Today Everglades National Park is conducting the Context Road prescribed fire along their eastern boundary near the Homestead General Airport.
The photos were taken with a Motorola Droid. I took the liberty of cropping them a little.
Earlier we told you about the segment on the TV show Dirty Jobs that featured prescribed burning in the Everglades of south Florida. We now have the 10-minute video of that program.
The part where the air boat becomes stuck near the fire is at 4:00 minutes.
Just before the end, at 10:08 is where Gerry Barnes of the National Interagency Fire Center (according to a description of the video on YouTube, see below) accidentally discharges a flare launcher into an air boat containing at least 4-5 people.
Here is the description of the video that is on YouTube:
In this episode of Dirty Jobs, Mike Rowe heads off to the Florida Everglades to help combat non-native, invasive species in the marshlands with Jon Wallace the Prescribed Fire Specialist at the Arthur R. Marshall, Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge and along with Miranda Stuart of the Prescribed Fire Training Center and Gerry Barnes of the National Interagency Fire Center they utilize the “Pyro-Shot” hand launcher and the new “Green Dragon™” automated Dragon Egg™ launcher to burn off approximately 6000 acres at the Loxahatchee NWR.
UPDATED 10-26-2010 (scroll down)
Prescribed fire in the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge will be featured in the Tuesday, October 26 episode of the Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs. Mike Rowe traveled to the Everglades to battle invasive species using machetes, poisons, and prescribed fire.
The trailer for the episode on the Discovery Channel emphasizes girdling and poisoning invasive melaleuca trees, but we know that Mike Rowe also got involved in a prescribed fire. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service firefighters used a “Green Dragon” device for ignition, which fires a new generation of ignition spheres sold by SEI Industries called Dragon Eggs, smaller than earlier versions of the spheres. We wrote about this new device back in March.
We’ll have to wait and see how much of the prescribed fire footage ends up in the Dirty Jobs episode. Check your local listings for what time Tuesday night it will be shown.
More information about the filming is on the USF&WS site.
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UPDATED 10-26-2010 @ 9:05 p.m. MT
Did anyone see the program? It looked like everyone had a good time filming the prescribed fire portion (there was lots of laughter throughout) UNTIL a person identified in the program as “Jim” “Gerry” accidentally discharged a FireQuick flare launcher within a crowd of people on an air boat. Here is a photo I took off a television at the moment of discharge; you can see the flame coming out of the launcher. Gerry is in the curiously red shirt.
It is not obvious in the photo, but “Gerry” and the 4-5 others were in an air boat at the time. It appears that the flare launcher was loaded with a large “Stubby” flare which looked like it landed in the boat. Talk about a NEAR MISS! As far as we know, there were no injuries, however the woman closest to the launcher said “Ow” as she held her left ear.
In September of 2009 Wildfire Today wrote about another incident with a flare launcher that resulted in an injury. That post also has photos of the flare launcher and the flares.
UPDATE November 1 @ 10:00 a.m.
A video of this 10-minute segment is HERE. According the description of the video on YouTube, “Gerry” is “Gerry Barnes of the National Interagency Fire Center”. The telephone directory for NIFC lists a “Gerald Barnes” who is a Fuels Program Analyst for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
When I walked into Bill Supernaugh’s office one day in 1995 I found him looking out the window with his feet up on his desk. I was the Fire Management Officer and had an appointment with the Assistant Superintendent of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore to brief him about the prescribed fire we were going to ignite in the park in a few days. I got along well with him and felt comfortable smiling and saying, “Oh sorry, I didn’t know you were busy–I’ll come back later” and half turned to walk away.
He pointed to a chair and told me to sit down. In the banter that we usually engaged in before getting around to business he explained that he was “thinking”, something that he felt was important for a manager in his position, supervising the Operations of a large workforce and a big chunk of public land. Taking time to think gave him the opportunity to mull over the issues of the day and strategize about the direction the park would take. He said a person in his position was more of a thinker than a doer.
I wanted to slink down into my chair and disappear, because what he said made perfect sense and I was giving him a hard time. I was there to brief him about a project I was going to DO, and he was going to take my information and THINK about it, then approve it, ask for more information, or give me advice about how to do it differently, or not at all.
At 5:00 a.m. on August 26, 1992 Hurricane Andrew made landfall, knocking the crap out of south Florida and four national parks including Everglades, Big Cypress, and Biscayne Bay. Early the next morning I was in a rental car south of Miami driving through Homestead trying to navigate on back roads while driving over downed power lines and other debris. The first power line was scary as hell, but then we realized there was no electricity anywhere. Navigation was difficult because all of the road and street signs and many of the usual landmarks were gone. Even someone with us that was familiar with the area was disoriented.
We were a Type 1 All-Hazard Incident Management Team with a mission to rescue park employees and restore the infrastructure. It was a huge job and after a few days as Planning Section Chief I felt a little overwhelmed, with lots to do and not enough time in the day to get it all done. In confessing my situation to our Incident Commander, Rick Gale, he said “Order the personnel you need to get the job done. You are paid to think, not do.”
