Rowdy Muir’s Area Command Team (ACT) has been mobilized to the Coronado National Forest. This is somewhat surprising because ACT’s have, in my opinion, been significantly underutilized for the last several years.
The June 26 National Situation Report listed two large fires on the Coronado.
The Saddle Fire, not listed above, has burned almost 5,000 acres 19 miles northeast of Douglas since it started June 24.
In the 24 hour period that ended Sunday morning approximately 392 lightning strikes were detected in the Forest.
Map showing the Coronado National Forest in southeast Arizona and the other Forests in the Southwest Geographic Area.Even last year when there were many large fires burning in Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina, no ACT’s were mobilized. You might wonder if any of the fires would have turned out differently if there had been a group of highly skilled personnel looking at the big picture, helping to obtain resources, analyzing the weather forecast, and utilizing short and long range fire behavior predictions.
An ACT may be used to oversee the management of large incidents or those to which multiple Incident Management Teams have been assigned. They can take some of the workload off the local administrative unit when they have multiple incidents going at the same time. Your typical Forest or Park is not usually staffed to supervise two or more Incident Management Teams fighting fire in their area. An ACT can provide decision support to Multi-Agency Coordination Groups for allocating scarce resources and help mitigate the span of control for the local Agency Administrator. They also ensure that incidents are properly managed, coordinate team transitions, and evaluate Incident Management Teams.
National ACTs are managed by the National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group (NMAC) and are comprised of the following:
Area Commander (ACDR);
Assistant Area Commander, Planning (AAPC);
Assistant Area Commander, Logistics (AALC);
Area Command Aviation Coordinator (ACAC); and
Two trainees.
They usually have an additional 2 to 15 specialists, including Fire Information, Situation Unit Leader, Resource Unit Leader, and sometimes others such as Safety, and Long Term Planning, or assistants in Planning, Logistics, or Aviation.
In 2015 the number of ACT’s was cut from four to three.
The lineup for the Area Command Teams (ACT) has been announced and the number of Teams has been reduced from four to three.
Jennifer Jones, spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service in Boise, told us the reason for the change:
Based on analysis of Area Command Team use over the past 15 years, it was determined that 3 Teams were adequate.
An ACT may be used to oversee the management of large incidents or those to which multiple Incident Management Teams have been assigned. They can take some of the workload off the local administrative unit when they have multiple incidents going at the same time. Your typical Forest or Park is not usually staffed to supervise two or more Incident Management Teams fighting fire in their area. An ACT can provide decision support to Multi-Agency Coordination Groups for allocating scarce resources and help mitigate the span of control for the local Agency Administrator. They also ensure that incidents are properly managed, coordinate team transitions, and evaluate Incident Management Teams.
National ACTs are managed by the National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group (NMAC) and are comprised of the following:
Area Commander (ACDR);
Assistant Area Commander, Planning (AAPC);
Assistant Area Commander, Logistics (AALC);
Area Command Aviation Coordinator (ACAC); and
Two trainees.
They usually have an additional 2 to 15 specialists, including Fire Information, Situation Unit Leader, Resource Unit Leader, and sometimes others such as Safety, and Long Term Planning, or assistants in Planning, Logistics, or Aviation.
This year the ACT lineup looks like this, according to the ACT website:
Boo Walker ACDR
Jim Jaminet ACPC
Butch Hayes ACLC
Mike Dudley ACAC
Bill Van Bruggen ACDR
Joe Ribar ACPC
Martin Maricle ACLC
Rich Webster ACAC
The Area Commander not on the list this year after serving on ACTs for nine years (2006 – 2014) is Jim Loach.
Area Commanders serve for a three-year term, after which they can apply for any of the other three Assistant Area Commander positions if they wish to continue to serve on the team. They may be selected as an Area Commander for up to an additional 3 years, if there are no other qualified applicants.
Type 1 Incident Commanders are managed in a similar manner for the most part. Generally they serve for three years and then must re-apply.
We have been told that the National Wildfire Coordination Group has been pushing to “re-form” the Type 1 teams each year, with a yearly application and re-selection process. It seems to us that would be a detriment to the TEAM concept.
Fire Prevention sign at the Myrtle Fire in South Dakota, July 23, 2012. Photo by Bill Gabbert.
Insurance companies cancel policies
Some homeowners in the Scripps Ranch area near San Diego have received notices that their policies are being cancelled. The residents live near the areas that burned catastrophically in 2003 or 2007, fires that destroyed thousands of homes and took 16 lives. According to an article at 10news, one of the homeowners said, “They canceled us and also several people on our street, saying they couldn’t renew our policy because we were too close to the brush line.”
