Wildfire Today

Wildland firefighters: rhabdomyolysis or “rhabdo” can be extremely serious

Bill GabbertNovember 16, 2011September 28, 2019Uncategorizedfirefighter health, heat related illness, Pack Test, rhabdomyolysis, safety5 Comments

Employee's left leg after 5 surgeries — From the FLA. Employee’s left leg after 5 surgeries

I will have to admit that when the National Wildfire Coordinating Group’s Risk Management Committee distributed some information earlier this year about rhabdomyolysis, which is frequently referred to as “rhabdo”, I didn’t pay much attention. But today when the Wildfire Lessons Learned Center announced that a Facilitated Learning Analysis (FLA) for a severe case of rhabdo was available, I read it carefully and am now converted. The injury in the FLA occurred September 21, 2011 while a firefighter was taking the Work Capacity Test, or “pack test”. I have seen the light and realize how serious this condition can be.

Left untreated, or if not treated early enough, rhabdo can lead to irreversible muscle damage, permanent disability, kidney failure possibly requiring lifelong dialysis, and even death. Up to 8% of cases of rhabdomyolysis are fatal according to a NIOSH report. And all of this can be the result of exercising hard or engaging in a strenuous fire assignment if other risk factors are also present.

Rhabdomyolysis is the breakdown of muscle fibers resulting in the release of muscle contents (myoglobin) into the bloodstream which are harmful to the kidneys and may lead to kidney failure.

The link between rhabdo and “compartment syndrome”, the condition that is emphasized in the FLA, is certain, but it is not clear to me, having much more fire training than medical training, if compartment syndrome leads to rhabdo or vice versa, and my research found conflicting information. But that is not really important, in that both conditions are similar in that they are caused by damaged muscle tissue. Compartment syndrome occurs when the damaged muscle is inside an enclosed compartment in a fibrous sheath with other muscles, as is found in the arms and legs. Rhabdo can occur with any muscles, but both can lead to the same outcome, including death.

I was disappointed that the recently released FLA did not state the cause of the injured employee’s compartment syndrome/rhabdo, nor did it provide much useful information about how to prevent a similar occurrence, other than to “prioritize staying physically fit”, and the “incorporation of healthy lifestyle choices and better nutrition”. So I attempted to gather some information here in one place that will hopefully be useful for wildland firefighters, to increase their chances of avoiding rhambdo, or diagnosing it if it occurs.
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CAL FIRE’s aviation fleet

Bill GabbertNovember 16, 2011August 25, 2019Uncategorizedair tanker1 Comment

CAL FIRE air tankers and lead planes — Some of CAL FIRE's air tankers and air tactical aircraft at McClellan Airfield. Click to enlarge.

While looking up information about the Aerial Firefighting International Show and Conference that will be held at McClellan Airfield at Sacramento in January, I ran across this Google Maps photo of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection aviation maintenance facility at McClellan. It must have been taken during a shoulder season and shows approximately two-thirds of the air tankers and air tactical aircraft that Cal Fire operates. The agency has a total of 23 S-2T 1,200-gallon air tankers, 14 OV-10A air tactical twin-engine fixed wing aircraft, and 11 UH-1H Super Huey helicopters.

Here is more information about their aviation program from CAL FIRE’s web site:

The average annual budget of the CAL FIRE Aviation Management Program is nearly $20 million. A total of 18 CAL FIRE personnel oversee the program with an additional 130 contract employees providing mechanical, pilot and management services to the program.

CAL FIRE’s current support contractors are DynCorp and Logistics Specialties Incorporated (LSI). DynCorp provides airtanker and airtactical plane pilot services, and all aircraft maintenance services. (All CAL FIRE helicopters are flown by CAL FIRE pilots.) LSI provides procurement and parts management services.

This video produced by CAL FIRE details the off-season maintenance of their air tankers.

Wildfire News, November 16, 2011

Bill GabbertNovember 16, 2011August 25, 2019Uncategorized1 Comment

Ranch owners agree to pay $17 million for Zaca fire

The owners of a ranch have agreed to pay $17 million for the costs of suppressing the Zaca fire.

On July 4, 2007 Ranch hands working for the La Laguna Ranch in Santa Barbara County in southern California accidentally started the Zaca fire that by August 31 had burned 240,207 acres, making it California’s second largest fire in recorded history after the Cedar Fire of 2003.

