The Hot Springs Fire Department annually conducts a prescribed fire along the Fall River flood channel in Hot Springs, South Dakota. This prevents woody vegetation from growing and clogging the waterway. The reeds and grasses grow back quickly.
Today the weather was almost perfect to reduce the fuels along the river and it burned very well. During the project the Red Canyon weather station about 14 miles to the west recorded the following conditions at 10:57 a.m. MT: 64 degrees, 28% relative humidity, and a south wind at 8 mph. Last year they conducted the burn on April 9. At that time the weather at the Hot Springs Municipal Airport was 43 degrees, with a relative humidity of 93%. And there was occasional drizzling rain.
The Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center has posted reports from three recent incidents: an escaped prescribed fire that burned private land, an injury caused by an air tanker drop, and wheels that loosened and fell off an engine, hitting a passenger car. We commend the folks involved in these incidents, sharing their experiences so that others may learn.
Here are summaries of the three reports:
Escaped fire from pile burning on Black Hills National Forest
On January 13, 2012 during pile burning operations on the Black Hills National Forest 10 miles west of Rapid City, South Dakota, 9-15 mph winds gusting at 23-37 mph contributed to the fire escaping from the piles and burning onto private land. After driving to a USFS facility to obtain fire tools, the three firefighters on scene fought the fire for two hours before notifying the zone fire management officer.
On January 13, 2012, fire personnel from Northern Hills Ranger District of the Black Hills National Forest ignited approximately 150 hand piles within the Forest Health Unit 1 fuel break. As the three-person burn team completed ignition around noon, the relative humidity dropped rapidly while brisk westerly winds developed. The combined effect of the pre-heating from the burning piles and the drying wind quickly evaporated the two inches of snow covering the heavy fuels immediately upslope from the burning piles. As the fire began to spread by means of spotting from log-to-log, the burn team worked diligently to contain the spots. Buffeted by wind gusts in excess of 35 mph during the afternoon and evening, the fire burned approximately 3.5 acres of private property.
During the escape, the affected landowner became dissatisfied by a perceived lack of regard shown by the Forest Service and shared his frustrations via telephone with the Acting District Ranger who, in turn, advised the off-duty Zone FMO that the fire had burned onto private property. Additional resources arrived on scene. The Forest Health Prescribed Fire was declared a wildfire, and became known as the Picnic Fire. Command transferred from the RXB3 to an ICT4, and the Picnic Fire was declared contained the following day. No structures or improvements were damaged by the fire.
Wheels come off BLM engine and hit passenger car
The crew of a Bureau of Land Management engine removed, painted, and re-installed the wheels of their engine in preparation for a 4th of July parade. The following day they experienced a problem.
Here is an excerpt from the Introduction section of the report:
On Wednesday June 29, 2011, E-423, a Type-4 wildland fire engine was travelling south on US-395 returning to the Burns Interagency Fire Station in Hines, Oregon after visiting a recently controlled fire incident. In route to the station, the rear driver’s side dual lug nuts loosened and fell off causing the wheels to separate from the vehicle. One of the free wheels from the engine traveled into the opposing lane of traffic and struck a passing motorist causing damage to the frontend of the passenger side of the vehicle. E-423 came to rest on the left rear hub and sustained damage to the brake/hub assembly and surface damage to the rear body box. No serious injuries were sustained as a result of the incident.
Firefighter injured by air tanker drop
This is the complete narrative section of the report:
On January 13, 2012, units from CAL FIRE Riverside Unit/Riverside County Fire Department were dispatched to a vegetation fire in the Cherry Valley area near Oak Glen Rd. and Apple Tree Ln. The fire occurred mid-slope on a very steep hillside. The engine company had been assigned to determine if there was a good location to access the fire and start a hose lay. A Helitack Fire Captain was acting as a lookout and notified all personnel operating in the area that airtankers were about to make air drops. Communication was established both face to face and over the radio. A Fire Apparatus Engineer assigned to an engine was approximately 50’-60’ downhill from the ridgeline near the flank of the fire. The FAE acknowledged the notification of incoming air drops. An air tanker then came over the ridge and began its drop run . The FAE saw the air tanker at the last second and discarded his tool but was unable to get into the proper safety position for the drop. He was struck by the drop causing him to roll approximately 50’-60’ feet down the steep slope.
The FAE was immediately attended to by onscene personnel. The FAE was able to walk to the ridge with assistance and then transported by Copter 301 to a helispot where a private ambulance was waiting. The ambulance transported the FAE to a local trauma center for evaluation. The FAE was evaluated and released within a few hours with minor injuries.
A report recently released about an escaped prescribed fire in Western Australia said some employees of the Department of Environment and Conservation are overworked and are performing above their skill levels. The prescribed fire in Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park escaped on November 23, 2011 and pushed by strong winds, destroyed 40 structures and burned over 8,400 acres. Residents who had refused to evacuate later had to take refuge from the fire on a beach. They were rescued by jet ski and ferried to a search and rescue boat offshore.
…The damning report by former Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty, released [February 23], found DEC made a series of omissions and mistakes during the planning and implementation of a prescribed burn that led to devastating consequences.
More than 40 properties were destroyed or damaged when the burn became out of control and raged across 3400 hectares.
Rather than pointing the blame on any individual, Mr Keelty said the errors that led to the bushfire were made by people making decisions beyond their expertise and using the available resources.
“Many officers are required to make decisions affecting the lives and livelihood of the community which, on the face of it, do not match their pay scale,” the report says.
The union representing most DEC employees, the Community and Public Sector Union, claims the poor resources at DEC have forced some employees to work in excessive of 36 hours without a break and many others to regularly work 20 hours.
When they finished their ordinary day job with the department they were then on-call in case of a bushfire outside of hours.
