News and opinion about wildland fire
We did some research on the history of line of duty deaths involving the operators of tractor plows while working on fires.
Most, but not all, of the incidents are listed in the NWCG publication “Historical Wildland Firefighter Fatalities 1910 – 1996”.
A Mississippi firefighter died while fighting a wildfire in Amite County in southern Mississippi (map) on Saturday, February 1. According to the Enterprise-Journal, Dwight Hilton, 57, of the East Fork community ” ‘had some type of medical issue. He went into cardiac arrest,’, said East Central Volunteer Fire Department Chief Cam Sharp, who also is the county coroner. An ambulance took Hilton to Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 2:24 p.m. ‘He died in the line of duty,’ Sharp said.”
The incident occurred while firefighters were suppressing a vegetation fire that ultimately burned less than 10 acres.
Mr. Hilton was a long time member of the East Central Rural Volunteer Fire Department, which was assisting the Liberty Rural VFD.
Arson is suspected, according to Murry Toney, the Amite County arson investigator. The fire started in three different places, Mr. Toney said.
Jones Family Funeral Service of McComb will be handling the final arrangements.
Our sincere condolences go out to the family and fellow firefighters.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized2 Comments on Measuring the severity of a fire season By some measures the 2013 wildfire season in the United States was less severe than usual. In the lower 49 states this year to date there has been a decline in the number of fires, the number of acres burned, and the average size of fires. Sounds pretty good so far, right? But there was a sharp rise in the number of firefighters that were killed on fires — 34 so far this year.
Not only did the number of fatalities more than double over last year, according to the data from the National Interagency Fire Center, but the linear trend shows an increase since 1990. The wildland fire fatality statistics from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Fire Administration show even higher numbers for most years.
Of course more than half of the fatalities this year occurred on one fire, the Yarnell Hill Fire which killed 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots. But if that terrible tragedy had not happened, there would still have been 15 fatalities, the same number from the previous year. Between 1990 and 2013 to date the average number of wildland fire deaths is 18 each year.
We can do better. We have to do better.
More wildfire statistics:
Below are some statistics on wildland fire occurrence in the United States from 1990 through today. The numbers are for the lower 49 states, which excludes Alaska, a state that in 2013 to date has had 609 fires that blackened 1,319,234 acres, about half the number of acres that burned in the other 49 states. Fire management in Alaska is very different from the rest of the country. Some fires there are aggressively suppressed, but many fires are not staffed at all, some are fought with small numbers of firefighters, and others only get attention in areas where a remote cabin is threatened. Including Alaska numbers with the rest of the country would skew the trend analysis.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized12 Comments on Learning Review released for smokejumper fatality A report called a “Learning Review” has been released for the Luke Sheehy fatality, the smokejumper who was killed by a falling limb while suppressing a wildfire on the Modoc National Forest in northeast California on June 10. In addition to the primary report an additional document with supporting information, including some mind-numbing charts, was released.
The objective as stated in the document was to “understand the rationale for the actions/decisions involved in the incident and then, if possible, to learn from them”.
Frequently at Wildfire Today we will write a summary and then our analysis of serious accident reports, but this particular document is very different from the traditional report. It adopts the new paradigm of leaving out conclusions and recommendations, a process that began to be etched into stone in August when the Serious Accident Investigation Guide was revised. This Learning Review claims that “conclusions can sometimes close the door on learning”. I would say on the other hand that they can more frequently open the door to an enhanced safety environment for firefighters. People can sometimes be hit by meteorites, but not often.
And like virtually every research paper, most of the recommendations are for additional studies, ensuring continued employment for academics and researchers.
Call me old school, but this document appears to be more useful for human behavior researchers than firefighters. How did we get to the point where language such as this is used repeatedly in a U.S. Forest Service funded official report about a wildland fire?
The Learning Review does suggest that two additional products be prepared, one for “the field” and another for “the organization”. Maybe the field document, if produced, will be more useful for firefighters. And presumably the organization version will have conclusions and recommendations that will remain secret if the guidelines revised in August are followed.
I am not sure why the U.S. Forest Service paid the 22 people, plus multiple focus groups, to produce this study if they did not receive for their investment products usable by the field or the organization.
But I am old school when it comes to opportunities for learning lessons.
Radio New Zealand is reporting that a firefighter from New Caledonia was killed in a vehicle accident while she was responding to a vegetation fire:
The woman reportedly tried to evade an oncoming car and lost control of her vehicle and crashed.
The 22-year-old woman, who was pregnant, wasn’t wearing a seat belt and thrown from the vehicle and killed.
According to the New Caledonian government, she was the territory’s first firefighter to die in the line of duty.
New Caledonia is a group of islands 750 miles east of Australia.
Our sincere condolences go out to her family and co-workers.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized1 Comment on Report of fatal air tanker crash in Australia
Several media sources in Australia are reporting that an air tanker crashed west of Ulladulla in New South Wales and the pilot, the only person on board, has been confirmed dead. The Australian network ABC reported that a wing snapped off the aircraft before it went down.
The aircraft was fighting a fire in very rugged and steep terrain near Wirritin Mountain about 15 nautical miles west of Ulladulla when it went down at about 10:10 a.m. AEDT on Thursday.
The crash started another bushfire which, along with high winds, was hampering efforts to reach the pilot. Other firefighting aircraft were called to the area and were attempting to slow the spread of the fire.
Our sincere condolences go out to the family and coworkers of the pilot.
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UPDATE AT 12:51 p.m. MDT, October 24, 2013: A second aircraft has crashed in Australia. In this case it was a light plane supporting the firefighting effort. More information is at Fire Aviation.
Thanks go out to Ken
