Two engine crews and a dozer install 16,000 feet of hose on the Dixie Fire. CAL FIRE photo.
The hardest part of installing long hose lays in rugged terrain is hauling the hose, and it is usually uphill. When the plans called for 16,000 feet of hose to be installed on the Dixie Fire it just took two engine crews and some ingenuity to get it done. They enlisted the help of dozer E2085 from Paula and sons Earthwork.
The CAL FIRE crews were Lassen Modoc engines E2271 and E2251.
Two engine crews and a dozer install 16,000 feet of hose on the Dixie Fire. CAL FIRE photo.Two engine crews and a dozer install 16,000 feet of hose on the Dixie Fire. CAL FIRE photo.Two engine crews and a dozer install 16,000 feet of hose on the Dixie Fire. CAL FIRE photo.
One day in the not too distant future it will become routine to haul hose with drones.
To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Dixie Fire, including the most recent, click here.
Caldor Fire map, east side, Sept. 6, 2021. Incident Mgt. Team.
The combination of milder weather and in some cases the fire moving into higher elevations with less fuel has allowed the 5,072 firefighters and support personnel on the Caldor Fire near South Lake Tahoe to make increased progress in recent days. Hand crews and dozers have constructed more direct lines on the fire’s edge, stopping the spread in additional areas. The fire was mapped Sunday night at 216,358 acres, an increase of about 1,000 in the last 24 hours.
Several areas have had their mandatory evacuation orders downgraded to warnings, allowing thousands of residents to return to the city of South Lake Tahoe. El Dorado County maintains a map showing the current status of evacuations.
To see all articles about the Caldor Fire on Wildfire Today, including the most recent, click HERE.
Crews have confirmed that 714 residences and 208 other structures have burned. Officials have posted a map showing structures which have been evaluated for damage.
Caldor Fire, Sept. 6, 2021
On the east side of the fire directly south of Lake Tahoe the large finger of fire east of Christmas Valley and Highway 89 that has burned more than 7,000 acres has fire line completed on the west and north sides. On the southern flank of that finger, hand crews with help from dozers are constructing direct line to keep it from moving to the south and east. They have made great progress. The perimeter of that finger is more than 20 miles, making just this section of the fire alone a huge undertaking.
A wildland fire module has been inserted into the Desolation Wilderness north of Highway 50 to help contain the northwestern corner of the East Zone. A heli-rappel module will also be inserted and additional wildland fire modules are on order for this area.
Sunday night the humidity recovery was poor, rising only into the low 20s on the slopes. On Monday the forecast calls for extremely dry air to remain over the fire area with above average temperatures and humidities in the low to mid-teens. Light winds on ridges in the morning will become westerly during the afternoon. Wednesday through Friday will bring increasing winds, 14 mph out of the west and west-southwest occasionally gusting into the low 20s, and even stronger on the weekend.
On the south side northeast of Kirkwood firefighters have made progress with dozer lines but north of Highway 88 the there is still work remaining.
Firefighters on the Caldor Fire, Aug. 22, 2021. CAL FIRE photo.
Active duty US Army soldiers receive fire training before assisting at the Dixie Fire Sept. 1, 2021. About 200 soldiers have been activated to assist with wildfires in California. InciWeb.
Two firefighters assigned to wildfires in California have died.
One of two emails sent to employees on the Stanislaus National Forest about the fatality of one of their employee/retirees said he “passed away earlier this week due to complications of COVID-19 while assigned to the French Fire near Kernville, CA. He had been hospitalized in Bakersfield.”
The person’s name has not been released by the Stanislaus, but at least three sources confirm it was Allen Johnson.
Allen Johnson. USFS.
Allen was a Forest Service retiree and was working as an Administratively Determined (AD) employee on the French Fire. The email to the forest’s staff said it’s very early in the process, but “Tentative plans for honoring Allen include a Dignified Transport of remains followed by a Memorial Service. To the best of our current knowledge, Allen’s dignified transport and Memorial Service will occur on or after September 26.”
California Interagency Incident Management Team 14 posted on Facebook Sept. 1, 2021, “Our team, the firefighting community, and the world lost a great friend, mentor, teacher and comrade last night. Retired South Central Sierra Interagency Incident Management Team IC and Liaison Officer Allen Johnson passed away from complications related to COVID 19.”
So in the absence of official information from the US Forest Service about this line of duty death, it appears from the post by his incident management team that Allen died August 31, 2021.
Saturday night NBC Bay Area reported another fatality — a US Forest Service firefighter assigned to the Dixie Fire near Susanville, California.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service told NBC Bay Area Saturday that the firefighter, an employee with the Lassen National Forest died from an illness. The official added that the firefighter’s death was not related to the fire. No other details have been released at this time.
The official information from CAL FIRE about the Dixie Fire confirms there was a first responder fatality from an illness on September 2.