“They’ll go home and be on-call to manage a fire incident, whether it’s small or big,” state secretary Toni Walkington said.
“They’ll spend whatever amount of hours that it takes and then they’ll report back the next day and do their parks and services job. So they don’t get breaks and that’s because DEC isn’t funded to have more people in those fire roles.”
Ms Walkington said their jobs also were made more difficult because of a lack of technology, including no electronic operational processes, meaning staff still had to do paperwork by hand.
They were also reluctant to put themselves on the on-call roster or take responsibility for fires because some employees had been publicly named and identified during the Margaret River inquiry.
“The spotlight is on them and criticisms have been made,” Ms Walkington said.
August-Margaret River Shire Mayor Ray Colyer said DEC employees now feared walking the street in their work uniforms following community outrage over the department’s failure to contain the prescribed burn.
Ignition of the Bison Flats prescribed fire, Wind Cave National Park. Photo by Bill Gabbert
The South Carolina legislature is considering a bill that would eliminate frivolous lawsuits over smoke created by a prescribed fire. House Bill 3631, the “Prescribed Fire Act” would protect the property owner unless gross negligence is proven. This would change the present language of “negligence” to “gross negligence”, raising the bar in proving damages in a lawsuit. The bill is in the hands of the Senate Fish, Game and Forestry Committee and should be placed on the calendar within the next few weeks.
It would stipulate for prescribed fires:
A prescribed fire plan must be prepared before the State Commission of Forestry authorizes the prescribed fire.
At least one certified fire manager must be present.
Prescribed fires are considered to be in the public interest and not constitute a public or private nuisance when conducted pursuant to state air pollution statutes and smoke management guidelines.
Prescribed fires are considered the property right of the property owner.
No property owner or lessee or his agent or employee conducting a prescribed fire pursuant to this chapter is liable for damage, injury, or loss caused by fire, resulting smoke, or other consequences of the prescribed fire unless negligence is proven.
The new bill removes smoke from the “negligence” category and requires “gross negligence” for any lawsuits.
Below is the full text of the bill, H. 3631, as of February 22, 2012 at 10:16 AM:
TO AMEND SECTION 48-34-40, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO THE REQUIREMENTS FOR CONDUCTING A PRESCRIBED FIRE, SO AS TO FURTHER SPECIFY SUPERVISION REQUIREMENTS FOR A PRESCRIBED FIRE MANAGER AND TO REFERENCE SPECIFIC REGULATORY AND STATUTORY PROVISIONS APPLICABLE TO CONDUCTING A PRESCRIBED FIRE; AND TO AMEND SECTION 48-34-50, RELATING TO LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES CAUSED BY A PRESCRIBED FIRE, SO AS TO PROVIDE THAT A PROPERTY OWNER, LESSEE, AGENT, OR EMPLOYEE IS NOT LIABLE FOR DAMAGES CAUSED BY THE RESULTING SMOKE OF A PRESCRIBED FIRE UNLESS GROSS NEGLIGENCE IS PROVEN.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. Section 48-34-40 of the 1976 Code is amended to read:
“Section 48-34-40. Prescribed fires conducted pursuant to this chapter:
(1) must have a prescribed fire plan prepared before authorization to burn is given by the State Commission of Forestry, and the plan must be on site and followed during the burn;
(2) must have at least one certified prescribed fire manager present andwho must consider both fire behavior and smoke management issues while supervising the burn from ignition until it is declared safe according to certification guidelines;
(3) are considered in the public interest and do not constitute a public or private nuisance when conducted pursuant to state air pollution statutes, smoke management guidelines, as provided for in Regulations 61-62.2, or a successor regulation thereto, and regulationsother statutory provisions applicable to the use of prescribed fire, as provided for in Chapter 35 and Chapter 2, Title 50; and
(4) are considered a property right of the property owner.”
SECTION 2. Section 48-34-50 of the 1976 Code is amended to read:
“Section 48-34-50. NoA property owner or lessee or his agent or employee conducting a prescribed fire pursuant to this chapter is not liable for damage, injury, or loss caused by fire, resulting smoke, or other consequences of the prescribed fire unless negligence is proven. A property owner or lessee or his agent or employee conducting a prescribed fire pursuant to this chapter is not liable for damage, injury, or loss caused by the resulting smoke of a prescribed fire unless gross negligence is proven.”
SECTION 3. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.
The Kisatchie National Forest near Alexandria, Louisiana (map) has plans to burn 130,000 acres in prescribed fires this year, according to Ed Bratcher, the U.S. Forest Service Fire, Land and Mineral Team leader. Much of the ignition will be done with a helicopter. Here is a link to a recent video in which Larry Kyle said they were about to ignite a 1,155-acre prescribed fire with 14 firefighters, including those in the helicopter. He expected they could get it done in four to five hours.
Extremely dry in some regions of the United States
I stopped trying to predict the intensity of fire seasons long ago. The number of fires and acres burned is primarily affected by the weather DURING the fire season. If the fire season is cool and wet, there will not be many large fires. But if the current trends continue for several months, the extremely dry conditions in some areas of the United States could lead to firefighters being very busy.
The “Percent of Normal Precipitation” map indicates that those areas include the upper midwest, the southwest and the southeast. As the east coast and midwest enter their fire seasons, firefighters could find themselves going from fire to fire.
The CBS station in Minneapolis, Minnesota quotes Byron Paulson, the Fire Weather Program Leader at the National Weather Service, as saying he’s never seen the land as dry as it is this year.
Below is one of the maps from our article on February 1 which covered the wildfire potential for the next 30 to 90 days.
The Hot Springs Fire Department annually conducts a prescribed fire along the Fall River flood channel in Hot Springs, South Dakota. This prevents woody vegetation from growing and clogging the waterway. The reeds and grasses grow back quickly.
