Wildfire Today

South Carolina lawmakers considering law that would protect prescribed burners

Bill GabbertFebruary 27, 2012September 12, 2012UncategorizedPhoto by Bill G, prescribed fire1 Comment

Ignition of Bison Flats prescribed fire — Ignition of the Bison Flats prescribed fire, Wind Cave National Park. Photo by Bill Gabbert

The South Carolina legislature is considering a bill that would eliminate frivolous lawsuits over smoke created by a prescribed fire. House Bill 3631, the “Prescribed Fire Act” would protect the property owner unless gross negligence is proven. This would change the present language of “negligence” to “gross negligence”, raising the bar in proving damages in a lawsuit. The bill is in the hands of the Senate Fish, Game and Forestry Committee and should be placed on the calendar within the next few weeks.

It would stipulate for prescribed fires:

A prescribed fire plan must be prepared before the State Commission of Forestry authorizes the prescribed fire.
At least one certified fire manager must be present.
Prescribed fires are considered to be in the public interest and not constitute a public or private nuisance when conducted pursuant to state air pollution statutes and smoke management guidelines.
Prescribed fires are considered the property right of the property owner.

Current South Carolina law, Section 48-34-50 reads as follows:

No property owner or lessee or his agent or employee conducting a prescribed fire pursuant to this chapter is liable for damage, injury, or loss caused by fire, resulting smoke, or other consequences of the prescribed fire unless negligence is proven.

The new bill removes smoke from the “negligence” category and requires “gross negligence” for any lawsuits.

Below is the full text of the bill, H. 3631, as of February 22, 2012 at 10:16 AM:

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A BILL

TO AMEND SECTION 48-34-40, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO THE REQUIREMENTS FOR CONDUCTING A PRESCRIBED FIRE, SO AS TO FURTHER SPECIFY SUPERVISION REQUIREMENTS FOR A PRESCRIBED FIRE MANAGER AND TO REFERENCE SPECIFIC REGULATORY AND STATUTORY PROVISIONS APPLICABLE TO CONDUCTING A PRESCRIBED FIRE; AND TO AMEND SECTION 48-34-50, RELATING TO LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES CAUSED BY A PRESCRIBED FIRE, SO AS TO PROVIDE THAT A PROPERTY OWNER, LESSEE, AGENT, OR EMPLOYEE IS NOT LIABLE FOR DAMAGES CAUSED BY THE RESULTING SMOKE OF A PRESCRIBED FIRE UNLESS GROSS NEGLIGENCE IS PROVEN.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1. Section 48-34-40 of the 1976 Code is amended to read:

“Section 48-34-40. Prescribed fires conducted pursuant to this chapter:

(1) must have a prescribed fire plan prepared before authorization to burn is given by the State Commission of Forestry, and the plan must be on site and followed during the burn;

(2) must have at least one certified prescribed fire manager present ~~and~~ who must consider both fire behavior and smoke management issues while supervising the burn from ignition until it is declared safe according to certification guidelines;

(3) are considered in the public interest and do not constitute a public or private nuisance when conducted pursuant to state air pollution statutes, smoke management guidelines, as provided for in Regulations 61-62.2, or a successor regulation thereto, and ~~regulations~~ other statutory provisions applicable to the use of prescribed fire, as provided for in Chapter 35 and Chapter 2, Title 50; and

(4) are considered a property right of the property owner.”

SECTION 2. Section 48-34-50 of the 1976 Code is amended to read:

“Section 48-34-50. No A property owner or lessee or his agent or employee conducting a prescribed fire pursuant to this chapter is not liable for damage, injury, or loss caused by fire, ~~resulting smoke~~, or other consequences of the prescribed fire unless negligence is proven. A property owner or lessee or his agent or employee conducting a prescribed fire pursuant to this chapter is not liable for damage, injury, or loss caused by the resulting smoke of a prescribed fire unless gross negligence is proven.”

SECTION 3. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.