According to the agreement, the ranch owners admitted no wrongdoing and will pay $14 million to the federal government and $3 million to the state. When the fire was contained on September 2, the suppression costs totaled $117 million.

The two ranch hands who started the fire by using a grinder to repair a water pipe were originally charged with five felony counts, but those charges were thrown out by Judge Zel Canter who determined the workers’ actions didn’t amount to recklessness. Canter explained that firefighters used the fire as a resource management tool, so the two who started the fire were no longer responsible. One of the ranch hands pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and paid a $200 fine and was directed to make a fire safety video paid for by Rancho La Laguna.

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Texas Forest Service and Incident Management Teams honored for response to Bastrop fire

Here is an excerpt from a press release issued by the Texas Forest Service:

November 15, 2011

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Texas Forest Service was honored this week with a Government Excellence Award for its response to the devastating Bastrop wildfire.

The award was presented Monday evening at the Government Security News 2011 Homeland Security Awards Dinner in Washington, D.C.

Texas Forest Service, along with Bastrop County Unified Command, Boise National Incident Management Organization Team and Type 1 Southern Area Red Team won the award for most notable emergency response implementation by a federal, state or local entity. The group was recognized for “evacuating homes ahead of the raging wildfires that swept through Central Texas.”

The Bastrop complex of fires ignited on Labor Day weekend, burning more than 34,000 acres and destroying 1,649 homes.

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Wildfire triggers land mine blasts

A fire that started in Pakistan and burned across the border into the Poonch district of India triggered the explosions of seven land mines in the Line of Control, Indian officials said on Tuesday.

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Federal forests are becoming a “substantial liability”

Hal Salwasser, dean of the Oregon State College of Forestry, expressed his opinion about national forests in a speech October 13 at a meeting of the the Society of American Foresters:

The current costs of holding federal forests as a government managed public trust far exceed the revenues generated, and expenses related to fire management exceed all other investment needs. Who pays the bills? Every American taxpayer does. Who bears the impacts? Mostly local people and communities in areas near the forests. This is hardly an equitable condition and certainly out of alignment with the social contract between urban and rural America that began eroding in the 1980s. Counties across the west are left begging for a federal welfare check in lieu of revenues from sustainable economic activities on federal forests and they do not get federal timber-related jobs and indirect businesses with the welfare check. Meanwhile, the trees keep growing and, in fire-prone forests dying, victims of climate change, invasive species, uncharacteristic wildfires, insect outbreaks and insufficient funds or social license to change course.

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Photos from AFE conference

The Association for Fire Ecology has posted some photos that were taken at last night’s poster session at the Interior West Fire Ecology Conference going on now at the Snowbird resort near Salt Lake City.

Here is one of them. Be sure and enjoy the music during the slide show.

Lost hiker emails photo of boot sole to searchers

Bill GabbertNovember 15, 2011August 25, 2019Uncategorized1 Comment

The value of a cell phone when you’re hiking in a remote area can’t be underestimated. And if the phone has GPS and a camera, that’s even better. Here is an excerpt from an article in Prescott, Arizona’s Daily Courier:

At 3 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9, a 44-year-old Scottsdale woman called to report she became lost while hiking in the Jacks Canyon area of Sedona, said Dwight D’Evelyn, YCSO spokesman.

When searchers arrived they received updated GPS information from her cellphone, and at 4 p.m. they spoke with her and learned she was alright, had some trail mix, water and a fully charged cellphone battery, but no jacket, D’Evelyn said.

The rescue team asked her to take a photo of her boot sole and send it to them, which they used to verify her boot tracks on the Hot Loop trail and determine her direction of travel. At 8 p.m. searchers found her at the top of a mesa in good condition and escorted back to her vehicle.

“The lone hiker accessed a trail she was not familiar with,” D’Evelyn said. “Always plan your hike around marked trails following research of the area you plan explore. A late start could mean an overnight stay in the outdoors if you become lost.”

Hikers should consider bringing extra clothing, matches, water, first aid supplies, a cellphone with a spare battery, and a light source, D’Evelyn said.

