Mobile attack on a fire near the Modesto Airport in California. KCRA.
KCRA has good video footage of engines using mobile attack tactics, or pump and roll, on a grass fire near the Modesto, California airport. It appears to have been conducted safely and effectively, but this is a good opportunity to initiate a discussion.
In the video below the best footage begins at 3:48.
FIRE AERIALS | LiveCopter 3 has a look of a wind-driven fire near the Modesto Airport that officials say left a person with serious burns. https://t.co/y6VeRDJZs6
When I was an engine captain we conducted mobile attacks on grass fires similar to what is seen in the video. If we were the only engine at that location, we operated two nozzles. The one in front was on a short section of 1.5″ hose, and behind the truck a second crewman used a hard line to pick up anything that was still burning. When possible, like seen in the video, the engine was in the black, reducing the chance of a flareup endangering the crew or truck. If there was a second engine we might have just used the front 1.5″ hose and like in the video, count on the second engine to be sure the edge is all cold.
It is important to have a second nozzle, because it is common, unless you progress very slowly, for the fire to creep through the wet line after the first nozzle, and then you can have significant fire behind the engine crew, and you’ve lost what you just gained. It is also important to use a 1.5″ hose in front of the truck. You need the safety factor of that knockdown power and volume of water when you’re suppressing a fire close to the engine. Too often a hard line with 3/4″ inside diameter is woefully insufficient.
Angeles National Forest Firefighter Academy. USFS photo.
The Angeles National Forest in Southern California recently conducted a four-week Firefighter Academy. The 100 trainees were hired under a fairly recently granted authority of direct hiring for GS-5 Senior Firefighters. This hiring process was approved in order to help mitigate recent challenges in recruiting firefighters. Most of the Academy participants previously had multiple years of experience in wildland fire working for the US Forest Service or other agencies in California or across the country.
Another method for placing personnel into Senior Firefighter positions that has been used for years is the Wildland Firefighter Apprenticeship Program, a 3,000 hour on-the-job learning program, which includes a two month-long residential firefighting academy at the Wildland Fire Training Center in McClellan, California.
The direct hire process and the Academy help make it more feasible to achieve the agency’s goal of increasing the number of firefighters in permanent positions to 80 percent, with only 20 percent in seasonal positions. Many of the seasonals who were limited to working only 1,039 hours a year, not counting overtime, will now be in “permanent seasonal” 18 and 8 jobs, with guaranteed employment and full benefits for 18 of the 24 pay periods each year.
A person with knowledge of the program who was not authorized to speak on behalf of the Forest Service told Wildfire Today that the goals of the Academy were to level the playing field, to cover the curriculum the trainees would have had if they had gone through the Apprenticeship program, and to ensure that they all had at least an intermediate level of training along with exposure to multiple aspects of the fire management program.
There were many logistical issues that had to be accomplished before the four-weeks of training began. Those were handled by a Battalion Chief with Engine Captains and Hotshot Captains from throughout the Angeles National Forest. One of the most time-consuming projects was to provide uniforms for each of the 100 trainees upon their arrival. That required collecting clothing size data from everyone, then ordering, receiving, and finally sorting and issuing the garments at the beginning of the training.
The courses completed in the Academy included:
L280 – Followership to Leadership
S131 – Firefighter Type 1
S219 – Firing Operations
S260 – Interagency Incident Business Management
S270 – Basic Air Operations
S290 – Intermediate Wildland Fire Behavior
Applied Skills Wildland Firemanship
Incident Size-ups
Sand Table and Simtable Fire simulations
Helicopter Target Descriptions
Avenza Setup and Use
A219 Prerequisites
A100 – Basic Aviation
A110 – Aviation Transportation of Hazardous Materials
A117 – Fixed Wing Hand Signals
A200 – Mishap Review
Physical Training Test (1.5mi run, Pushups, Situps, & Pullups)
CRM – Crew Resource Management (7 Skills)
Work Capacity Test Arduous Level
Angeles National Forest Firefighter Academy. USFS photo.
S-2T air tanker drops on the Cactus Fire, April 30, 2022. @BrookesLori.
Yesterday firefighters stopped the spread of a wildfire in Southern California in the San Bernardino National Forest after it burned about 35 acres in Cactus Flats east of Big Bear Lake. Soon after it started it was putting up a smoke plume with occasional puffs of dense black smoke. The incident commander ordered a total of six fixed wing air tankers which assisted firefighters as they installed a hose lay around the perimeter.
Cactus Fire, April 30, 2022. @jojacalienteCactus Fire, April 30, 2022. San Bernardino NF photo.Map showing the location of aircraft over the Cactus Fire at 3:17 p.m. PDT April 30, 2022. ADS-B Exchange.
