Wildfire Today

Autopsy shows CAL FIRE firefighter died of heat exposure

Bill GabbertSeptember 24, 2019September 28, 2019UncategorizedCalifornia, heat related illness, lodd11 Comments

His body temperature was 107.4 degrees

A CAL FIRE firefighter who died July 28, 2019 in San Diego County died of a heat exposure, reports NBC San Diego.

Yaroslav Katkov, 28, collapsed during his second attempt at a 1.45-mile training hike near the De Luz Fire Station while wearing full gear and carrying 20 to 30 pounds of weights, according to an autopsy.

He was flown in an air ambulance to Temecula Hospital but suffered a two-minute seizure while en route. When he was admitted, his body temperature was 107.4 degrees. Fifteen hours later he was pronounced dead.

CAL FIRE’s preliminary report on the incident, the “Green Sheet”, said the three-person crew began a physical training hike at 8:40 a.m. with the expectation that they would finish within the 30-minute time limit. Mr. Katkov struggled, stopping multiple times, completing the hike in 40 minutes. After a 20-minute break to rehydrate, the Captain had the crew repeat the hike at 9:40 a.m.

NBC San Diego described what occurred on the second hike:

Katkov took more than 20 breaks along the trail which were documented by the captain, the report said. About halfway through the trail, the second firefighter noticed Katkov stumbling and losing his balance. He was told to hike directly behind Katkov and hold onto him so that he didn’t fall off the trail.

As they approached a ridge, the firefighter had to push Katkov’s back to help him get over. Once Katkov did, he fell forward and sat down. Katkov was then told to remove some of his gear so that he could cool down but was unable to, the report said.

More gear was taken off, and water was poured over Katkov’s head. At around 10:38 a.m. when the fire captain noticed Katkov’s mental status declining, he called for an air ambulance rescue.

Cal Fire’s helicopter arrived over Katkov and the crew at approximately 11:19 a.m. and Katkov was hoisted from below, according to the report. About 15 minutes later, the Cal Fire [helicopter] dropped Katkov off at a site where a Mercy air ambulance was waiting to transport Katkov to the hospital.

The second helicopter took off with Katkov inside at around 12:04 p.m., about an hour-and-a-half after the fire captain called for emergency assistance. On the way to the hospital Katkov was unresponsive but breathing, according to the report.

KNTV reported that Mr. Katkov was flown to Temecula Valley Hospital. Google Maps shows it would take an estimated 31 minutes to drive from De Luz Station to Temecula Valley Hospital, part of the time on curvy county roads. Based on that, we can assume it would take no more than 10 minutes for the Mercy air ambulance to arrive at the hospital — at about 12:14 p.m. This was approximately one hour and 36 minutes after the request for extraction by helicopter. Presumably the incident occurred in a remote area inaccessible by ground ambulance. It is likely that the medical crew on the Mercy helicopter began treatment of the patient as soon as he arrived at their location during the 30 minutes before the helicopter took off.

Estimated time line:

10:38 a.m. — Air ambulance rescue requested
11:19 a.m. — CAL FIRE/San Diego Sheriff Dept. helicopter arrives at scene
11:34 a.m. — (Approximate time) The CAL Fire helicopter delivered Mr. Katov to Mercy Air ambulance
12:04 p.m. — Mercy air ambulance departs for Temecula Valley Hospital
12:14 p.m. — (Approximate time) Mercy air ambulance arrives at hospital.

(UPDATE September 28, 2019: here is a link to the CAL FIRE “Green Sheet”.)

Tour of a Hotshot Crew’s fire camp in Alaska

Bill GabbertSeptember 23, 2019December 7, 2019WildfireAlaska, Chena Hotshots3 Comments

Chena Hotshots fire camp Alaska wildfire — Max Ryan of the Chena Hotshots gives a tour of the crew’s fire camp. Screenshot from the video below.

Since firefighters in Alaska are often based far from roads they may establish camps where crews can be self-sufficient for days or weeks at a time, resupplied by helicopters or paracargo. In this video produced August 1, 2019 by the Bureau of Land Management Alaska Fire Service, Chena Interagency Hotshot Max Ryan gives a tour of the crew’s fire camp on the Hadweenzic River Fire at the Cornucopia Complex about 20 miles northeast of Beaver. He explains how they store their food to protect it from bears and use permafrost to chill their perishable items.

