Above: Students use sand tables to visualize initial attack scenarios and learn how to make sound decisions in this S200 Initial Attack Commander course during the 2018 Arizona Wildfire and Incident Management Academy in Prescott, Arizona. Courtesy photo.
An annual wildfire training camp’s enrollment ballooned to record numbers this year on the heels of an especially active fire season — and the release of Only the Brave.
At least 1,020 students are partaking in the 51 classes offered at this week’s Arizona Wildfire and Incident Management Academy in Prescott, said Tony Sciacca, Executive Director of the academy, as reported by The Daily Courier in Prescott. In its 16 years of operation, the academy’s previous highest enrollment was 730.
The academy has a capacity of 1060.
“It’s a significant jump,” Sciacca told the newspaper.
During the training, which began March 10 and lasts through Friday at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, attendees can pick from more than 50 NWCG, FEMA and other skills classes. Class offerings range from the entry-level S-130/190 to more advanced leadership or communications roles.
The Goodwin Fire burned 28,500 acres just outside of Prescott last year. That, along with high-profile wildfires in California, might have piqued some interested in the academy, which is largely attended by Arizonans.
Additionally, there stands to be more money to go around this year. Arizona’s governor last month called for the doubling of the state’s investment in fire prevention funding for the upcoming fiscal year, from $1 million to $2 million.
And while it’s impossible to say, interest in wildland firefighting has surely increased since October’s release of Only the Brave. That film, of course, is based on the Granite Mountain Hotshots that fought not only wildfires for several years, but also battled with the establishment to finally be certified as the first Type 1 Interagency Hotshot Crew managed by a municipal fire department — the Prescott, Arizona Fire Department.
The drone that landed, caught fire, and ignited what became a 335-acre fire in Northern Arizona was battery-powered and approximately 16″ x 16″, a spokesperson for the Coconino National Forest said. The operator reported the fire and was later cited for causing timber, trees, slash, brush, or grass to burn. The spokesperson did not know exactly how the drone caught fire.
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(Originally published at 4:42 p.m. MST March 6, 2018)
There’s no doubt that Unmanned Aerial Systems can play an important part in improving situational awareness for wildland firefighters.
But today investigators have determined that the preliminary cause of a wildfire north of Flagstaff is a drone that landed and caught fire. At 3:25 p.m. MST Tuesday the Coconino National Forest said firefighters had stopped the spread of the resulting wildfire after it burned 335 acres near Kendrick Park by Forest Roads 514 and 524.
There is no information yet about the operator of the drone or if it was powered by a battery or gasoline.
All of these photos were provided by the Coconino National Forest.
In Western Arizona and Southern California plants are greening up weeks earlier than usual
Spring has started to arrive in the southwest and southeast states. In southern Florida, spring is right on time compared to a long-term average (1981-2010), but parts of Texas, Louisiana, and northern Florida are one week late. In southern California and southwestern Arizona, spring is arriving 1-2 weeks early.
The timing of leaf-out, migration, flowering and other seasonal phenomena in many species is closely tied to local weather conditions and broad climatic patterns.
An early greenup, depending on weather later in the season, could mean herbaceous plants will become dormant and cure out earlier, which may result in a wildfire season in the lower elevations that begins sooner than average.
This week in Prescott, Arizona the National Association of State Foresters held their annual “Chiefs, Managers and Supervisors Meeting”. The goal of the 120 attendees was to discuss the policies, technologies, and procedures that will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of fighting wildfires.
One product from the event was a list of the top five lessons learned:
Change starts with coordinated leadership. The work the nation’s state foresters are doing together to improve wildfire preparedness, detection, and suppression is critical to protecting communities small and large across the country. When state foresters lead the charge on these issues, and act as one, their voice is amplified in Congress – and more importantly – outside of Congress in the public domain where change-making starts.
Speak the same language and use the same metrics whenever possible. When the states share similar language to characterize their wildfire fighting programs, national and regional wildfire fighting coordination is improved and lives are saved. Additionally, with a standardized method of measuring wildfire costs across the nation, we can track exactly where money for wildfire prevention and suppression goes and to what benefit, ultimately allowing for more efficient resource allocation.
