Wildfire Today

We were saddened to learn today that Len Dems passed away last night, December 5. Len had been the Regional Fire Management Officer for the National Park Service’s Intermountain Region since February of 2005. He had been battling cancer since last summer when he was diagnosed with a rare form of sarcoma of the spleen.

I have known Len for about 20 years and worked with him occasionally on fires, all-risk incidents, and various projects. He was very well-respected in the wildfire community for his leadership, intelligence, and good nature. Len could very easily break into a smile at the least provocation.

The National Park Service has a page devoted to his professional life. Here is an excerpt about his recent years:

…Len was promoted to the GS-14 Regional Fire Management Officer position in February 2005. He has held that job until retirement. He is a respected leader in Fire and Aviation Management by his organization, state cooperators, and the interagency Federal fire agencies.

His ‘Red-Card’ reads: Incident Commander T-2, Plans Chief T-2 and Prescribed Burn Boss Type 1, along with several other qualifications.

He served on interagency fire overhead teams throughout his career as well as NPS All-Risk overhead teams, notably during the Yosemite Flood of 1997. He was instrumental in development of and participation with the original Interagency Wildland Fire Use Teams. He has developed the configurations of the Fire Use Modules and the Alpine Hot Shots, based nearby in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Other notable accomplishments include his participation on the original cadre for the first national Prescribed Burn Boss course RX-90, NPS representative and cadre member for Advanced Wildland Fire Applications S-580, cadre on the course development for the Fire Program Management Course and the Region 2 regional lead for its field presentation, author of the original NPS Business Rules for the FIREPRO budget, active member of the FIREPRO steering committee. In addition, he was engaged with numerous task groups and subcommittees, serving as chairperson and ongoing NPS representative to the Region 1 coordinating group.

Len participated in numerous incident reviews most notably the Cerro Grande Fire Board of Inquiry and Dutch Creek Board of Review and many others in the western States.

A CaringBridge web site had been providing his friends with updates on his condition.

From the NPS Morning Report, the plans for the services are:

Continue reading “Rest in peace Len Dems”

If you are a fan of Handel’s Messiah, and especially the grand finale, the Hallelujah Chorus, like I am, you will love this video of a “flash mob” performing the piece in a mall food court. It happened on November 13, 2010 when 100 members of a chorus surprised unsuspecting shoppers having lunch at the Welland Seaway Mall, which I believe is in Welland, Ontario. The video has received 12 13.6 million views since it was posted on November 17.

It begins when one person stands up and sings as the music plays in the background. Then two others, and six others until 100 are singing. It’s fun to try to determine which singers are actual chorus members and which ones are diners that just got caught up in the event.

Over the last few days we have made a few improvements at Wildfire Today. They are not major and you may not notice them, but they make the site a little more user friendly for our loyal readers.

It is now possible to easily email a copy of an entire article, along with any photos that may be included. Look at the bottom of every article for the “Email This Article” link. Thanks to AZ Firefighter for this suggestion.

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