Wildfire Today

UPDATED — Smokejumpers replace priests as mascot of Missoula school

Bill GabbertJanuary 22, 2021January 29, 2021UncategorizedMontana, poll, smokejumpers9 Comments

Poll: help them choose a new “Smokejumpers” logo for their school

(Updated January 29, 2020)

The students at Desmet School in Missoula, MT have made their decision about which proposed logo will identify them as the Smokejumpers. Since 1890 the mascot of DeSmet Public School in Missoula, Montana had been Padres — Catholic priests. The school is not affiliated with a religion and not all genders could identify with priests who are all male, so they felt they needed a change, and selected smokejumpers as their new mascot.

There were four logos the students could choose from (see the images below), and on January 28 they made a split decision, using variations of two designs.

For informal use, such as on shirts, there will be two versions of number four. Principal Matt Driessen said Friday the design will be modified by the artist to make it “less cartoonish” and there will be one version with a male smokejumper and another showing a female smokejumper.

For more formal use, such as on stationary, signs, and on the floor or wall of the new gym, number two will be used.

As you can see in our poll below in which 844 participated, number two came in first with 35 percent, and number four was third with 21 percent. The ages of the students, grades K-8, may have led them to gravitate toward number 4.

(Originally published January 22, 2021)

DeSmet Smokejumpers Logo Options

Since 1890 the mascot of DeSmet Public School in Missoula, Montana has been Padres — Catholic priests. As the facility is undergoing a major $6 million renovation it seemed like a good time to reevaluate their mascot. DeSmet is not affiliated with any religion, and since all priests are male, some females at the school could not relate to it.

The Missoula Smokejumper Base is virtually across the street from the school. Principal Matt Driessen said their students can see their planes take off from the airport on training flights and watch the smokejumpers parachute from the aircraft and land on the ground. He said the jumpers then run back to the base as part of their training.

Smokejumpers made the list of 100 possible mascots that the administration submitted to the students. And, that’s what they selected. They are about to become the DeSmet Smokejumpers.

But they need a new logo, and that’s where our Wildfire Today readers come in. They have the four possibilities above.

Principal Driessen said number four is a pencil draft, and if it is selected by the students a graphic artist will make a polished version in the same quality as the other three.

Vote for the image you prefer in the poll below, clicking on one of the numbers that represents the image above that you prefer. The poll closes Wednesday night, January 27, 2020, since the students will make their choice the next day. Keep in mind it will be seen on uniforms, and probably on the floor of the new gym being built.

The poll has closed

Choose new logo for DeSmet School

2 (35%, 297 Votes)
1 (29%, 247 Votes)
4 (21%, 180 Votes)
3 (14%, 120 Votes)

Total Voters: 844

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The decision of which image to choose is up to the students, of course. But we can weigh in, using the poll. Principle Driessen is fine with us helping them make their decisions.

He also said a new mascot is going to require new uniforms.

“Once chosen, the school will need to purchase new uniforms for the teams,” said Principle Driessen. “We are a small K-8 elementary school with a population of about 110 students. If you would like to donate to the cause, we are always pleased and thankful for donations.”

You can send donations to:
DeSmet Elementary
New Uniforms
6355 Padre Lane
Missoula, MT 59808

Below is an excerpt from an article at the Missoulian:

Driessen said the kids saw the smokejumpers as the best of the best — tough, fierce and skilled. They’re heroic, smart and the elite of the wildland firefighters. They are everything the kids want to aspire toward.

“When I got the call from the school it was really humbling and flattering that they chose us as a mascot,” said Dan Cottrell, the training foreman at the Missoula Smokejumper Base. “We were proud and we were excited and just really thrilled that they, you know, thought of us and gave us that opportunity.”

After the students make their selection, we will update this article. Watch this space.

DeSmet Padres — DeSmet Public School. Google photo. August, 2019.

Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Dick.

Suppressing the recent fires in San Mateo & Santa Cruz Counties was slowed by shortage of firefighters

Bill GabbertJanuary 22, 2021January 22, 2021UncategorizedCalifornia2 Comments

“We weren’t prepared for this to happen in January”

CZU Lightning Complex fire — Flareups within the CZU Lightning Complex as seen from Mt. Bielawski at 11:19 a.m. PST January 19, 2021.

Firefighters are getting a handle on the 20 or so fires that started during the wind event on January 19 in Santa Cruz and San Mateo Counties south of the South Bay area in California. All of them are 85 to 100 percent contained, and with rain predicted off and on Friday through Monday those percentages can only improve.

The sizes of the largest fires reported by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection on Friday are not likely to change:

China Grade, 22 acres;
Bonny Doon Complex, 20 acres;
North Butano, 15 acres;
Panther Ridge, 20 acres;
Freedom, 37 acres.

Starting in the middle of winter, the blazes burned during the lowest firefighter staffing levels of the year for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Like the U.S. Forest Service, a large proportion of the on-the-ground CAL FIRE suppression personnel are seasonal, laid off in the winter. A few years ago the Forest Service began to move away from using the term “fire season” in favor of “fire year,” since climate change has lengthened the “season” to include much if not all of the months on the calendar. Large wildfires have occurred at all times of the year in California.

On Wednesday the Santa Cruz Sentinel interviewed Ian Larkin, Chief of CAL FIRE’s San Mateo/Santa Cruz unit:

“It’s a lot of hard work…they’re [crews] having to lay hose into a lot of this just like they did on all the fires this summer,” Larkin said. “We’re out of fire season right now, we’re in ‘winter preparedness.’ That means we have limited resources. We’re down to three fire engines that are staffed full time, so relied on our local government partners, the fire districts and the city departments, to help suppress these fires in the initial phases until we got resources that came in from out of the area.”

