Firefighter entrapped in Coal Canyon fire interviewed

Austin Whitney
Austin Whitney

The Coal Canyon fire in South Dakota left one firefighter dead and another hospitalized with serious burns. Trampus Haskvitz was killed but his crew mate, Austin Whitney, is out of the hospital and recently submitted to an interview on a local television station. The video is HERE, and below is a portion of the transcript:

It’s a nightmare scenario for firefighters: being trapped in a fire with no way out.

“I just thought, ‘I’m never going to see my family again,'” Austin Whitney said.

On the afternoon of August 11, Whitney was battling the Coal Canyon Fire with two other men, KC Fees and Trampus Haskvitz, when the fire overtook them.

“When I looked up and seen nothing but a wall of flame, I tried to make a run for it. I wasn’t thinking straight,” Whitney said.

The fire had gotten below the crew and was racing up the hill towards them.

“Then I realized that it wasn’t worth running and I just dropped to the ground, no time to get to my fire shelter,” Whitney said.

Unprotected on the ground, Whitney believed that his life was over.

“As soon as I got turned around and saw that wall of flame I was like, ‘I’m dying at 22 years old. I’m dead,’ was the only thing I could repeat in my mind. ‘I’m dead,'” Whitney said.

Other articles on Wildfire Today about the Coal Canyon fire.

Facilitated Learning Analysis, Entrapment Avoidance on Black Hills National Forest (updated)

BLNF entrapment avoidance

BLNF entrapment avoidance

The day after Trampus Haskvitz was entrapped and killed on the Coal Canyon fire on the Black Hills National Forest in southwest South Dakota, another entrapment was avoided on the same fire. Here is an excerpt from the summary of a Facilitated Learning Analysis (FLA) that was recently released:

The afternoon of August 12 during burnout operations on Division Zulu, firefighters experienced a sudden increase in fire behavior and were forced to implement entrapment avoidance procedures that resulted in no injuries to personnel. During the event a crew vehicle caught on fire and sustained significant damage to the rear of the vehicle. The leaders involved made good decisions that resulted in a good outcome for their crews.

The positives about this FLA:

  • This FLA was done. The Black Hills National Forest deserves credit for initiating it and for releasing it quickly. Lessons can and will be learned.
  • It is extremely well written. The person(s) that wrote and/or edited it is very skilled. I hope they are used to write future FLA’s. The images and maps are very useful.

The parts that have me scratching my head:

  • Early in the firing operation, at 1300, the Crew Boss described the fire behavior as nothing out of the ordinary. Then the Crew Boss used a flare pistol to develop interior heat, and noticed that “the grass is igniting from the flare sparks and spreading readily before the flare hits the ground”. The Crew Boss ceased use of the flare pistol.
  • The fire behavior leading up to the incident was not what the firefighters expected for the area.
  • In the morning two engines were assigned as lookouts, but in the afternoon they were used as direct suppression resources. I was unable to find any other reference to lookouts being used in the afternoon, or that anyone clearly had the “big picture”. Maybe someone did. The entrapment avoidance near-entrapment occurred around 1500.
  • I could find no reference to an Operations Chief, and very few mentions of a Division Supervisor.
  • On the same fire the day before, several people and an engine were burned over and a firefighter was killed. Another firefighter has serious 3rd degree burns and is in a burn center.

The entire FLA is below. Click on Fullscreen for easier reading.

Review of firefighter entrapment on Horseshoe 2 fire in Arizona

Horseshoe 2 fire entrapment
Horseshoe 2 fire entrapment
Horseshoe 2 fire entrapment

On June 7, 2011, two lookouts who had been observing a burnout operation on the Horseshoe 2 fire in southern Arizona had to quickly abandon their post when the fire spotted below them. They made a “rapid retreat” down a steep rocky chute, and after unsuccessfully trying to break into a house, broke into a second one where they took refuge and watched through the windows as the fire burned around them. One of the firefighters gained entry into the house by breaking a window with his ungloved hand, cutting his hand in the process, requiring stitches. His gloves were in his front pocket.

Horseshoe 2 entrapment
The house in which the firefighters took refuge on the Horseshoe 2 fire. One of the firefighters broke the window to the right of the door with his ungloved hand.
Horseshoe 2 entrapment
The view from inside the rock house as the fire burned past.

A review of the incident has been released. The review team used an interesting bit of technology to enhance the understanding of the entrapment — they created some graphics which can be viewed in Google Earth, but of course you need Google Earth to view them.

72-hour report released for Bull Fire entrapment on Coronado National Forest

The U.S. Forest Service has released the “72 Hour Expanded Report — Bull Fire Entrapment”. Two wildland firefighters suffered burns while suppressing a fire which started in Mexico and burned into Arizona near Nogales. Here is the “Summary”:

The Bull fire was initially detected in Mexico on April 26, 2011. The fire eventually crossed the international border from Mexico into the United States, and onto the Coronado National Forest. During suppression efforts on April 29, two USDA Forest Service helitack personnel received non-life threatening burn injuries while staffing a remote helispot on the National Forest. Both firefighters were transported by helicopter to the hospital with first and second degree burns. The firefighter with second degree burns was subsequently moved to and evaluated at a burn center. Both firefighters were released from the hospital the evening of April 29.

