Wildfire Today

Olla stories, before and after fires

Bill GabbertFebruary 1, 2012December 11, 2020UncategorizedPhoto by Bill G7 Comments

Ollas in Napak — Ollas remaining after a fire that destroyed huts in Napak in northern Uganda. Photo: Steven Ariong

I was surprised when I saw this photo of what was left after 32 grass-thatched houses burned in a wildfire in the northern Ugandan village of Napak. According to a report, the fire may have been started by locals who were hunting for rats. Among the debris and ashes, you can see quite a few ollas, large clay pots. Ancient people used these hundreds or thousands of years ago for storing water. They have a narrow neck to reduce evaporation.

I found it interesting that ollas are still being used today. If I wanted something in which to store several gallons of water I would simply go to a discount store and buy a plastic jerry can, but that may not be feasible for the folks that live in northern Uganda.

It was also interesting to me because I discovered two ollas in nearly mint condition that had been sitting around for hundreds of years.

It happened on April 25, 1989 when I was working as a wildland engine captain on the Cleveland National Forest east of San Diego. During the winter there were few wildland fires, and those of us that were not furloughed during the off-season usually found a special project to work on. The weather in San Diego County in the winter is mild, except in the higher elevations in the Laguna Mountains, so I volunteered to attend paraprofessional archaeologist training. After becoming qualified, it got me out of the office for weeks at a time, doing archaeology surveys in areas where we planned to conduct prescribed fires.

Another firefighter, Dave Volgarino, went through the training with me, and we did the surveys together, hiking cross country all day in very remote areas, busting through brush recording any native American sites or artifacts that we found, which were mostly left there by the Kumeyaay people. The most exciting stuff that we ran across were one or two arrow heads, mortar or grinding depressions in boulders, flakes where ancient people made projectile points, and very rarely some broken pieces of ollas or pottery.

Until…one day Dave and I were surveying in an area that looked like a pretty good place for camping.

The potential camping spot. USFS photo by Bill Gabbert.

It was a flat area under some oak trees about 1/10 acre in size adjacent to a seasonal creek. I was hiking through brush on the hill above the creek looking for any signs of ancient people and saw a rock overhang behind a chamise bush.

Ollas on the hill — The hillside where Bill Gabbert was searching. USFS photo by Bill Gabbert

I pulled the brush aside and could not believe my eyes. Not one but two ollas, in almost mint condition.
Continue reading “Olla stories, before and after fires”

3 firefighters injured while fighting grass fire in Tennessee

Bill GabbertJanuary 31, 2012Uncategorized

Three firefighters from the Braden fire department in Tennessee were injured while fighting a grass fire in the median of Interstate 40 in Fayette County on Monday. At about 5:10 p.m. a pickup pulling a trailer veered into the median and struck the rear of their fire engine, injuring the three firefighters. Two of the firefighters were listed in serious condition at the Regional Medical Center in Memphis while the third firefighter was treated and released from a hospital.

The driver of the pickup was killed and his passenger was transported to a hospital.

Here is an excerpt from the Braden FD’s Facebook page that was updated late Monday night:

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“This afternoon Braden responded on a grass fire on I-40 at the 40 mile marker in the median. Many times if in a pumper we will use the deck gun to quickly hit the fire to limit our exposure on the interstate. That is what they did today. While putting flaps back and shifting out the pump, Engine 2 was rear ended by a truck and trailer. Three of our brother firefighters were injured and taken to hospitals. Two were flown to the Med and one was taken to Somerville were he was treated and released. The two at the Med are in serious condition.

Our apparatus is Lime Green, we wear yellow turnouts and also wear ANSI vest. All this just to be better seen on the Interstate. We have been very lucky in the past, but the Interstate is just a dangerous place to work.

I want to thank everyone involved in this incident tonight whatever part you played. A ton of people stepped up and offered help. I also want you to think outside of this tragic event that happend to Braden Fire Department tonight and include those who lost their father and husband in this accident.

We will try to keep you posted on Mack & Josh’s condition and request you keep them and their families in your prayers.”

