Five volunteer firefighters with the Rist Canyon Fire Department had their homes burn and one of the department’s fire stations was destroyed during the High Park fire west of Fort Collins, Colorado. A relief fund has been established, all of which will be used for assisting firefighters, supporting the all-volunteer fire department, and replacing the volunteer’s lost wages while they have been fighting the fire. The Rist Canyon FD is one of two departments in Colorado that receives no mandated tax support according to NorthFortyNews. All of their funding comes from donations and fund raising events such as selling a cookbook.
You can donate at the Department’s web site through PayPal or send a check (payable to RCVFD) to Rist Canyon Volunteer Fire Department, Fire Relief Fund, PO BOX 2, Bellvue CO 80512. Contributions are tax deductible.
Those people who don’t feel moved to donate money can go to a Facebook page created by 14-year old Arianna Van Fleet and express their gratitude to the first responders by leaving a comment or “liking” the page.
Smoke from the High Park Fire seen from the Incident Command Post at the Colorado National Guard Readiness Center near Fort Collins, Colo. (Official Army National Guard photo by 2nd Lt. Skye Robinson) (Released)
Justin Smith, the County Sheriff of Larimer County, is continuing to restrict media coverage of the High Park fire west of Fort Collins, Colorado. On June 11 we covered Sheriff Smith’s request that the media not show photos of destroyed homes out of respect to the homeowners. That request was generally ignored by news outlets.
Nick Christensen, executive officer for the sheriff’s department, was quoted recently as saying, “Our philosophy is the citizens need to see the damage and destruction before the general public.”
Sheriff Smith claims he can decide what the media can cover and what they can’t cover, and not just for the safety of the reporters. That is a great deal of power to put in the hands of a county sheriff.
Colorado law puts the county sheriff in charge of fires on state and private land in unincorporated areas if the fire exceeds the capacity of a single fire department. Other states see it differently, putting an agency that specializes in fire suppression in charge of fires. Texas also has an archaic system, and puts a County Judge in charge of fires in some areas.
Here are some excerpts from a June 20 AP story about Sheriff Smith’s restrictions on media coverage:
…Journalists say the Colorado restrictions are too strict and hurt their ability to report.
“I’m sympathetic to their desire to help the victim,” said Joey Bunch, a reporter for The Denver Post. “I’m not sympathetic to their desire to control what’s going on.”
Bunch, a 27-year-veteran who has covered numerous natural disasters, said the Larimer sheriff’s restrictions are “the most concerted effort I’ve seen to get between the press and the victims.”
At some previous wildfires in Colorado and in other states, authorities have escorted news media into evacuation zones before residents or the general public was allowed in, sometimes while the fire is still active.
With the current fire, “They’re robbing the victims of the chance to tell their story,” Bunch said. “The larger public isn’t being able to fully appreciate the size of the fire and the size of the tragedy because the story isn’t being told.”
Fire management teams routinely try to get journalists safe access to fires to get the news out, said Mike Ferris, a public information officer for the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.
“Generally, I’ll do everything I can to get you access to get your story,” he said.
Rules for media access vary from state to state and even from wildfire to wildfire. In California, state law allows news organizations virtually unfettered access to fires. Other states leave the decisions up to the agency responsible for the land involved…
[…]
…In one incident, the sheriff’s department withheld for 24 hours a video recording, made by a fire official inside the evacuation zone using an NBC News camera and tape. NBC News producer Jack Chesnutt said he thought he would get the tape back immediately to share with other news outlets.
Christensen, the sheriff’s executive officer, said the department always intended to show the video to evacuated residents before returning it.
“These are not the conditions that I thought we had agreed to when we handed them the camera,” Chesnutt said. He called the High Park Fire coverage restrictions “unprecedented.”…
Nebraska National Guard crewmembers of Company C 2nd-135th General Support Aviation Battalion dump water from a Bambi bucket onto flames of the High Park Fire, June 18, 2012. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Tate Petersen, Company C, 2nd-135th General Support Aviation Support)
The National Guard has deployed Blackhawk helicopters from several states to the High Park Fire near Fort Collins, Colorado. Additionally Guardsmen from Colorado are augmenting the Larimer County Sheriff’s Department to provide assistance in securing evacuated areas. They posted these photos to Flicker, and some of them, especially the one above showing a rare view from a helicopter while dropping water, are exceptionally good.
Kansas Guardsmen Sgt. Sheldon Snodgrass, a flight instructor with Company G, 2nd-135th General Support Aviation Battalion, observes the High Park Fire in Larimer County, Colo., approximately 15 miles west of Fort Collins while out on a Bambi bucket mission to help provided structure protection, June 15, 2012. (Photo by Sgt. Ryan Kohlman, Company G, 2nd-135th General Support Aviation Battalion)High Park Fire, June 18, 2012. (Official Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Jess Geffre/RELEASED)
At a media briefing tonight at 8 p.m. a spokesperson for Larimer County reported that a deceased person has been found in a burned home. The individual has been tentatively identified as 62-year old Linda Steadman who resided at 9123 Old Flowers Road. Two calls were made to warn Ms Steadman, who had a landline telephone, to evacuate. When fire officials could not confirm she left her home, they made two attempts to visit her, but were driven back by the fire. On the second attempt the fire officer made it through her locked gate but because of the fire was not able to access the house. At that time the officer thought the house was probably already burning.