Air Force hopes to do hazard reduction with lasers

Bill GabbertNovember 12, 2011August 25, 2019Uncategorized1 Comment

The terms “hazard reduction” and “laser” are rarely, if ever, used in the same sentence, but the U.S. Air Force is ready to pay up to $150,000 for the first phase of development of a ~~weapon~~ device that:

…uses directed energy technology to prevent and abate unwanted plants (weeds) in areas that require control or defoliation. The purpose of this system will be the removal of unwanted plants and keep seeds from germinating.

“Directed energy” could include lasers, microwaves, or sound. Like many property owners, the Air Force has a need to remove weeds, and they are looking for a method that does not use herbicides which have “negative impacts on bird populations”. They have already looked into this subject and decided that it may be feasible. Here are more details from their “Proposal Submission Instructions”

Having a cost effective device that eliminates the use of herbicides or reduces the amount of machinery could extensively save money and protect wildlife at the same time. Private industry has been actively engaged in the research, development, and deployment of various physical control technologies utilizing microwave radiation (as heat), lasers, and sound to deter, disrupt, deny, or degrade the desired objective. Thermal technologies such as foam, hot water, steam and quenched hot gases to physically rupture cell membranes within young, vigorous green weeds to shut down the plant’s capacity for photosynthesis, has been explored as a means for safe, effective weed control . The technological challenge is to develop a device that would effectively destroy weeds in various growth stages from seeds to maturity using some form of directed energy in designated areas.

Oh, and by the way, the device “must not be able to target personnel or wildlife”.

The Military has been experimenting with many types of lasers for decades. Here are a couple of examples.

Raytheon laser — Concept for Raytheon's CIRCM laser which would jam missile guidance systems. Raytheon.

Raytheon has developed a laser system for helicopters designed to jam missle guidance systems.

U.S. Air Force Capt. Drew F. Goettler, of the Air Force Research Laboratory' Directed Energy Directorate, demonstrates the Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response, or PHaSR, a non-lethal illumination technology developed by the laboratory's ScorpWorks team. Air Force courtesy photo

Air Force Research Laboratory employees at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., are developing the first man-portable, non-lethal deterrent weapon intended for protecting troops and controlling hostile crowds.

Congressman Rehberg drops his lawsuit against Billings Fire Department

Bill GabbertNovember 12, 2011October 5, 2012UncategorizedRehberg2 Comments

U.S. Representative Denny Rehberg has dropped his lawsuit against the city of Billings, Montana and their fire department. The congressman initially sought a monetary award from the city to compensate him and his wife for a 2008 wildfire that burned undeveloped property owned by the couple. He alleged that the fire department was negligent in allowing a fire to flare up 2 days after it was contained.

An attorney for Representative Rehberg contacted at least two retired wildland firefighters over the last several months inquiring if they would be interested in working as expert witnesses for the lawsuit. Those two turned the Rehberg team down.

A trial had been scheduled for December 3, 2012, but in October the Rehbergs said they would settle the lawsuit if the fire department would adopt “specific wildland firefighting standards”.

Earlier this week the city of Billings, through their attorney Michele Braukmann, refused to settle, saying:

The City is rightfully proud of what it was able to accomplish in very adverse firefighting conditions, and it believes that defending its firefighters from the unfounded accusations your client has made is of utmost importance.

I would hope that, if your clients actually take the time to review the documents that I have provided you, including the incident report forms, the detailed timelines, the dispatch records, and the other documentation they will — rather than condemning the firefighters — congratulate them for a job well done. I hope that I will be in receipt of dismissal paperwork for this lawsuit, and that I can let our firefighters know they can get back to the most important job they have — that of saving lives.

Rehberg, a Republican U.S. Representative since 2001, is giving up his seat to run against Democratic U.S. Senator Jon Tester in the November, 2012 election. The Tester campaign commented on the lawsuit:

Suing firefighters who helped put out your wildfire is one of the most out-of-touch and self-serving things a person in public office could do.

Rehberg’s attorney, Cliff Edwards, released a statement on Thursday:

Despite our firm’s belief this case has merit, and damages from the city are warranted for our clients, the Rehbergs have directed their case be dismissed, as politics have now been so injected into the case that the true substance of the matter can never be sorted out.

HERE is a link to other articles on Wildfire Today about Congressman Rehberg’s lawsuit against the Billings Fire Department.
Thanks go out to Dick