News and opinion about wildland fire
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized1 Comment on Wildfire smoke and air quality, August 31, 2021 
Above is the forecast for the distribution of smoke from wildfires at 12:01 a.m. PDT September 1, 2021.
Below is the current air quality status, obtained at 2:22 p.m. PDT August 31, 2021 from AirNow.gov. There is not much pollution in the East, due in part to Hurricane Ida.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized7 Comments on California wildfire discussed briefly during White House press briefing A reporter asked if there were enough fire resources available
The Caldor Fire southwest Lake Tahoe in California and the availability of firefighting resources were very briefly discussed at the White House press briefing Monday afternoon. The video above should be queued up to where the topic began at 1:07:13.
In response to a reporter asking if there were enough fire resources, Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, “Well, that is our objective. We will continue to assess if additional resources are needed and again I would note that when the President came in he looked at the impact of wildfires and the fact that in the past there have been cases where we didn’t have the resources needed and he wanted to preemptively take steps to prepare for that, to make sure we had those resources as we went into fire season.”
Opinion-
It is unclear to me what steps were taken that made a big difference in the availability of firefighting resources during this Western fire season. However the President did apply pressure to help make all eight military Modular Airborne Firefighting Systems (MAFFS) available that can convert a C-130 into an air tanker. At the time only five were working and the Air Force apparently had difficulty staffing the MAFFS operation with trained and qualified flight and support crews.
And 200 soldiers are being trained now to serve as hand crews. But that does not make up for the fact that Pew Charitable Trusts reported in July the Forest Service’s California Region had not filled 725 of the planned 4,620 fire positions, illustrating a serious problem with retention and recruitment.
There are still only 18 large air tankers on exclusive use contracts, and many of them are working on absurd one-year contracts. On May 17, 2021 Fire Aviation was told by a spokesperson for the US Forest Service that this year they would have 34 large air tankers (LATs) if needed — 18 on Exclusive Use Contracts guaranteed to work, 8 “surge” LATs guaranteed to work for a shorter period of time, and another 8 on Call When Needed (CWN) contracts. Of those 16 surge and CWN aircraft, only 5 could be produced.
COVID has had an effect on the number of federal firefighters available. We asked the five federal land management agencies for the number of firefighters that have tested positive for COVID or had to quarantine after exposure. 1All five refused to release any information on the topic and would not explain their reasoning for keeping it secret. This is ridiculous for organizations that say they care about the health and safety of their employees who have a right to know the severity of the additional risks they are taking on while in a job already recognized as being hazardous.
It tends to indicate that a pandemic can be politicized to the point where the Park Service, Forest Service, BIA, BLM, and FWS will not even discuss to what degree it is degrading their fire preparedness, if at all. What is next? Refusing to acknowledge injuries and fatalities caused by vehicle accidents and hazardous trees?
In the 12-step program for AA, the first is important, admitting to yourself and others that you have a problem. I’ll very loosely paraphrase it, bending it just a bit for this situation: “We admitted we were powerless over [confessing to problems with COVID, recruitment, and retention] and that our [fires] had become unmanageable.”
The act of keeping it secret leads one to believe it is a very serious issue. Welcome to 2021.
The Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center recently issued information about six examples of COVID exposure on fires. Here is a portion of one about a hotshot crew that was affected in July, 2021, when 18 of them were exposed to a crewmember who tested positive. Two crewmembers left the fire early and were not exposed:
Of the 18 crewmembers who returned from assignment on June 22nd, 3 were fully vaccinated and returned to work on June 25th. The remaining employees (15) have not returned to work; the sick employee was put into isolation and the remaining close contacts on the crew were told to self-quarantine for 14-days by unit leaders. The 2 crewmembers who returned early (1 vaccinated) were not impacted. None of the vaccinated employees got sick while 6 of the unvaccinated employees have tested positive.
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1Wildfire Today asked the National Interagency Fire Center several questions last week about the availability of resources, working through Candice Stevenson of the National Park Service whose turn it was last week to serve as PIO for NIFC. Generally, clear answers were avoided or not given, including one about the effects of COVID on the firefighting force. When I asked for more information Ms. Stevenson offered to ask each of the five agencies for the numbers of firefighters affected by COVID. I accepted the offer. She responded much more quickly than expected, saying, “I received notification from DOI and USFS and they are declining to provide further input.” I asked her by email on August 27 what the reason was for them not making the information available. There was no reply.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized1 Comment on Former Colfax, Washington Fire Chief dies while fighting wildfire He had served with the department for 52 years
The Fire Department in Colfax, Washington released information about a line of duty death that occurred over the weekend:
Longtime Colfax Fire Chief Jim Krouse, who had served as Colfax chief for 40 years and a volunteer in Colfax for 52 years, died from an apparent heart attack Saturday afternoon while responding to his fourth call of the day.
Krouse was responding around 3 pm to a wildfire on Green Hollow Road and was pulling hose at the fire scene when he collapsed.
Colfax ambulance quickly responded and emergency medical care was given to Krouse on the scene and immediately transported to Whitman Medical Center in Colfax. Assistant Chief Craig Corbeill, who responded with the ambulance, said physicians worked on the former chief but they were not able to revive him.