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Amarillo road grader operators being trained to fight fire

Bill GabbertFebruary 27, 2012July 30, 2019Uncategorized1 Comment

Using road graders to help firefighters put a line around a fire is not a new concept, but some fire departments in Texas have been taking it to a new level in recent years, especially in the Amarillo area. Here is an excerpt from an article at amarillo.com:

…The Potter County Volunteer Fire Department began using the large construction vehicles with a long, angled blade attached between the front and rear axles to help fight wildfires in 2005 and 2006, Chief Richard Lake said.

“We teach them (operators) how to work with the crews,” Lake said. “That’s the thing, especially in Potter County, we’ve offered them that training. They understand how to fight fires now. It makes it a lot safer for them to do their work.”

Amarillo road grader operators recently began training to help fight wildfires. The city last year equipped its graders with GPS beacons, so the fire commanders know where they are at all times, Mitchell said. The operators also received fire-retardant suits and portable radios, so they can stay in touch with the fire commander if they need to get out of their machines, Mitchell said. The city’s graders and 4,000-gallon water tankers are now marked with numbers on top, so aircraft pilots can identify them.

Wildfire news, February 26, 2012

Bill GabbertFebruary 26, 2012August 25, 2019Uncategorizedair tanker, helicopter

There were no earth-shattering stories related to wildfire over the weekend, but here are a few that we noticed:

Fires in western Arkansas

KFSM, a television station in Arkansas, tweeted this satellite photo of fires burning in the west Arkansas counties of Le Flore, Logan, Scott and Johnson. It is dated Saturday, February 25 at 4:30 p.m.

Helicopter pilot volunteers for local fire department

A helicopter pilot who owns and operates a helicopter in Burnet, Texas has been volunteering the use of his helicopter his services as a pilot to assist the Burnet Volunteer Fire Department. When called, Rick Neeley, a professional pilot, donates his time and even the fuel for the helicopter when the fire department needs some eyes in the air to provide additional situational awareness when large vegetation fires are burning in Burnet County.

John Smallwood, a Captain with the department, was quoted by KWTX as saying: “He’s handy for us. We tell dispatch that we need help with air support and we mention his name. They have his number and he always comes out to help us.”

“(I’m) just kind of giving them some eyes in the sky and letting them see things or know things that they would have no other way of knowing,” Neely affirmed. “God’s just blessed us with a way to help and all these guys are helping out in the way they can and we just get out and help the way we can.”

Smoke from wildfires in Thailand creating issues

Smoke from wildfires is causing problems in Thailand, including health issues and the cancellation of commercial flights for at least one airline. On Sunday officials had planned to survey from a helicopter the Thai-Myanmar border area to assess the fires before sending in firefighters, but poor visibility forced the mission to be cancelled. Here is an excerpt from an article at bangkokpost.com:

The forest fires are spreading on both sides of the Thai-Myanmar border, obstructing air and land transport. A thick haze of smoke is seen over most parts of the border town.

Many residents are being treated for eye irritation and breathing difficulties. The smoke crisis was expected to continue for the next few days as authorities are struggling to put out the fires, Mr Suriya said.

Police have set up security checkpoints on several major roads to warn motorists to exercise extra caution and turn on headlights while driving in poor visibility.

Nok Air, the low-cost airline serving Mae Sot, has been forced to land its aircraft in Phitsanulok for the fourth day because of the poor visibility.

Tanker 40 returns to Missoula

Tanker 40 at Missoula — Tanker 40 arriving at Neptune's hangar at the Missoula airport on Sunday

The jet-powered BAe-146 air tanker that Neptune Aviation is leasing from Tronos returned from Prince Edward Island in Canada today after completing a lengthy scheduled maintenance which normally takes about 21 work days. Tanker 40 arrived at Prince Edward Island on December 24 and returned to Missoula Sunday at 5:30 p.m.

Both Neptune and Minden, with nine and two large air tankers on contract respectively, have been asked by the U.S. Forest Service to begin deploying their air tankers earlier than usual this year, due to the fire seasons becoming longer.

