Firefighter fatality in Quebec

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The International Association of Wildland Fire has distributed information about the May 10 line of duty death of a firefighter on a wildfire in Quebec, Canada:

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  • Name: Sylvain Perron
  • Rank: Firefighter
  • Age: 33
  • Gender: Male
  • Years of Service: 6 years
  • Date of Incident: 10 May 2011
  • Time of Incident: late afternoon
  • Date of Death: 10 May 2011
  • Fire Department: Société de protection des foréets contre le feu (Quebec Provincial Forest Fire Control Agency)
  • Fire Department Address: 1230 Rte. De L’aeroport, Roberval, QC G8H 2M9 Canada

The Société de protection des foréets contre le feu is a public-private partnership, non-profit company in collaboration with Government of Quebec responsible for prevention, detection and suppression of forest fires. It is operated by a board of directors with representatives of the forest industry, private woodlot owners and the Government of Quebec. Employees are strategically placed throughout Quebec as well as at four main bases at Baie-Comeau, Roberval, Maniwaki and Val – d’Or and at the headquarters office in Quebec City. The organization has reportedly more than 400 municipal firefighters trained in wildland firefighting and they also rely on causal firefighters and forestry workers.

Incident Description: Firefighter Perron collapsed while fighting a forest fire near the community of Rouyn-Noranda in the Cléricy sector in northwestern Quebec, Canada. Attempts were made to resuscitate him by other firefighters present until paramedics arrived. He was taken to the hospital ER in Rouyn-Noranda where he was pronounced dead. The incident is being investigated by inspectors from from the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CSST) accompanied by Société de protection des foréets contre le feu (SOPFEU) representatives. Firefighter Perron was based at the Matagami firebase. The Canadian Fallen Firefighters Foundation is listing the death as cardiac arrest while battling the fire.

Incident Location: Near the community of Rouyn-Noranda in the Cléricy sector

Details emerge about fatal accident at Nebraska controlled burn

UPDATE: January 8, 2012

It was pointed out to us that in addition to Theresa Schnoor who died soon after the April 28, 2011 controlled burn, the two people that were injured also passed away later. Further research found that Robert Seybold, 40, died May 18, 2011, and 37-year-old Anthony Meguire died at a burn center in Lincoln, Nebraska September 18, 2011. More details are HERE.

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On May 4, 2011, Wildfire Today covered the tragic story of the fatality and two injuries that occurred on a controlled burn in southwest Nebraska on April 28, 2011. Yesterday the Omaha World-Herald published an in-depth article about the incident and the difficulty of small volunteer fire departments being present at every controlled burn conducted by a private land owner. Here is an excerpt from the article:

Two weeks ago, shifting winds whipped a grassland fire over a firebreak in southwest Nebraska, killing a 46-year-old woman and critically burning two men.

Theresa Schnoor
Theresa Schnoor, Omaha World-Herald

The tragedy involved a growing fraternity of Iowa and Nebraska landowners and others using fire to rid grazing land of unwanted trees and to reinvigorate grassland and wildlife habitat.

The incident was part of a spring run of fires in Nebraska’s dry southwest that exposed holes in the thin line of volunteers who fight wildfires — and then chase after the rare prescribed burn that escapes its handlers.

Lack of manpower and money were the primary reasons no trained firefighters were on hand April 28 when flames engulfed 46-year-old Theresa Schnoor of Trenton, Neb. The State Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the death.

Some rural fire departments send crews to stand by at prescribed burns — commonly referred to as controlled burns — as part of their training, but neither Nebraska nor Iowa requires their presence.

State Sen. Annette Dubas of Fullerton held hearings on the issue of prescribed burns last year and found no need to have volunteer firefighters at every event, so long as the procedures set in state law are followed.

“It was very clear to us that volunteer firefighters are already overextended, and imposing more training or regulation on them could be a disincentive to volunteering,” said Joselyn Luedtke, an aide to Dubas. “The problem didn’t seem to be that there was a need for more firefighters on the ground, but a need for landowners to develop and follow prescribed burn plans.”

There were no indications that the Trenton-area burn would turn tragic, said former State Sen. Tom Baker, who watched the operation start and later was the first emergency medical technician on the scene.

