Prescribed fire photos
Tag: Colorado
Wildfire briefing, October 29, 2013
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized2 Comments on Wildfire briefing, October 29, 2013 Smoke creates health problems in Australia
Smoke from wildfires and prescribed fires is being blamed for increased visits to hospitals in New South Wales. On Monday when air quality was at its worst, the number of people treated for asthma in hospitals more than doubled. In recent weeks Sydney has been inundated with smoke from bushfires, but since the weather moderated a week or so ago smoke from prescribed fires, or “backburns”, has replaced it.
Landowners are motivated to use fire to reduce the hazards around their property by insurance companies that impose higher premiums if they don’t have a buffer around their improvements. Some of them are taking advantage of the favorable weather to conduct the backburns before the normal beginning of the bushfire season in December.
Australian government warns operators of UAVs who operate over fires
In what may be a reaction to a stunning video and others taken by unmanned aerial vehicles over bushfires, Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority issued a warning to the operators of small UAVs, saying they are putting fire fighting operations at risk and should be aware of appropriate regulations.
Catastrophic wildfires in Colorado ignite new center for managing ‘WUI’ wildfire risk
Colorado State University’s Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship is launching a new center dedicated to creating and applying the next generation of wildfire management solutions. The Center for Managing Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Wildfire Risk will provide science-based answers to critical questions raised by the most destructive wildfires in Colorado’s history. The Center for Managing WUI Wildfire Risk will provide science-based answers to critical questions raised by the most destructive wildfires in Colorado’s history.
Catching up with Fire Aviation
Recent articles at Fire Aviation:
- Disney to release animated wildfire aviation movie
- V-22 Tilt-Rotor Osprey as a firefighting aircraft
- K-MAX helicopter converted to unmanned aircraft system
- Slow-motion video of Lockheed Electra L-188 retardant drops
- 10 Tanker Air Carrier moves to Albuquerque, begins converting a third DC-10
- Two Aircraft crashes in Australia connected to bushfires
- Stunning UAV video of bushfire
- Airliner painted to honor FDNY firefighters
- Airbus begins tests of C295 air tanker
- 2013 Airtanker and Water Scooper Forum
Prescribed fire projects underway
Wildfire news, October 16, 2013
Boulder Fire Department to convert seasonals to full time
In a budget approved by the City Council on Tuesday, the Boulder, Colorado Fire Department will be able to convert its seasonal wildland firefighting crew to full time.
NFPA announces first Wildfire Preparedness Day
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) today announced its first national Wildfire Community Preparedness Day (Wildfire Preparedness Day) will take place on Saturday, May 3, 2014. Projects on May 3 can range from a short time commitment up to an entire day and can be undertaken by individuals or groups. Potential projects include hosting a chipping day, distributing wildfire safety information to neighbors, organizing brush clean up and more. Residents of all ages are invited to join in the effort. A list of project ideas is available at www.nfpa.org/wildfirepreparednessday/.
The 2014 Wildfire Preparedness Day comes on the heels of NFPA’s Colorado Wildfire Preparedness Day of Service that was piloted in May 2013 where nearly 600 volunteers participated in more than 16 projects across the state.
Charities raise millions for families of Granite Mountain 19
Charities have raised over $11 million for the families of the 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots that were killed June 30 on the Yarnell Hill Fire at Yarnell, Arizona.
Granite Mountain Hotshot Girls host benefit for Yarnell
A group of women made up of Hotshots’ mothers, wives, sisters, fiancées, and more, have joined forces to help give back some of the support they received. The group that calls itself the “Granite Mountain Hotshot Girls” will be hosting a benefit to help with the rebuilding efforts after the Yarnell Hill Fire swept through Yarnell destroying more than 100 structures in the town.
An all woman engine crew responds to a fire in Lexington, KY
It is surprising that this is a news item in 2013, but on September 5 in Lexington, Kentucky a three-person all women engine crew responded to a fire in the city. This is the first time an all women crew has responded to a fire in Lexington. The city made a big deal of it Wednesday, presenting the trio — Captain Maria Roberts, Amanda Arbogast and Sarah McGill — with certificates.
The women appreciated the recognition, but all agreed that they were just doing their job.
