars.
The film about the Yarnell Hill Fire that has been in the planning and casting stages for months will begin production on Monday, June 13. Much of it will be shot near Santa Fe, New Mexico. If the director does as well at making the film as he did at hiring a cast, it should be a hit. The actors announced so far include Josh Brolin, Andie MacDowell, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jeff Bridges, Taylor Kitsch, James Badge Dale, and Ben Hardy.
Below is an excerpt from an article at AZCentral:
…“This movie’s not about tragedy,” said producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. “This movie is about the lives of these people and what they were trying to put on the line, and what it meant to them to do what they were doing and what it meant to the community to have them doing it.”
That’s important to Amanda Marsh, the widow of Eric Marsh, who was killed in the fire. She will be played by Jennifer Connelly; Josh Brolin plays Eric.
“I want the world to understand what it is like to be a hotshot and what it is like to be a hotshot wife,” she said. “Neither is easy. Both come with their own sense of deep responsibility and commitment to the job. I hope Eric’s personality comes through and that people get a sense of who Eric was.”…
Producer di Bonaventura intends to concentrate on four or five people, but said two characters drive the film — Eric Marsh, the Granite Mountain Hotshot Crew Superintendent, and Brendan McDonough, the sole survivor. He does not plan to concentrate in detail on exactly what led to the crew of 19 firefighters being overrun by fire and killed — or why.
More from AZCentral:
…The tragedy will not be ignored, of course. It’s just not the focus of the film. Di Bonaventura compared it to “The Perfect Storm,” the 2000 film in which George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg play commercial fisherman on a doomed trip. “The event they lost their lives in in that movie is probably, I don’t know, I’m guessing it’s five minutes of that movie, a two-hour movie,” he said. “It’s very similar here. It’s sort of a blue-collar-value kind of job, very Americana.”
“How they do what they do is very fascinating,” he said. “It’s unbelievably committed, it is hardcore physical exertion. It takes a real strong will to go through with the experience, and that is the thing that I hope people come away from the movie with, the appreciation of what it takes to do this. And I don’t mean necessarily the physical skill, but on an emotional level, what is the commitment? That is why we have taken on this story, is because we are awed by what they do and how they do it. ”…
Lionsgate, the studio producing the film, which has been re-titled “Granite Mountain”, has selected a September 22, 2017 release date.
South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma and Alberta’s Premier, Rachel Notley are both intervening in an attempt to resolve the controversy.
A South African news agency, News24, is reporting that the 300 firefighters sent from their country to assist with the wildfires in Alberta have been asked by Canada to go home. The agency also reports that the firefighters are saying they will not leave until they receive the money they have been demanding.
Below is an excerpt from an article at News24:
Jenni Evans, News2
Cape Town – Canada has asked South Africa’s singing firefighters to go home after an internal pay dispute could not be resolved, Working on Fire said on Saturday.
”The Canadian government has asked us to get them out of Canada as soon as possible,” said Johan Heine, chairperson of the board of Working on Fire.
But Heine said the team has indicated that they will not leave until they receive confirmation that their pay demands will be met.
”They are demanding their money before they leave, and [that they] get confirmation that they get more money.”
”We all feel very terrible about it,” said Heine, who has been a firefighter for 30 years.
A Working on Fire management team arrived in Edmonton, Canada on Saturday morning and would travel with a South African embassy official to Alberta where they are based, to negotiate and pick a date for their return.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported online that Premier of Alberta, Rachel Notley promised to intervene.
CBS quoted Notley as saying that it was not acceptable to her and her government that they would have people working for wages in that do not align with their labour laws.
She said every firefighter from South Africa or anywhere else would be compensated “in accordance with our laws in this province.”
The Peninsula, a Qatar newspaper, has a similar report.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized22 Comments on South African firefighters in Alberta embroiled in pay dispute The 300 firefighters that arrived in Alberta, Canada on May 29 to assist with the huge fire near Fort McMurray refused to work Wednesday over a dispute about their pay. When they were first deployed the Globe and Mail wrote:
After a month in Canada, they will take home the equivalent of about $1,500 each. It doesn’t seem like much, but it’s 10 times more than their normal monthly stipend in the training program. It will help many of the firefighters to get out of shacks and build new brick houses, get driver’s licenses or enter postsecondary education.
Below is an excerpt from an article at CBCNews on Wednesday:
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“…Bitiro Moseki is one of the firefighters based at a camp north of Fort McMurray. He said they are being paid $15 a day.
“It’s fifteen not even per hour, it’s fifteen per day,” said Moseki.
While that may seem hard to believe, given that Alberta expects to move to a $15-an-hour minimum wage by 2018, a contract thought to be between the firefighters and their employer seems to back up the claim.
It shows the firefighters signed a contract that stated they would be paid a total of $50 a day, split into two payments.
The contract agrees to pay them $15 a day now, with the balance of $35 a day paid out within six months of their return to South Africa.
Moseki agreed firefighters did sign the contract, but said they have since been unsettled by media reports claiming they’re making much more money.
He said news articles quoted the South African government program that employs the crews claiming the workers are making between $15 and $21 an hour.
“We are not here for money, we are here to assist you,” said Moseki, adding the firefighters have turned to the South African commissioner in Canada for help to resolve the issue.
The contract does make it clear the money the firefighters are being paid is over and above their home wages, which were not disclosed.
The provincial government confirmed the South African firefighters did not work Wednesday because of the pay dispute.
“We contract with the South African government based on a rate per day per firefighter,” Alberta Agriculture and Forestry said in a statement. “We’re paying the rate. It’s our understanding these firefighters are being paid what they agreed to before they arrived. But if there is a disagreement here, it’s between the firefighters and their employer and not with the Government of Alberta.”
The ministry said the firefighters are employed by the Government of South Africa…”