Stay the course on advocating for federal forest management and wildfire funding reform. A positive resolution is closer than ever. The USDA, Department of the Interior, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, and other national partners are in agreement on the broad strokes of federal forest management reform and a wildfire funding fix, which means the state foresters are in a good position to propose and advocate for what specific changes need making.
Words matter; and actions even more. It’s time to stop talking about how we can better support and protect wildland firefighters; how we can better contain costs, employ new technologies, and help prevent catastrophic post-fire damage. In many cases, we have the information we need to set smarter federal forest management and wildfire policies. It’s time to put that information to use – to change policies to save lives.
Sharing processes that work, works. Better decisions and better outcomes come out of sharing experiences and expertise between state forestry and fire agencies. One of the best ways to contribute to cooperative networks is to get connected.
Thanks to @azstateforestry for a fantastic staff ride tour of Granite MT Hotshots Memorial in Yarnell AZ. For state foresters fire Committee. Incredible experience. Hallowed ground. pic.twitter.com/73wHVOpeqq
The FBI released more information Monday about the January 5 shooting in Arizona that left one person deceased:
A Forest Service Officer stopped to render assistance to a vehicular traffic accident. An altercation occurred between the officer and the subject, Tyler Miller of Kansas. It was later determined the officer was injured and treated on the scene by EMS personnel. Miller was shot and transferred to a medical center and later declared deceased.
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(UPDATED at 12:50 p.m. MST January 7, 2018)
According to KWCH, the person killed in the shooting that involved a U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer January 5 has been identified as Tyler Miller. The uninjured USFS officer has not been named.
The FBI says 51-year-old Tyler Miller was injured and later died at a hospital. The officer’s name was not released, he suffered no injuries.
According to the office of the Kansas Secretary of State, Miller is the owner of TNT Bonding in Hutchinson [Kansas]. The family’s attorney, Matt Bretz, says Miller is a well-respected entrepreneur from Hutchinson.
The FBI says Miller was involved in a wreck earlier that evening.
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(Originally published at 8:14 a.m. MST January 6, 2018)
A U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer was involved in a shooting Friday January 5 north of Sedona, Arizona. According to local media the officer was not injured but one person was transported and pronounced dead at a hospital.
State Route 89A was closed for about five hours as the FBI investigated the incident.
On December 11 a wildland firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service was shot while driving a vehicle in Monterey County, California. The victim, Division Chief Peter Harris, was shot in the neck and ear. The suspect, Jacob Kirkendall, fled but was found and arrested.
During the investigation one crew was grounded — unable to be dispatched to wildfires.
Melissa Ann Santana. Photo: Flagstaff Police Department.
A former college professor has been indicted and charged with stalking wildland firefighters on two Arizona hotshot crews. Melissa Ann Santana, who at the time was an associate professor of interior design at Northern Arizona University (NAU) at Flagstaff, was arrested October 30, 2017. On November 14 she was indicted by a federal grand jury on eight felony charges, five for stalking, and three for making false statements to federal officials of the U.S. Forest Service.
The day after her arrest her employment ended at the University.
The 36-page federal complaint prepared by Sophia Fong, a Special Agent with the U.S. Forest Service, lays out in intricate detail numerous allegations of Ms. Santana harassing, threatening, following, calling supervisors of firefighters, and posting false information on social media sites. The investigators used multiple search warrants on the sites and Ms. Santana’s cell phone to link her to the false identities used.
Her main targets were firefighters with the Globe and Flagstaff Interagency Hotshot Crews. The victims of the stalking charges include two members of the Flagstaff Hotshots, the fiancée (and later wife) of a Flagstaff Hotshot, a student at NAU, and an unlucky man who was visiting his father in Flagstaff.