“It was just another run for us,” said Roberts, who joined the division in November 1999. “I had two really good firefighters riding in my truck and that’s not any different than any other day.”
In the 523-person fire department, 14 of them are women.
It will actually be news when similar occurrences are no longer news.
Firefighters assist with Colorado floods
Incident management teams that usually respond to wildfires found themselves in a position to help thousands of Colorado residents earlier this month when unprecedented amounts of rain caused massive flooding and damage to infrastructure
Today we have a guest author, someone who worked with one of the two incident management teams during their assignment September 13 through 24. Rae Brooks was an information officer with Shane Del Grosso’s team. Her background is in journalism.
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By Rae Brooks
They came not to fight a fire, but to perform a rescue mission.
On September 13, Shane Del Grosso’s Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team was deployed to Colorado to help manage the response to the flooding in Larimer County, north of Denver. A second Rocky Mountain Type 2 team, headed by Dan Dallas, managed the rescue response in Boulder County.
When Del Grosso’s team arrived in Fort Collins, hundreds of people remained trapped in mountain towns, cut off by roads that were likely to remain impassable for months. Thousands of homes were without power. Although the tally was not yet in, the county would eventually announce that 45 miles of roads and 65 bridges were either damaged or destroyed.
The flooded area in Larimer County delegated to the team covered 768 square miles, close to double the size of California’s Rim Fire, the largest in the nation this year. About 1,500 homes had been destroyed in the county, almost three times as many as the Black Forest Fire burned in June, the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history.
Wildland firefighters had to immediately get their minds around a simple fact: You can’t put out a flood. Their job on this mission would be to rescue traumatized people, aiding them however they could.
For most of the team, the flood was their first experience on a non-fire event. Although water-soaked terrain might seem a foreign environment for wildland firefighters, the work required — helicopter rescues in the mountains — was actually right up their alley.
Continue reading “Firefighters assist with Colorado floods”
Firefighters respond to Colorado floods
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized2 Comments on Firefighters respond to Colorado floods 
Large numbers of firefighters and other emergency services personnel have been mobilized to assist with the severe flooding in Colorado. Two Type 2 Incident Management Teams in the Rocky Mountain Geographic Area, under Incident Commanders Dallas and Del Grosso, are working in Boulder and Larimer Counties, respectively. The IMTs reported Sunday evening they are working with 4 Type 1 crews, 5 Type 2 crews, caterers, miscellaneous overhead, and a total of 1,505 personnel which includes 245 responders from FEMA. The National Interagency Coordination Center Monday morning said 12 Type 1 crews have been dispatched.
When the weather allows, a massive evacuation effort using 15 helicopters is taking place, which is necessary because many roads and bridges have been washed out. Some of the helicopter evacuations were conducted at night by the Colorado National Guard using night vision equipment.
The weather over the weekend allowed only intermittent air operations but after 10 a.m. today improving conditions should allow hundreds of people to be brought out of areas isolated by damaged roads.
Helicopter service charging for rescues?
We can’t vouch for the validity of this video that was posted September 15, 2013, but the title is, “Colorado Flood Chopper Pilots Charging $1200 For Rescue”. Anyone know more about this?
Time lapse photography of Colorado fire
Matt Johnson shot this time lapse photography of scenes in the southern Colorado mountains, plus smoke columns from the Windy Pass, West Fork, and Papoose fires. All of the footage is beautiful, but in case you’re wondering, the fire scenes begin at 1:55.
Mr. Johnson’s description:
Colorado is currently experiencing some of the largest wildfires in the state’s history. In July, I visited the Bruce Spruce Ranch a little ways outside of Pagosa Springs and watched as the Windy Pass, West Fork, and Papoose wildfires burned thousands of acres of forest. I have never seen such a powerful event up close like this before, it was truly humbling.
Please visit http://whoismatt.com/pagosatimelapse and download this film in high definition. The video itself is 3 Gigabytes in size and looks amazing.
Music by Salomon Lighthelm at The Music Bed // http://www.themusicbed.com/#!/In-The-Sullen-Silence-5326/
If you have trouble viewing the video, you can try the Vimeo site.
