2010 – fewest wildfire acres burned since 1998

This year, 2010, is shaping up to be the the quietest wildfire season in the United States since 1998, when measured by acres burned. If you separate Alaska from the rest of the country, through November 4, 2010 the lower 49 states have burned the fewest acres since 2004. Alaska can routinely have mega-fires, or a very quiet fire season, so adding their numbers in with the rest of the country can really skew the trend. For example, in 2004, four times as many acres were blackened in Alaska than in the other 49 states combined.

The following numbers were obtained from the http://www.nifc.gov/ site, which has had problems recently and is not always available. The 2010 stats here go through November 4, 2010.

number Wildfire acres burned united states
(note: the number of acres burned in Alaska in 2008 was 32,648)

The stats for the number of acres burned in all 50 states from 1960 through 2010 are below.

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The 1985 Pine Barrens fire

On Friday, April 19, 1985, the Pine Barrens of New Jersey were dry. The fire lookout at Cedar Bridge recorded an 18 mph wind and a humidity of 24 percent at 10 a.m.; 58 minutes later he spotted a smoke. Here is an excerpt from an article at the Sentinel about the fire that followed.

…McPherson, now 76, and Talnagi both responded to the firehouse, each manning a famed HFD “Yellowbird” — a four-wheel-drive, military surplus Jeep-like vehicle that was painted yellow and used to fight wildfires.

Driving his Yellowbird, McPherson was accompanied by firefighters Ron “Doc” Wilson and Steve Spack. Kasubinski recalled the McPherson Yellowbird “roaring in” along Old Forge Road.

“They said, ‘We’re not going to let your house burn,’ ” Kasubinski said.

On the other Yellowbird, Talnagi recalled, he and three other firefighters “went to the head of the fire to try to cut it off. However, the wind was pushing the fire very fast.

“I remember driving into the woods, a hundred yards or more in front,” Talnagi said. “As we drove in, we realized the fire was moving faster than anticipated and [we] had to get out and back to the road.”

As the Talnagi Yellowbird retreated, the fire blazed across what had been its path.

The McPherson Yellowbird took a sand road into Palumbo’s Acres.

“We pushed this one tree down [with the Yellowbird], the radiator hose broke, sprayed water all over the engine, drowned it out,” McPherson said. “We radioed for help and nobody knew where we were.”

McPherson, Wilson and Spack wet the area down with the water they had. With the fire approaching, they did the common-sense thing in a wildfire: get to already burned ground.

Despite the fire being into the treetops, they found a spot that was low enough to jump, thanks to the Applegarth Fire Company having been in the area and wetting it down, McPherson said.

As for the McPherson Yellowbird, the fire “destroyed the truck, burned the tires off, warped the frame,” he said.

“The main problem was the lack of water, so pumpers with large tanks and tanker trucks were called in to supply us with water,” Talnagi said.

The fire burned 700 acres and was controlled on April 20. Thanks to the good work of firefighters, a few homes were slightly damaged, but none were destroyed.

Honda Canyon fire, 32 years ago

On December 20, 1977, three people were entrapped and killed on the Honda Canyon fire on Vandenberg Air Force Base in southern California, including the Base Commander Colonel Joseph Turner, Fire Chief Billy Bell and Assistant Fire Chief Eugene Cooper. Additionally, severe burns were experienced by Heavy Equipment Operator Clarence McCauley.  He later died due to complications from the burns. A book about this fire, “Beyond Tranquillon Ridge”, was written by Joseph N. Valencia.

USFS history museum to be built in Missoula

USFS fire lookouts
USFS photo

A non-profit group called National Museum of Forest Service History plans to raise $9 million in public and private funds in order to build a national museum to commemorate the 100+ year history of the U. S. Forest Service. The group expects to build a 30,000 square-foot building in Missoula, Montana, perhaps as early as 2012.  Their vision began in 1994 when they obtained 36 acres west of the airport and since then have built a road and a parking lot.

Two structures have already been erected on the site. One is a ranger station from the Clearwater National Forest in Idaho that was dismantled and reassembled piece by piece in 2000. The other is a replica of a 1930s era lookout which was built in 2005 on the National Mall in Washington for the 100th anniversary of the Forest Service, then disassembled, moved, and restored at the Missoula museum property.

The U. S. Forest Service has contributed $500,000 towards the museum as part of an agreement that the two organizations first signed in 2003.

