A bill that would affect federal wildland firefighters, which is very similar to those that have failed in Congress several times in the past, has been reintroduced in the House of Representatives. Named the “Wildland Firefighters Protection Act”, H.R. 2858 would establish a “wildland firefighter occupational series that will more accurately reflect the variety of duties performed by wildland firefighters”. For decades federal wildland firefighters have worked in various technician or professional job series that are not specifically related to firefighting.
The bill would also begin a pilot program during which firefighters would receive “portal to portal” pay while they are assigned to an emergency incident.
Last year’s bill died in committee. This version was introduced by Rep. Diana DeGette from Colorado on July 30, 2013. No cosponsors are listed on the Library of Congress Thomas site.
The U.S. Forest Service announced today that the agency has banned exploding targets on National Forest system lands in the Rocky Mountain Region. In October when we first wrote about these devices that explode when shot with a rifle, we listed 24 wildfires we found with a quick internet search that were started by shooters using the targets in 2012.
Exploding targets have become popular in the last year with shooters who get a thrill from seeing the explosion when their bullet hits its mark. The devices are sometimes called “binary exploding targets”, since they are completely inert until two powders are mixed by the target shooter. After they are combined, the compound is illegal to transport and is classified as an explosive by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and is subject to the regulatory requirements in 27 CFR, Part 555.
In June a man attending a bachelor-bachelorette party in Minnesota was killed by an exploding target. After someone shot the device, shrapnel struck 47-year-old Jeffery Taylor in the abdomen causing his death.
The new ban affects national forest system lands in the states of Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota, Colorado, and Kansas. Under the Order prohibiting the devices, anyone using them can face a fine of up to $5,000 and imprisonment of not more than 6 months. The Order is effective for one year and expires August 2, 2014.
The U.S. Forest Service has previously banned exploding targets on national forests in Washington, Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas according to Forest Service spokeswoman Sarah Levy.
The Bureau of Land Management bans them during certain times on their land in some states — not only the use but the possession of the devices.
“The Bureau of Land Management is working on a Fire Prevention Order that will ban exploding targets on BLM lands in Colorado as well,” said John Bierk, State Staff Ranger for BLM Colorado/Eastern States.
They are also banned or soon will be when new legislation takes effect on state lands, at least under some conditions, in Washington, Utah, Oregon, and Idaho.
Exploding targets have started at least 16 wildfires since 2012 on Forest Service lands in 8 western states causing the federal government to spend approximately $33.6 million in suppression costs. The U.S. Forest Service provided the table below which lists seven fires started by exploding targets in the Rocky Mountain Region during that time period. The fires burned a total of 1,187 acres in the Region and cost $2.9 million to suppress.
“Exploding targets pose a very real safety threat to visitors and our employees” said U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell.
“We have seen a significant increase in the use of exploding targets on National Forest lands within the Region” said U.S. Forest Service Regional Special Agent in Charge Laura Mark. “Our objective is to educate the public on the dangers associated with the use of these targets in vegetation that can ignite a fire, as well as the safety risk they pose to the public, our employees and first responders. In addition to the seven fires caused by exploding targets on national forests in the Region since 2012, explosives ordinance demolition experts have had to respond on three occasions this year to safely dispose of unused targets that had been mixed but not yet used.”
There are numerous large uncontained wildfires in the Northwest region today. The map above (click to enlarge it) is a screen shot of a handy tool developed by the Billings Gazette.
Smoke from the fires in southwest Oregon’s Douglas Complex blew south over Josephine County again today, according to swofire.com — other fires include 24 incidents on the list of the Oregon Dept. of Forestry’s Grants Pass Unit, plus the 400-acre Labrador Fire about 10 miles northwest of Selma on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.
Douglas Complex
The 13,400-acre Douglas Complex north of Glendale was 2 percent contained Sunday; about 4 dozen homes have been evacuated, according to the Oregonian, and another 30 homes were under a secondary evac notice. A Friday lightning storm ignited 54 fires in southwest Oregon. The Douglas Complex was listed as the #1 fire priority in the nation this afternoon.
Gov. John Kitzhaber declared the complex a conflagration yesterday, allowing the state fire marshal to call in crews and equipment from around the state. (Oregon’s conflagration declaration allows dispatch of structural firefighters and equipment by the state fire marshal; more information is online at the OSFM website.) About 300 homes are threatened, and four structural task forces have been activated from Lane County, Linn County, Marion County, and Lincoln County.
About 750 personnel were assigned as of Sunday evening; crews reported extreme fire behavior, with 100-foot flamelengths on the Dad’s Creek Fire with crown runs, torching, and long-range spotting.
The Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) mobilized Sifford’s IMT 2 for the complex; it’s burning in the southern portion of the district east of I-5, mostly on Douglas Forest Protection Association (DFPA) protected lands, which include BLM and private forestlands.
According to ODF reports, residents throughout Josephine County can expect to see ash and burned tree needles falling this evening and overnight. The Brimstone Fire, 5 miles west of Sunny Valley, breached lines this afternoon and grew to approximately 500 acres.
The person running the first tractor you will see in this video apparently does not totally understand the concept, but the operator on the other tractor has nerves of steel.
The information on Live Leak said it happened July 9 in Weld County, Colorado.
With the recent deaths of 19 firefighters on the Yarnell Hill Fire, we must remember the deaths of 14 firefighters 19 years ago on the South Canyon fire near Glenwood Springs, Colorado.
On the afternoon of July 6, 1994 the fire spotted across the drainage and beneath firefighters, moving onto steep slopes and into dense, highly flammable Gambel oak. Within seconds, a wall of flame raced up the hill toward the firefighters on the west flank fireline. Failing to outrun the flames, 12 firefighters perished. Two helitack crew members on top of the ridge also died when they tried to outrun the fire to the northwest. The remaining 35 firefighters survived by escaping out the east drainage or by seeking a safety area and deploying their fire shelters. More info here.
The firefighters who lost their lives that day:
Kathi Beck
Tami Bickett
Scott Blecha
Levi Brinkley
Robert Browning
Doug Dunbar
Terri Hagen
Bonnie Holtby
Rob Johnson
Jon Kelso
Don Mackey
Roger Roth
James Thrash
Richard Tyler
If you are over 40 years old, do you remember where you were when you heard about the 14 deaths? I heard about it on a phone call from Steve Creech, the Fire Coordinator for the State of Indiana. After I hung up I thought that can’t be true. In this day and age, we no longer have large groups of firefighters being killed at the same time. We’ve grown and learned beyond that, I told myself, refusing to believe it.
And this past Sunday, I had the same feeling — 19 firefighters dead? That can’t be true. But fark, we have not grown and learned beyond that. We are still fighting fire with sharpened pieces of metal attached to the ends of sticks, under, in many cases, aircraft built for the Korean War. We still put wet stuff on the red stuff. And… dammit, we can still lose 95 percent of a hotshot crew in a matter of minutes… in 2013.
I hope we don’t passively resign ourselves, thinking that this is inevitable.
This video was obviously shot by a firefighter on the West Fork Complex and has some excellent images of the fire. Be sure and notice the horizontal roll vortex at 1:35.
The description of the video as it appears on Vimeo:
“One for the record books! June 13-24 2013
Started as ICT3 20 acres in the Wiminuche wilderness San Juan National Forest.Fire ran to 5,000 acres called NIMO Team. west Fork Jumped the continental divide, closed HWY 160,evacuated the town of South Fork,Got the call to get over to the Papoose fire,Evacuated town, found missing Boy Scout troop, and thanks to some solid folks we saved every house.”
We took the liberty of getting a screen grab from the video and decided that it needed a caption:
