Wildfire Today

News and opinion about wildland fire

Wildfire Today

Tag: prescribed fire

Wildfire news, April 8, 2012

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags 3 Comments on Wildfire news, April 8, 2012

Historic Tamarack Lodge in New York State burns

Tamarack Lodge fire
Screen grab from video of Tamarack Lodge fire

Approximately 30 structures at the Historic Tamarack Lodge near Wawarsing, New York, were destroyed in a fire on Saturday. It was not clear how or where the fire started, but in addition to the buildings, 200 acres burned. Most of the structures had been abandoned and condemned by building inspectors.

More information about the fire.

Colorado: don’t give up on prescribed fires

Barry Noreen in an article in the Colorado Springs Gazette suggests that in spite of the escaped prescribed fire that became the Lower North Fork fire which killed three residents, this is not the time to abandon the idea of treating vegetation with fire. Here is an excerpt:

…But Steve Segin, a spokesman for the United States Forest Service in Lakewood, said “there’s plenty of success stories” with prescribed burns, but as in anything, we tend not to hear about programs when they are working well.

Segin pointed out that when the infamous Hayman fire took off in June of 2002, one of the few places it slowed down was on a ridgeline where there had been a controlled burn previously. The controlled burn removed potential fuel, so when the Hayman fire came through, it slowed down because there just wasn’t enough material to burn.

Fire near Lake City, Florida

The Columbia Line fire on the Osceola National Forest near Lake City, Florida has burned approximately 4,570 acres. The USFS said three helicopters are dropping water on the fire but no structures or private property are currently threatened.

USFWS video: Keeping Fire on our Side

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been very active during the last year or two providing ongoing information on the internet about their fire management program (example). The 4.5 minute video below narrated by fire information officer Karen Miranda Gleason is one of 224 videos they have posted on YouTube about fire management and other topics. This video is part two of a five-part series exploring the work of managing wildland fire and gives an inside look at what goes into planning and conducting a prescribed fire.

Did an escaped prescribed fire cause the Lower North Fork fire?

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , , 9 Comments on Did an escaped prescribed fire cause the Lower North Fork fire?
Lower North Fork Fire
Lower North Fork Fire. Photo provided by Jefferson County Sheriff's Office

On Tuesday afternoon the Colorado State Forest Service released a statement that contributes to the theory that one of their prescribed fires that escaped control may have started the Lower North Fork fire, which as of Tuesday afternoon has burned 4,500 acres and destroyed or damaged 23 homes. An elderly couple was found dead in the burn area, but a cause of death has not been released. The Denver Post earlier on Tuesday quoted Jacki Kelley, a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman, as saying the fire originated from a controlled burn conducted by the Colorado Forest Service on March 19.

Below is the statement from the Colorado State Forest Service:

========================================================

“Preliminary reports indicate that on the fourth day of mop-up operations, following a prescribed burn, extremely strong wind appears to have reignited the fire by fanning embers and blowing them into an unburned area outside the containment line. Crews patrolling the area immediately began fighting the fire.

Last Wednesday (3/21), Colorado State Forest Service initiated a controlled burn on Denver Water Board property. The 35-acre prescribed burn was part of ongoing fuels management activities in the Lower North Fork area as part of a service agreement with Denver Water. On Wednesday, March 21, crews built a containment line around the fire area. The actual prescribed fire was carried out and completed on Thursday, with mop-up operations beginning on Friday.

On Monday afternoon (3/26), during the fourth day of mop-up work, a patrol crew reported windy conditions, but no smoke or fire activity as they circled the burn area several times. The crew reported a sudden, significant increase in wind and then reported seeing blowing embers carried across the containment line, over a road, and into unburned fuels. The crew immediately requested additional resources and began aggressively fighting the fire.

As the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office further investigates the cause of the current wildfire, Colorado State Forest Service will also be conducting a simultaneous review of the prescribed burn. Conducting a prescribed burn involves a considerable amount of planning, research and oversight by fire professionals who carefully consider current and future weather forecasts, fuel conditions, and other factors before initiating a prescribed burn. On preliminary review CSFS officials say fire crews followed all procedures and safety protocols in conducting the prescribed burn. An independent panel will now fully review the prescribed burn and the procedures surrounding it.

Joseph A. Duda

Deputy State Forester

Colorado State Forest Service”

=======================================================

More information about the Lower North Fork Fire, from March 29.

 

Photos from USF&WS prescribed fires

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags

McNary National Wildlife Refuge Rx fire

I love the fact that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service frequently posts photos of their fire activities on Facebook and Flickr. The first two photos are from a prescribed fire on the McNary National Wildlife Refuge in southern Washington. More photos from that project can be found on Flickr.