Northern Alberta town of Slave Lake devastated by wildfire

Updated at 7:42 p.m. MT, May 16
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Slave Lake fire
CTV
Slave Lake Fire
Slave Lake Fire, CTV

A large portion of Slave Lake (map) burned to the ground Sunday when winds gusting up to 60 mph pushed a wildfire through the northern Alberta town, home to 6,700 people.

Mid-afternoon on Sunday, Mel Knight, the Alberta Minister of Sustainable Resource Development, in charge of the management of wildfires within the province, said:

We kind of thought the thing was getting under control. What happened this afternoon is the winds picked up.

By the time an evacuation order was issued all roads leading out of the town had been engulfed in fire, cutting off escape routes. Until the power went off, the town’s official web site read in bold red letters: “Fire has breached the Town of Slave Lake Boundary along the southern portion. Please move toward large green areas, beaches or large parking lots like Walmart, Canadian Tire, or the Sawridge Mall Parking Lot.

The Walmart parking lot in Slave lake served as a makeshift refugee camp for town residents. CTV Edmonton

The radio station, which had been broadcasting evacuation notices, lost its power and went off the air, hours before burning down itself. At 7:30 p.m. Sunday, officials opened Highway 2, which would take residents east through a highway and dirt road, away from the flames.

The winds prevented air tankers and helicopters from attacking the fire.

Main street Slave Lake fire CTV
The Town Hall in Slave Lake burned on Sunday. Photo: CTV

A mass evacuation began Sunday night and the RCMP brought in buses to evacuate those whose cars didn’t have enough gas to reach the nearby towns. Without power, gas stations were not able to fill up fuel tanks of vehicles.

Provincial officials are saying 40 percent of the buildings in Slave Lake have burned, including hundreds of homes, many businesses, and the high school, town hall, library, and main mall.

According to the Government of Alberta, the wildfire east of Slave Lake is out of control and has burned approximately 2,000 hectares (4,942 acres). The wildfire south of Slave Lake is also not in control and has burned 15,000  hectares (37,065 acres).

About 1,000 firefighters are currently working on fires in Alberta, and when the wind conditions permit, 100 helicopters and 20 air tankers.

Slave Lake Fire
Slave Lake Fire. Photo: Jon Tupper

Here is a map that shows heat detected by satellites from fires in the Slave Lake area.

Map Slave Lake fire 5-16-2011
Map of heat detected by satellites, in red and orange, from fires near Slave Lake, Alberta, May 16, 2011. MODIS

The fire is one of 116 wildfires burning across Alberta. One-third of them are out of control and 69 are new within the last 24 hours, Duncan MacDonnell, a spokesman with the Alberta government said Monday morning.

CBC NEWS has an impressive slide show. The Edmonton Journal has a gallery of photos of the fire.

In this sparsely populated area, evacuees are being sheltered at the Expo Center in North Edmonton, Alberta, 250 km (156 miles) to the south. Other residents are going to the community hall in Westlock 165 miles (102 miles) to the south.

A Facebook page, Slave Lake and Community Message Board, has been established for communicating with those affected by the fire and for coordinating donations of clothing, food, and money.

The Canadian Red Cross has a special program for accepting donations for the victims of the Alberta fires. Go to their web site, or call 1-800-418-1111.

Honey Prairie fire has burned 128,000 acres in Georgia and Florida

The Honey Prairie fire, burning in the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia and Florida, made a big push to the north on Friday, prompting an aggressive aerial attack, but rain on Saturday slowed the spread. After the forecast of damaging winds and hail, fire managers relocated the aerial resources. Thunderstorms with strong, gusty winds and lightning moved through the area Saturday, bringing an average of 1/2″ to 1″ of rain across the fire with a few areas receiving 1″ to 1.5″. Incident fire crews quickly contained one detected lightning strike that burned approximately half an acre.

Here is an excerpt from an article at Jacksonville.com that was written on May 13. (The fire has now burned 128,861 acres as of Sunday morning.)

The effort to contain the Honey Prairie Wildfire in the Okefenokee Swamp has turned into an aerial battle.

