The Sanpete County Sheriff’s Office released this information today about a fatality on the Wood Hollow fire south of Salt Lake City, north of Mt. Pleasant, Utah.
Wood Hollow Fire claims one life in Sanpete County
Sanpete County Utah – Sanpete County Sheriff’s deputies and Sanpete County Search & Rescue entered the evacuated areas of the Wood Hollow Fire this morning for assessments and have found the body of one person. The individual has not been identified at this time. We ask for your patience as we work to identify this individual and notify the family as soon as we can.
The Sheriff’s Office offers its deepest sympathy to all who have suffered loss and is working as hard as it can with the other emergency responders.
Tuesday’s assessment was scheduled to assess the fire’s damages and try to determine when property owners could get back into their properties. More details will be released at a later time.
The Wood Hollow Fire, which started Saturday afternoon, continues to burn and has expanded to more than 39,000 acres. At last report the fire had been confirmed at 15 percent containment. Today, the east side of U.S. 89 had its evacuations lifted and residents in Fairview Ranchos were also let in. Sanpete County is leaving the evacuation orders in effect for the west side of Hwy 89. It is unknown if evacuations will be put in place again as the fire is now with approx two miles of the west side of U.S. 89.
The Sheriff’s Office continues to post updates to evacuations and other safety information at http://twitter.com/sanpetesheriff. People may also follow the hashtag #woodhollowfire on Twitter.
Sightings of a meteor grounded the air tankers working on the Springer fire west of Colorado Springs on Wednesday. There were numerous reports of the meteor from New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas including the pilot of an air tanker making a drop on the fire. The Associated Press quoted Steve Segin, a spokesperson for the Springer fire, as saying the air tanker “landed as they normally do to reload, and for safety reasons they grounded themselves until they could figure out what it was they saw”.
A TV station in Denver, 7News, reported:
The Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center said planes were grounded after the reports started coming in just after 2:30 p.m.
It was determined that the object was a meteor that broke up in the air over Kansas on a trajectory that would carry it to Florida.
None of the debris hit the ground in Colorado.
Aircraft were released to resume flying at 4 p.m., the Fire Coordination Center said.
This may be the first time that firefighting aircraft were grounded because of a meteor.
It is difficult to tell, when observing a meteor that is falling thousands of miles an hour, how far away it is. There were several reports from people in Colorado who thought it was nearby, but it was actually hundreds of miles away and there were no indications that any portions of it hit the earth. After grounding the air tankers for 90 minutes, let’s not even call this a near miss.
Wildland firefighter dies in Greece
The Associated Press is reporting that a firefighter working on a wildfire in Greece died Wednesday. A fire department spokesperson said the 28-year old felt unwell and was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. The firefighter was battling a fire that was burning inside an air force base west of Athens primarily used by firefighting and transport planes.
Our sincere condolences go out to the firefighter’s family and coworkers.
Escaped prescribed fire in North Carolina burns 21,000 acres
A prescribed fire on the Croatan National Forest that escaped on Father’s Day, named the “Dad Fire”, has now burned over 21,000 acres ten miles south of New Bern, North Carolina. The fire is 60 percent contained and has run up costs of $400,000. Smoke from the fire is causing problems for some residents and air quality alerts have been issued for 12 counties.
Congressman Walter B. Jones, R-N.C., called for an investigation Tuesday.
“Our No. 1 priority is to get the fire contained,” said Jones, in a news release. “However, I share the concerns of many Eastern North Carolinians as to how this poorly planned ‘prescribed burn’ is negatively affecting tourism, public health and taxpayers who are being asked to pick up the tab to fight a fire that could have been avoided.”
District Ranger Pancho Smith says even though some prescribed fires do turn into wildfires like this one, he does not regret conducting them.
“One of the big advantages in this country of controlled burns, and on national forest systems across the country, is the reduction of fuel on the forest floor. If we leave it out, when we do get a fire start, a wildfire, there’s nothing we can do about it,” said Smith.
The fire is being managed by Cherry’s Type 3 Incident Management Team.