The building will have room for more than 40,000 artifacts, with many of them coming from the USFS, including daily diaries of activities that were required for Forest Service employees until the 1960s.

More information

Inaja fire, November 25, 1956

Eleven firefighters – two Forest Service personnel and nine from Viejas Honor Camp – lost their lives fighting this human-caused fire west of Julian, California on November 25, 1956. Soon after this fire, the 10 Standard Firefighting Orders were developed.

This was one of the first fires where sodium calcium borate was used as a fire retardant dropped from an air tanker. It was quickly discovered that this chemical sterilized the soil, and by 1957 it was no longer used. However, the term “borate bomber” lingered on for decades.

For more info
http://www.wildfirelessons.net/documents/Inaja_Forest_Fire_1956.pdf
http://legacy.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20061125/news_1n25inaja.html

Loop fire, 43 years ago

On November 1, 1966, the El Cariso Hotshots were trapped by flames as they worked on a steep hillside in Pacoima Canyon on the Angeles National Forest.

Ten members of the crew perished on the Loop Fire that day. Another two members succumbed from burn injuries in the following days. Most of the nineteen members who survived were critically burned and remained hospitalized for some time.

Lessons learned from the Loop Fire resulted in the checklist for downhill line construction, improved firefighting equipment, better fire behavior training, and the implementation of new firefighter safety protocols.

Top 20 list of largest fires in California

An article in the Ventura County Star addresses the issue of escalating costs of suppressing wildfires. Here is an excerpt:

Experts say the cost of fighting fires in California is soaring for two reasons: the effects of climate change on vegetation and the development patterns that have increasingly relocated homes and residents into wildlands.

A report issued in May for the California Climate Change Center finds warmer temperatures and longer dry seasons are the principal reasons for increased wildfire risk. It notes higher temperatures have accelerated water loss from vegetation, “increasing the risk of rapidly spreading and large fires.”

Ominously, one study done for the Climate Change Center predicts the risk of wildfires that threaten residential areas will at least triple by 2050.

Compounding the challenges for firefighters, and escalating the costs for taxpayers, is the fact that urban development has increasingly encroached into the areas of highest fire risk.

“The main problem is that we have more fires in areas where there are more people,” said Carroll Wills, spokesman for the California Professional Firefighters, the state firefighters’ union. “In past decades many of these fires were in areas where there weren’t people. It was easier to surround them, and that made it less expensive.”

Upton said that when a fire breaks out in remote areas, firefighters can “catch it at a ridgeline.”

“It is much more expensive to fight a wildfire in and among homes and communities,” she said. “It tends to turn into a rescue more than anything. Meanwhile, the fire perimeter grows.”

The article also listed the 20 largest recorded wildfires in California by size:

FIRE NAME/CAUSE/ DATE/ COUNTY/ ACRES/ STRUCTURES/ DEATHS

1 Cedar (human) October 2003 San Diego 273,246 2,820 15

2 Zaca (human) July 2007 Santa Barbara 240,207 1 0

3 Matilija (undetermined) September 1932 Ventura 220,000 0 0

4 Witch (power lines) October 2007 San Diego 197,990 1,650 2

5 Klamath Theater Complex (lightning) June 2008 Siskiyou 192,038 0 2

6 Marble Cone (lightning) July 1977 Monterey 177,866 0 0

7 Laguna (power lines) September 1970 San Diego 175,425 382 5

8 Basin Complex (lightning) June 2008 Monterey 162,818 58 0

9 Day (human) September 2006 Ventura 162,702 11 0

10 Station (human) August 2009 Los Angeles 160,557 209 2

11 Mcnally (human) July 2002 Tulare 150,696 17 0

12 Stanislaus Complex (lightning) August 1987 Tuolumne 145,980 28 1

13 Big Bar Complex (lightning) August 1999 Trinity 140,948 0 0

14 Campbell Complex (power lines) August 1990 Tehama 125,892 27 0

15 Wheeler (arson) July 1985 Ventura 118,000 26 0

16 Simi (under investigation) October 2003 Ventura 108,204 300 0

17 Hwy. 58 (vehicle) August 1996 San Luis Obispo 106,668 13 0

18 Iron Alps Complex (lightning) June 2008 Trinity 105,805 2 10

19 Clampitt (power lines) September 1970 Los Angeles 105,212 86 4

20 Bar Complex (lightning) July 2006 Trinity 100,414 0 0

Laguna fire, September 26, 1970

September 26-Oct. 3 1970: The Laguna fire burned 175,425 acres, killed eight civilians, and destroyed 382 homes. In 24 hours the fire burned from near Mount Laguna, California into the outskirts of El Cajon and Spring Valley. Previously known as the Kitchen Creek Fire and the Boulder Oaks Fire, it was, at its time, the second largest fire in the recorded history of California.

