Wildfire Today

California passes bill to allow former inmates who served on fire crews to pursue a career in fire

Bill GabbertSeptember 5, 2020UncategorizedCalifornia, inmates41 Comments

The California legislature has passed a bill, AB 2147, that would allow former prisoners who worked on inmate fire crews to pursue a career in firefighting.

The bill authored by Assemblywoman Eloise Gomez Reyes will allow nonviolent offenders who have logged time fighting fires on inmate crews while incarcerated, an opportunity to have their records expunged upon release, allowing them to become firefighters.

Released inmates who have successfully petitioned a judge to expunge their records and waive parole time, will also have the ability to apply for an emergency medical technician’s license.

Previously, California law has instructed emergency service agencies to deny EMT certification to anyone who has been convicted of two or more felonies, is on parole or probation, or has committed any kind of felony within the last decade.

COVID spreading through inmate crew camps and prisons this summer has cut the number of inmate crews available from 192 to 94. On July 9 California Governor Gavin Newsom said 12 inmate camps had to be quarantined due to the virus.

Compounding the firefighter shortage was the early release of thousands of state inmates to create more space in the facilities during the pandemic, and before that, the state’s initiative to reduce the incarceration of those jailed for lower-level offenses.

Firefighter’s family killed in structure fire

Bill GabbertSeptember 5, 2020September 8, 2020Uncategorizedfatality, Idaho, Washington2 Comments

And unrelated, a firefighter died in a vehicle accident while commuting home

Four members of firefighter’s family killed in structure fire

The wife and three children of a wildland firefighter were killed in Washington while he was deployed on a wildfire.

Marcaria Garcia-Martinez, 32, her daughters Luz Garcia-Martinez, 17, and Michelle Garcia-Martinez, 6, and son Luis Garcia-Martinez, 15, died in the early morning blaze on August 27. They had just moved and were spending their first night in the single-wide trailer in Benton City, Washington. When sheriff deputies and firefighters arrived the home was almost completely consumed. The radiant heat from the fire was so intense that a nearby trailer also ignited, but deputies were able to rescue the residents of that home. Firefighters put out the fire and found the family members’ bodies while searching the trailer.

Raul Garcia-Santos, Garcia-Martinez’s husband and the children’s father, was assigned to the Palmer Fire in north-central Washington which has burned about 18,000 acres four miles south of the Canadian border. The fire has not been updated on InciWeb since September 30.

Firefighter dies in vehicle accident while commuting home

Sara Madsen. USFS photo.

A firefighter on the Helena Hotshot crew was killed in a vehicle accident in Idaho while commuting home after a fire assignment.

From the U. S. Forest Service, Caribou-Targhee National Forest September 3, 2020:

“Sara Madsen was an incredible person with a vivacious personality and a love for the outdoors. She began working in natural resources in our very own Teton Valley as a Youth Conservation Corp member, later moving into the fire program where she served as a crewmember on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest’s Centennial Type 2 Initial Attack Hand Crew from 2017 to 2019. 2020 was her first year as part of the Helena Hot Shot crew with the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest. Our firefighting community is heartbroken over this tragic loss and our condolences go out to Sara’s family, friends and coworkers.”

The Idaho State Police released the following information:

“On September 2, 2020, at approximately 12:21 a.m., Idaho State Police investigated a single-vehicle crash on SH32 near milepost 25 south of Ashton, in Fremont County.
Sara Madsen, 24, of Tetonia, was driving eastbound on SH32 in a 1999 Ford Ranger when her vehicle went off the right shoulder of the roadway and overturned.
Madsen was not wearing a seatbelt and was ejected from the vehicle. She succumbed to her injuries at the scene. Next of kin has been notified.”

Rest in peace, Sara Madsen, and the family of Raul Garcia-Santos.

Hot, dry weather brings elevated fire danger to much of the western U.S.

Bill GabbertSeptember 5, 2020September 5, 2020UncategorizedRed Flag Warning, smoke, weather1 Comment

Labor Day Weekend

Red Flag Warnings and Fire Weather Watches September 5, 2020.

Hot, dry and in some cases windy weather will bring elevated wildfire danger to many of the western states through the Labor Day weekend.

Southern California

Extreme heat in southern California could set all-time high temperature records with the possibility of rolling power blackouts and more wildfires. Some of the inland cities could have temperatures 10 to 20 degrees above normal through Monday. The hottest days will be Saturday and Sunday, with slightly lower temperatures Monday. Riverside could see highs of 116 on Saturday and 118 on Sunday.

SoCal Red Flag Warnings September 5, 2020 — Red Flag Warnings and Fire Weather Watches in southern California, September 5, 2020.

Red Flag Warnings are in effect Saturday for portions of Riverside and San Diego Counties through Sunday at 6 p.m. Forecasters expect east winds of 15 to 20 mph with gusts of 25 to 35 mph, with single-digit humidities in the afternoons.

Weather forecast for Riverside, California, September 5, 2020.