NIOSH releases report on LODD near Gorman, Texas

Bill GabbertFebruary 23, 2012November 1, 2021Uncategorizedlodd, Texas

In April, 2011, Wildfire Today covered the Line of Duty Death of firefighter Greg Simmons on a fire at County Road 323 near Gorman Texas. The fatality occurred as 10 fire vehicles were attempting to escape from a vegetation fire and became bottle-necked at a gate. Mr. Simmons was found deceased in a roadside ditch along CR 323 with severe burns on his head and upper body. He was wearing bunker pants, fire-fighting boots, and a tee shirt. The coroner determined that the cause of death was blunt force trauma from either being struck by or run over by a fire vehicle during fire-fighting operations in smoky conditions with very limited visibility.

The report that NIOSH released has more details, of course, and here are some excerpts. (Mr. Simmons had been working on Brush 621.)

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“…As the three fire fighters from Brush 82 and Brush 621 attempted to outrun the fire on foot on CR 323, they were able to jump into or onto Tanker 620. Due to the volume of vehicles attempting to escape the fire, the poor visibility due to the smoke, as well as a variety of tanker mechanical issues resulting from the intense heat, fire fighters were driving their tankers off the road, frequently colliding with each other, blocking each other in, and, as a result, many had to escape the fire by backing out (using the edge of the road as a guide as it was not possible to see the road). Tanker 7 did not escape on the road, but rather drove into a field east of CR 323. Tanker 7, operated by Chief 7, with two other fire fighters, was in the field of coastal grass on the east side of CR323 when the fire erupted. Chief 7 drove Tanker 7 east into the field approximately 100 yards and parked. The three fire fighters each deployed a hoseline to protect the apparatus and themselves. They operated in this mode for approximately 5–10 minutes until the fire passed them.
Continue reading “NIOSH releases report on LODD near Gorman, Texas”

Livestock grazing and wildfires

Bill GabbertFebruary 22, 2012August 25, 2019Uncategorized5 Comments

Cattle and Deer Graze Together — Cattle and deer graze together on the Cochetopa National Forest in Colorado. USFS photo from a 1938 slide show.

A Nevada state Assemblyman has written an op-ed piece for the Winnemucca, Nevada Silver Pinyon Journal about livestock grazing and its relationship to wildfires. Assemblyman Ira Hansen, who is a licensed master plumber and owns a plumbing and heating business, is running for reelection and is not afraid to express his opinions. Here are some excerpts from his article in the February 22 edition of the newspaper:

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“At our January 27, 2012 Public Lands Committee meeting, a briefing paper by Bob Sommer, Fire Staff Officer for the Humboldt – Toiyabe National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, was read into the record. A single paragraph caught my eye: “…in 2007, the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension Service issued a report titled “Northeastern Nevada Wildfires 2006, part 2 – Can livestock grazing be used to reduce wildfires? They concluded “…livestock grazing is not a panacea for wildfire reduction on Northern Nevada rangelands.”

I had read the 2006 UNR report mentioned and recalled a quite different conclusion. In fact, the UNR report reads: “Can livestock grazing reduce the risk of large recurring wildfires? In a word yes, but with limitations…In site specific situations, livestock can be used as a tool to lower fire risk by reducing the amount, height and distribution of fuel. Livestock can also be used to manage invasive weeds in some cases and even to improve wildlife habitat. This under-utilized tool (emphasis mine)…”

In short, while grazing is not a “panacea”, (which means “cure-all”) it is a valuable tool and in the opinion of the authors of the 2006 UNR report an “under-utilized” tool as well.

[…]

Also to consider is the business end of fires. As James Young, UNR range scientist for 43 years noted, “Fire suppression [has become] a multi-million dollar business that reaches from the rangelands of Nevada to corporate America It is not in everyone’s interest to biologically suppress the cheatgrass-wildfire cycle on Nevada rangelands.”

