Wildfire Today

An article by J. P. Plutt on the University of Montana Extension site describes how to quickly construct a helicopter dip tank or water reservoir with hay bales and a tarp. Add a pump and some fire hose and it can be used to protect a structure. Here is a portion of the article:

“The components of Liggett’s structure protection system include hay bales, a tarp, a pump, fire hose, and a few valves. You take the fire hose, drill holes in it and attach it around the structure. You arrange the hay bales in a rectangle, cover it with the tarp and fill it with as much as 12,000 gallons of water. If fire approaches, the owner need only turn on the pump and get out of there. The system can keep the structure soaking in water for up to 12 hours, which conceivably would protect the building from reaching ignition temperatures until the fire front passes and firefighters can safely enter the area to do the mop-up work.”

This could actually work until you get a spot fire in the hay. But in a remote dry site, a dip tank quickly constructed like this could be invaluable.

An article in the Washington Post claims the Administration intends to reinstate the competitive sourcing program within the U.S. Forest Service in 2009. The author, Stephen Barr, raises some interesting issues about how this could affect responses to fires and other emergencies.

Here are some excerpts:

“The Government Accountability Office faulted outsourcing projects at the Forest Service in a report released yesterday, prompting renewed calls for more scrutiny of the Bush administration’s effort to contract out federal jobs, a plan known as competitive sourcing.

The Forest Service does not have a realistic long-term plan for determining which agency jobs should be given to the private sector and does not have reliable data to back up claims of cost savings, the GAO said.

In addition, outsourcing substantial numbers of Forest Service jobs to the private sector could, over time, reduce the agency’s ability to fight fires in the wilderness and to respond to emergencies such as Hurricane Katrina.”

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“According to the GAO, the Forest Service plans to consider putting nearly two-thirds of the agency’s workforce into job competitions against the private sector.

The success of such a “massive undertaking” will hinge on clear guidelines and “a strategy to assess the cumulative effect that outsourcing a large number of federal jobs could have on its firefighting capability. Unfortunately, the Forest Service has none of these in place,” the GAO concluded.

The Forest Service has about 37,000 full-time employees. About 10,000 hold a job related to firefighting, and another 20,000 are certified to fight fires and respond to national emergencies.

In its report, the GAO questioned whether contractors can be expected to provide emergency services, compared with Forest Service employees who know they may be asked to volunteer for one to three weeks each year on a fire line.”

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“Because of the controversy over job competitions and estimated savings, Congress shut down the Forest Service’s competitive sourcing program for fiscal 2008. The administration wants to reinstate it for 2009.”

Update: Feb. 29, 2009
HERE is a link to the GAO report.

For some reason there have been a lot of stories about air tankers recently.

From the Redding Record Searchlight Online, an excerpt:

The Sonoma County widow of one of two air tanker pilots killed while fighting a fire in Mendocino County in 2001 has lost her bid to seek federal death benefits.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday denied an appeal filed by Christine Wells-Groff of Windsor to seek federal death benefits for her and other widows of firefighting pilots, including the widow of a Redding man, killed in the line of duty.

The widows are not entitled to federal death benefits — about $250,000 — because, unlike other public safety employees killed on the job, the pilots worked for a company that contracted with the state and were not public employees.

Wells-Groff’s husband, Larry, 55, and 45-year-old pilot Lars Stratte of Redding, were killed near Hopland on Aug. 27, 2001, when their air tankers collided while fighting a 242-acre brush fire. Both men were employed by San Joaquin Helicopters, a Delano-based company, under contract with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The Aerial Firefighter Relief Act, which was introduced in December, would extend federal death and disability benefits to contract pilots and air crews killed or injured while flying official firefighting missions for state or federal agencies. It would also make the coverage retroactive to 1976.

The legislation is a companion to legislation introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo.

Wells-Groff and Stratte are among dozens of tanker pilots’ widows denied death benefits since 1980, when the U.S. Department of Justice decided that tanker pilots are excluded from federal death benefits.

The out of control satellite that was hit by a missile last night will most likely re-enter the earth’s atmosphere in the form of hundreds of pieces of debris, some of which may be extremely hazardous. Wildland firefighters, protecting millions of acres of real estate, should know what to do if they encounter some of this debris.

FEMA, working with the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, has issued guidelines, HERE, for first responders.

Some highlights from the information:

Information for the Public
A United States satellite is falling back to earth and could potentially impact almost anywhere on the planet.

The satellite has hazardous materials on board that could pose immediate hazards to people if they come in contact with the material.

Specifically, the satellite contains fuel and metal containers that are considered hazardous materials and could survive entry intact.

Any debris should be considered potentially hazardous, and should not be touched, handled, or moved.

Citizens who observe or encounter falling debris should notify your local public safety agency and stay away from it.

Information for First Responders
The satellite that is degrading from orbit has hazardous materials on board that could pose immediate hazards to people if they come in contact with the material.

The craft contains fuel and specialized containers that are considered hazardous materials and could survive entry intact.

Any debris should be considered potentially hazardous, and first responders should not attempt to pick it up or move it.

First responders should secure a perimeter and control access around any debris. DO NOT pick up any debris. Notify your local emergency manager of its location immediately.

The concerns are similar to those encountered after the space shuttle Columbia entered the atmosphere.. However, this craft has far less hazardous materials and is much smaller in size.

The potential hazardous materials include: Hydrazine (anhydrous).

This is important information for wildland firefighters. Click on the little envelope below to email this post to your colleagues.