News and opinion about wildland fire
Wildfire danger described as “very critical” by the National Weather Service is in the forecast for Southern California this week. Strong winds gusting at 55 to 70 mph in the mountains is predicted for Wednesday night and Thursday, which will be followed by warm temperatures and single-digit relative humidities into the weekend.
A Red Flag Warning is in the forecast for San Bernardino Wednesday through Saturday.
The Hot-Dry-Windy Index will be increasing Tuesday through Monday.
Southern California Edison has notified some of their customers that strong Santa Ana winds on Thursday and Friday could result in a preemptive power shutoff on Thanksgiving in order to reduce the chance of wildfires being ignited by power line failures caused by the winds.
The National Weather Service has issued Red Flag Warnings from Ventura County south to San Diego County as well as the Lower Colorado River Valley.
The Red Flag Warning goes into effect at 2 p.m. Thursday about the time many Southern Californians will be thinking about sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner. It will end at 6 p.m. Friday.
The forecasters expect 40 to 55 mph northeast winds in the lower elevations with isolated gusts to 65 mph in the mountains, with 12 to 25 percent relative humidity Thursday dropping to 8 to 15 percent Friday. The wind will decrease during the weekend but it will remain breezy and dry.
The Angeles National Forest will have extra firefighters on duty through this wind event.
Your #ANF firefighters will increase staffing through this fire weather event. Additional resources also moving into our area to boost local firefighting resources.
? EXTREME Fire Danger ⚠️ on the Angeles National Forest ? https://t.co/kEC4YuOk7x pic.twitter.com/4OaSHtmB9M
— Robert Garcia (@firechiefanf) November 26, 2020
Near Reno, Nevada and in California, Walker, Doyle, and Vinton
November 18, 2020 | 3:28 p.m. PT
We have found better satellite data for the location of the Mountain View Fire at Walker California, which confirms that as of 8:35 p.m. PT November 17 it had spread from Highway 395 northwest across the state line into Nevada.
At 3:10 p.m. PT Wednesday the weather conditions at Walker were 42 degrees, 80 percent relative humidity, with wind out of the southeast at 2 mph — conditions not conducive to rapid spread of a vegetation fire.
November 18, 2020 | 12:39 p.m. PST
A number of wildfires broke out in Northeastern California and Western Nevada Tuesday as a cold front raced through the area.
Low humidity and very strong winds gusting at 40 to 60 mph caused the fires to spread rapidly to the northeast or east.
We will update this article as more information becomes available.
Pinehaven Fire
The Pinehaven Fire on the southwest side of Reno, Nevada started at 1 p.m. Tuesday southwest of McCarran Blvd. in the Caughlin Ranch area and crossed the road spreading to Cashill and Skyline Boulevards. It was pushed until 3 p.m. by 20 to 35 mph winds gusting at 40 to 60 mph from the west-southwest while the relative humidity was in the 20s.
Over a tenth of an inch of precipitation was recorded at weather stations Tuesday afternoon.
The fire destroyed five homes and damaged 15 others before the spread was stopped at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The entire area affected was about 1,200 acres but the fire spotted, leaving some areas unburned.
Laura 2 Fire
While the Pinehaven Fire was burning into Reno, the Laura 2 Fire started in the community of Doyle, California 38 air miles to the northwest near U.S. 395. In an update at about 11 a.m. Wednesday the Bureau of Land Management said it had burned 2,000 acres in Lassen County. Rain has slowed the spread. Officials estimate 20 structures have burned.
Mountain View Fire
The Mountain View Fire near Walker, California has burned 20,879 acres and resulted in one fatality, according to the Mono County Sheriff’s Office and the BLM. It started in the vicinity of Walker and was pushed by winds out of the west-southwest at 30 to 50 mph gusting at 60 to 78.
There are reports that dozens of structures burned.
The fire has spread into Douglas County, Nevada near the Lyon County line. On the map below, it is not certain that the red dots in Nevada are part of the Mountain View Fire. If it is, clouds may have blocked the view from the satellite between the two areas where heat is shown. Or, between satellite overflights light vegetation burned and cooled, leaving not enough heat to be detected. Precipitation that began at 1 a.m. Wednesday slowed the spread.
Gulch Fire
The Plumas National Forest announced that the Gulch Fire burned about 150 acres near Vinton, California before it was contained at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Wildfire4 Comments on Report released on burnover of firefighters on Silverado Fire Two firefighters are still in critical condition in Orange County, California
The two firefighters that suffered very serious injuries while battling the Silverado Fire are still in critical condition, on ventilators, and in induced comas. However, they have survived multiple surgeries and are improving, but they have a long and tough road ahead.
They are members of a 17-person Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA) hand crew that was assigned to the fire east of Irvine, California on October 26, 2020 when the fire burned over their location. In addition to the two firefighters still hospitalized, another suffered radiant heat injuries and other firefighters had superficial heat injuries.
The OCFA has released an Informational Summary Report, or Green Sheet, about the incident.
The burnover occurred at about noon during a Red Flag Warning for strong offshore winds, low humidity, and dry fuels. The weather conditions at the time were 60 degrees, 8 percent relative humidity, and winds out of the north-northeast at 16 mph with gusts to 42 mph. The fire was burning in grass and brush, with live fuel moistures for the chamise and sage at or below the critical levels.
Very briefly, the firefighters were along an indirect mid-slope dozer line with fire below and unburned vegetation on both sides. They were firing out below the line, igniting with drip torches until the wind kept blowing out the flames on the wicks, so they switched to using fusees. Several spot fires occurred on the slope above the dozer line which were suppressed by the crew. Another spot fire which grew rapidly about 80 feet above the line was attacked by eight firefighters with hand tools and three engine crew members with a fire hose.