Based on the nature of this incident, the Coronado National Forest will be utilizing the Facilitated Learning Analysis (FLA) process to maximize the learning opportunities and to better manage future incidents.

The Bull fire started in Mexico on April 29 and soon crossed the international border coming to within a few miles of Nogales, Arizona. As we reported, on April 29 the Coronado National Forest provided 40 firefighters, 2 helicopters, and one air attack plane to help Mexico firefighters suppress the Bull fire and one other fire that were about 3 miles south of the U.S. border west of Nogales, Arizona. A follow-up report from May 1 is here.

The complete 72-hour report is at the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center. InciWeb has more details about the fire.

The map of the Bull fire, below, shows heat detected by satellites on May 1, 2011.

Bull Fire map 5-1-2011
Bull Fire map, showing heat detected by satellites on 5-1-2011. The black dashed line is the international boundary. MODIS/USFS

Nebraska firefighters entrapped and injured on wildfire

From KVSH.com:

Two veteran Valentine [Nebraska] Volunteer Firefighters were injured while battling a wild fire near Thedford on Friday. JD Osburn and Warren Rockwell were on the back of a Valentine rural fire fighting rig when the truck was trapped by the 50mph wind blown flames. Both men were wearing their complete wildland fire gear which helped to protect them. They were checked out by emergency medical personel on the scene and transported back to the Valentine Firehall on the fire truck. After arriving in Valentine, both men were taken to the Cherry County Hospital for assessment. Warren Rockwell was transferred to the Saint Elizabeth Burn Unit in Lincoln for futher assessment. JD Osburn was held for observation at the Cherry County Hospital.

Several hundred fire fighters from across central Nebraska were called to that large grass fire west of Thedford. Over 25 departments were involved including an aircraft that helped bring the fire under control about 6pm Friday evening. The fire is believed to have started on the Mike Finney place about 9 miles west of Thedford. Fueled by wind gusts of 50mph, the blaze raced for about 7.5 miles before it was finally contained about 1.5 miles west of Thedford. An estimated 11,000 acres were burned. The cause of the balze is not know at this time.

Map of Nebraska, showing Thedford
Map of Nebraska, showing Thedford

Our thoughts are with these firefighters, their families, and their fellow firefighters.

Kansas brush truck burns in fire

Stafford_County_truck_burned
Photo by Chief Steve Moody

Strong winds in Stafford County, Kansas pushed a grass and corn stubble fire across the county line into Pratt County on November 3. In addition to the 700 acres that burned, the fire also entrapped and burned a Stafford County brush truck.

The Pratt Tribune reports that “smoke suffocated the carburetor” causing the engine to stall. The firefighters on the truck escaped unharmed into the black, or previously burned area, but the truck was not as fortunate.

This is not the first time that a fire truck has stopped running due to insufficient oxygen while being operated in dense smoke. We are glad that the firefighters are OK.

Retired detective testifies about being entrapped in Colorado wildfire

From the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel:

GLENWOOD SPRINGS — When Larry Garfinkel turned toward a wildfire that bore down on him near Carbondale 16 months ago, he was convinced he was about to burn to death, he said Monday.

“I was facing the fire and it was right there,” Garfinkel, a retired Los Angeles police detective, testified in the trial of Carbondale rancher Larry Gerbaz.

Gerbaz is being prosecuted on felony and misdemeanor arson charges in connection with the April 15, 2008, wildfire, in which Garfinkel suffered hand and head burns and several homes were damaged. Prosecutors say embers in a debris pile that Gerbaz had burned three days earlier flared up and caused the fire. Gerbaz’s attorneys dispute that contention.

Garfinkel, 62, gave a harrowing account of living through a blowup of a wildfire.

The California resident had been on a fishing outing with two other men near Carbondale when they saw a faraway plume of white smoke transform into a dark ball, causing them to head back to their car. They walked at first and then ran as the smoke thickened and they began to see flames.

Garfinkel said the wind-driven fire “just blew up,” spreading almost a half-mile in 20 or 30 seconds, and all three headed for a creek.

Hobbled by a bad knee, Garfinkel turned toward the fire at the creek to grab a willow bush and let himself down into the water.

“The bush exploded. It didn’t catch fire or ignite, it just exploded,” he said.

He said he saw his left hand flash white before he ended up underwater, looking up.

“I watched as the fire went over me. I came up for air once and went back down and I don’t remember what happened next,” Garfinkel said.

Choking back tears, Garfinkel told jurors he later urged one of his fellow anglers to save himself when the man told him he had to get out of the water and flee.

But the man pulled him out of the creek, and the third fisherman helped them climb up to Colorado Highway 82 as they continued their race against the fire.

Defense attorney Tom Silverman questioned whether Garfinkel’s emotions in recounting his ordeal were entirely genuine. Silverman suggested that Garfinkel hadn’t cried in describing the fire during a deposition Thursday, regarding a lawsuit Garfinkel has filed against Gerbaz.

“I beg to differ, sir,” Garfinkel said.

The two-week trial is scheduled to go to jury deliberation Friday.

Garfinkel was the prosecution’s last witness and Gerbaz’s attorneys began to call witnesses late Monday.