UPDATE at 11:08 a.m. PDT Sept. 6, 2021: NEWS4 reported today that the US Forest Service said the firefighter that died who had been assigned to the Dixie Fire was Marcus Pacheco, an assistant fire engine operator for the Lassen NF with 30 years of fire experience. He passed away Sept. 2 from what the USFS is calling an "unspecified illness". Late at night on September 5 the Lassen National Forest created a post on Facebook announcing the two fatalities and confirming the names.
The Dixie Fire has burned more than 889,000 acres near Susanville, California and is still actively spreading.
The 25,000-acre French Fire is west of Kernville, California.
Last week a strike team of five engines with 16 firefighters on the Caldor Fire near Lake Tahoe was quarantined for two weeks due to one of their members testing positive for COVID. There have been other reports of firefighters and crews sidelined, quarantined, or sickened, but specifics are hard to come by.
Two weeks ago Wildfire Today asked the five federal land management agencies for the number of their firefighters that have tested positive for COVID or had to quarantine after exposure. All five refused to release any information on the topic and would not explain their reasoning for keeping it secret. On September 2 we asked the US Forest Service again for the numbers of their firefighters who have tested positive for COVID, were hospitalized, or died. We are still waiting for the answers.
We send out our sincere condolences to the family, friends, and co-workers of the two firefighters who passed away while on duty.
(Edited to include the names of the firefighters.)
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to people who passed along this information.
Global Supertanker Retardant Delivery System. Image by Global Supertanker.
A company that provides aircraft for lease has purchased the retardant delivery system (RDS) formerly in the 747 Supertanker. Logistic Air is now the owner of the tanking system that for years had interim approval by the federal government’s Interagency Airtanker Board (IAB) to be used in an air tanker.
Global Supertanker’s recently modified website proudly proclaims “Returning to Service in 2022.”
Screengrab from GlobalSupertanker.biz Sept. 3, 2021.
Many of the photos of aircraft on Logistic Air’s website are 747s, but they provide wide-body and narrow-body passenger and cargo aircraft for world-wide operations.
The eight fluid tanks were inspected, tested, painted, and mounted to cargo pallets before being installed in the last version of the Supertanker in 2016. Photo by Global Supertanker.
The SuperTanker’s RDS is comprised of approximately 20 tanks that hold retardant and enough compressed air to pump the retardant out of the four nozzles that were in the belly of the huge aircraft. At various times the air tanker had interim certification by the IAB to carry 20,000, 19,200 and 17,500 gallons of retardant. The IAB and the US Forest Service appeared to bend over backwards to find reasons to not issue full approval to the aircraft and the RDS.
Retardant comes out of four nozzles on the belly of the Supertanker. Photo by Bill Gabbert.
Earlier this year the SuperTanker’s drop controlling system and other components were significantly modified to improve the delivery of retardant, including metering the volume dispersed based on the ground speed of the aircraft. It then went through dozens of tests on the ground. The operators were waiting for it to be scheduled for the IAB’s grid or cup test which measures the amount of retardant that hits the ground over a large grid. But before that took place, the owner, Alterna Capital, shut down the company and sold the aircraft and the RDS to two companies. The 747 was purchased by National Airlines to be used as a freighter, and Logistic Air bought the RDS.
747 SuperTanker makes demonstration water drop in Colorado Springs, May 14, 2016. Photo by Bill Gabbert.
A person at Alterna Capital who was not authorized to speak for the company told Fire Aviation that Global Supertanker had approximately two dozen employees and contractors when the doors closed and none of them are working for the new owners at this time. The person said Alterna “will support Logistic Air in any way we can.”
Calls to Logistic Air were not immediately returned.
UPDATE at 6:27 p.m. PDT Sept. 3, 2021
After this was published we received a call from a person at Logistic Air who asked to remain anonymous. They confirmed that the company plans to install the RDS in a nose-loading 747-200 when the aircraft completes maintenance after the first of the year. The aircraft itself will have to be modified, of course, to enable loading retardant and compressed air, and the plumbing and belly nozzles need to be installed. Then they will schedule a grid test, which they are confident it will pass. The final and most important step is applying for and receiving a new contract from the US Forest Service, no easy feat. We were told that some of the former employees of GlobalSupertanker are expected to work with the new organization.
Air Tanker 944, a 747-400, drops near structures on the Palmer Fire south of Yucaipa, California at 4:25 p.m. PDT September 2, 2017. Photo by Leroy Leggitt, used with permission.
BLM engine crew members mopping up on the BLM Trout Springs Prescribed Fire in southwest Idaho, Sept. 13, 2019. BLM photo.
The Bureau of Land Management is implementing direction from Congress to convert hundreds of their employees who fight wildland fires from seasonal to permanent status. Most of the federal government’s wildland firefighters are inappropriately in positions titled Forestry Technician or Range Technician.
Historically, the BLM’s wildland fire workforce was seasonally based. However, a new model is intended to address the escalating workforce needs due to climate change intensifying fire activity. In a news release the BLM said this model will also provide employees with career stability and upward mobility to promote work-life balance and long-term careers in wildfire or resource management.
