News and opinion about wildland fire
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized26 Comments on The US Forest Service introduces us to a Hotshot crew First of a two-part series
The California Region of the US Forest Service has been prolific in generating videos over the last several weeks. Here is their latest, released today. In the first of a two-part series, we catch up with the Eldorado Hotshots to learn what a Hotshot crew is and how they fight wildfires.
UPDATE Nov. 10, 2021: Part two of the two-part series about hotshot crews is now available.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized2 Comments on NWCG announces recipients of the 2020 Wildland Fire EMS Awards 
The National Wildfire Coordinating Group’s Emergency Medical Committee annually recognizes individuals and groups who have demonstrated outstanding actions or accomplishments that are above and beyond the expectation of one’s normal mission or job duties. The 2020 awards honor seven individuals and three crews:
Burns Interagency Fire Zone and Malheur National Forest T2IA Crews
Outstanding Wildfire EMS Crew of the Year
On Aug. 5, 2020, while the 20-member Burns Interagency Fire Zone and Malheur National Forest crews were providing initial response to a fire in the Malheur National Forest in eastern Oregon. A rock rolled downhill and struck their EMT on the head, rendering him unconscious with heavy bleeding. Just days prior, that same EMT had trained the crew on what to do if their EMT were incapacitated. The Burns Interagency Fire Zone crew immediately worked to stabilize the patient with the assistance of the Malheur National Forest crew. They were able to transport the patient to an ambulance within 20 minutes. The crew member had a severe head laceration and a skull fracture that required emergency surgery. According to the neurosurgeon, this type of head injury is typically not survivable. Due to the quick actions of both crews on the scene the EMT was able to get medical attention in time, make a full recovery, and be released to light duty. A report about the incident was developed to help train other crews on what to do in a similar situation.
Heather Wonenberg
Outstanding Wildland Fire EMS Individual of the Year
As the Assistant Helitak Foreman on Yosemite Helicopter 551 for the National Park Service, Heather Wonenberg provides supervision of the helitak crew, serves as a spotter, and is a park medic. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Wonenberg led required CPR training, ensuring employee safety with small class sizes, and adapting her teaching style to meet the needs of each student. Through her efforts, Wonenberg helped to prepare wildland firefighters for emergency medical situations while implementing pandemic safety measures.
Jayson Coil
Outstanding Wildfire EMS Distinguished Service Award
The COVID-19 pandemic poses unique challenges for the wildland fire management community. As a paramedic with the Sedona Fire Department in Arizona, Jayson Coil disseminated information and helped to inform decisions in the field, not only for his department but for numerous agencies and the Wildland Fire Medical and Public Health Advisory Team. To ensure he could provide accurate, meaningful information, Coil completed 15 courses in epidemiology and public health from the University of Washington and a specialization in Epidemiology in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. He engaged wildland fire leaders at multiple levels to address challenges with maintaining operations amid the pandemic. Coil’s efforts improved safety for wildland firefighters across agencies at a critical time.
Idaho Panhandle National Forest Helitack Crew (Eric Krohn, Jacob Hacker, Katherine Babcok, Matthew O’Neill, Maurice Theard, Rob Cole, and Randy Gaulrapp)
Excellence in Wildland Fire EMS/Rescue
Three members of the Forest Service Panhandle Helitack Crew were hiking into the Bonehead Fire in Aug. 2020 when the crew’s EMT inhaled a foreign object. She soon developed trouble breathing and exhibited signs of shock. She continued to provide guidance to her crew members as they ordered a Life Flight and coordinated with dispatch. The remainder of the crew, from a helicopter, lowered medical equipment the EMT had staged nearby. The crew hiked in to render aid while additional helicopter and engine crews provided contingency planning and communication support. After an hour, the EMT was hoisted off the fire and taken by Life Flight to a hospital. The crew member made a full recovery and returned to her firefighting duties a few days later. The employees who stepped up across multiple divisions and operated outside their normal roles to support the emergency medical response made this rescue operation successful.
John Dentinger, Nathan Navarro, Riley Currey, and Austin Lattin
Award of Excellence in Wildfire EMS/Rescue
In Sept. 2020, a firefighter at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Vale District Office collapsed from a heart attack. Nearby BLM staff acted promptly to summon help and provide life-saving measures. The employee was rushed to the local hospital and then flown to a cardiac hospital. His doctors informed him that he would have experienced permanent damage or death had CPR started just one minute later. The crew was nominated by the survivor, who said, “Without these guys and their quick response, I would have died.”
MaryJo Lommen
The Jannette Peterson Lifetime Achievement in Wildland Fire EMS Award
MaryJo Lommen has served in the Forest Service’s Region One medical programs for about 40 years. She started as an attendant in a field first aid station. She eventually became the Program Manager responsible for maintaining the region’s medical programs. Even after her retirement in 2016, she continues to assist the current Program Manager with annual training and records maintenance. Her unbridled passion and dedication have been a catalyst for a higher standard of care to employees as they work in the field and respond to wildfires.