Five helicopters and airplane tankers were dumping water onto the northern edge of the 104,936-acre fire in hopes of preventing its spread to Billys Island, one of the highest and driest areas in the swamp where it could race north, Georgia Forestry Commission spokesman Byron Haire said.

Officials directing operations had decided to let the fire burn inside the swamp and contain it once it reached the boundaries of the 430,000-acre refuge. But Friday turned out to be a day when the fire taxed that strategy riding southerly winds into places officials didn’t want it to go.

The incident response team used helicopters to douse the leading edge of the fire to prevent it from going around or jumping the Suwannee Canal and areas of open water, Haire said.

But the fire jumped the Suwannee Canal, and Thursday night a spot fire developed on the southern end of Billys Island, he said.

Below is a map showing the progression of the Honey Prairie fire as of Saturday:

Map of Honey Prairie fire May 14
Map of Honey Prairie fire May 14 produced by the Incident Management Team.

Wildfires burn across Alberta

 

Alberta fires
Firefighter Trevor Bert, left, and another man battle a wildfire on the Paul Band First Nation west of Edmonton, Alberta on Tuesday, April 20. Photo by Bruce Edwards, The Journal

Here is an excerpt from an article in the Montreal Gazette:

EDMONTON — Low humidity, warm temperatures and dry ground have created perfect conditions for fast-moving wildfires, says the province.

As of Saturday evening, 73 wildfires were burning across Alberta, said Rob Harris, a fire information officer with Sustainable Resource Development. Twenty-seven of these fires were out of control.

Most of the fires were in the Slave Lake, Whitecourt and Edson areas, where tinder-dry conditions have been aggravated by low humidity levels, Harris said.

On Saturday, humidity levels were below 15 per cent, while the temperatures hovered at around 20 C, creating ideal conditions for extreme and erratic wildfires.

 

Air tanker base at Fort Huachuca, Arizona

Bill Hess of the Herald/Review has written an interesting article about the operation of the air tanker base at Fort Huachuca, Arizona (map). Air tankers from that base are working on the Horseshoe Two fire near Portal, AZ which has burned over 22,000 acres. Here is how the article begins:

FORT HUACHUCA — It was 13:29 — 1:29 p.m. -—Saturday when a former Navy P3V broke ground over Libby Army Airfield’s main runway.

Ahead of it was at least a 73-mile flight before it dropped more than 2,500 gallons of retardant on the Horseshoe Two Fire near Portal.

It was to be the 41st flight of retardant drops on the fire not far from the New Mexico state line.

During the previous 40 flights, 80,306 gallons of retardant, the red solutions used to create a line around a wildfire to help contain the blaze, had been dropped on the Horseshoe Two Fire, said Eric Lathrop, the Forest Service’s assistant tanker base manager.

Each gallon of retardant — it is no longer called slurry — weighs nearly nine pounds and is mixed on the air tanker base to be readily available to be pumped into “the heavies,” as the large twin- and four-engine aircrafts are called, by employees of Phos-Chek.

Besides the P3V, there are two P2Vs currently assigned to the tanker base. The P3V is a four-engine plane, while the P2Vs have two radial engines along with two small jet engines used during takeoffs and sometimes while making the retardant attack runs, said Jim Maloney, a Forest Service tanker base manager who now only works “during the fire season” at Libby.

Both Lathrop and Maloney said a bad fire season is expected this year, with Lathrop noting the Libby base opened “two months early.”

Here is some information from Wikipedia about the airport at Fort Huachuca:

Sierra Vista Municipal Airport (IATA: FHU, ICAO: KFHU, FAA LID: FHU), a joint-use airport which shares facilities with Libby Army Airfield, is located on Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista, Arizona. The airport has three runways and one helipad. It is mostly used for military aviation for the surrounding military base.

As per Federal Aviation Administration records, the airport had 1,304 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2005 and 2,041 enplanements in 2006. According to the FAA’s National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2007–2011, Sierra Vista is a general aviation airport (the commercial service category requires at least 2,500 passenger boardings per year). Scheduled commercial service by Great Lakes Airlines to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport ended on February 28, 2007.