Which area near Colorado Springs will be next?
Some residents in the Colorado Springs area are a little concerned about the vulnerability of their homes after the fire disasters of 2012 and 2013. Last year the Black Forest Fire just north of Colorado Springs destroyed approximately 480 structures, and in 2012 the Waldo Canyon Fire on the other side of the city wiped out 347 homes. There is concern now that the Broadmoor area could be susceptible to fires that start in the Cheyenne Mountain area. Fox21 news has more details.
Two Senators on the same page as President Obama about fire funding
Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley have praised President Obama for proposing that wildfires be funded in a manner similar to other natural disasters. Monday the President met with most of the nation’s governors and told them that wildfire funding in the administration’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2015 would be similar to provisions in a bill introduced in the House, the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act of 2014 (H.R. 3992), which would create an emergency funding process for fire response. If enacted, it would mean the federal land management agencies would no longer have to rob dollars from routine ongoing non-fire activities to pay unusually high fire suppression expenses.
Tom Zimmerman lectured at the University of Montana
Tom Zimmerman, a former Area Commander and Type 1 Incident Commander, lectured at the University of Montana on February 20. He was the first speaker in the Mike & Mabelle Hardy Fire Management Lecture Series which was established through an estate gift from Mike Hardy, a 1939 alumnus of the School of Forestry. Now the President of the International Association of Wildland Fire, Dr. Zimmerman, had a key role when he worked for the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service in promoting, training for, and establishing procedures for managing wildfires that are not fully suppressed. In fact, he has the dubious honor of being instrumental in coining some of the terms for these fires, including “fire use fire” and “fire for resource benefits”. Below is an excerpt from an article in the Missoulian about his lecture.
“…Fire has a natural role in the environment and we need to embrace that and accept that,” Zimmerman said. But we also need to keep preventing human-caused, unwanted fires. And we have to understand that the firefighting tools we have aren’t designed to protect the thousands of private homes that now stand at risk of wildland fires.
“You’ve got to keep working with your communities to explain what’s going on,” Zimmerman said. “You’ve got to keep laying out the facts. But there’s a threshold to understanding, and I don’t know if you can keep that buy-in for very long when people are breathing smoke all summer. We talk about restoring fire as a natural process, and then you have one that burns five times as much as the plan calls for. You can’t say, well we won’t burn anything for the next five years.”
Today we have the 13th article of our series in which we ask current and retired leaders in the wildland fire service to answer 12 questions.
We appreciate everyone who is cooperating with this project. Some of their responses may add to the knowledge base of our new firefighters coming up through the ranks. If you would like to nominate someone who would be a good candidate for these questions, drop us a line through our Contact Us page; and their contact information would be appreciated.
Below we hear from Dave Nelson. When he retired from the U.S. Forest Service Mr. Nelson was the Forest Fire Management Officer for the Tahoe National Forest in California. He was an Area Commander, and also served as a Type 1 Incident Commander on an Incident Management Team from 1975 through 1983.
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When you think of an excellent leader in the fire service, who comes to mind first?
I have had the privilege to work with many, but Doug Leisz and Lynn Biddison stand out. Why? Doug was the Line Boss on the Volcano Fire in 1961 (one of my first major fires as a sector boss with 100 farm workers and Lynn was the Fire Boss on the Wellman Fire in 1966 when I led a smoke jumper crew on the first jump on a Southern California fire. Doug was a well respected leader throughout the USFS and wildland fire management and was the primary supporter and mover on the “Safety First” effort in the PSW Region. Lynn was a well respected leader in wildland fire management throughout the USFS and particularly in the SW and PSW Regions. Both gentlemen continue to be active leaders in national fire management.
Dave Nelson
What is one piece of advice you would give to someone before their first assignment as an Incident Commander?
Delegate authority to your primary staff and hold them accountable – and pay attention to the details – especially the basics.
If someone is planning a prescribed fire, what is one thing that you hope they will pay particular attention to?
Obviously it is important to establish good parameters and conform to them, but most of our prescribed fires do not escape during ignition. Most escape after the primary burning phase has ended. Advice – pay attention to the weather and get out there before the wind starts blowing.
One of the more common errors in judgment you have seen on fires?
Pounding a rolling fire with aerial retardant drops.
One thing that you know now that you wish you had known early in your career?
Really – I wish “I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then” – that we would ignore the basics like fighting fire at night, going direct, hanging in tight to the fire edge.
The stupidest mistake you have seen on a fire?
Keeping ground forces in camp due to light rain, but continuing to drop water and retardant from helicopters plus what I said earlier about using aerial retardant on a fast, moving fire – especially one advancing uphill.