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More information about the awards program and a link to the nomination form can be found on the NWCG EMC webpage.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized58 Comments on Congress appropriates $3.3 billion for wildland fire The bipartisan infrastructure legislation increasing the pay of firefighters will be signed by the President next week
Friday night, four months after a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill with major funding for wildland fire passed the Senate, it was approved in the House of Representatives. About 0.3 percent, $3.3 billion, is directed at wildland fire issues. The President said he will sign the bill next week after he can assemble members of Congress from both parties at the White House for a formal signing ceremony.
The bill appropriates funds toward a couple of dozen wildland fire issues, most of which are very important, but especially a few that have been near and dear to the hearts of Federal personnel who fight wildfires, especially the creation of a Wildland Firefighter occupational series. This means they will no longer be pigeonholed as they are now in a Forestry Technician job description. A very significant and badly needed bump in salary is also included.
The passage of this legislation is huge. It is a major step toward improving several issues that have contributed to extreme problems in hiring and retention of federal employees who fight wildland fire. Other organizations with much higher pay scales are competing, leading to difficulties in attracting candidates to the federal agencies. Many highly trained and experienced firefighters have left the US Forest Service and the Department of the Interior land management agencies, attracted to higher paying positions in CAL FIRE, municipal fire departments, and private industry.
Now federal wildland firefighters will receive pay increases of $20,000 a year, or an amount equal to 50 percent of the base salary — the lesser of the two. For example, a GS-3 rookie firefighter that would make $28,078 if they were to work all year, will earn an additional $14,039 for a total of $42,117. A GS-9 making $54,433 will get an increase of $20,000 bringing the base salary to $74,433.
The legislation authorizes $600 million for management of personnel — those who fight fires.
Other provisions of the the bill. (M = million)
One issue that will need to be monitored is how long it will take the federal government to implement these changes. The increase in pay needs to take place very soon, since the federal land management agencies are hemorrhaging firefighters. Hopefully the new pay scale will begin no later than the beginning of fiscal year 2023 on October 1, 2022, but sooner would be better.
On October 19 another piece of legislation was introduced in the House,
H.R. 5631, the Tim Hart Wildland Firefighter Classification and Pay Parity Act (Rep. Joe Neguse) which has some overlap with the bill passed Friday. It has numerous provisions, including pay raises with portal to portal compensation, creating a national “Federal Wildland Firefighter Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease Database” to track chronic disease, mental health leave, tuition assistance, housing stipends, and other items. A hearing about the bill was held October 27, 2021. (More details about the legislation are in the Wildfire Today article from October 19, 2021.)
One issue none of this recent legislation addresses is the inadequate funding of aerial firefighting — the use of air tankers and helicopters to assist firefighters on the ground by dropping water or retardant to slow the spread of wildfires, which is necessary for Homeland Security. The Federal agencies entered the year with 18 large air tankers and 28 large Type 1 helicopters on exclusive use contracts, when they should have about double those numbers. And instead of the existing 1-year contracts, they should be on 10-year contracts which would make it more feasible for companies to acquire and maintain aircraft and personnel.
Wildland firefighters are at high risk for cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, and other conditions
6:48 a.m. PDT Nov. 3, 2021
The Parliament in Victoria, Australia has passed legislation that extends the presumptive disease program to wildland firefighters. It also includes “surge firefighters” who are government employees normally in other roles, but who perform firefighting duties during the fire season as part of their agency’s surge capacity as needed.
The presumptive disease program ensures that if a firefighter is diagnosed with any of the 12 listed cancers, they will not have to prove that it was caused by their employment, and it will be considered an on the job injury.
The cancers covered are brain, bladder, kidney, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, leukemia, breast, testicular, multiple myeloma, prostate, ureter, colorectal, and esophageal. The employee must have been on the job for 5 to 15 years, depending on which disease they have.
The presumptive right will apply to individuals diagnosed on or after June 1, 2016 if the diagnosis occurs during the course of a person’s service as a firefighter or within 10 years after they have ceased to serve.
Lily D’Ambrosio, the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, explained the program in detail during the second reading of the bill. Here is a link to the legislation.
Wildland firefighters are at high risk for cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, and other illnesses, including chronic conditions in their knees, shoulders, and backs.
This is an important issue that should also be addressed for federal firefighters in the United States. The Grassroots Wildland Firefighters organization endorsed this type of a program in a position paper.
Died the same day he was admitted to a hospital
Today’s announcement by the US Fire Administration about the line of duty death of retired US Forest Service firefighter Allen Johnson provides information that previously had not been widely known.
Allen Johnson was a retired 40-year Forest Service veteran serving as a Liaison Officer on the French Fire in California when he contracted COVID. He was working as an Administratively Determined (AD) employee on the Incident Management Team. On September 8, 2021 the Forest Service confirmed his death but with few other details.