Google launches Public Alerts

Bill GabbertJanuary 31, 2012January 31, 2012Uncategorized

Google has launched a service that displays emergency alerts on a map. According to Google, if you go to Google Maps and search, for example, for “Flood Indiana”, it will display icons at locations that have flood warnings or advisories. Or, you can go directly to the Google Public Alerts page and see the alerts that have been posted. Zooming in sometimes causes more alerts to be displayed.

Google’s announcement about the service that was posted on January 25 does not mention if wildfires or evacuations would be part of this system, but they do say that “public safety” will be one of their objectives.

Here is an excerpt from Google’s announcement:
Continue reading “Google launches Public Alerts”

Fire channelling — a danger to firefighters

Bill GabbertJanuary 30, 2012October 13, 2012UncategorizedAustralia, open access, research, weather1 Comment

The rapid escalation of a small fire due to fire channelling can result in a catastrophic decay in both firefighter and community safety that is counterintuitive.

That is how the authors of a paper wrapped up their findings about a weather phenomenon that can cause a wildfire to spread in unexpected directions. “Fire channelling” can force a fire on the lee side of a ridge to spread 90-degrees from the general wind direction. For example, if a west wind pushes a fire across a north-south ridge, on the lee or east side of the ridge the fire could spread to both the north and the south, counterintuitively.

Fire Channeling fig 11 — The white arrow shows the general wind direction. The black area was not imaged by the line-scanner on this run. From the Sharples, McRae, and Wilkes paper funded by the Australian government.

Generally a strong wind has the most effect on the direction of spread of a fire — more so than topography or fuel. If a fire is spreading with a strong west wind, the rate of spread on the flanks, the north and south sides, will be much less than the head of the fire on the east side. Unless — fire channelling is occurring.

Firefighters usually face less risk when they attack a fire on the heel or flanks of a fire. In most cases it can be impossible to safely attack the head of a fast-moving fire in heavy fuels. But this fire channelling phenomenon has the potential to present firefighters with unexpected fire behavior, putting them in a dangerous situation on what they expected to be the flanks of a fire that suddenly converted to heads of the fire.

The authors of the paper, which is titled Wind–terrain effects on the propagation of wildfires in rugged terrain: fire channelling, considered several causes of fire channelling, including thermally induced winds, pressure-driven channelling, forced channelling, and downward momentum transport, but they settled on wind–terrain–fire interactions as the most likely mechanism driving the atypical spread. Here is an excerpt providing some details about wind–terrain–fire interactions:

…If a fire happened to spread into a region affected by a separation eddy, then the hot gas from the fire could be entrained within the eddy, with the strong wind shear at the top of the eddy impeding mixing between the synoptic and separated flows. Hence, supposing a fire enters a region of separated flow at the north end of a slope or valley, and treating the air within the eddy as a quasi-isolated system (i.e. a system that involves only limited mixing with the surrounding environment; cf. Byron-Scott 1990), the air within the northern part of the eddy will be at a higher temperature and pressure than the air within the southern part of the eddy. As a consequence, the air within the eddy will tend to move towards the south in response to the thermally induced pressure gradient or simply owing to thermal expansion of the air within the eddy. Based on the available evidence, such an interaction constitutes the most likely mechanism driving the atypical spread.

Access to the research

If you want to read the paper you will have to pay CSIRO Publishing $25, in spite of the fact that the authors appear to be funded by the Australian government. It was written by Jason J. Sharples, Richard H. D. McRae, and Stephen R. Wilkes who are associated with three organizations in Australia, the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy, the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre, and the ACT Emergency Services Agency.

This is another example of government funded research that taxpayers have to pay for twice. Once when the government-paid employees conduct the research and write the paper, and a second time if a person wants to read it. We have written about this lack of Open Access numerous times before. However, this example is a little murky, in that the government sponsored research was published by CSIRO, a governmental body. But many U.S. wildfire researchers who are government employees publish their papers in the same CSIRO publication, the International Journal of Wildland Fire, behind a pay wall.

