News and opinion about wildland fire
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized1 Comment on Disney Planes-themed exercises to teach wildfire facts 
An activity book for kids based on the Disney movie Planes — Fire and Rescue is available for download (large 16.2MB file). It includes word games, a wildlands ecology quiz, campfire safety tips, a prevention skills test, and some wildfire facts — “learn more about wildfires and how to prevent them”.
Lightning injures three people in Australia
Lightning in Western Australia struck and injured three people, including a person near his home who was believed to be a volunteer firefighter. According to a neighbor the man later walked to an ambulance but was holding his arm. A spokesperson for the Department of Fire and Emergency Services said the man fell to the ground after being hit.
“He had an initial check and was cleared, suffering a little anxiety, and was transported to hospital,” the spokesman said.
Firefighters in Victoria contained the spread of a fire that came within 250 meters of properties in the state’s north-east on Monday.
U.S. Representative activated with the National Guard in response to volcano lava flow in Hawaii
The lava from the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii continues to spread and ignite vegetation that it contacts, but for now the threat of significant wildfire has decreased
U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard completed her State Active Duty orders with the Hawaii Army National Guard last week in response to the lava flow.
The Congresswoman served as a military police captain in the command cell at Joint Task Force Response in Pahoa, assisting with personnel and logistics.
Gabbard worked with approximately 80 other National Guard soldiers and airmen working to patrol the area and assist the Hawaii Police Department with traffic control points.
Planes: Fire and Rescue released on DVD
DisneyToon Studios has released the animated film Planes: Fire and Rescue on DVD. The movie about fire aviation hit theaters in July and had a domestic and overseas box office of $219 million. It was in the top five highest-grossing family films of the summer.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized7 Comments on Plans for the opening of “Planes: Fire & Rescue” 
Some of the fire agencies in Boise are making special plans around the July 18 opening of the new Disney animated movie, Planes: Fire & Rescue. (Release dates in other countries can be found HERE.) I am not sure where I will be on the 18th, but it may be in southwest Colorado — I will have to find a theater in the area that will be showing it.
If you are aware of any other special activities planned by fire agencies for the opening in your area, please leave the information in a comment below, including the specifics about time and place. It might be fun to have a meet-up before or after the film, say — at a restaurant or bar.
Disney has released a ton of trailers which can be found HERE. Below is one released three weeks ago.
The National Park Service had this on their Fire and Aviation Management Facebook page February 2, 2014:
Our very own Shad Sitz, Regional Aviation Manager for Pacific West Region and Director Jon Jarvis helped tweak some details on Disney’s new animated movie – Courage – Planes: Fire & Rescue.
Shad stated “Even the folks from Fire Boss and many other were involved, everyone from smokejumpers to I.C, and the cool thing is that it will be dedicated to the wild land fire fighters.”
Now, you fire aviation afficionados might notice this – Shad added -”If you notice when they convert Dusty into a SEAT/Fire Boss thy never added the ventral fin or finlets on the tail. Not a big deal but I mentioned it…”
Yay for Shad and all the others who assisted in the coming movie.
Continue reading “Plans for the opening of “Planes: Fire & Rescue””
This is another trailer for the Disney movie, Planes: Fire & Rescue which will be in theaters in the United States beginning July 18. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been to an animated film, but I’ll have to check this one out. All of the other trailers we’ve seen for the movie (posted at Fire Aviation) emphasized aerial firefighting resources, but this one features ground-based resources, with one Single Engine Air Tanker and a couple of other aircraft thrown in for good measure.
Some actual wildland firefighters served as subject matter experts with the movie makers. That shows up in some of the terminology used, including in this one-minute clip, “Can you make it to your safety zone?”, and “Load and return”.
It is interesting that Disney went to such lengths to use the jargon that firefighters use. It makes you wonder who their target audience is for this animated feature. The producers of the Howie Long movie, Firestorm, did not pay that much attention to detail.
ToysRus, Walmart, and Amazon are already selling die-cast action figures. 