Your most memorable fire?
Lots, but probably the Marblecone (1977) on the Los Padres National Forest and the Panorama (1980) on the San Bernardino National Forest as a Fire Boss and IC, but also the Bear Fire (1970) on my district (Big Bear) also on the San Bernardino while the district ranger.
The first very large fire you were on?
Alaska, 1956
—Your favorite book about fire or firefighting?
Burning an Empire
—The first job you had within the fire service?
Fire Control Aide for the BLM in Alaska
—What gadgets, electronic or otherwise, can’t you live without?
I prefer to have my laptop and cell phone, but I think I could live without them.
For the last several days the weather has been in favor of the firefighters. Saturday brought rain over most of the Complex, with accumulations of 0.02 to 0.20 inches, however in some areas it did not penetrate tree canopies in areas with heavy timber. Smoke prevented most aerial firefighting Saturday but helicopters and air tankers will be in the air Sunday if they are needed and weather permits. Thunderstorms are in the forecast for the next few days. Winds on Sunday will be out of the Northwest at 5-15 mph, with a 60% chance of rain actually hitting the ground.
The Incident Management Team reports the fire is two percent contained and the three fires in the complex have burned 95,775 acres: Windy Pass 1,415, Papoose 34,836, and West Fork 59,524 acres.
Resources on the fire include 8 Type 1 hand crews, 20 Type 2 hand crews, 109 engines, 5 dozers, and 11 water tenders, for a total of 1,502 personnel.
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(UPDATE at 9:20 a.m. MDT, June 28, 2013)
Map of West Fork Complex, 12:01 June 28, 2013 (click to enlarge)East side of Papoose Fire, looking NE, 12:01 June 28, 2013 (click to enlarge)
The Papoose Fire, pushed by 30 to 40 mph northwest winds out of a thunderstorm, ran for about four miles on the east side Thursday, southwest of Antelope Park. Adding approximately 6,000 acres, it became established in Trout Creek and threatened to spread up the east side of the drainage. The fire spread through beetle-killed Englemann Spruce spotting one mile to one and a half miles ahead, according to the Incident Management Team spokesperson, who reported that firefighters burned around some structures to remove the fuel before the fire hit those areas — here were no reports that any burned.
The West Fork Fire was much quieter than the Papoose Fire, but it was somewhat active near Elk Mountain and on the southeast side.
The incident Management Team reports the three fires in the Complex have burned a total of 90,056 acres.
The weather forecast for the Antelope Park area south of Creede calls for 78 degrees, relative humidity in the mid-20s, about a 30 percent chance of thunderstorms, and winds out of the southwest at 8 to 15 mph.
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(UPDATE at 10:50 a.m. MDT, June 27, 2013)
More information has become available about the West Fork Complex:
The Papoose Fire was active Wednesday night and moved into Crooked Creek and towards Rio Grande Dam. It moved past structures near Workman Creek along Highway 149 but there was no report of damage to structures. Firefighters worked through the night to reinforce firelines, protect structures, and conduct firing operations along Squaw Creek to remove fuels in front of the fire.
The West Fork Fire has been active on the northeast flank near Elk Mountain. Structure protection, including sprinklers, is in place along Highways 149 and 160.
Portable fire retardant plants have been set up near the Papoose Fire and on the east side of the West Fork Fire. These will be used for refilling buckets and tanks on helicopters. Dropping fire retardant will be more effective than using plain water.
Current acreage for the whole Complex: Total 83,004; Windy Pass 1,403; Papoose 26,483; West Fork 55,118.
Shortly after 9 a.m. today two military MAFFS C-130 air tankers were dispatched to the West Fork Fire from their base at Colorado Springs where another portable fire retardant base has been established.
The Incident Management Team is now putting various types of information in at least four different places: Google Drive (which I can’t get to work), Facebook, Photo Bucket, and Inciweb. Apparently this IMTeam has said goodbye to the concept of putting all information about a fire in one place, possibly due in part to the dysfunctional InciWeb.
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(UPDATE at 7:20 a.m. MDT, June 27, 2013)
Map of heat detected by a satellite on the West Fork Complex at 11:21 p.m., June 26, 2013 (click to enlarge)
The satellite that passed over the West Fork Complex twice in the last 24 hours has not found as many heat sources as in previous days. But the instruments can only detect areas of heat that are at least 30 meters by 30 meters.
Dozers have finished constructing a fireline between the fire and the town of South Fork and fire crews are continuing to work around the structures on Highway 149. Not much other new information is available, other than the Incident Management Team reported that they held some internal meetings and briefings. The fire’s InciWeb page has not been updated since Wednesday morning.