The felony “making false statements” allegations are for contacting the Superintendents of the two crews telling both of them, using a false name for herself, that one of their firefighters had impregnated her. She complained that he was not returning her calls — when in fact Ms. Santana had no relationship with the firefighter. She is also accused of telling three supervisors on the Flagstaff Hotshots, again while using a false identity for herself, that her teenaged daughter was sexually assaulted by firefighters while they were assigned to a fire in Wyoming. The complaint says Ms. Santana does not live in Wyoming, does not have a daughter, and no such assault took place.
On September 9, 2016, during the investigation, the Flagstaff Hotshots were grounded, and prevented by the Forest Service from accepting an assignment on the Soberanes Fire south of Monterey, California. This was near the end of their fire season and would have probably been their last fire. It resulted in a significant loss of overtime income for the crew.
The personal vehicles of two of the victims were vandalized, but the complaint does not say it was done by Ms. Santana. One of the cars was spray painted and the license plate was stolen. The plate later mysteriously appeared at the incident command post at a fire. On the other car the word “s***” was was “keyed”, or scratched into the paint and a tire was punctured with a knife.
Of course the accused is innocent until proven guilty, but below we list some of the allegations against Ms. Santana in the federal complaint.
A member of the Flagstaff Hotshots was matched on Tinder to “Ann, 29” in August of 2016. Initially he communicated with her until he realized it was the same person who had contacted one of his co-workers. The next month he received a Tinder message from “Kendall”, but he deleted it and blocked the sender. Then “Kendall Patterson” sent him a message on Facebook:
Hey (redacted) yea, remember me. You are a worthless piece of s***. You do a job that requires no brains what so ever. You are just a tree cutter and hole digger. The government finds you as a disposable front line against fire. You can easily be replaced by a younger dumber version. You are worthless that they don’t really care if a whole crew the the granite mountain guys die. Because you guys don’t provide a unique service….. Be a success like the granite guys and die at your next fire.
In other messages through another Tinder account, this firefighter confronted her to find out what was going on. She explained it was a Snapchat game where they post conversations of guys they “screw over”. More points were awarded for hotshots than engine crews. She mentioned a number of hotshot crews, including Flagstaff, Blue Ridge, Mesa, Black Mesa, Prescott, Morman Lake, Carson, Payson, Sawtooth, and Snake River.
Ms. Santana used 19 different identities to initially contact, threaten, and harass the victims:
Tinder:
Ann, 29
Ann, 27
Amanda, 25
Kendall
Ann
Facebook:
Melissa Santana
Ann Santa 73
Kendall Patterson 127
Kendall Patterson 7393
Amanda Foster
Jo Hotshot
Kelli Torrance
Lara Towner
Lauren Kholey
Brandi Scroggins
Instagram
Amanda Foster
Msantana1030
Kik messenger
ms1930
And an unspecified alias on Craigslist Las Vegas.
We listed them here in case there are other firefighters that were stalked or harassed by this person that have not yet been contacted by the Forest Service investigators.
The fiancée, now wife, of one of the Flagstaff Hotshots, was targeted by Ms. Santana who posted on the fiancée’s Facebook page the following comment below an engagement photo:
Look at these love birds, Too bad I f***** her fiancé over and over while he was out fighting a fire. He even wanted to keep the relationship going. Said he regretted proposing.
Two weeks later Ms. Santana sent a text message to the woman saying she and the woman’s fiancé were in love and that since the fire season was over they could see each other more often. When she did not respond, Ms. Santana texted back, saying “You’ll regret not talking to me”, and later, “I will show up at your work to address this”. Later that day she was in a restaurant, McMillan Bar and Kitchen, near her workplace. Just after arriving she received a text from Ms. Santana, saying, “Hopefully the mcmillan is fun”. This terrified the woman who two days later purchased a handgun for protection from the stalker.
Ms. Santana knew the time and place of the planned wedding and texted the fiancée, “I guess I will see you [there]. I will probably be f****** in the coat check before you walk down the aisle, unless he dumps your ass before then”. Ms. Santana continued to send similar messages in the months leading up to the wedding, prompting the couple to hire security for the event.