Texas Forest Service receives Pulaski Award
Congratulations to the Texas Forest Service. Following is the text from a news release:
June 21, 2012 – COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Texas Forest Service was presented last week with the Pulaski Award, a national honor for outstanding service in wildland firefighting.
The award, commending the agency for its response during the 2011 wildfire season, is presented annually by the National Interagency Fire Center. It was announced at the Southern Group of State Foresters annual conference in Louisville, Ky.
The coveted 30-inch bronze statue is named after U.S. Forest Service Ranger Ed Pulaski, who led a crew to safety during the Great Fire of 1910. First presented in 1998, this is the first time the Pulaski Award has come to Texas. It will stay with Texas Forest Service for one year then will be shipped to the next recipient.
Texas Forest Service Associate Director Mark Stanford said the recognition is an honor for the emergency responders who bravely served Texas during last year’s unprecedented wildfire season. More than 30,000 wildfires burned almost 4 million acres, destroying 2,946 homes across the state.
The wildfires were suppressed with assistance from more than 16,000 emergency responders from all 50 states, along with 239 dozers, 954 engines and 246 aircraft.
“We accept this award on behalf of all the local, state and interagency firefighters who participated in the 2011 wildfire season,” Stanford said. “They’re the ones who really earned this award.”
Gary Bowers, chairman of the National Interagency Fire Center Governing Board, wrote in a letter to Texas Forest Service that the agency demonstrated “exceptional work in interagency cooperation and coordination, safety of their firefighters and the public, the development of partnerships and group performance in fire management and suppression.”
“It is our hope that collaboration efforts such as this will increasingly inspire and inform new cooperative efforts across the country,” Bowers wrote. “Congratulations on this award and the excellent work that it recognizes.”
The Bureau of Indian Affairs has identified the firefighter that was killed in Friday’s vehicle accident as Engine Boss Anthony Polk, 31, of Yuma, Arizona.
We extend out sincere condolences to Mr. Polk’s family, friends, coworkers, and the BIA.
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UPDATE at 9:29 a.m. MT, June 9, 2012
The incident management team has released some additional information about the fatal accident on Friday in which one firefighter was killed. The deceased was an employee of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and was one of three firefighters on a Type 6 engine when it rolled over. The firefighter was pronounced dead at the scene while the driver and another passenger were transported to the Sells hospital and later released. The accident happened on Federal Route 19, near milepost 22.
They expect to release the firefighter’s name later Saturday morning.
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A firefighter working on a fire in Arizona was killed Friday morning in a vehicle accident. An engine crew that was driving to their assignment on the Montezuma fire was involved in a rollover. The accident occurred at 8:30 a.m. a spokesperson for the fire told Wildfire Today. One firefighter was killed and two suffered minor injuries. No other details are available at this time.
The Montezuma fire has burned about 1,700 acres in the Baboquivari Mountain Range on Tribal land 20 miles southeast of Sells, Arizona and is being managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It is in steep terrain with heavy brush, making it difficult for crews to directly suppress the fire. According to a report from the scene, helicopters and fixed wing aircraft have been the only means of suppression.
Our sincere condolences go out to the family, friends, and coworkers of the firefighters involved.
File photo of Russian smokejumpers. Photo: Mark Thiessen/National Geographic
UPDATE at 11:35 a.m. MT, June 7, 2012: A ninth firefighter has unfortunately died. (Reported by Chuck Bushey of the IAWF and by the Russian media company ITAR-TASS from a Rosleskhoz Federal Forestry Agency source.)
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Russian authorities announced on June 7 that eight smokejumpers were entrapped and killed in a wildfire in southern Siberia. The eight jumpers were part of a team of 14 that parachuted into the fire. The other six managed to escape from unexpected fire behavior thought to be caused by a wind shift. One was admitted to a hospital with serious burn injuries.
The BBC reported that authorities have opened a criminal negligence investigation into the incident.
Last year we told you about an excellent article in National Geographic about the smokejumping program in Russia. The country has 4,000 jumpers working out of 340 bases across the country.