Shortly thereafter, a second rapidly spreading spot fire started below and upwind of the eleven firefighters. They escaped from the area as best they could back down to the dozer line.
Five hand crew members were impacted by radiant and convective heat, reporting singed hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes while stumbling out of the way of the second spot fire’s path. The remaining three hand crew members, according to the report, “were impacted significantly”.
The two most seriously injured personnel were transported with paramedics in an engine and a hand crew vehicle to Orange County Global Medical Center, arriving at 12:32 p.m. and 12:57 p.m.
There was no mention in the report of fire shelters, either being carried or deployed by the firefighters. We have unconfirmed information that they had fire shelters but there wasn’t enough time to deploy them.
The Silverado Fire burned 12,466 acres and destroyed 5 structures.
In 2007 in Orange County 12 firefighters on the Santiago Fire were entrapped and deployed fire shelters, but there were no serious injuries.
Steven Metheny’s falsification of records for a helicopter led to the deaths of nine firefighters and crew members in 2008
Steven Metheny, 50, the former Vice President of Carson Helicopters has requested compassionate release from prison because he fears he will contract COVID-19 while serving time in the federal prison in Lompoc, California.
He filed the request in October and on November 2 Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Potter wrote in a response, “The mere existence of COVID, without more, is not sufficient to justify compassionate release.” Potter argued that Metheny’s weight is the only eligible health condition that increases his risk of COVID-19. “But, obesity alone should not result in defendant’s release,” Potter wrote.
Mr. Metheny’s falsification of records for a Sikorsky S-61N helicopter under contract to the U.S. Forest Service led to the deaths of nine firefighters and crew members in 2008.
Mr. Metheny was accused of falsifying performance charts and the weights of helicopters his company had under contract to the U.S. Forest Service for supporting wildland fire operations. As of a result of his fraud, a Carson helicopter crashed while trying to lift off with too much weight from a remote helispot on the Iron 44 Fire on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest near Weaverville, California in 2008. He was sentenced to 12 years and 7 months in prison in 2015 for attempting to defraud the government out of more than $32 million and has been serving time in Lompoc, California.
Nine people were killed, including the pilot-in-command, a U.S. Forest Service check pilot, and seven firefighters. The copilot and three firefighters were seriously injured.
Mr. Metheny went to great lengths after the crash to attempt to conceal the fraud. When he knew that investigators would be examining the company’s operations, he directed other employees to remove weight from other similar helicopters, including taking off a fuel cell and replacing a very heavy battery with an empty shell of a battery. Some of the employees refused to participate in that deception, with one explaining that he was done lying about the helicopter’s weight.
During the trial in 2014 defense lawyer Steven Myers argued that the helicopter pilot could have avoided the crash by doing a standard maneuver on takeoff, where the pilot hovers and checks his gauges.
Judge Aiken who presided over the trial dismissed that argument, noting her father had flown helicopters in the Korean War, crashing 13 times. “Whether the gauges were right or not, the pilot didn’t have the right information,” Aiken told Mr. Metheny.
In June, 2020 the same judge refused to reduce Mr. Metheny’s sentence when he argued he had ineffective counsel. He said he would not have pleaded guilty in 2014 if his attorney had told him that crash victims were going to be allowed to testify at his sentencing, or that he’d be ordered to repay tens of millions of dollars in restitution upon release from prison. Judge Aiken called Mr. Metheny’s claims that his defense lawyer made false promises “palpably incredible.”
The next hearing on Mr. Metheny’s motion for compassionate release is a phone conference scheduled for November 13 in U.S. District Court in Eugene, Oregon.
Killed in the crash were pilot Roark Schwanenberg, 54; USFS check pilot Jim Ramage, 63; and firefighters Shawn Blazer, 30; Scott Charlson, 25; Matthew Hammer, 23; Edrik Gomez, 19; Bryan Rich, 29; David Steele, 19; and Steven “Caleb” Renno, 21. The copilot and three other firefighters were seriously injured.
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Pat and Kelly.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Wildfire1 Comment on Report issued for water tender rollover in Northern California Mendocino National Forest, September 27, 2020
This is the 66th article on Wildfire Today about rollovers of wildland fire vehicles. But, it is the first we have heard about in 2020.
From the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center:
At approximately 0755 hours on September 27th, August Complex South Zone communications was notified of a Water Tender accident via radio by another Water Tender Operator who was also working in the area.
The Water Tender involved in the accident was full with approximately 4,000 gallons of water being utilized for road dust abatement.
Before experiencing radio challenges, the first Water Tender on scene was able to notify communications that there had been an accident and the Water Tender Operator had an injury to the shoulder, back and neck.
It is unknown if the driver was ejected from the vehicle during the accident, but the first water tender on scene did observe the driver climbing out from underneath the front bumper area of the wreckage.
Due to the accident’s location and lack of clarity of the nature of the accident/injuries, the Incident Management Team started a Life Flight response per the Medical and Incident Within an Incident (IWI) Plan. Upon activating the local Life Flight care provider, it was determined that the closest two helicopters were unavailable due to maintenance issues, leaving the third option of an ETA of 35 minutes. The decision was made to utilize the exclusive use Helicopter 514, staffed with an EMT, to transport the paitient with a 10 minute ETA.
A Safety Officer assigned to the incident arrived on scene, provided a size-up of the incident and assumed command of the IWI. When units arrived on scene, the Water Tender was upright, resting on its wheels against a tree with its tank separated from the chassis.
The area of the accident had a suitable landing spot. The patient was loaded into the helicopter and taken to the local trauma center for evaluation.
LESSONS
The Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center has reports for 13 Water Tender Rollovers from 2015 to 2020.