Red Flag Warning in Northern California into Wednesday

Bill GabbertSeptember 23, 2019UncategorizedCalifornia, Red Flag Warning

Winds gusting at 30-40 mph with humidity in the teens

Red Flag Warning wildfire weather — Red Flag Warning in effect until 9 a.m. PDT Wednesday, September 25.

A Red Flag Warning is in effect for portions of interior Northern California until Wednesday morning.

Building high pressure will result in gusty north to east wind
developing Monday and persisting into Wednesday. Combined with
warming temperatures and lowering humidity, this will result in
critical fire weather conditions across portions of Interior
Northern California.

— North wind 10 to 25 mph with local gusts 30 to 40 mph.

— Daytime humidity will be in the 10 to 20 percent range
with poor overnight recoveries of 30 to 40 percent.

— The highest threat will be in the western portions of the Sacramento Valley and adjacent foothills, where the highest wind gusts and lowest
humidity are expected.

(Red Flag Warnings can be modified throughout the day as NWS offices around the country update and revise their weather forecasts.)

Investigators determine wildfire near Helena was started by exploding target

Bill GabbertSeptember 22, 2019December 7, 2019Wildfireexploding targets, Montana, North Hills Fire

A suspect has been cited and may have to pay suppression costs

North Hills Fire Helena exploding target — Investigators determined that the North Hills Fire was started by an exploding target on July 26, 2019.

Investigators have determined that the North Hills Fire that burned 5,005 acres 10 miles northeast of Helena, Montana was started by a Tannerite exploding target July 26, 2019.

Below is an excerpt from an article in the Independent Record:

Two citations were filed Thursday against the person suspected of starting the North Hills fire that burned more than 5,000 acres near Helena earlier this summer.

U.S. Bureau of Land Management law enforcement cited the suspect with one count of causing a fire other than a campfire and one count of burning timber, trees, slash and brush outside of a campfire. Each ticket carries a $500 fine plus a $30 processing fee for a total cost of $1,060.

The citations do not include the costs associated with suppressing the wildfire or rehabilitating the burned area. Any possible civil action will be handled administratively by the agencies involved.
The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation has estimated the suppression costs “somewhere in the neighborhood of $7.2 million,” according to Helena Unit Manager John Huston.

“We probably will go after some suppression costs,” he said, noting that the process would probably take about a year.

Local and federal officials have declined to release the suspect’s name.

The North Hills Fire forced the evacuation of 400 homes northeast of Helena.

Walt Jester, Chief of the Lewis and Clark Volunteer Fire Department, took some excellent photos of the fire:

Exploding targets consist of two ingredients that when mixed by the end user explode when shot by a high-velocity projectile. They have caused many fires since they became more popular in recent years, have been banned in some areas, and caused the death of one person. After the ingredients are combined, the compound is illegal to transport and is classified as an explosive by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.

Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Paula. Typos or errors, report them HERE.

Seven-hour extraction of injured firefighters by helicopter at night

Bill GabbertSeptember 22, 2019September 22, 2019UncategorizedCalifornia, hoist, injury12 Comments

Lesson Learned: “Be willing to turn down an assignment if evacuation of an injured person is not possible in a timely manner.”

Coast Guard Helicopter — From the report.

After one of their helicopters used a hoist to extract two seriously injured firefighters on the Middle Fire in Northern California, the Coast Guard issued a press release that read in part:

…The helicopter crew approached the extraction zone and made a high-altitude, tree-top hoist from 240 feet, the helicopter’s maximum hoist range. The injured firefighters were flown to Weaverville airport and transferred to emergency medical services.

“This rescue was extremely challenging due to the proximity to an active fire, the high elevation and the rugged terrain,” said Lieutenant Commander Derek Schramel, the pilot in command of the mission. “I’m very proud of how our crew worked together with our fire service and law enforcement partners in Trinity County to save these two men.”

The press release failed to mention that the injured firefighters were rescued and then delivered to two medical helicopters at Weaverville more than seven hours after the Coast Guard received the request for the mission.

We wrote about the hoist rescue on September 9, 2019.

Crew member firefighter with broken femur. — From the Rapid Lesson Sharing document.