Sign the petition

At the U.S. White House web site you can sign a petition to make government funded research available at no additional charge to the public. Let President Obama know that you oppose HR3699, the Research Works Act, which is an attempt to put federally funded scientific information behind pay-walls and confer the ownership of the information to a private entity. You will need to register at the site, giving them a name and a real email address.

Fog and wildfire smoke cause crashes in Florida, 9 dead

Bill GabbertJanuary 29, 2012August 25, 2019Uncategorized2 Comments

(updated at 8:04 p.m. MT, January 29, 2012)

A mixture of fog and smoke from a vegetation fire caused multiple vehicle crashes and 11 deaths on I-75 in north Florida early Sunday morning. Authorities said all lanes of the Interstate were closed and at least 18 people were being treated at hospitals.

The Florida Highway Patrol had closed the highway briefly overnight because of a mixture of fog and smoke from a marsh fire in the nearby Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park south of Gainesville. Troopers checked the visibility and when it cleared they opened the highway. At 3:45 a.m. the crashes occurred, involving at least seven large commercial vehicles and about twelve passenger vehicles. Three of the vehicles caught fire. The Gainesville Sun has some photos of the incident.

This brings to mind the horrific 70-vehicle pileup on January 9, 2008 on I-4 in Florida in which five people were killed. That one was caused by a mixture of fog and smoke from an escaped prescribed fire.

Air tankers on contract for 2012 and beyond

Bill GabbertJanuary 28, 2012January 29, 2012Uncategorized27 Comments

Air Tanker 45 on the Whoopup fire July 18, 2011. Photo: Bill Gabbert

The U.S. Forest Service is still struggling to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) for “next generation” air tankers. As we reported on December 1, 2011, the agency issued a RFP on November 30 for turbine-powered air tankers that can carry 3,000 to 5,000 gallons of retardant and cruise at 300 knots. At that time the required response date was January 10, 2012 and the award date was January 31. Since then there have been three amendments to the RFP, 80 questions from potential bidders have been formally submitted, and the RFP has been re-issued with a new response date of February 15. The revised award date is “to be determined”.

The RFP still indicates that the USFS “intends to award” contracts for seven next-gen air tankers, three in 2012 and four in 2013, with the option to add more. And they retain the option to contract for no next-gen air tankers at all.

All of this uncertainty is not very confidence-inspiring for current and potential vendors who are required to invest millions, or tens of millions, in a venture that may or may not come to fruition, turn a profit, or last more than five years, if that.

This RFP is in addition to the 11 large fully certified “legacy” air tankers that are currently on exclusive use multi-year contracts. Here is the text from the RFP:

It is the intent of this solicitation to secure a Firm Fixed Price Multi-Year contract(s) not to exceed 10-years (5 year base with 5 one year options) for the daily availability rate. The U.S. Forest Service intends to award seven (7) line items for next generation turbine powered airtankers. Line items 1-3 will begin service in calendar year 2012 and will have a base period of five (5) years with five (5) one year options. Line items 4-7 will begin service in calendar year 2013 and will have a base period of five (5) years with four (4) one year options. For each line item awarded the Government will have the option to add an additional four (4) airtankers (two (2) in year two and two (2) in year 3) to the contract for a total potential of 5 airtankers starting in year three of the base contract period.

The web site Random Ramblings: Aerial Wildland Firefighting has an article about the large air tankers that are on U.S. Forest Service contract for 2012. Here is the new list that is posted at the NIFC web site:

It’s a rather pitiful looking list, when compared to those from previous years that had 19 to 44 air tankers.

Tanker 40, the BAe-146 that Neptune is leasing from Tronos, arrived at the Tronos facility on Prince Edward Island December 24 to begin a major scheduled maintenance, a C-check, which is required every 5,000 cycles or every 2.5 years. The C-check for a BAe-146 usually takes about 21 work days and the aircraft has not returned to Missoula yet. Last fall the Interagency Air Tanker Board gave “interim approval” to Tanker 40 which will be valid until December, 2012.

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