Wildfire briefing, October 15, 2014

Half of the Holy Grail of Firefighter Safety demonstrated at the Happy Camp Fire

The Holy Grail of Firefighter Safety is to have key members of the Operations and Planning Sections knowing two things about a fire in real time:

  1. The location of the fire, and
  2. The location of firefighters.

Half of that was provided on the Happy Camp Fire, when true video and infrared video were streamed in real time down to the Incident Command Post from an Air Attack aircraft over the incident. At times the Planning Section Chief controlled the camera, looking at sections of the fire that were key to his situation awareness, mapping responsibilities, decision making and planning.

Below is an excerpt from an article at Fire Aviation.

A suite of video sensors normally used on an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was installed on an Air Attack aircraft working on the 134,056-acre Happy Camp Fire in northern California. The instruments provide normal and infrared video, making it possible for the Air Tactical Group Supervisor and personnel at the Incident Command Post to see in real time through smoke to determine where the priorities should be and where aircraft should be assigned to drop water or retardant.

Read the rest here.

Cleanup after the Boles fire has started

The government has started a massive cleanup in the northern California town of Weed, following the Boles Fire that destroyed 157 residences and 8 commercial structures last month.

Victoria, Australia rolls out new fire trucks

The rollout of Victoria’s new ground-based $82.1 million forest firefighting fleet has begun for the upcoming fire season.

Minister for Environment and Climate Change Ryan Smith said the 306 new firefighting vehicles to be rolled out over a six-year period were specifically designed to provide greater protection to fire crews and would deliver increased water carrying capacity of 630 litres (166 gallons), up from 400 litres (105 gallons) previously.

The new vehicles, based on the Mercedes Benz G Wagon, are fitted with equipment designed for Department of Environment and Primary Industries’ (DEPI) firefighting and planned burning needs, including cabin fire curtains for improved crew safety; and, the highest level of falling object protection for a vehicle of this size.

Attorney argue over evidence in Rim Fire arson case

The attorney representing the person charged with starting the 257,000-acre Rim Fire in the Stanislaus National Forest and Yosemite National Park is arguing that prosecutors aren’t providing all of the evidence they have collected against her client. The fire became the third largest in California recorded history, destroyed 11 homes, and cost $125 million to suppress. In August a Federal Grand Jury indicted 32-year-old Keith Matthew Emerald for starting the fire, charging him with two felonies, “Timber set afire” and “False statement to a government agency”, plus two misdemeanors, “Fire left unattended and unextinguished” and “Violating a fire restriction order”.

Read the story of how Mr. Emerald became a suspect.

Busy wildfire season in Canada’s national parks

From GuelphMercury.com:

The number of wildfires in Canada’s national parks was close to average last summer, but the size of some of those fires made it an unusually hot season.

“We’ve had a more active than normal wildfire season,” said Jeff Weir, Parks Canada’s national fire manager. “A small number of those fires have been quite challenging.”

The agency reported 85 wildfires in the spring and summer of this year. That’s slightly higher than the average of 82.

The amount of forest burned was almost 3,000 square kilometres — an area about half the size of Prince Edward Island.

“That’s higher than normal,” Weir said.

There were several large fires in Wood Buffalo National Park, which straddles the boundary between northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories. Together with a large fire in Banff National Park, the fires accounted for 1,300 square kilometres of forest burned.

Data breach may have exposed personal information of 15,000 applicants for firefighter jobs

The British Columbia Ministry of Forests has announced that a hacker accessed their computer system and may have obtained personal data about 15,000 individuals who applied for wildland firefighting jobs. The agency is in the process of notifying those who may be affected.

The databases were accessed by an unauthorized user on Sept. 24, 2014. As soon as the breach was discovered, public website access to the databases was shut down. The Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations is conducting a thorough review of the incident in co-operation with the Office of the Chief Information Officer.

This incident may have resulted in some personal information being unlawfully accessed, including the name, gender, general contact information, date of birth, driver’s license number and job evaluation information of past wildfire crew firefighter job applicants. In some cases, information that applicants entered about their status as an Aboriginal, minority or disabled person may also have been viewed.

The government is notifying the individuals who are affected by this incident and could be at risk of harm as a result. People who require notification will be contacted by mail or other means.

In addition, the government is making credit protection services available at no cost to all of the individuals concerned. Persons who may be affected and who are being notified should call 1 844 456-2284 (toll-free from anywhere in Canada) for information about how to sign up for credit protection services.

Some of the database records are up to 10 years old and contacting all of the individuals in a timely manner may be difficult, so the Wildfire Management Branch is also reaching out to past job applicants through the media and its own social media channels.