Crews from several fire departments managed to control the fire.
Word quickly spread of Krouse’s passing. When the firefighters were finished they assembled at Whitman Medical Center and started the procession with the ambulance that carried Krouse’s body draped in an American flag to the Bruning Funeral Home escorted by Whitman County Sheriff’s Department and the Washington State Patrol.
Chief Michael Chapman met with his firefighters at the fire station, many of whom served with Krouse for a number of years, to help them debrief from the situation and to share stories about the former chief.
Chapman said there will be a critical incident debriefing in the next 24-72 hours for those on the scene today and those who served with Krouse for some of those 52 years.
Corbeill said that “Krouse was like a kid in a candy store” when he was making his fourth run Saturday, driving a water tender to the Green Hollow Road fire. Krouse who served as Colfax Chief from 1972 to 2010, followed his father, Earl, who was chief prior to Jim.
Because there was a fatality with the wildfire, fire marshal Chris Wehrung and Assistant Fire Marshal Tony Nuttman investigated the fire and to help determine the cause. At the time of this release, Nuttman, who is serving as the lead investigator, said the cause remains under investigation.
Final arrangements for Chief Krouse are pending at the Bruning Funeral Home in Colfax.
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Dan.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized13 Comments on 200 active-duty soldiers activated to fight wildfires in California Their fire training will begin August 30 near Tacoma, Washington
The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho, has requested a Department of Defense (DoD) activation of approximately 200 active-duty U.S. Army Soldiers to assist with wildfire suppression efforts. The National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group (NMAC) at NIFC requested the personnel along with command and support staff. After receiving training, the Soldiers will serve as hand crews, assisting with wildfire suppression efforts in Northern California. Two similar requests were granted last year to support the August Complex and Creek wildfires in California.
The Soldiers will be trained over the next week at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) near Tacoma, Washington and on the fireline to provide support in early September in Northern California.
“The United States has been experiencing above-normal fire activity throughout multiple geographic areas, which will likely continue into the fall. These conditions are creating competition for all types of wildland fire resources,” said Josh Simmons, NMAC Chair.
Currently, 84 large fires have burned 2.5 million acres in 9 states. More than 26,000 wildland firefighters are currently assigned to fires across the United States. The country has been at Preparedness Level 5 – the highest level of wildfire preparedness – since July 14. Several geographic areas are experiencing large, complex wildland fire incidents, which have the potential to exhaust national wildland fire suppression resources.
The training at JBLM will consist of both a classroom portion and field training in the basics of wildland fire suppression and firefighter safety. The Soldiers will be outfitted with wildland fire personal protective equipment and other gear. They will be trained by wildland fire agency personnel beginning Monday, August 30 and should conclude by Wednesday, September 3. While providing support, the Soldiers will be accompanied by experienced wildland fire strike team leaders and crew bosses from wildland fire management agencies.
This is the 40th time since 1987 that active-duty military personnel have been mobilized to serve as wildland firefighters. In addition to the U.S. Army activation, eight U.S. Air Force C-130s equipped with Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems (MAFFS) are currently serving as airtankers, providing wildfire support across the West.
Too often on Wildfire Today I have to write about line of duty deaths (LODD) of firefighters. My heart goes out to the families, friends and co-workers of the 13 troops who were killed and the 18 other troops who were wounded in the bombing that killed at least 170 people Thursday near the Kabul airport in Afghanistan.
To firefighters, that disaster would be equivalent to the South Canyon Fire that killed 14 in 1994. It is likely that at least one of those 10 men or 4 women told someone that they loved their job also.
Each of these individual deaths and injuries Thursday is tragic. One of them on the list of names released today by the Pentagon is being noted in particular because of an Instagram post before the attack. Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole Gee, 23, of Roseville, California posted a photo of herself holding an infant six days before she was killed, writing, “I love my job ?”
The Department of Defense picked up the photo and used it in their Twitter account on the same day with two other photos.
U.S. military service members comfort infants at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. #HKIA pic.twitter.com/8utbOwtcsF
— Department of Defense ?? (@DeptofDefense) August 20, 2021
Two days later she posted another photo of her escorting a long line of evacuees as they boarded an airplane to flee Kabul.
Sgt. Gee, a maintenance technician with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, was from Roseville, Calif., Stars & Stripes reported. She was promoted to Sergeant a few weeks before being killed.
At the airport she had been assigned to assist women and girls at the airport as they fled Taliban repression.
May she rest in peace.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized2 Comments on Firefighter dies at brush fire in Spokane County, Washington 
A firefighter with Spokane County Fire District 9 died while at a brush fire Thursday in Washington.
According to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, Mr. Traber fell from the Wandermere Bridge on Interstate 395.
In a Facebook post the Fire District said Mr. Traber was an 18-year veteran of the District and previously served at the Department of Natural Resources and two other fire departments. He leaves behind his wife, Allisyn and four young children.
We send out our sincere condolences to Mr. Traber’s family, friends, and co-workers.