Today hundreds if not thousands are employed in a government funded range fire industry that was a token of what we see today when compared to only a little over a decade ago. The BLM/Forest Service fire budget is now in the hundreds of millions, and a range reseeding/recovery industry has been spawned as well, all relying paradoxically on a continuation of range fires. A conflict of interests exists; the successful long term solving of the million acre fires means the elimination of employment for this dramatically expanded bureaucracy.”

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Lonely highway in Nevada — A motorcyclist riding a Yamaha FJR 1300 on a lonely highway in Nevada, August 16, 2011. Photo by Marsha Rogers

Forest discovered that was buried by volcanic ash 298 million years ago

Bill GabbertFebruary 21, 2012January 16, 2015Uncategorizedvolcano

Reconstruction of 298 million year forest — Reconstruction of actual site 3 of a peat-forming forest of earliest Permian age that was preserved by a volcanic ash-fall near Wuda, Inner Mongolia, China.

In the United State when we think of an old-growth forest, it may be 100 or 200 years old. Researchers in China have discovered a preserved forest that was buried by volcanic ash 298 million years ago. The trees and other vegetation were buried over a period of days by huge quantities of ash, much like the humans, animals, and buildings that were found in Pompeii in 1749 after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.

Here is an excerpt from an article in the University of Pennsylvania Penn News:

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“PHILADELPHIA — Pompeii-like, a 300-million-year-old tropical forest was preserved in ash when a volcano erupted in what is today northern China. A new study by University of Pennsylvania paleobotanist Hermann Pfefferkorn and colleagues presents a reconstruction of this fossilized forest, lending insight into the ecology and climate of its time.

Pfefferkorn, a professor in Penn’s Department of Earth and Environmental Science, collaborated on the work with three Chinese colleagues: Jun Wang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yi Zhang of Shenyang Normal University and Zhuo Feng of Yunnan University.

Their [Open Access] paper was published this week in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study site, located near Wuda, China, is unique as it gives a snapshot of a moment in time. Because volcanic ash covered a large expanse of forest in the course of only a few days, the plants were preserved as they fell, in many cases in the exact locations where they grew.

Reconstruction of the peat forming forest — Reconstruction of the peat-forming forest of earliest Permian age preserved by a volcanic ash-fall that buried stems, broke off twigs, toppled trees, and preserved the forest at site 1 (of Figs. 1 and 2) near Wuda, Inner Mongolia, China, based on actual location of trees.

“It’s marvelously preserved,” Pfefferkorn said. “We can stand there and find a branch with the leaves attached, and then we find the next branch and the next branch and the next branch. And then we find the stump from the same tree. That’s really exciting.”

The researchers also found some smaller trees with leaves, branches, trunk and cones intact, preserved in their entirety.

Due to nearby coal-mining activities unearthing large tracts of rock, the size of the researchers’ study plots is also unusual. They were able to examine a total of 1,000 m² of the ash layer in three different sites located near one another, an area considered large enough to meaningfully characterize the local paleoecology.

The fact that the coal beds exist is a legacy of the ancient forests, which were peat-depositing tropical forests. The peat beds, pressurized over time, transformed into the coal deposits.

The scientists were able to date the ash layer to approximately 298 million years ago. That falls at the beginning of a geologic period called the Permian, during which Earth’s continental plates were still moving toward each other to form the supercontinent Pangea. North America and Europe were fused together, and China existed as two smaller continents. All overlapped the equator and thus had tropical climates.

At that time, Earth’s climate was comparable to what it is today, making it of interest to researchers like Pfefferkorn who look at ancient climate patterns to help understand contemporary climate variations.

In each of the three study sites, Pfefferkorn and collaborators counted and mapped the fossilized plants they encountered. In all, they identified six groups of trees. Tree ferns formed a lower canopy while much taller trees — Sigillaria and Cordaites — soared to 80 feet above the ground. The researchers also found nearly complete specimens of a group of trees called Noeggerathiales. These extinct spore-bearing trees, relatives of ferns, had been identified from sites in North America and Europe but appeared to be much more common in these Asian sites.”

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