After that, I made time, like Bill Supernaugh, to think. Occasionally I even put my feet up on a desk.
Until he retired from the day to day operations of Microsoft, Chairman Bill Gates scheduled a twice-yearly “Think Week” ritual, where he would take a helicopter or float plane to his secret lakeside cabin and… think….by himself….barring all outside visitors. He would rarely leave the cabin during the week except for an occasional walk on the beach, having a caretaker slip him two simple meals a day at the cabin. He subsisted on the two meals, Diet Coke, and Orange Crush.
Think Week was legendary in Microsoft. Gates would pore over about 100 papers written by company executives, researchers, managers, and developers, who hoped to obtain approval for their new project, or a new direction for the organization. Comments that Gates wrote on the papers could give the green light to a new technology that millions of people would use, or send Microsoft into new markets. He had to be careful what he wrote, after finding that a casual “Hey, cool, looks good” could result in 20 people being assigned to a project.
Barack Obama appears to understand how important it is to set aside time to think. Here is part of an accidentally-captured conversation between Obama and British Conservative Party Leader, David Cameron. Cameron asks Obama if he will be taking any time off for a vacation this summer:
Mr. Cameron: Do you have a break at all?
Mr. Obama: I have not. I am going to take a week in August. But I agree with you that somebody, somebody who had worked in the White House who — not Clinton himself, but somebody who had been close to the process — said that should we be successful, that actually the most important thing you need to do is to have big chunks of time during the day when all you’re doing is thinking. And the biggest mistake that a lot of these folks make is just feeling as if you have to be …
Mr. Cameron: These guys just chalk your diary up.
Mr. Obama: Right. … In 15 minute increments and …
Mr. Cameron: We call it the dentist waiting room. You have to scrap that because you’ve got to have time.
Yes. You have to have time to think. Those of us in the emergency management business too often see time to think as a luxury we don’t have. True, at times, when split second decisions can have life-long, or even life-dependent outcomes. But when initial attack becomes extended attack morphing into a long duration incident, thinking is not a luxury. It is a necessity.
The Datona Beach News Journal in Florida has an article about conducting a prescribed fire as a demonstration for a horde of invited journalists. Here is an excerpt:
“TOMOKA STATE FOREST — Mike Stigler watched as smoke and burning embers billowed into the woods. The smoke was supposed to lift into the sky, not curl through the pine trees and palmettos.
The burn boss looked around at his cadre of firefighters and the horde of media standing around in the middle of Tiger Bay State Forest on Tuesday to watch a demonstration on prescribed burning. He wasn’t entirely happy. The woods were too dry, and his firefighters didn’t have enough combined experience to make him comfortable, not that any burn boss ever rests easily once the flames begin.
But Stigler and the other folks charged with balancing wild Florida’s need to burn with its 17 million people get used to conundrums. It’s tough to find a time when it’s not too dry, not too wet and wind conditions are perfect so the smoke won’t close roads and sweep into day care centers and nursing homes.
Stigler, who serves as the senior ranger at the state forest, was asked to burn nearly 23 acres to demonstrate to a group of local journalists how and why government officials and private landowners set prescribed fires. His fire was set to culminate a morning of lectures, but only if the weather cooperated. Otherwise, he’d shut it down.”
Cleveland National Forest Completes Hydromulch on Santiago Fire
The U.S. Forest Service completed their $5 million project to treat 1,241 acres with hydromulch in areas burned by the October fire in Orange County in southern California. The hydromulch is a wet mixture of 40% shredded wood and 60% paper with a gum-based tackifier, a sticky substance that helps the mulch material cling to terrain. Single engine air tankers and helicopters applied the green-dyed biodegradable material to help minimize erosion.
5th Fatality in Florida I-4 Smoke/Fog 50+ Vehicle Pileup
A 5th person has passed away as a result of the 50+ vehicle pileup that may have been caused by smoke from an escaped prescribed fire combining with fog on January 9. Smoke from the fire continues to cause lane closures on the Interstate. The Florida Division of Forestry is still mopping up the 380 acre fire which resulted from a prescribed fire conducted by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. (see the posts on Jan. 9-10 for more information, here, here, and here)
Witch Creek Fire Was 2nd Costliest Disaster of 2007
The October Witch Creek fire which started near Santa Ysabel in San Diego County California was the second costliest incident in 2007 for insurance companies, causing $1.1 billion in damage. Started by downed power lines during a Santa Ana wind event, the fire burned 197,000 acres and destroyed 1,650 structures. The number one natural disaster for insurance companies was the four-day storm in mid-April that caused $1.3 billion in damages in 19 states.
According to TampaBay.com, the prescribed fire in Florida that escaped and may have added smoke to existing fog, contributing to Wednesday’s 50+ vehicle pileup, experienced an unexpected 30% drop in relative humidity. A spokesman said the minimum RH was forecasted to be 60%, but it dropped to 30% in the morning an hour after they started the Rx burn.