The Laguna fire started from downed power lines during Santa Ana winds near the intersection of Kitchen Creek road and the Sunrise Highway in the Laguna Mountains in eastern San Diego County on the morning of September 26, 1970. In only 24 hours it burned westward about 30 miles (50 km) to the west. The fire devastated the communities of Harbison Canyon and Crest. Santa Ana winds are warm, dry winds that characteristically occur in Southern California weather during autumn and early winter.

Here is one of the pages from the report referenced below. Anyone remember when we used to make charts and graphs using colored pencils and graph paper?

From the official Laguna Fire Analysis, 1970

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Laguna fire, 1970, using Google Maps, not colored pencils

For more info:
http://www.wildfirelessons.net/documents/Laguna_Fire_Analysis_1970.pdf

The day the Laguna fire started I was a crewmember on the El Cariso Hot Shots, and we were mopping up a brush fire near Corona. We heard the radio traffic that morning about the new fire and the reports that it was was cranking. It was The Big One. And there we were, stuck on the dreaded mopup on a fire that was pretty much out. For hours we kept poking around trying to find something hot to put out, as we kept hearing more about the fire on Laguna Mountain that was hauling ass. We wanted to be there.

El Cariso Hot Shots 1972
The El Cariso Hot Shots at Lake Henshaw in 1972. Photo: Bill Gabbert

Finally, late in the afternoon we were dispatched to it. By the time we got to Pine Valley it was after sunset, and for some reason, I, a first-year hot shot, was in the pickup with Ron Campbell, the Superintendent. The two open-top crew carriers were behind us. As we drove into Pine Valley the hills to the south and east were alive with the orange flames of the fire. The one radio channel we had on the Cleveland National Forest was completely jam-packed with radio traffic. You could not get a word in edgewise. We knew that this was going to be one that we would remember.

We worked on the fire all that night and then pulled several more shifts before we were transferred to the Boulder 2 fire in Cuyamaca State Park, which was a rekindle from the Boulder fire.

50 years ago today in South Dakota: Deadwood fire

According to an article in the Rapid City Journal, the 1959 Deadwood fire which started on September 8, 1959 was the most destructive fire to private property, homes, and infrastructure recorded in South Dakota. Some other stats in the article are difficult to believe, such as the claim that there were 1,000 firefighters working on the fire within the first hour.

Here is an excerpt from the article.
…(Jerome) Harvey drove his truck toward town and was flagged down by a group of volunteer firefighters who were working the north section of the fire.

“They were trying to get back into Deadwood, so they piled on the flatbed truck,” he said.

After he found a safe parking place, Harvey went to the Forest Service to ask if they needed help battling the blaze. A fire check point had been set up on Main Street Deadwood in front of the Franklin Hotel.

“They put anyone to work who had blood in them,” Harvey said.

So, he loaded fire equipment in his Universal Jeep and took off toward Strawberry Hill.

He and other volunteers were working spot fires on the south end of the hill when they heard the roar of the approaching wildfire.

“There’s this roaring noise a fire makes when it is topping in the trees,” he said.

“I knew we were going to get trapped, so I started down the hill toward Little Strawberry Creek. My only thinking was to get in that water.”

Harvey and the others lay down in the creek.

“The fire burned right over the top of us,” he said. “None of us got hurt.”

Yellowstone fires, big blowup, August 20, 1988

In the summer of 1988 numerous fires burned 793,000 acres of Yellowstone National Park as well as large tracts of land surrounding the park. Half of the acres burned inside the park resulted from fires that started outside the boundary. Nine of the fires were human-caused, and 42 were started by lightning.

Protecting the Old Faithful Inn, 1988. Photo: Jeff Henry

On the worst single day, August 20, 1988, tremendous winds pushed fire across more than 150,000 acres. Throughout August and early September, some park roads and facilities were closed to the public, and residents of nearby towns outside the park feared for their property and their lives.

Yellowstone’s fire management policy was the topic of heated debate, from the restaurants of park border towns to the halls of Congress. Following this event, the National Park Service and other federal land management agencies rewrote their policies affecting how they managed fires with less than full suppression strategies.