McNary National Wildlife Refuge Rx fireThe last one is from a black-lining operation in preparation for a prescribed fire on the Southeast Idaho National Wildlife Refuge Complex. I am a big proponent of black-lining. It can be done when conditions are a little too wet for your main burn. And a black line around your project can greatly reduce the amount of time needed for the main burn, while providing an extra margin of safety and reducing the chance of an escape. Black-lining can be done with fewer people than the main burn, and can turn a large 2-day project into a 1-day job, reducing the overall costs.

SE Idaho NWR Rx fire

 

Park fights beetles with fire, not saws

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , ,
American Elk prescribed fire, Wind Cave National Park
American Elk prescribed fire, Wind Cave National Park. October 20, 2010. Photo by Bill Gabbert

The Rapid City Journal has an article about how Wind Cave National Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota uses prescribed fire, in part, to help prevent and control pine beetles. Below is an excerpt. It may be one of the last excerpts we can show from that newspaper, since they plan to put up a pay wall on their internet site.

Wind Cave wages war on beetles without using saws

They don’t use logging machines and chain saws in the battle against the mountain pine beetle in Wind Cave National Park.

They use fire. And sometimes, they don’t use anything at all.

The federal park, which covers almost 34,000 acres in the southern Black Hills, has a management plan for the pesky bugs that is dramatically different from the logging-based attack in the Black Hills National Forest and nearby private and state forest.

It’s a plan that has been evolving since the 1970s, with fire as the main management tool — depending on funding and favorable weather conditions.

“We really don’t do any cutting of trees right now,” said Greg Schroeder, the park’s chief of resource management. “We have in the plan the ability to do some thinning if we can’t get areas burned. But if we get them burned, we’ll pretty much mitigate the pine beetle problem.”

That’s easier to say and do in Wind Cave, which has more than twice the acreage of grass as it does of forest. The park also is at a generally lower elevation, where pine beetles haven’t in the past been as big of a problem in the Black Hills.

Those advantages, along with a decades-old management plan based on healthy forest standards of thinner tree stands, more variety in tree age and species, and periodic prescribed burns have created a forest that is more resistant to beetles, Schroeder said.

The Journal also has an article about their law enforcement rangers catching three people from Minnesota last weekend attempting to steal about three dozen elk antlers, as well as animal skulls and rocks.

Civilian badly burned in fire department’s prescribed fire in Whiteclay, Neb.

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , 12 Comments on Civilian badly burned in fire department’s prescribed fire in Whiteclay, Neb.
Whiteclay Nebraska
Whiteclay, Nebraska as seen in Google Maps Streetview

A man that was apparently not directly involved with a prescribed fire was entrapped and badly burned on March 7 in Whiteclay, (map) a very small town in the northwestern part of Nebraska. The articles in the Omaha World-Herald and Indian Country are not super clear on how Bryan Blue Bird Jr., 51, of Pine Ridge, SD came to be in the project area, but said the incident occurred in a vacant lot, “where drinkers often end up after buying beer in the unincorporated village”. The volunteer fire department from Rushville, Nebraska, about 15 miles south of Whiteclay, was conducting the prescribed fire, according to both news articles.

I have never heard of an incident like this, in which a civilian is seriously burned during a small prescribed fire conducted by an organized fire agency.

Here is an excerpt from the article in the Omaha World-Herald.

A Lakota Sioux man was seriously injured in a recent controlled burn of vacant lots in Whiteclay, Neb., and family members and friends question whether firefighters were negligent in not checking the area before igniting the blaze.

Bryan Blue Bird Jr., 51, of Pine Ridge, S.D., was hospitalized with burns over 25 percent of his body after the March 7 incident.

Volunteer firefighters from Rushville had been burning off thick grass from vacant lots to reduce fire risks to local businesses when Blue Bird was spotted amid the flames, according to Sheridan County Sheriff Terry Robbins.

He said firefighters doused the unemployed military veteran with water and then pulled him from the fire area.

Blue Bird is in the intensive care unit of a Greeley, Colo., hospital, where he is scheduled for a skin graft on his hands Thursday. He also has burns on his face and back, family members said.

His longtime girlfriend, Patricia White Bear Claw, said firefighters should have more thoroughly checked the vacant lots, where drinkers often end up after buying beer in the unincorporated village.

“They know they sit down there and drink. They know that. They should have checked,” White Bear Claw said.

UPDATE at 12:15 p.m. MT, March 26, 2012:

After a person calling themselves “Felix” made an accusation in a comment on this article that the Bureau of Indian Affairs was responsible for the prescribed fire in White Clay, I heard today from Dave Martin, an Assistant Regional Fire Management Officer for the BIA. He said they looked into this, and confirmed that the BIA was not involved in any way with the incident. The volunteer fire department from Rushville, Nebraska conducted the prescribed fire, not the BIA. Mr. Martin also said the account of the incident in the Omaha World-Herald is essentially correct.

Thanks go out to Mark