He was returning from an assignment on the Sierra National Forest in California.
A firefighter was killed August 31, 2017 in a vehicle accident in California. Gary Helming, a Battalion Chief with the Los Padres National Forest in southern California, was returning from a wildfire on the Sierra National Forest.
According to the U.S. Fire Administration a Ford F-350 traveling in the opposite direction suffered a tire failure, crossed the middle of the road, and struck Chief Helming’s vehicle head-on.
The accident occurred on Highway 41 just south of state Route 33 in Kings County, California.
Our sincere condolences go out to Chief Helming’s family, friends, and coworkers.
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Allen and LM. Typos or errors, report them HERE.
An engine crew’s egress from their assignment while working on a spot fire on the Chetco Bar Fire in Southwest Oregon was cut off by the advancing edge of the main fire August 18, 2017 on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.
Below is the narrative from the 72-hour report issued August 26, 2017, which has preliminary information subject to change.
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“On Friday, August 18, 2017, at approximately 12:30 pm, the Chetco Bar Fire cut off a Type 3 Wildland Fire Engine from the rest of their task force and from safe egress. Three firefighters in the engine drove through the fire to reach a safe location and spent the night within the active fire perimeter. They reunited with rest of their crew members early the following morning. There were no injuries or vehicle damage, but this incident had potential for very serious outcomes.
The engine was supporting a burnout operation on the south side of National Forest System Road 1917 to protect Packer’s Cabin, a historic building on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest managed as a recreational rental cabin. The engine became separated from the rest of the task force when it engaged a spot fire on the north side of the road, supported by a Type 1 helicopter.
Preliminary indications are that the main fire pushed up from the drainage to the south and crossed Road 1917 west of the engine, cutting it off from egress and from the rest of the task force. After consulting with the helicopter and the Task Force Leader, the engine turned around and headed back east along Road 1917 to a wide spot mostly cleared of fuel by intense fire the previous night and that morning. They spent the rest of the day there before making their way back west to the cabin in the evening, where they spent the rest of the night. Night Shift was able to reach them early Saturday morning and lead them back out of the fire.
A Facilitated Learning Analysis (FLA) Team has been assigned, and is working with participants to identify lessons learned from this incident. The intent of the FLA is to share the story of the incident with others in the wildland fire community so that future responders can anticipate similar events and avoid injury or entrapment.”
Oregon’s Chetco Bar Fire has exceeded 100,000 acres
Above: Firefighters on structure protection duty set up a sprinkler system on the Chetco Bar Fire in Southwest Oregon. Undated photo on Inciweb.
(Originally published at 9:03 a.m. PDT August 24, 2017)
The wildfires in Southwest Oregon and Northwest California continue to grow at a fairly steady pace, with occasional large expansions during wind events.
The Chetco Bar Fire five miles northeast of Brookings, Oregon was mapped very early Thursday morning at 102,333 acres, moving past the 100,000-acre threshold into “megafire” territory. But it is still one-fifth the size of the Biscuit Fire that covered almost half a million acres in the same general area in 2002.
The red line was the perimeter of the Chetco Bar Fire at 12:16 a.m. PDT August 24, 2017. The white line was the perimeter two days before.
The map of the Chetco Bar Fire shows that while it continues to spread along much of the perimeter that growth has slowed since it quadrupled in size over a four-day period, August 18 to 22. It added 2,389 acres on Wednesday through minimal flanking, backing, and creeping fire behavior due to cooler temperatures and higher humidities.
More fighters have poured in to the Brookings, Oregon area which is five miles southwest of the fire. Over 1,100 personnel are now working on the blaze, including 21 hand crews, 118 engines, and 8 helicopters. The incident management teams report that 25 structures have burned.
Three teams are assigned to the Chetco Bar Fire: Livingston’s Type 1 team, Greer’s Type 2 team, and Houseman’s National Incident Management Organization (NIMO) team. (The NIMO folks need to come up with a better name for their teams.)
The red, brown, and yellow dots represent heat detected only within the last week on wildfires in southwest Oregon and Northwest California.
The fires in Northwest California do not receive much press coverage since they are in remote, sparsely populated areas. The largest is the Eclipse Complex of five fires 10 miles north of Happy Camp which has burned 40,500 acres. It is also known as “CA-KNF-006098 Complex”. On Wednesday the inversion that had been moderating fire behavior lifted over one of the five fires, the Prescott Fire, which became active and burned towards the Oak Fire. This produced a large smoke column that caused ash fall along the Hwy 96 corridor and throughout the Happy Camp area.
The Toll and Squirrel Fires are not in Northwest California, but are near Quincy, California. August 20, 2017. Inciweb.
In other wildfire news, the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture are visiting Missoula and the Lolo Peak Fire today (August 24), accompanied by the USFS National Fire Director, Shawna Legarza.
Above: satellite photo of fires in Northwest California and Southern Oregon, August 17, 2017.
(Originally published at 11:30 a.m. MDT August 18, 2017)
Wildfires in Northwest California and Southern Oregon were very active on Thursday. Three of the largest fires on the Klamath National Forest in California are the Salmon August Complex (4,418 acres), Eclipse Complex (17,501), and Clear Fire (6,701).
The Ruth and Orleans Complexes on the Six Rivers NF have burned 4,617 and 6,943 acres respectively.
Eclipse Complex firefighters on Division D. Photo by B. Patton. InciWeb.
Oregon and Washington have a total of 24 large fires; 15 are being suppressed and 9 are being managed with less than full suppression strategies. Some of the more active fires in Southern Oregon on Thursday were: Chetco Bar (8,500 acres), Miller (4,668), Jones (2,703), Milli (4,565), Umpqua North (3,414), and High Cascades (10,460).
Milli Fire at 4 a.m. PDT August 16, 2017. Inciweb.
Above: Active wildfires in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Western Montana, and Northern California at 4:18 a.m. MDT August 16, 2017.
(Originally published at 10:21 a.m. MDT August 16, 2017)
Dozens of wildfires are active in the Northwest one-quarter of the United States. Many of them have been burning for several weeks under a limited suppression strategy. The states of Washington and Oregon have a total of 32 large uncontained fires that have spread over 810,171 acres.
At times the area around Missoula has been heavily affected by smoke. Here are some PM 2.5 readings from Wednesday morning:
Seeley Lake: 180
Missoula: 33
Lolo: 54
Superior: 180
French Town: 19
Clinton: 26
Satellite photo showing smoke from wildfires near Missoula, Montana, August 15, 2017.Satellite photo showing smoke from wildfires in northwest California, August 15, 2017.Active wildfires (without added name tags) in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Western Montana, and Northern California at 4:18 a.m. MDT August 16, 2017.