A Fire Weather Watch for the Los Angeles, Ventura County, and Santa Barbara mountains for Monday evening through Tuesday evening will probably be turned into a Red Flag Warning for gusty sundowner winds from the north or northeast at 15 to 25 mph with local gusts up to 40 mph Saturday, increasing to 15 to 30 mph with local gusts up to 45 mph Sunday evening and Monday evening. The strongest winds will be in the western portions of the Santa Ynez mountains and Santa Barbara south coast.

The National Weather Service did not mince any words in describing the forecast:

The very hot and unstable conditions will bring a significant threat of large plume dominated fires across the region through Labor Day.

Northwestern United States

A strong high pressure ridge centered across the western Great Basin Saturday will bring continued hot and dry conditions through the afternoon and early evening, with temperatures in the 90s and humidities below 15 percent, contributing to potentially extreme fire behavior given the very dry fuel conditions. In central Idaho and western Montana winds are expected to exceed 20-25 mph for several hours Saturday afternoon.

Smoke

Firefighters from Canada arrive in the US

Bill GabbertSeptember 3, 2020Uncategorized4 Comments

Three 20-person crews from Quebec, Canada arrived in Boise Wednesday September 2. They received a briefing orientation and participated in fire shelter deployment training. After a one-night rest in Boise, the crews will fly to Reno, Nevada and board ground transportation to their fire assignment on the North Complex in California — numerous lightning fires being managed as one incident on the Plumas National Forest.

(Photos provided by the National Interagency Fire Center)

More details about the August 31, 2020 fatality on the Mendocino National Forest

Bill GabbertSeptember 3, 2020UncategorizedCalifornia, lodd3 Comments

The U.S. Fire Administration released a notice about the August 31 death of Diane Jones on the Mendocino National Forest. She was repositioning an engine when it backed over an embankment into a fire.

The firefighters were working on the Tatham Fire, part of the August Complex of fires southwest of Red Bluff, when the vehicle accident occurred.

May she rest in peace.

Research finds the greatest barrier to conducting prescribed fires is lack of capacity and funding

Bill GabbertSeptember 3, 2020Prescribed Fireprescribed fire, research6 Comments

Air quality is often thought to be a key barrier

Red Valley Rx Burn Custer St Pk, South Dakota — Red Valle Rx Burn Custer St Park, South Dakota, April 15, 2004. Photo by Bill Gabbert.

From research conducted by: Schultz, Courtney A. ; McCaffrey, Sarah M. ; Huber-Stearns, Heidi R. , 2019.

Despite broad recognition of its value, managers are not able to use prescribed fire at the levels necessary to improve landscape resiliency in the western United States. A better understanding of policy barriers and opportunities is therefore needed. Limited research suggests that a range of factors constrain prescribed fire implementation including narrow burn windows, air quality regulations, lack of adequate funding and personnel, and other environmental laws. Through interviews conducted in 11 western states, we investigated the degree to which these factors currently act as barriers and the strategies being used to overcome key barriers for prescribed fire application on United States Forest Service (USFS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands. We asked the following questions: (1) What are the most significant policy barriers to prescribed fire on USFS and BLM lands in the West? (2) What are potential opportunities and mechanisms for change?

The barriers to prescribed fire that were most frequently identified by our interviewees were lack of adequate capacity and funding, along with a need for greater leadership direction and incentives to apply prescribed fire. Interviewees emphasized that owing to a lack of incentives and the prevalence of risk aversion at multiple agency levels, active prescribed fire programs depend on the leadership and commitment of individual decision-makers and fire managers. Barriers related to policy requirements tended to be significant only in specific locations or situations, such as smoke regulations in the Pacific Northwest or protecting specific threatened and endangered species.

Our findings highlight the importance of contextualized investigation into policy barriers and the role of collaborative and multilevel governance approaches for addressing complex land management challenges. This research has broader implications for fire and natural hazard management. It is important in a complex governance system to continue to assess where barriers lie and how they can be addressed. Challenges will change over time, requiring a nuanced and ongoing contextual approach to understanding impediments to improving practice.

Key Findings

Findings support previous survey work that found that capacity is a major limitation for applying prescribed fire. We found less support for previous findings that air quality regulation is consistently a significant barrier, except in specific locations.
Interviewees emphasized that owing to a lack of incentives and the prevalence of risk aversion at multiple agency levels, active prescribed fire programs depend on the leadership and commitment of individual decision-makers and fire managers.
Successful approaches rely on collaborative forums and positions that allow communication, problem solving, and resource sharing among federal and state partners, and that facilitate dialogue between air-quality regulators and land managers.
Although not a focus in the present work, interviewees also discussed other barriers to burning, like drought conditions, short burn windows, and the presence of challenging landscape conditions, such as the presence of invasive cheat grass (Bromus tectorum), that limit their ability to conduct prescribed fire.

The findings above are based on:
Policy barriers and opportunities for prescribed fire application in the western United States
Schultz, Courtney A. ; McCaffrey, Sarah M. ; Huber-Stearns, Heidi R. , 2019