Report released on CL-415 accident in Newfoundland and Labrador

T-286 partially submerged

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) has released an investigation report on the CL-415 water-scooping air tanker that was involved in an accident on Moosehead Lake in Newfoundland and Labrador July 3, 2013, which we first covered HERE. Fortunately the two pilots were not injured and climbed out of the partially submerged aircraft, used a cell phone to call their headquarters, and waited on the wing for 30 minutes until they were rescued.

The previous day the flight crew had completed 53 water-drop flights at a fire northeast of Wabush, Newfoundland and Labrador, with each flight taking about 3 minutes. The accident occurred on the first flight of the next day while they were working on a wildfire, scooping water from Moosehead Lake in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The scooping system on their CL-415 had a feature that when activated by an Auto/Manual switch would automatically retract the water-scooping probes that while skimming the surface of a lake inject water into the tank. The system, when on Auto, allows a predetermined amount of water into the tank. The water drop control panel computer uses the aircraft’s zero-fuel weight and the weight of the onboard fuel and chemical foam to calculate the maximum amount of water that can be scooped without exceeding the aircraft’s maximum take-off weight of 47,000 pounds.

The Auto/Manual switch was in the Manual position on the first flight that day and the probes did not retract while scooping, resulting in a 3,000-pound overweight condition. The probes being down for an extended period of time combined with the too-heavy aircraft meant that it was on the lake surface for a much longer distance than on the previous days flights, 3,490 feet versus 1,200 feet after touchdown. As land approached, the pilot turned the aircraft to use more of the lake surface. The initiation of the left turn resulted in the left float contacting the water while the hull became airborne. This created a downward force on the left float, which acted as a pivot point around which the aircraft rotated, causing the hull to impact the water.

The forward force of 1.1 g was not sufficient to activate the emergency locator transmitter which requires 2.0 g, and it was not manually activated by the flight crew. One of the pilots was able to escape with a life vest, but the other vest floated away out of reach. Neither could gain access to the life raft located in the rear of the fuselage. The pilot contacted company personnel by cellular telephone and advised them of the situation. Within about 30 minutes, Department of Natural Resources employees arrived by boat and transported the flight crew to shore.

The aircraft floated partially submerged for at least four days, eventually settling on the lake bottom about 225 feet from the southern shore of the lake. There was substantial damage to the aircraft. The report described it as “destroyed”.

On August 14, 2014 another water-scooping air tanker was involved in an accident in Canada. A single-engine Air Tractor 802 Fireboss crashed and and sank while scooping water on Chantslar Lake in British Columbia, Canada about 30 kilometers west of Puntzi Mountain.

Below are some excerpts from the report on last year’s CL-415 accident:

****

Because the PROBES AUTO/MANUAL switch locks in the MANUAL position, an inadvertent movement of the switch from the MANUAL selection would be unlikely. However, the switch can be easily moved from the AUTO to MANUAL selection by simply pulling the centre pedestal cover rearward during removal.

At the end of the previous day, the aircraft was shut down and the switch was left in the AUTO position. The centre pedestal cover was installed and remained there until the following day, when it was removed by the Pilot Flying (PF). Neither of the pilots purposely repositioned the switch during the occurrence flight. Therefore, it is likely that the PROBES AUTO/MANUAL switch was inadvertently moved from the AUTO to MANUAL position when the centre pedestal cover was removed.

An inadvertent movement from the AUTO to the MANUAL selection can lead to the aircraft being in an overweight situation if the flight crew does not monitor the water quantity. When a flight crew is operating with the switch in the AUTO selection, there is an expectation that the probes will always automatically retract at the predetermined water quantity, as was the case on the 53 flights of the previous day. When the flight crew expects the system to work properly, it is likely that less priority is given to the importance of monitoring the water quantity.

The aircraft flight manual (AFM) instructs flight crews to monitor the water quantity even when the PROBES AUTO/MANUAL switch is in the AUTO selection. At the time of the occurrence, the flight crew was occupied during the scooping run with other flight activities, and did not notice that the water quantity exceeded the predetermined limit until after the tanks had filled to capacity. This situation resulted in the aircraft being over the maximum take-off weight.

2.7 Firefighting training

Aerial firefighting is a specialized operation that not only requires the flight crew to be competent in their aircraft operation skills but also to be familiar with the specialized techniques associated with using the aircraft to fight fires. This familiarity allows crews to better adapt to difficult flying situations under intense workload. The Newfoundland and Labrador Government Air Services (NGAS)  did not provide any specific ground training syllabus for aerial firefighting.

 

Thanks and a hat tip go out to Chris.

Wildfire one liners, August 20, 2014

Inyo Hotshots
Inyo Hotshots. USFS photo.