Our condolences go out to the family and coworkers of these firefighters. Thanks go out to Dick
An air tanker crashed around 1:45 p.m. June 3 while working on a wildfire near the Nevada/Utah border today. Tanker 11, a P2V operated by Neptune Aviation, was working on the White Rock fire which started in Nevada 25-38 miles northeast of Caliente, but the fire burned across the state line into Iron County in Utah, which is where the aircraft went down.
There were two people on board, and it was confirmed late this afternoon by Don Smurthwaite at the National Interagency Fire Center that both of them died in the crash. Fox 13 reports that “Det. Jody Edwards, Iron County Sheriff’s Office, identified the two victims as Capt. Todd Neal Topkins and First Officer Ronnie Edwin Chambless.” Both were from Boise.
The accident occurred at the head of the fire, which made it difficult for rescue personnel to access the crash site.
Tanker 11, registration #N14447, was 57 years old, having been delivered in 1955.
Our condolences go out to the families and coworkers of the crew.
Wheels-up landing, Tanker 55
Another incident occurred today involving a second P2V large air tanker, this time operated by Minden Air Corp out of Minden, Nevada. Our source tells us that only one main landing gear and the nose gear were able to be lowered and locked on Tanker 55, leaving one main landing gear up or not locked. The aircraft landed at Minden on just two of the three landing gears.
The air tanker was making retardant drops on the George Fire within the Giant Sequoia National Monument in California when the crew experienced problems with the aircraft, according to Stanton Florea, a US Forest Service spokesperson. The tanker had been reloading with retardant at Porterville, California, but the pilot decided to fly to the company’s base in Minden, Nevada to attempt to land. After arriving in the vicinity of the Minden airport they circled for 90 minutes in order to burn off fuel. Thankfully, the crew was not injured in the landing.
Tanker 55, registration #N355MA, is 55 years old, delivered in 1957.
News4 out of Reno reported the aircraft was largely intact and described it as a “successful belly landing”.
When we have additional details about these two incidents, we will post them here.
Large air tankers grounded
All federal large air tankers have been grounded for the rest of the day. Not because of any specific aircraft issues, but in consideration of the crews flying and maintaining the remaining nine air tankers. The air tanker community is small and close-knit.
Other recent P2V crashes
Air tankers operated by Neptune also crashed in 2008 and 2009. Tanker 09 crashed September 1, 2008 as it was taking off at Reno. Tanker 42 crashed April 25, 2009 while it was ferrying from Missoula, Montana to Alamogordo, New Mexico. Three people died in each incident.
Earlier in 2012 the crew flying a Neptune-operated P2V was not able to lower the landing gear using conventional means after having what was described as “a complete hydraulic failure”, forcing the crew to manually extend the gear. It declared an emergency and as it landed at Missoula it was met by fire trucks.
A few weeks ago a couple of P2Vs working out of Prescott, Arizona made emergency landings after having engine problems.
Earlier this year a 24-inch crack in a wing spar and skin was discovered on Tanker 10, a Neptune-operated P2V. A few weeks ago Neptune told Wildfire Today that they would not attempt to repair the aircraft this year and it would be put into storage.
Nine large air tankers left
Before the two crashes, there were ten P2Vs and one BAe-146 working on federal exclusive use contracts. This leaves only nine large air tankers in the federal fleet, compared to the 44 on contract in 2002. The U.S. Forest Service still has not made any decisions about awarding additional contracts based on their solicitation for “next generation” air tankers which closed in February, 2012. The next-gen air tankers would eventually replace the P2Vs which are over 50 years old.
Photos on the cover of the report. A portion of one of the photos was redacted.
The U.S. Forest Service has released the Serious Accident Investigation Report for the Coal Canyon Fire, on which firefighter Trampus Haskvitz of Hot Springs, South Dakota was killed August 11, 2011 in the Black Hills of South Dakota north of Edgemont. In addition to Trampus, two firefighters received serious burns and two others had minor burns. Two firefighters were entrapped in an engine. One, Trampus, remained entrapped and died; the other, K.C. Fees escaped. Austin Whitney who was outside the engine, was transported to a Greeley, Colorado Burn Center. The two firefighters who received minor burns during rescue efforts were treated at local hospitals and released. Mr. Haskvitz and Mr. Whitney both worked for the South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression Division.