Our condolences go out to the Steadman family.
Fire grows on Monday
The fire was mapped on Monday at 41,140 acres.
Sheriff’s Office clashes with media
The Denver Post is reporting that the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office requested that the media not show photos of destroyed homes out of respect to the homeowners. The Larimer County fire and Sheriff’s Office personnel have done an excellent job of keeping the public and media informed of developments on the fire, so this is very surprising. The request was ignored by the media, according to the Post, which provided quotes from media outlets saying it is a journalistic imperative to deliver the news, even if it is not good news.
With the exception of this lapse in judgement by the County officials, they have been excellent examples of how to provide information about a rapidly spreading fire, that Incident Management Teams and fire agencies should emulate. It is a shame they blew it on the attempted ban on photos.
============================ UPDATE at 2:42 p.m. MT, June 11, 2012:
The number of structures that have been destroyed or damaged in the High Park fire has been revised to 118 as firefighters have been able to enter some of the areas that burned in the fire.
============================ UPDATED at 9:21 a.m. MT, June 11, 2012:
Map of the High Park Fire in Colorado, showing heat detected by satellites at 2:25 am MT, June 11, 2012. MODIS
The High Park fire has been extremely active since it started early Saturday morning. Over the last 24 hours it has grown to 36,930 acres and approached to within four miles of Fort Collins, Colorado. The map of the fire above shows heat detected by satellites at 2:25 a.m. MT on Monday.
The map below also shows the extent of the fire but with more detail than the previous one.
Map of High Park Fire 2:25 a.m. MT, June 11, 2012, showing heat detected by satellites at 2:25 a.m. MT, June 11, 2012, MODIS/Google Earth/Wildfire Today
Most of the growth of the fire on Sunday and Sunday night was on the south and southeast sides. It has crossed Highway 14 in at least two places — a small area on the west side of the Hewlett fire (which burned in May), and a second area on the east side of the fire near N Co Rd 29C.
Eighteen structures are confirmed lost or damaged and others are threatened. No details about the structures are available.
On Sunday there were five large air tankers working the fire: two CV-580’s (T-42 and T-45) and three P2V’s (T-48, T-44, and T-06). There are also some Single Engine Air Tankers (SEATs) assigned to the fire. Most of the air tankers are reloading with retardant at the Rocky Mountain Metro Airport, 48 miles southeast of the fire. On June 9 we posted some photos of the CV-580 air tankers at the airport.
The local fire and law enforcement personnel are doing a good job providing information to the public about the fire and evacuations:
(On June 11 we posted an update on the High Park fire, which you can see HERE.)
Map of High Park Fire at 3:20 a.m. MT, June 10, 2012, showing heat detected by satellites. MODIS/Google Earth/Wildfire Today
The High Park fire northwest of Fort Collins, Colorado was very active Saturday night and early Sunday morning. Judging from the heat data collected by satellites as shown in the map above, it moved north across Highway 14 and hit the Hewlett fire that burned north of the highway in mid-May. The heat data indicates that it spread east to within approximately a mile of N CO Rd 25E and approximately a mile from the intersection of highways 14 and 287, but these are very crude estimates. And another estimate — the fire appears to us to be more than 20,000 acres if the satellite heat data is accurate. All of this needs to be confirmed by better data than we are getting from a satellite.
A more detailed version of the map of the High Park fire can be downloaded HERE.
To say the fire exhibited extreme fire behavior overnight would not be giving the fire enough credit. Several very experienced firefighters have said the fire’s spread and behavior Saturday night and early Sunday were incredible. Typically a fire will lay down at night, moving much more slowly, but as a cold front passed through the area during the night the winds increased and shifted 45 degrees in direction, WSW to WNW. When the fire was mapped at 10:30 p.m. Saturday night by an infrared aircraft it was 7,400 acres. The MODIS satellite data shown in the map above captured the location of the heat at 3:20 a.m., and unless it was registering the heat in the smoke plume in addition to heat on the ground (which has happened in the past with infrared equipment on fixed wing aircraft when a fire was exhibiting extreme fire behavior), the fire more than doubled in size during that 5-hour period and ran approximately 6 miles. It will be very interesting to see a new fire perimeter after aircraft map it today with GPS equipment.
The local fire and law enforcement personnel are doing a good job of providing information to the public about the fire and evacuations:
Shane Harvey took these photos at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (JEFFCO) showing the two Convair 580 air tankers that are working the High Park Fire. In one photo you can see the smoke column as viewed from the airport, which is 48 miles away. Thanks Shane. We have more information including a map of the High Park fire HERE.
High Park Fire (48 miles northwest) as seen from JEFFCO airport June 9, 2012
