A firefighter was killed in Colorado last week after he diverted to suppress a fire while he was traveling to attend the funeral of another firefighter.
Larry Wyant of Joes Volunteer Fire Department was attempting to suppress a fire in a cornfield on October 26 about 120 miles east of Denver, Colorado while the firefighters faced a 30 mph wind gusting to 60 mph. Mr. Wyant was out of his truck when the fire burned over his location. He passed away at the scene.
Our sincere condolences go out to Mr. Wyant’s family, friends, and co-workers.
Larry Wyant fatality notification. US Fire Administration, October 29, 2021.
The icons represent heat detected by satellites from a wildfire in the Hirschwant region in Austria between Oct. 25 and Nov. 1, 2021 local time. The icons represent the approximate locations.
A wildfire in Lower Austria has grown to become the largest in recorded history of the country. It started on Monday October 25 and quickly grew to 100 hectares (247 acres) but has not spread much since then.
“The emergency services can still limit the fire area to 115 hectares (284 acres),” said Franz Resperger from the Lower Austria fire brigade on October 29. A total of 500 helpers were called in.
The fire is about 62 kilometers (38 miles) southwest of Vienna.
Still image of the wildfire in the region of Hirschwang in Austria, October 30, 2021, from the video below.
On October 29 the EU’s Emergency Response Coordination Center mobilized to the fire two Canadair CL-415 air tankers based in Italy, part of the EU’s rescEU transition fleet. Helicopters also responded from Germany, Italy, and Slovakia.
The CL-415s are scooping water from the New Danube River.
According to the state fire brigade commander Dietmar Fahrafellner, around 750,000 liters (198,000 gallons) of water were dropped on Saturday.
It has been extremely dry in the country, especially in Lower Austria. The last time it was this dry was 35 years ago, in September and October of 1986.
Assigned to the McCash Fire in Northern California
4:30 p.m. PDT October 21, 2021
Firefighter and masticator on the McCash Fire. InciWeb Aug. 13, 2021
The U.S. Fire Administration has reported that a fireline paramedic, Marshall Grant Brookfield assigned to the McCash Fire in Northern California, died September 29, 2021. He was employed by Emergency Response Logistics of Grand Lake, Colorado.
Here is the complete statement from the USFA: (Update Oct. 25, 2021; some of the details in the USFA report have come into question and may or may not be accurate.)
Wildland Firefighter/Paramedic Marshall Grant Brookfield was deployed to the McCash fire in Orleans, CA when he contracted COVID-19 and a rare fungal infection that was found to be directly associated to the wildfires and smoke inhalation. He was removed from the incident due to severe illness and sent to the hospital where he was admitted and remained in the Intensive Care Unit until his passing on Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021.
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Status: Wildland-Contract
Years of Service: 1
Date of Incident: Sept. 13, 2021
Date of Death: Sept. 29, 2021
A GoFundMe account has been established to assist his wife and three children.
Matt Possert, one of the people who donated funds for Mr. Brookfield’s wife and children, wrote this on GoFundMe:
Marshall and I worked on the McCash Fire together as Paramedics. My first impression of Marshall is that he was a stand up guy. Very professional, passionate about his craft and confident and competent while humble. One of the first things Marshall told me was the challenge of getting 2 weeks of childcare arranged basically overnight. He did this so he could be a part of the team and support the mission of saving lives, protecting property and helping others. And he also did this to provide for his family as a strong and dedicated husband and father. I’m privileged to have gotten to know Marshall and to take care of my fellow brother while he was ill in the acute stages.
Unlike firefighters who are killed by other hazards on fires, we may never have a full accounting of how many are being killed by COVID on wildfires.
If you have information about others who have died from COVID after being infected on a fire, leave the information in a comment. Include a link, if you have it, to more details about the line of duty death.
We send our sincere condolences to the family, friends, and coworkers of Mr. Brookfield.
The fire burned 221,000 acres near South Lake Tahoe, California
10:46 a.m. PDT Oct. 21, 2021
Image from USFS video about fuel treatments and the Caldor Fire.
The U.S. Forest Service has released a four-minute video featuring the Forest Supervisors of the Eldorado National Forest and the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit discussing fuel treatments that occurred in the years before the Caldor Fire burned nearly a quarter of a million acres southwest of South Lake Tahoe, California.
At 6:17 p.m. Saturday CAL FIRE revised the reported size of the Estrada Fire, increasing it from 83 acres to 148, saying the new number was the result of “accurate ground truthing and mapping.”
Firefighters will again work through the night Saturday to establish strong control lines.
11:09 a.m. PDT Oct. 16, 2021
Estrada Fire map. The red dots represent heat detected by a satellite at 2 a.m. PDT Oct. 16, 2021.
A prescribed fire intended to treat 20 acres grew out of control Friday, prompting evacuations in Central California.
The project was initiated by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection near the intersection of Hazel Dell and Hidden Canyon Road six miles northeast of Watsonville, California. After escaping the planned burn unit boundary it spread quickly, growing to 83 acres by Friday evening, when CAL FIRE said aircraft had established a line of fire retardant around the perimeter.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time these things go off without a hitch,” said Ian Larkin, CAL FIRE Chief for the San Mateo Santa Cruz unit. “No problems, they don’t get out of control, they don’t jump our containment line…The reason we did this yesterday was we had a prescription level of good weather, it was in prescription, and it was an ideal situation for us to be able to get good consumption of the fuel, and we just had this mishap. It was about 80 to 100 feet of tying it all in and we had a spot take off across the line.”
At 7:17 Saturday morning CAL FIRE said crews made significant progress overnight.
Estrada Fire, seen by the Mt. Madonna camera at 4:10 p.m. Oct. 15, 2021, looking southeast.
Evacuation orders were still in effect at 10:48 a.m. PDT October 16. (Evacuation map)
The video below, at 0:50, shows a fire whirl that is persistent, in spite of the water being applied from a fire hose.
The smoke will worsen Thursday afternoon and evening
Wildfire smoke forecast for 7 p.m. Oct. 14, 2021. NOAA.
Residents along the Southern California coast are seeing the effects of the Alisal Fire in the air they are breathing. On Thursday the South Coast Air Quality Management District issued a special air quality advisory for smoke that will be worsening during the afternoon.
Heavier concentrations of the smoke are expected to move into the counties of Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and L.A. Thursday afternoon and evening.