The BLM received $13 million in its 2021 fiscal year budget which began October 1, 2020 to begin workforce transformation, which involves adding 76 new firefighters and support personnel who sustain the wildland fire management mission. The BLM will also convert 428 existing seasonal positions to permanent and/or year-round positions. Overall, the U.S. Department of the Interior received $29 million to carry out “DOI’s Plan to Transform the Firefighting Workforce.”
Other agencies in the DOI with wildland firefighting responsibilities are National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Indian Affairs. The US Forest Service also has thousands of Forestry Technicians whose primary jobs are fighting fire, with many of them being seasonal. All five of the agencies were directed by Congress to convert some of their seasonals to permanent and/or year-round.
“The ultimate goal of workforce transformation is to attract and retain a diverse group of quality employees – dedicated people who will not only help manage fires and fuels in support of BLM’s multiple-use mission, but who have the potential to become the Bureau’s future leaders,” said BLM Deputy Director of Policy and Programs Nada Culver. “Our people are our most important resource, and this workforce transformation effort will result in more career opportunities and benefits for our wildland firefighters – those who work hard to keep the public safe and to protect our public lands.”
The BLM Fire program is planning to continue this transformation effort next fiscal year and beyond in hopes of fully transforming its workforce in the coming years.
“The fire activity we’ve experienced in 2021 and previous years reinforces the need for transforming a sizeable portion of our largely seasonal fire organization to permanent positions, though widespread change will not happen overnight,”said BLM Assistant Director of Fire and Aviation Grant Beebe.
Friday the wind will generally be light, but on some ridge tops will be from a different direction, east-southeast with 20 mph gusts
10:28 a.m. PDT Sept. 3, 2021
Two strike teams of engines, including 9271C, preparing for their shift on the Caldor Fire Sept. 3, 2021. CAL FIRE Amador-El Dorado Unit photo.
The Incident Management Team reports that weather on the 212,000-acre Caldor Fire near South Lake Tahoe continued to moderate Thursday and Thursday night with cooler temperatures in the 70’s during the day with lighter southwest winds. Fire growth was minimal, increasing by about 2,000 acres. In an indication of what kind of fire behavior they had been facing for weeks, Thursday night the Fire Behavior Analyst called it good news that the spotting distance has decreased from one mile to a half mile.
At the head of the 8,000-acre finger of fire east of Highway 89 near Trimmer Peak south of South Lake Tahoe, hotshot crews were successful in extinguishing fire around numerous hot spots. Dozers and hand crews are putting in direct and indirect line on the south side of that finger. Crews are also putting in dozer line on the north side, in some places tying it in with power line rights of way.
To see all articles about the Caldor Fire on Wildfire Today, including the most recent, click HERE.
On the south side of the fire west of Kirkwood dozers and hand crews have completed a line around the south edge of the 800-acre slop over south of Highway 88, northwest of the ski area. They are installing a hose lay to keep it secure and to mop up.
Today, Friday, the inversion will break around 10 a.m. when fire behavior may begin to increase. Relative humidity is expected to be in the teens, and winds will generally be light except on ridges where they could be from the east-southeast with gusts to 20 mph. This major shift in the wind direction could test some constructed firelines in a way they have not been in recent days. Exceptionally dry fuel conditions exist in the fire area.
In a live briefing Thursday night Sept. 3 East Side Incident Commander Rocky Oplinger complimented the agencies for the fuel treatments that have been accomplished over the years. He said the 150-foot flame lengths dropped to about 15-feet when the fire entered the treated areas. This allowed hand crews and engines to take an aggressive approach to suppress the fire and prevent structure loss. The video of the briefing is on Facebook; Mr. Oplinger’s comments about the fuel treatments begin at 34:10.
The number of residences destroyed, 661, is an increase of 39 since Thursday; 196 other structures have also burned. Fire officials are maintaining a map that shows structures which have been evaluated for damage.
The movement of the Caldor Fire has slowed in recent days as the wind decreased and as portions of the fire moved into high elevations or areas where there is more granite than vegetation.
On the northeast side of the fire east of Highway 89 dozers have been building line on the north side, the flank closest to South Lake Tahoe. Night Operations Section Chief Craig Dougherty said Thursday morning a large portion of that flank now has fireline. On Wednesday and Wednesday night four structure protection groups were working in that area mopping up and securing the edge of the fire.
The south side of that large finger of fire is active with a backing fire
The fire is still about the same distance from the shore of Lake Tahoe, about 4 miles, and it is 3 miles from the Nevada state line. The head, or the far northeast area, has spread uphill above 9,000 feet, where the sub-alpine vegetation should act to slow the movement, but spotting at times keeps it moving.
Caldor Fire map, 11:13 a.m. Sept. 2, 2021.
Fire officials are maintaining a map that shows structures which have been evaluated for damage. To date, crews have confirmed that 622 residences and 189 other structures have been destroyed.
Wednesday evening 4,451 personnel were committed to the fire which was mapped Wednesday night at 210,000 acres.
Caldor Fire map, northeast side, 11:13 a.m. Sept. 2, 2021.