The USFA announcement states that Allen was exposed to COVID-19 on the French Fire, tested positive August 24, placed in isolation at the incident, and transported to the hospital on Aug. 31, 2021 where he passed away that day.
That was not a typo. After testing positive he was in isolation at the incident for eight days, then transported to a hospital where apparently he died within a matter of hours.
Below is the text from the USFA announcement:
The U.S. Fire Administration has received notice of the following firefighter fatality:
Allen Johnson
Liaison OfficerUnited States Forest Service, Stanislaus National Forest, Sonora, CA
While assigned to the French Fire near Kernville, CA, Liaison Officer Allen Johnson became ill and tested positive for COVID-19 on Aug. 24, 2021. There were other confirmed cases of the virus on the French Fire. Liaison Officer Johnson was placed in isolation at the incident and transported to the hospital on Aug. 31, 2021 where he passed away.
Age: 68
Gender: Male
Status: Wildland Part-Time
Years of Service: 49
Date of Incident: August 24, 2021
Date of Death: August 31, 2021
Allen began working for the Forest Service as a seasonal employee in 1972 on the Angeles National Forest. In 1975 he received his first permanent appointment on the Cleveland National Forest as a firefighter before becoming superintendent on the El Cariso Interagency Hotshot Crew. He finished his career as district fire management officer on the Stanislaus National Forest, from which he retired in March 2010. Throughout his career he was a well-known incident commander and liaison officer assigned to two different California Incident Management Teams.
The Union Democrat, based in Sonora, CA, has a very good article about Allen.
We are thankful that the US Fire Administration has released facts on wildland firefighter line of duty deaths that have not been disclosed by the federal land management agencies.
May he rest in peace.
He contracted COVID-19 on the Dixie Fire, tested positive there, and died three days later
More information has come to light about the death of US Forest Service firefighter Marcus Pacheco who died September 2, 2021 after working on the Dixie Fire in California. For weeks after the fatality the FS would only say that he died of an unspecified illness. As far as we can tell the agency never issued a formal, complete, accurate announcement of the death, unlike other line of duty deaths.
On October 29, 2021 the US Fire Administration, which tracks firefighter fatalities, issued a notice confirming that Mr. Pacheco had close contact with a COVID-19 positive individual while he was assigned to the Dixie Fire August 10 through 29, 2021. He tested positive on August 29 and passed away due to complications from the virus on Sept. 2, 2021.
After an internet search we found information about Mr. Pacheco’s death on an obscure US Forest Service web page, “Inside the FS,” which said he died “due to COVID-19 on Sept. 2 after returning home from the Dixie Fire.” It did not include the facts that he was exposed and tested positive while assigned to the fire, which makes it a line of duty death. The page was published September 15, 2021 according to the embedded meta information.
On September 7 Anthony Scardina, Deputy California California Region Forester for State and Private Forestry, told Wildfire Today about his policy for releasing information about firefighters who die in the line of duty after contracting COVID-19. We had asked him about the deaths of Mr. Pacheco and also Allen Johnson, a semi-retired 40-year FS veteran who passed away approximately August 31 after contracting COVID-19 on the French Fire.
“I’m not going to report fatalities of our employees when it comes to personal illnesses and other privacy matters in terms of deaths at this point in time,” he said. “We’re taking a look at those situations, what the review process will be to make sure we understand the facts. And it’s just simply too early out of respect for the family of being appropriate for us to comment at this point in time on those situations.
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Below is a biography of Mr. Pacheco found on a memorial page.
Marcus was an Assistant Fire Engine Operator with the USDA Forest Service. He started his firefighting career working for the California Department of Forestry in 1988 in the small northern California town of Bieber where he met his wife Gwen. During his time with the California Department of Forestry (also known as CAL Fire) he worked at many stations including Bieber, Happy Camp, Alturas, Deer Springs, Garden Valley, and Forest Ranch. After trying out a few other jobs including being a garbage collector, being a camp caretaker, doing highway maintenance for CALTRANS (which included driving a snowplow), and driving school buses, he started working for the Forest Service in 2001 as a seasonal firefighter and received his permanent appointment in May 2005.
Marcus was father to three girls and was active in many other youth focused organizations in Susanville including the Girl Scouts, Campfire, Toys for Tots, Susanville Youth Softball, Boy Scouts (he was an Eagle Scout), and the annual Children’s Fair. Marcus was an active member of the Susanville community. He could often be found at the top of the tall ladders changing the lights for local theater productions, working as security at the Lassen County Fair, or helping serve pancake breakfast at the local Masonic Lodge. He volunteered for several volunteer fire departments including Susan River, Lake Forest and Standish-Litchfield. He was also a 20-year member of the Lassen County Search and Rescue team. Marcus was continually working to improve his skills as a wildland firefighter by getting his EMT certification, his State Fire Marshall I and II certifications, and attending as many courses and training opportunities as possible.
He leaves behind wife Gwen, mother, two brothers and three daughters.