New Hotshot crew: The USFS Forest Service has announced that there is a new Interagency Hotshot Crew on the Inyo National Forest in California.

Foreign aid to Washington: A group of volunteers from Israel is helping residents of Pateros, Washington recover from a devastating wildfire.

How will British Columbia pay for wildfires: While the United States is struggling to make decisions about how to pay for the rising costs of wildfires, British Columbia has similar issues.

Smokey Bear to be Grand Marshall: Smokey Bear will be the Grand Marshall of the New Mexico State Fair parade on September 13 in Albuquerque, in honor of his 70th birthday celebration. September 19 will be Firefighter and Smokey Bear Day at the fair.

British Columbia: Chelaslie River Fire

map Chelaslie River Fire

The Chelaslie River Fire 126 miles west of Prince George has burned over a quarter of a million acres in British Columbia. Authorities have issued evacuation orders for Entiako Provincial Park and the west half of the Tetachuck Lake area.

The 264,000-acre (107,000 hectares) fire, discovered July 8, started from lightning. It is being fought by 290 personnel and 18 helicopters.

The description of current activities found on the British Columbia government website uses some jargon that may be foreign to firefighters in other countries:

Heavy equipment continues to be utilized to establish new machine guards and contain new fire perimeters. Firefighters are establishing new contingency guards and mopping-up spot fires outside the fire perimeter. A second Wildfire Management Branch camp has been implemented on the Northern side of this fire.

SEAT sinks in British Columbia lake

An Air Tractor 802 Fireboss crashed and and sank August 14 while scooping water on Chantslar Lake in British Columbia, Canada about 30 kilometers west of Puntzi Mountain. Jeff Berry of Conair said the pilot was able to exit the Single Engine Air Tanker, but was held overnight in a hospital in William’s Lake and released Friday morning.

The Fireboss was brand new. Recovery operations are underway at the lake.

Massive wildfires in Northwest Territories exceed 25 year average

NWT_fire2

Fires in Canada’s Northwest Territories have burned six times more hectares than the 25-year average, according to data from the Canadian Interagency Fire Center.

There are 224 fires burning to-date in the Northwest Territories–that’s almost double the 25-year average of 156. Data shows that the fires have consumed 872,374 hectares (that’s more than 2 million acres).

Check out the Northwest Territories fire management’s Facebook page for some stunning photos of the Birch Creek Complex fires. (Climate Central did a great article on the history of fires in the area and pointed out some of this data, read it here.)

This summer Western Canada is seeing one of its most active fire seasons in more than a decade. More than 150 fires were burning in the western province of British Columbia as of last week.

While the far-west Yukon territory is seeing a below-average fire season, several fires in the Northwest Territories are pushing heavy smoke into BC and Alberta. Last week, smoke from Canadian fires obscured skylines on the American east coast.

Smoke from fires in the Northwest Territories, from NOAA's Fire Detection program.
Smoke from fires in the Northwest Territories, from NOAA’s Fire Detection program.

Portions of south-central BC have been issued extreme fire danger warnings for Sunday.

Here are some updates on a couple of the fires we’ve been following:

  • The Smith Creek Fire in West Kelowna is now 30 percent contained, and officials have lifted some evacuation orders for certain residential neighborhoods, local media reports. 
  • The Mount McAllister fire  northeastern BC had burned 16,000 hectares (almost 40,000 acres) as of Sunday morning, and is still uncontained. Last week the fire forced the evacuation of the entire town of Hudson’s Hope — the evacuation was later lifted, and no homes have been destroyed.

PHOTOS: Birch Lake Complex, Northwest Territories

Reader D. Cote with Yukon Wildland Fire Management sent us impressive photos of the South Slave fire, one of four massive fires burning in Canada’s Northwest Territories area. The Birch Lake Complex has burned more than 530,000 acres. Read his account below.

D. Cote, Yukon Wildland Fire Management
D. Cote, Yukon Wildland Fire Management

“(The fire) made a major run on the afternoon of July 14th with estimated spread rates of 150 – 200 meters a minute. With a 10 km flame front bearing down on the staging area the ignition team pulled off a ‘Hail Mary’ burn out (heli-torch, lower left in photo) which managed to save the (communications) tower, fire lookout tower and cabin as well as all the heavy equipment…

The fire is SS (South Slave district – NWT) #20, one of four fires in the Birch Lake Complex, which is over 220,000 hectares ( + or – 530,000 acres). (South Slave) alone is 125,000 hectares or so…The day the fire made that run was 36 C (97 F) with a 17% RH. Pretty exceptional for this part of the world.  Fire behavior analysts on the incident clocked the spread rates of any where from 150 to 200 meters a minute  (a meter is roughly one yard).”