News and opinion about wildland fire
A Congressman says the U.S. Forest Service missed a deadline for making a decision about night-flying helicopters.
Video of arsonist starting wildfire in Spring Valley, Calif.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office says the reverse 911 system didn’t work as expected for the Lower North Fork fire in Colorado. The software company disagrees.
Activity on Colorado’s Lower North Fork fire is winding down.
Two cousins pleaded guilty Tuesday of accidentally starting the Wallow fire which became the largest fire in the recorded history Arizona. Caleb Malboeuf of Benson and David Malboeuf of Tucson were camping in the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest last May and went for a hike. They said when they left, they thought their campfire was out since they did not see any flames or smoke. On their way back to the campsite they smelled and saw smoke in the area. Investigators found their possessions at the campsite where the fire started and their vehicle at a trailhead about two miles away.
The Wallow fire burned 538,000 acres, most of it in Arizona near Alpine, Nutrioso, and Springerville, but it also burned into New Mexico near Luna. It burned 32 homes and 4 cabins burned and forced the evacuation of about 10,000 people. The fire started on May 29 and was contained on July 8. Wildfire Today covered the fire extensively.
Sentencing is scheduled for June 20. Due to a plea agreement, they are facing up to a year in jail and a $10,000 fine, but their attorney is arguing for probation instead of jail time.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized2 Comments on Update on Lower North Fork fire in Colorado, March 29 UPDATE at 7:56 p.m. MT, March 29
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office has posted the much-requested “current verified list of structures damaged by the Lower North Fork fire”, as well as a map. All local home owners with confirmed damaged properties have been escorted to their property by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. There are two homeowners who have not made it back to their property because they are coming from out of the area.
There was no perimeter growth today. The size remains at 4,140 acres and they are calling it 45% contained.
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Original post, at 8:25 a.m. MT, March 29
As of Thursday morning, the Lower North Fork fire southeast of Conifer, Colorado is 15% contained and has burned 4,140 acres. The number of homes damaged or destroyed remains at 27. The owners of 26 of the structures have been notified. Rich Harvey’s Type 1 Incident Management Team assumed command of the fire at 6:00 a.m. today. The local Type 3 IMTeam will continue to work with the Type 1 team.
The map of the Lower North Fork fire below shows the perimeter (in red) as of 9:39 Wednesday night.
On Wednesday there were two large air tankers assigned, P2Vs, Tankers #44 and #45, but they were removed from the fire late in the afternoon and redeployed to the Apple fire south of Custer, South Dakota. (We were at the Apple fire yesterday.) There will be four National Guard Blackhawk helicopters assigned to the Lower North Fork fire today. Four helicopters dropped 49,000 gallons of water yesterday.
Residents seeking information about the status of their property within the fire evacuation zone may come to the Conifer High School, but the school is closed to the general public.
With the apparent cause of the fire being an escaped prescribed fire that was managed by the Colorado Forest Service, on Wednesday Deputy State Forester Joe Duda issued a statement that reads in part:
We want to express our deepest sympathy to those who have lost loved ones and those who have lost property, and we hope for the safety of crews as they continue to fight the fire.
On Wednesday the governor of Colorado suspended the use of prescribed burns by state agencies.
It is very early in the year, and early in the wildfire season, but already firefighters are competing for aerial and hand crew resources. There are not enough to go around, and they are not deployed where the fires are occurring. This is due in part to the diminishing budgets of the firefighting agencies, translated as fewer firefighters, and mismanagement of the federal air tanker fleet.
Other articles on Wildfire Today about the Lower North Fork fire:
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized16 Comments on Senators ask for GAO evaluation of USFS air tanker strategy On March 25 I sent emails to four Senators, one congresswoman, and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. I took advantage of my right, and my responsibility, as a citizen to express my opinion on the pitiful state of our air tanker fleet. And I was not shy, which will not surprise the regular readers of Wildfire Today, about providing my analysis of how we got to this point, with the fleet only a shell of what it was 10 years ago, reduced by 75 percent. The land management agencies, and especially the U.S. Forest Service, own this debacle.
In addition to the Senate committee, which holds regular hearings in which wildfire issues are discussed, the recipients of my letters included Senators Ron Wyden and Lisa Murkowski.
It is probably a coincidence, but on March 27 and 28 numerous media outlets ran stories saying that four senators sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office asking the agency to review “the nation’s depleted fleet of firefighting aircraft and the remedies needed in the face of increasingly severe fire seasons.”
The senators that signed the letter were Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.; Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.; and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
If there are going to be any significant improvements in the air tanker fleet, it will have to be a political solution. The land management agencies, and especially the U.S. Forest Service, have proven that their strategy is “sit on our hands and make no tough decisions”.
