Wildfire Today

I don’t want to over react to this, but the World Tribune is reporting that on a “terrorist web site”, the writer is calling for “Forest J!had”. The writer is quoted as saying

“summer has begun so do not forget the Forest J!had”

and called on all Muslims in the United States, Europe, Russia and Australia to

“start forest fires.”

The posting mentioned imprisoned Al Qaida terrorist Abu Musab Al-Suri, and went on to say:

“The idea of forest fires is attributed to him….”

and:

“Imagine if, after all the losses caused by such an event, a j!hadist organization were to claim responsibility for the forest fires. You can hardly begin to imagine the level of the fear that would take hold of people in the United States, in Europe, in Russia, and in Australia.”

All of this may be nothing more than one crazed person ranting on the Internet, but we’ll see what, if anything, develops.

(I changed the spelling of the J. word, replacing the “i” with a “!”.)

After serving as the Executive Director of the International Association of Wildland Fire for three years, I have decided to retire (again) and concentrate on things a retired guy is supposed to spend time on, like traveling, motorcycles, and photography. And wildfire blogs. My last day with the IAWF will be March 31, (but this blog will continue, as always, not affiliated with the IAWF). More information about the job vacancy can be found at the IAWFonline.org website.

The IAWF is a dynamic organization serving the wildland fire community. It could be a great job for someone with both organization management experience and a fire background. We have managed to double the membership in three years and are doing more to support wildland fire such as offering scholarships , helping to support the Wildland Firefighter Foundation, monitoring wildland fire legislation, issuing position papers, establishing a Wildland Fire Event Calendar, conducting surveys on important issues, increasing the publication frequency of the International Journal of Wildland Fire, and putting on a variety of well-attended conferences.

Last year wilderness rangers in the Inyo National Forest in California began receiving reports from hikers about a red stain near the 13,200′ Feather Peak in the John Muir Wilderness. It turned out to be retardant apparently dropped by an air tanker. This was very odd, since there had been no fire in the area.

Further investigation uncovered the fact that it was dropped July 8, 2007 by the crew of Tanker 55, a P2V launched from Porterville, California. The flight crew initially said that the aircraft developed engine trouble and they jettisoned the 17,500 pounds of retardant for safety reasons. This is standard procedure during some types of in-flight emergencies–a lighter load makes it easier to fly a crippled airplane. The crew, however, did not report the engine problem, or request any repairs upon landing.

Because some aspects of the crew’s story did not add up, US Forest Service Law Enforcement investigators got involved. There are indications now that there was no engine trouble, but the air crew had to dump the load somewhere, since they could not land with a full tank of retardant. Rather than drop it in the designated areas for retardant dumping, they, for some reason, chose to drop it near a peak in a wilderness area… a rocky peak with little vegetation. At 13,200′, the red retardant will likely be visible for years before it degrades.