The video below was shot by the FIRIS aircraft at 2:22 p.m. PDT April 30, 2022.
Pacific Gas and Electric reached an agreement Monday with six Northern California Counties to avoid criminal charges for the company’s role in igniting two very large destructive wildfires, the 2021 Dixie Fire and the 2019 Kincade Fire. The settlement means the district attorneys in the six counties will not pursue criminal charges against the company, or if they have already been filed, will be dismissed.
The Dixie Fire burned on the Plumas National Forest, Lassen National Forest, Lassen Volcanic National Park, and across five counties: Butte, Lassen, Plumas, Shasta and Tehama. The Kincade Fire was in Sonoma County.
The agreements with the counties does not prevent the US Attorney from filing criminal charges for the Dixie Fire. Nor does it prevent civil litigation from property owners. The Sacramento Bee reported that PG&E said it expects liabilities from the Kincade Fire to reach $800 million and the Dixie Fire to be $1.15 billion.
The Dixie and Kincade Fires, caused by PG&E power lines, burned 963,000 and 77,758 acres respectively.
In the settlement PG&E agreed to pay $55 million over a five year period. About $35 million will go to local organizations, volunteer fire departments, local schools, Rotary Clubs, Chambers of Commerce, fire safe councils, and other non-profits. The company will pay a $7.5 million civil penalty to Sonoma County related to the Kincade Fire and a $1 million civil penalty to each of the five North Valley counties related to the Dixie Fire. PG&E said they will not seek recovery of these costs from customers.
Details of some of the payments, according to PG&E, include:
Wildfire Safety
Local Safety Workforce: Adding 80-100 new PG&E jobs based in Sonoma County, as well as 80-100 more positions collectively across Butte, Lassen, Plumas, Shasta and Tehama counties. These new positions will increase PG&E’s local expertise and presence focused on completing critical safety work in these communities.
Local Inspection and Work Commitments: Executing specific safety work and inspections in the six counties including commitments to carry out vegetation management and equipment inspections, which will be reviewed and verified by the independent monitor.
Local Community College Partnerships
Fire Technology Training Program: Committing to work collaboratively with Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) on efforts to expand and enhance the College’s Fire Technology Program of the Public Safety Training Center, including providing funding and sharing PG&E wildfire safety know-how and learnings. The company also will provide funding to campuses in the six counties which, at the discretion of the colleges, can be used for site acquisition and development, equipment purchases, and developing and implementing fire technology program curriculum.
Vegetation Management Training Program: Providing funding and assisting in the creation of new utility vegetation management training programs at SRJC and several campuses across the North Valley. These programs will be modeled after coursework that debuted at Butte College in 2020.
Direct Payment Program to Accelerate Community Recovery
PG&E will launch a new Direct Payments for Community Recovery program with an online tool where individuals whose homes were destroyed by the Dixie Fire can submit claims for expedited review, approval and payment. PG&E will verify the claims and make offers based on an objective, predetermined calculation. Claimants who accept the offers will receive payment, typically within 30 days of accepting an offer and within 75 days of first submitting a complete claim. PG&E has also agreed to provide in-person and telephone customer support centers to navigate this new program.
Firefighters on the Dixie Fire, Strike Team 9163G. CAL FIRE photo.
The blaze burned more than 124,000 acres along the coast and mountains of Central California in 2020
Ivan Geronimo Gomez. Monterey County Jail photo.
A 31-year old man was convicted Thursday of starting the Dolan Fire that burned 124,527 acres along the coast and mountains of Central California in 2020. A judge found Ivan Gomez guilty of arson, throwing rocks at a vehicle, cultivating marijuana, and 11 counts of cruelty to animals for killing multiple condors. In all Mr Gomez was found guilty of 16 felony counts.
After the fire started on August 18, California State Parks personnel detained Gomez at the John Little State Natural Reserve near the fire’s origin in Dolan Canyon. He had been seen throwing rocks at vehicles on Highway 1 and the Lime Creek Bridge. Mr. Gomez told officers that he had started the fire at an illegal marijuana grow on the other side of the ridge and killed five men.
Map of the 124,527-acre Dolan Fire, Central California, 2020.
There was no evidence of any homicides, but a multi-week investigation by US Forest Service fire investigators confirmed the fire did in fact originate at the illegal marijuana grow site. According to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office, this piece of evidence proved to be key as the defendant correctly identified the area of origin, which was also confirmed by a defense expert. The evidence showed Mr. Gomez would have had time to start the fire around 5 p.m. and make it to the Lime Creek area where he was confronted at 8:15 p.m. Firefighters testified that no other individuals were found in this area and that the defendant was shirtless, sweating, and was found with multiple lighters on his person when contacted by law enforcement. The lighters were in working order and matched others found at the point of origin. In a three-hour interview with detectives from the Sheriff’s Department Mr. Gomez admitted numerous times that he started the fire.