If you have an opinion on this issue, let your senators and representatives know.
Here are some excerpts from the Associated Press article that appeared in newspapers and web sites around the country.
A group of Western senators says the U.S. Forest Service may not be moving quickly enough to build up and replace the fleet of aging planes that drop fire retardant on wildfires.
The senators asked the Government Accountability Office on Tuesday to evaluate whether the Forest Service has done a good job of analyzing the types and numbers of aircraft needed, the cheapest way to get them, new technologies, and where the planes will be based.
“Concerns have increasingly been raised that the federal agencies responsible for responding to wildland fires _ the Forest Service and four agencies in the Department of Interior _ do not have the appropriate number and mix of aircraft that will be needed for wildland fire suppression operations,” said the letter signed by Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.; Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.; Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
[…]
Last month, the Forest Service adopted a new strategy for replacing the fleet with newer, faster and more cost-effective planes.
[…]
Wyden complained that the Forest Service’s strategy is woefully lacking in specifics that would allow comparisons of different types and costs of aircraft so choices can be made. Meanwhile, a “perfect storm” is shaping up of dry weather and thick stands of forests that have not been thinned.
“Trying to get these tankers and the fleet ready for serious fire seasons seems to be almost the longest running battle since the Trojan war,” he said. “The West doesn’t have the luxury of just sitting around while everything goes up in smoke.”
More information:
Thanks go out to the numerous people who let us know about the article.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized15 Comments on Apple fire, south of Custer, South Dakota. 
UPDATE at 6:55 p.m. MT, March 29, 2012
Firefighters have a fireline around the entire fire, but portions of it are indirect. That is, the line is some distance from the fire, so firefighters have to burn out or backfire between the line and the fire in order to eliminate the fuel (or vegetation) in those areas. Until that is complete the firelines will not be secure. The two photos below that were taken on Wednesday showing firefighter Brice Stanton are examples, but on a small scale, of burning out unburned vegetation between the fireline and the fire.
More accurate mapping has resulted in a smaller reported size, which is now 500 acres, all but 30 of which are on U.S. Forest Service land, the rest being private. They are calling it 15% contained.
On Friday the weather will challenge firefighters and test the indirect firelines. The Weather Service is predicting 10 to 25 mph winds with gusts up to 35, and a relative humidity of 15%.
The USFS has produced a map showing the fire’s location.
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UPDATE at 10:16 a.m. MT, March 29, 2012
At 10 p.m. last night the fire spotted across a dozer line and a road, and this morning is reported to be 515 acres and 15% contained. It is three miles southeast of Cicero Peak, and eight miles southeast of Custer, SD. The Incident Commander is Todd Hoover, from the Black Hills National Forest.
There are currently 2 Heavy Air Tankers, 1 Type 1 Heavy Helicopter (KMAX) and a lead plane stationed at the Rapid City Air Tanker Base.
We will add more information as it develops today.
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(Original article at 6:30 p.m. March 28, 2012.)
Monday’s lightning is suspected of starting a fire that showed up today between 1 and 2 p.m. at 11:38 a.m. north of Wind Cave National Park on the Black Hills National Forest in South Dakota. At the last report it had burned about 300 acres.
All photos were taken by Bill Gabbert on March 28, 2012 between 2:56 p.m. and 5:40 p.m.
During the early stages of the fire the Incident Commander was able to use a South Dakota National Guard Blackhawk helicopter and a Single Engine Air Tanker (SEAT) on the fire. Then the SEAT got taken away and used on a new fire about two miles south of Mt. Rushmore. Initially there were no large air tankers available, but several hours into the fire Dispatch told the IC that they had rounded up two large air tankers, apparently coming from a considerable distance away, and they would be landing empty at Rapid City Airport around 6 p.m. Two Type 1 helicopters were also ordered from some very distant locale. Crews were coming from Montana and other states. [UPDATE: the two large air tankers were “stolen” from the Lower North Fork fire in Colorado, leaving them with no air tankers.. At 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday that fire was 4,140 acres and only 15% contained.]
Welcome to the 2012 wildfire season. It’s still March and there are not enough aerial and hand crew resources where they are needed.
Continue reading “Apple fire, south of Custer, South Dakota.”
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized1 Comment on “I’m stuck in my vehicle … and there’s fire all over” Four Jefferson County Deputy Sheriff officers were trapped in the Lower North Fork wildfire on March 26, 2011, southwest of Denver, but they escaped eventually, unhurt. This is an audio recording of some of the radio traffic from that incident, courtesy of 9news who got it from a scanner feed.
Click on the green arrow to listen to the recording.