The reason for limited local resources, Larkin said, is because a bulk of CAL FIRE wildland firefighters are seasonal hires. That’s a result of stressed financial resources, the chief said, which doesn’t allow for full staffing levels during the winter season.

“I can honestly say that no we weren’t prepared for this to happen in January, when normally it’s raining,” the unit chief said.

The chief said Santa Cruz County residents, and his own agency, will need to get used to a longer fire season.

“There’s definitely a change occurring in the climate and that is having some type of effect here where we’re not getting the type of rain we used to get, and we’re getting hotter and drier winters,” Larkin said. “It’s 74 degrees outside right now, that’s pretty unheard of.”

2020 — accidents, injuries, and fatalities on fires

Bill GabbertJanuary 21, 2021Uncategorizedstatistics4 Comments

2020 - accidents, injuries, and fatalities wildland fires — Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center

The Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center has put together preliminary numbers regarding accidents, injuries, and fatalities that occurred in 2020.

At least they’re paid in sunsets

Bill GabbertJanuary 20, 2021January 20, 2021Uncategorizedfuels, pile burn, South Dakota11 Comments

Wildland firefighters

Burning piles sunset Black Hills National Forest — Burning piles at sunset on the Black Hills National Forest. Photo by Josh Hoffmann.

Federal employees who fight fires for a living are grossly underpaid. That fact may have led to the old saying that they are “paid in sunsets.” Wildland firefighters usually battle fires in very remote areas and have opportunities to see sunsets from a wide variety of vantage points that are rarely visited by humans. When they see the sunset, they may have dragged themselves out of a sleeping bag on the ground 14 hours earlier and are dog-tired, dirty, sweaty, thirsty, and *hangry. But if the clouds, smoke, landscape, and sun all cooperate at the right time, they may take a minute to drink some of the last (warm) water they still have while enjoying and saving a mental snapshot of a red sunset enhanced by smoke. And then someone yells “Bump Up,” and they grab their tool again — with that image lingering in their mind. Tomorrow’s shift will be better.

Snow this time of the year can create excellent opportunities for land managers to burn debris piles left over from fuel reduction, thinning, or timber harvesting operations. The snow reduces the chances of the fire creeping out into dry vegetation, and when backs are turned igniting a wildfire.

Like many other parks and forests, the Black Hills National Forest in South Dakota and Wyoming has been burning piles in recent days. In their case, near Sheridan Lake, Deadwood South Dakota, and 10 miles south-southeast of Sundance, Wyoming.

Let’s be careful out there.

*Hangry: bad-tempered or irritable as a result of hunger.

Yosemite National Park closed due to damage from strong winds

Bill GabbertJanuary 20, 2021January 20, 2021UncategorizedCalifornia, Yosemite National Park1 Comment

Structures and vehicles were damaged

Yosemite NP wind damage, Jan. 19, 2021. NPS photo by Lindsay Stevenson

Very strong winds Tuesday morning January 19 blew down numerous large trees in Yosemite National Park causing significant damage to structures and vehicles. Photos show crushed pickup trucks, a damaged front end loader, and an impacted structure. A tree that was adjacent to a road damaged a road and a culvert as the roots tore through the pavement as it blew over. Power lines were also affected.

The park was closed Tuesday and will likely remain closed until Friday morning, the park announced, as employees conduct damage assessments, repair facilities, and clear trees. Thankfully no injuries have been reported as a result of the strong winds.

One of the photos showing a damaged structure was taken at Wawona south of Foresta.

A weather station at Crane Flat north of Forresta recorded a 53 mph wind gust Tuesday morning, while 35 mph gusts occurred at both Wawona and El Portal.

Ten fires in two northern California Counties have all of the counties’ CAL FIRE engines committed

Bill GabbertJanuary 19, 2021January 22, 2021WildfireCalifornia, CZU August Lightning Complex4 Comments

Help is being sent in from other units

Freedom Fire Aptos California — Freedom Fire east of Aptos, California as seen from Lomaprieta at 11:18 a.m. PST Jan. 19, 2021.

At least 10 small vegetation fires have been reported Monday night and Tuesday morning South of San Francisco in Santa Cruz and San Mateo Counties after strong winds knocked down power lines and trees. At 7:13 a.m. Tuesday CAL FIRE reported that all of their fire engines in Santa Cruz and San Mateo Counties were committed to fires and they were asking for help from other units.

At least four flareups have been detected by satellites inside the perimeter of the CZULightning Complex that burned more than 86,000 acres in August and September between San Gregorio and Santa Cruz, California.

Flareups within the CZU Lightning Complex as seen from Mt. Bielawski at 11:19 a.m. PST Jan. 19, 2021.

The information below came from the San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit of CAL FIRE at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday:

Santa Cruz County

Freedom Fire is east of Aptos off of Freedom Road. It was reported at 8:00 a.m., is 5 acres, and burning in timber. Crews are starting to gain containment. Nunes Road, Halton Lane, Willow Heights, and Gillette Road have been evacuated.
Panther Ridge Fire on Staph Road near Panther Ridge Road west of Highway 9 in Boulder Creek is seven to eight acres, 0% contained. Evacuations are underway.
EmpireFire in Boulder Creek on Alba Road at Empire Grade is six 6 acres in in timber, and is 0% contained. There is no structure threat and no evacuations.
Fanning Fire in Ben Lomond on Fanning Grade Road West of Hwy 9 is 14 acres, and is burning in timber. It is 30% contained.

San Mateo County

North Butano Fire is 10 acres in timber, and is 0% contained. There is no structure threat.

From 1 a.m. until 9 a.m. Tuesday the Los Gatos weather station south of Sunnyvale recorded wind speeds of 12 to 20 mph with gusts up to 45 mph.