The Dolan fire destroyed 14 structures including 10 residences. It also ruined multiple condor nesting structures and caused 12 condor birds to perish, injuring several more.
On September 8, 2020 the fire burned over and destroyed the US Forest Service fire station on Nacimiento-Fergusson Road seven miles from the California coast highway. Personnel there at the time included two USFS engine crews, two dozers with operators, and the only Division supervisor working the night shift due to a shortage of personnel. Fifteen firefighters deployed into only 13 fire shelters. Four were injured and three were hospitalized. One had very serious burns and had to rely on contributions from a GoFundMe account to help pay for his desperately needed long-term medical treatment, since the federal government dragged their feet in paying the bills.
Whaley prescribed fire, Black Hills National Forest, January 13, 2016. Photo by Bill Gabbert.
A group of state and federal land management agencies in California has established a plan to promote the use of “beneficial fire”, and by 2025 expect to treat up to 400,000 acres a year.
That is well short of the agreement the same agencies reached in 2018 to treat one million acres per year by 2025. In August, 2020 they recommitted to that same one million-acre target. The plan released last week restates the one-million goal on page 17, but on the following page says, “By 2025, land managers will seek to deploy beneficial fire on 400,000 acres annually, based on the following targets and estimates:”
Targets, California prescribed fire and cultural burning. From the report on page. 18
The numbers above total 300,000 prescribed/cultural acres each year plus 120,000 to 200,000 acres of fire managed for resource benefit.
Beneficial fire, a term not widely used, is defined in the document as including prescribed fire, fire managed for resource benefit (less than full suppression of unplanned ignitions), and cultural burning by California Native American tribes.
Between 2017 and 2020, CAL FIRE and the US Forest Service completed or assisted with prescribed fire activities on approximately 80,000 acres annually, according to the plan released by the agencies last week. In the same period tribes, California State Parks, the National Park Service, local agencies, and private entities completed burns on tens of thousands of additional acres annually. The USFS and NPS also completed approximately 20,000 acres each year of fire managed for resource benefit. The amount of land thinned or converted into fuel breaks but not burned would add to that figure.
Doing some back of the envelope ciphering, let’s assume that during that four-year period about 120,000 acres were prescribed burned each year. Current estimates indicate that between 10 million and 30 million acres in California need some form of fuel reduction treatment. To use a middle ground number, if 20 million acres need to be treated on an average fire return interval of 20 years, for example, that works out to one million acres that need to be treated each year, about eight times the area treated every year recently. The actual average fire return interval should probably be less, especially considering that neglected areas will need both an initial entry burn and at least one subsequent burn before they can be restored to a sustainable fire regime and obtain maintenance status.
A member of the Alpine Hotshots ignites the Norbeck prescribed fire, October 20, 2014 in Custer State Park, SD. Photo by Bill Gabbert.
The plan released last week by the Governor’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force indicates that the state of California will begin managing some fires for resource benefit, major change in their policy. They will evaluate areas on state land where modified fire suppression strategies can be implemented, such as land trusts, ranches, and timber owners. Where appropriate and authorized by the state Legislature, CAL FIRE will use plans and agreements with land managers and landowners in order to allow unintentional ignitions to burn under predetermined and prescribed conditions, to accomplish resource benefits similar to prescribed fire.
The key elements of the plan include:
Launching an online prescribed fire permitting system to streamline the review and approval of prescribed fire projects;
Establishing the state’s new Prescribed Fire Claims Fund to reduce liability for private burners;
Beginning a statewide program to enable tribes and cultural fire practitioners to revitalize cultural burning practices;
A prescribed fire training center to grow, train, and diversify the state’s prescribed fire workforce;
An interagency beneficial fire tracking system;
Pilot projects to undertake larger landscape-scale burns; and
A comprehensive review of the state’s smoke management programs to facilitate prescribed fire while protecting public health.
“This plan is vital to improve the health and resilience of the state’s forests, reduce wildfire risk of vulnerable communities, and increase stewardship by Native American fire practitioners,” said Task Force Co-Chair and U.S. Forest Service Regional Forester Jennifer Eberlien.
The plan, California’s Strategic Plan for Expanding the use of Beneficial Fire, March 2022, was developed by the Governor’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force. It can be downloaded here: (large 17 MB file).