On September 6, 2019 two firefighters were seriously injured by a rolling rock while working at night on the Middle Fire on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in Northern California. One firefighter was knocked unconscious for 30 seconds due to a head injury. The rock also hit his neck and shoulder. The other firefighter had a very serious broken femur causing his leg to be twisted about 180 degrees.

(Download the Rapid Lesson Sharing report; 1.6 MB)

During this night shift the only resource on the fire was one contract Type 2 Initial Attack crew. The Crew Boss was the Incident Commander on the fire and had been on the Dutch Creek Fire in 2008 when Andrew Palmer was injured by a falling tree and bled to death. Mr. Palmer remained at the site for two hours while EMTs and fellow firefighters struggled to settle on and carry through a workable plan.

And, on the Iron 44 fire in 2008 the IC had been on the helicopter flight immediately before the crash of the overweight helicopter that killed nine firefighters and flight crew personnel.

The IC was thinking about the delay in extraction and a too heavy helicopter when the Coast Guard helicopter arrived over their fire at 2340 and the pilot said the ship was too heavy to extract personnel at 4,500 feet and would have to loiter to burn off fuel.

After flying for 90 minutes the pilot said the helicopter was still too heavy and would have to return to base to reconfigure. The crew was told that only one firefighter could be extracted, so they moved the firefighter with the head and shoulder injuries to a different location. When the helicopter was en route back, the pilot told the IC to prepare both patients for extraction—they could take both after all, so the crew carried the second firefighter back to the hoist site.

The helicopter was back on scene sometime after 0300. The two firefighters were extracted and delivered to two waiting medical helicopters at Weaverville at 0350. The patients were flown to “Mercy Hospital” (or Mercy Medical Center in Redding which is about 35 miles from Weaverville).

Here is the time line, according to the Rapid Lesson Sharing report:

2100 — Two firefighters hit by a rock
2107 — The IC requested extraction of the victims by helicopter with hoist
2117 — The Coast Guard was called to request a helicopter
2252 — The Coast Guard accepted the mission
2340 — Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter arrives at the fire. Pilot says the ship is too heavy to hoist, orbits for 90 minutes to burn off fuel, then still too heavy, flies back to reconfigure.
0300 — (approximately, or later), Coast Guard helicopter is back on scene
0350 — Coast Guard helicopter extracts then delivers the two firefighters to two waiting medical helicopters at Weaverville. They were then flown to a hospital or medical center.

The firefighters were lucky that at least there was a Coast Guard helicopter available to take on the mission, even though the injury-to-hospital-time was over seven hours.

To be fair, conducting a hoist rescue at night far from the coast at 4,500 feet above sea level is not a primary mission for the Coast Guard. But fighting fire in every kind of imaginable condition is routine for wildland firefighters. The Coast Guard, judging from this incident, is not prepared that kind of mission, but it is not uncommon for the wildland fire agencies to have to extract injured firefighters at night in remote, rugged terrain.

The U.S. Forest Service does not have in-house capability to use a helicopter to extract injured firefighters at night. Some of their contract helicopters are approved for and have a helitack crew that can perform short-haul operations during daylight hours.

One of the lessons learned that was identified in the report is:

Be willing to turn down an assignment if evacuation of an injured person is not possible in a timely manner.

Below is video of the hoists, shot from the Coast Guard helicopter.

Our opinion:

The federal and state agencies with major wildland fire programs need to develop the day and night capability to extract injured firefighters within one hour. Failure to do so is firefighting malpractice.

Santa Fe National Forest fuels & restoration videos, parts 3 and 4

Bill GabbertSeptember 21, 2019September 20, 2019Uncategorizedfuel treatment, fuels, fuels videos1 Comment

fuel management fire forest — Screenshot from Part 4 of the Santa Fe NF series of videos on fuel management.

Here are parts three and four of the series of 12 videos produced by the Santa Fe National Forest on the topic of fuel management and forest restoration.

Fuel Management is defined as:

An act or practice of controlling flammability and reducing resistance to control of wildland fuels [vegetation] through mechanical, chemical, biological, or manual means, or by fire, in support of land management objectives.

Forest Restoration:

Actions to re-instate ecological processes, which accelerate recovery of forest structure, ecological functioning and biodiversity levels towards those typical of climax forest, i.e. the end-stage of natural forest succession.

Part 3, How We Got Here