This photo looks down on the entrapment site. The fire spread according to the numbered arrows: along arrow 1 during E 2’s initial escape attempt, arrow 2 as they came around the corner, and arrow 3 during the entrapment itself. The fire remained too hot along paths 1 and 2 for them to escape. Photo by Travis Lunders, taken the day after the accident. The image is from the Google Earth version of the report.
You can download the report HERE. You should read the entire report to get a clear understanding of the sequence of events, but here are some of the key points:
About 15 minutes after the first engine crews arrived at the scene of the fire, they said it was about 1.5 acres in size and estimated the flame lengths to be 0 to 3 feet. Their plan was to anchor near the fire’s origin and use direct fireline to pinch off the fire. Their escape route was down the road beyond the fire’s heel.
The approximate location of the fire when the initial attack engines arrived, at 1:50 p.m. The image is from the Google Earth version of the report.
The engines were on a narrow dirt road. The fire was on a slope below them and also on the slope on the opposite side of the drainage. A spot fire occurred above the road, then the main fire spread up the slope to the road and crossed it.
The approximate location of the fire and the entrapped engine at 3:05 p.m. The image is from the Google Earth version of the report.
Other engines were able to leave the area before the worst of the fire hit the road. One engine tried to escape by driving forward but encountered a wall of fire crossing the road. They backed up in the heavy smoke, going less than 80 feet, and hit a cut bank. At that point truck’s engine died and the fire overran their location. Two firefighters, Haskvitz and Fees, were in the truck as it ignited and began to burn. They deployed one fire shelter inside the cab and tried to use it to protect them both, but the other person had difficulty deploying the second shelter in the cab of the truck. A helicopter heard their mayday calls and tried to drop water on the burning engine, but initially the pilot could not see it in the smoke.
Other firefighters made several heroic attempts to rescue the entrapped firefighters but were driven back by the heat. Fees took a deep breath and escaped from the burning engine, but Haskvitz did not make it out of the cab.
The report does not speculate why the truck’s engine stopped running, but it has happened before on fires when vehicles are in very heavy smoke and there is simply not enough oxygen in the air to support combustion of the fuel in the vehicle’s engine.
A third crewmember assigned to the engine was outside it to the rear when the engine with the two people tried to escape by driving away. As it departed a blast of heat hit him and he dropped to the ground with no time to deploy his fire shelter.
Below is an excerpt from the “Analysis and Conclusion” section of the report:
…Up until the accident, the firefighting professionals involved in the Coal Canyon Fire reasoned the risks of engaging and suppressing this fire to be relatively low and the benefits of direct suppression to be worth this low risk. After considerable review of the incident, including the leadership, qualifications, training, interagency cooperation, fuels, weather, the organization, and local policies, the SAI team has concluded that the judgments and decisions of the firefighters involved in the Coal Canyon Fire were appropriate.
Firefighters all performed within the leaders’ intent and scope of duty, as defined by their respective organizations. The team did not find any reckless actions or egregious violations of policy or protocol. In fact, the SAI Team found the actions of the firefighters involved with the Coal Canyon Fire to be fully consistent with local and national policy and meeting the intent of leadership expectations. Many decisions and actions on the Coal Canyon Fire were manifestly heroic, demonstrating the best of wildland fire professionalism.
The report has very little in the way of analysis and recommendations. Later the investigation team intends to produce separate documents focused on learning from this tragedy. Those documents will provide an Expanded Narrative and an in-depth Discussion and Analysis around human variability, risk management and resilience, as well as additional considerations and recommendations.
Wildfire Today covered the fire, the fatality, the severely burned firefighter, and Trampus’ funeral services, which were attended by approximately 1,700 firefighters and other mourners. A procession of over 130 fire department vehicles escorted Trampus to the cemetery. We recorded most of the procession on video. An earlier version of this article misidentified one of the firefighters that was in the entrapped engine. Wildfire Today regrets the error.
