Wildfire Today

An excerpt from a lengthy article in the Press-Enterprise:

By BEN GOAD
Washington Bureau

Roughly a third of California’s fleet of federal fire engines is currently unavailable due to staffing shortages, according to figures supplied by a group that represents U.S. Forest Service crews.

Statewide, only 186 of the agency’s 276 engines were ready to respond to fires as of Friday, according to a report created by fire officials and released by the Federal Wildland Fire Service Association.

The number of available engines fluctuates daily as staffing levels vary slightly, said Casey Judd, the group’s business manager.

Thirty-two percent of federal engines were not staffed Friday, underscoring the magnitude of a firefighter retention problem that the agency’s top officials have downplayed, Judd said.

“There’s nobody to go to these fires,” he said. “As a result, fires that should be put out will grow in size, intensity and, ultimately, cost.”

Federal fire officials said they are moving quickly to put several dozen more engines into service in the state by late June. Meanwhile, they said, the agency is ready for the approaching fire season.

The following comment about the fire in Norway was left yesterday by bjorn ivar:

“The Froland fire in Norway is now reported to have burned between 2000 and 6000 acres. More than 20 cabins and one farm has also been consumed by the flames. 4 helicopters and 200-300 firefighters is fighting the fire.

This is probably the largest wildfire in Norway since WWII by a wide margin.”

Here is more information from Aftenposten

“Forest fire burning for fourth day in a row

More homes were evacuated as a fire in Froland, southern Norway, kept burning during the night. Officials were more optimistic, however, that they would soon gain control over it.

The fire that turned into an inferno near the town of Mykland on Monday seemed to be “calming down,” said one official. “It’s been a good night, with a lot of positive developments, and we think this will be a good day,” Ove Frigstad, leader of the fire battalion, told Aftenposten.no Thursday morning.

Frigstad conceded that “the wind was still dangerous,” but forecasts that it might finally start raining fueled his optimism.

He also said emergency crews knew where the various “fire fronts” were, and that they were positioned at all of them.

“We have crews on all fronts, but don’t have full control until they’re all extinguished,” he said. “It’s very dry in the area, and the fire has been burning for a long time.”

More than 10,000 mål (about 2500 acres, or 1,000 hectares) have been ravaged by the blaze and nearly 70 persons remained under evacuation orders.

The fire in Froland, Aust-Agder County, is just one of several fires to have broken out in southern Norway during the past two weeks. Eight persons lost their homes during another fire near Modum in Buskerud County on Wednesday.”

At the recent Enterprise 2.0 conference two people from the CIA gave a talk which included some information from a recently declassified “Simple Sabotage Field Manual” from the U.S. Strategic Services. In part, it lists some helpful advice on how to sabotage a business:

(1) Insist on doing everything through “channels.” Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.
(2) Make “speeches.” Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your “points” by long anecdotes and accounts of per­sonal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate “patriotic” comments.
(3) When possible, refer all matters to committees, for “further study and considera­tion.” Attempt to make the committees as large as possible — never less than five.
(4) Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.
(5) Haggle over precise wordings of com­munications, minutes, resolutions.
(6) Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision.
(7) Advocate “caution.” Be “reasonable” and urge your fellow-conferees to be “reason­able” and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.
(8) Be worried about the propriety of any decision — raise the question of whether such action as is contemplated lies within the juris­diction of the group or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher echelon.

All of this sounds very familiar.

California

Ophir Fire, 2 miles south of Oroville, 1,600 acres, 21 residences and 28 outbuildings lost. The spread of this fire has been stopped for now.

Jackson Fire, 20 miles north of Sacramento, 6,400 acres. Three firefighters from Sacramento Metro FD were entrapped while protecting a mobile home. Two took refuge in an engine and were not injured. The captain did not make it to the engine and received some second- and third-degree burn injuries.

41 Fire, 17 miles north of Fresno, 3,300 acres.

Indians Fire, 18 miles west of King City in a Los Padres National Forest wilderness area, 1,300 acres. There are reports that the fire made a big run yesterday.

Fire in Stockton. The fire started in brush along Interstate 5 and spread into a residential neighborhood, destroying destroying 20 condominium units, nine single-family homes and a triplex before it was controlled.

North Carolina

Evans Road Fire, 7 miles south of Creswekk, 40,195 acres, still spreading to the north and east. In addition to Hildreth’s Type 2 Incident Management Team, Custer’s NIMO (National Incident Management Organization) team is assigned. Firefighters are burning off wheat stubble fields out ahead of the fire.

Senator Elizabeth Dole is requesting that the White House reconsider a request for emergency assistance from FEMA. It was denied earlier.

The photo below from InciWeb is of the Evans Road fire near the actual Evans Road. The caption on InciWeb made note of the “irrigation hose”. Firefighters refer to it as “hose” or “fire hose”.

Norway

A fire in Froland has burned 10 cabins and 250 acres. During the night 49 people were evacuated. Firefighters were able to save a 150-year old church in the hamlet of Mykland which was completely surrounded by the fire Wednesday morning.

Canada

Virtually the entire population of Uranium City, Saskatchewan were flown out ahead of an advancing fire. The fire is one of 252 fires burning in Saskatchewan.