“A weather forecast from the forestry staff showed that the humidity would not drop below 60 percent all day, a crucial factor in determining whether to proceed with a burn. If humidity dropped to 30 percent or below, the Division of Forestry would have denied the permit.
A form that Burger filled out to document the controlled burn showed that the humidity measured 63 percent at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, so he and a crew of five other employees started the burn at 10:15 a.m. They expected to be finished by noon.
“They do a lot of prescribed burning, and they do a good job at it,” said Department of Agriculture spokesman Terry McElroy. “But something apparently went awry.”
To the crew’s dismay, within an hour after they started the fire, the humidity abruptly dropped to 30 percent, Morse said. That wasn’t part of the forecast, he said.”
There are conflicting reports about the role smoke from a prescribed fire may have played in the massive vehicle crashes on Interstate 4 in Florida yesterday. Some law enforcement officials are saying that smoke and fog combined to cause low visibility. Others are saying smoke was not a problem, that it was only dense fog. Describing the current activities on the fire, the Division of Forestry said:
“Smoke is going to continue to be our number one concern until this is over.”
The prescribed fire was conducted by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission who started it at 9 a.m. on Tuesday in an area called the Green Swamp. Within three hours it was out of control. Now it is 500 acres and 90% contained.
The Leger has more information about the escaped prescribed fire:
“As the flames picked up, Division of Forestry firefighter John Wurster arrived to help Fish and Wildlife workers. The workers were equipped with a bulldozer that was cutting a fireline in an attempt to stop the flames from spreading.
Conditions suddenly worsened. The wind changed, humidity dropped, and flames increased, Wurster said.
Ten minutes later, Wurster’s fellow firefighter had been burned on his hand and face, the Division of Forestry had lost a $150,000 bulldozer, and firefighters were running from flames.
By late evening, nine Division of Forestry workers helped contain 90 percent of the fire. Smoke continued to billow from the swamp into the morning.”
The death toll has now risen to four. It’s probably going to be long time before the investigation reports (and the civil suits) are complete. Smoke from the escaped prescribed fire may or may not have contributed to the visibility problem. It seems clear that there was some smoke, and some fog, but in what combinations? Here is what the Orlando Sentinel is saying this afternoon:
“But news of a possible problem had been brewing since the night before.
The Division of Forestry notified the FHP at 7:03 p.m. Tuesday night of potential smoke problems from the controlled burn, as part of a formalized interagency agreement. FHP said they would monitor I-4 and close it if needed. FHP also notified the state Department of Transportation, which put out signs with flashing lights that warned of the smoke.
The National Weather Service in Melbourne this morning issued a special weather report warning commuters that visibility in the Polk County area would be down to zero because of smoke from brush fires and fog.
Throughout the day, officials disagreed about the role the smoke and fog played in the crash.
FHP Sgt. Jorge Delahoz said the smoke from the fire may have had some impact, but at the time of the crash it was the fog that reduced visibility in the area. He said people were probably driving at 50 or 70 miles per hour or faster.
A forestry official said he would not say conclusively what caused the pileup until his investigators issued a final report, possibly in the coming week. But the official cautioned that his team could be on scene of the burn for weeks, even months.”
According to reports, smoke from an escaped prescribed fire combined with fog contributed to a 50-car pileup and three deaths on Interstate 4 in Florida between Orlando and Tampa. ABC Action News reported yesterday, January 8:
“POLK COUNTY– Crews are working to put out an oversized brush fire in Polk County.
Officials with the Division of Forestry say they issued a 50 acre prescribed burn today in the area of Old Grade Road and I-4.
They believe the wind may have led the fire to grow by an extra 200 acres.
They say no homes are being threatened at this time.
There are concerns that if the fire burns overnight, drivers may face smoky conditions by Wednesday morning.”
Then today ABC Action News further reports in a story about the incident:
“A mixture of fog and smoke from a controlled burn near Old Grade Road created extremely hazardous conditions early this morning.
The burn was supposed to cover only 50 acres, but got out of hand late yesterday and grew to more than 300 acres.“
More information from MyFox Tampa Bay:
“POLK CITY – Smoke and fog are causing a surreal scene in Polk County that’s forced the closure of a stretch of Interstate 4, and contributed to a massive pile-up.
All lanes of I-4 are closed between the Polk Parkway and U.S. 27. That’s roughly from Polk City to the Osceola County line.
The lingering smoke combined with the morning fog has brought visibility down to near zero, and deputies say at least 50 vehicles are involved in the massive wreck, and 20 of those are semi-trucks. Several vehicles caught fire, though most of the blazes seemed to be out by 8:30 a.m., judging by the diminishing amount of black smoke rising from the scene.
At least three people are dead, and several more motorists are trapped and waiting for emergency crews.
Those who are unhurt are being asked to stay in their cars for their own safely and the safety of rescue workers.
Yesterday’s brush fire began as a controlled burn, but it jumped a firebreak and eventually grew to 250 acres before being contained.”
According to TheLedger.com a Division of Forestry dozer was burned in the fire yesterday.