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(UPDATE at 10:40 p.m. MDT, June 25, 2013)
The West Fork Fire has been burning for 20 days, and on day 20 a usable map of the fire was posted on InciWeb by an Incident Management Team running the fire. And instead of placing photos of the fire on InciWeb, they are putting them on something called “Photo Bucket” under West Fork Complex, according to a message sent out by the team. In addition the IMTeam is posting some information on Facebook, “dedicated to thank yous to the firefighters working on the fire line” according to a Tweet the Information Officer published. Of course, InciWeb is virtually unusable, so they can hardly be blamed for partially abandoning it and only updating InciWeb rarely. Apparently this IMTeam has said goodbye to the concept of putting all information about a fire in one place.
As the weather moderates, the IMTeam expects the fire to become more fuel (or vegetation)-driven, rather than wind-driven as has been for the last one to two weeks. On Tuesday an increase in humidity caused the fire to spread more slowly and allowed firefighters to make more progress than they have been used to, especially on the west side.
The Papoose Fire still remains south of highway 149 and Creede has not been evacuated, in spite of reports to the contrary. One of the DC-10 air tankers dropped retardant on the west side of the fire today, at a rate of 11,600 gallons per sortie.
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(UPDATE at 8:25 a.m. MDT, June 25 2013)
Map of West Fork, Windy Pass, and Papoose Fires, 10 p.m. MDT, June 24, 2013 (click to enlarge)
There was not much change in the perimeters of the Papoose, West Fork, and Windy Gap fires over the last 24 hours. Each of them grew a bit, but there was no major change in acreage. The West Fork Fire is still about four miles from the intersection of Highways 160 and 149.
The Incident Management Team this morning said: “Current acreage per infrared flight last night: West Fork 54,222; Papoose 23,605; Windy Pass 1,355 TOTAL for complex, 79,182” Continue reading “Colorado: West Fork Complex”
Today we have the 12th article of our series in which we ask current and retired leaders in the wildland fire service to answer 12 questions.
We appreciate everyone who is cooperating with this project. Some of their responses may add to the knowledge base of our new firefighters coming up through the ranks. If you would like to nominate someone who would be a good candidate for these questions, drop us a line through our Contact Us page. And their contact information would be appreciated.
Below we hear from Tom Harbour, the U.S. Forest Service National Director of Fire and Aviation Management. After beginning as as GS-2 firefighter, Mr. Harbour worked his way up to District Ranger, Forest Fire Management Officer on the Angeles National Forest, Deputy Regional Fire Director in the Northern Rockies, Regional Fire Director in the Intermountain Region, and National Fire and Aviation Management Deputy Director before assuming his current position. He has been qualified as a Type 1 Prescribed Fire Burn Boss, Type 1 Incident Commander, and Area Commander.
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What is one piece of advice you would give to someone before their first assignment as an Incident Commander?
You are a leader and a servant. You are accountable and responsible. Remember what you have been taught and learned. Think, and by the way, don’t expect to get much rest.
Tom Harbour at the Little Bear Fire, Lincoln National Forest, New Mexico, June, 2012. USFS photo.
If someone is planning a prescribed fire, what is one thing that you hope they will pay particular attention to?
People – the folks executing the fire and the folks who live near the fire.
One of the more common errors in judgment you have seen on fires?
Not engaging the brain prior to action.
One thing that you know now that you wish you had known early in your career?
Some of the folks higher in the food chain were actually concerned for me.
The stupidest mistake you have seen on a fire?
Igniting a prescribed fire when the test fire results indicated we were going to have trouble.
Your most memorable fire?
Mortar Creek (1979, Challis National Forest in Idaho), because I got over the fire when it had just escaped the campfire ring. In 1979, Mortar Creek was a giant we hadn’t seen in the area for decades. The Ship Island Fire happened that same day, I was working the Mortar Creek fire when I heard the radio traffic. I then spent most of the rest of the summer on the Mortar Creek fire.
The funniest thing you have seen on a fire?
A group of folks gathered around Bill Paddock listening to him tell stories about his earlier time in the USFS.
The first very large fire you were on?
A couple of days after I was hired in 1970, I headed with a hand crew to a fire in the Toulumne River Canyon. I cannot remember the name of the fire, but I remember the experience — I was hooked on a career.
Your favorite book about fire or firefighting? Blink by Malcom Gladwell helps us understand about how we think under pressure.
The first job you had within the fire service?
GS-2 “shovel operator”
What gadgets, electronic or otherwise, can’t you live without?
Hate to say it, but the constant buzz on my belt is an indication the Blackberry is seeking attention.
