Wildfire Today

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Wildfire Today

Tag: South Carolina

Wildfire briefing, April 9, 2014

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , , , ,

MAFFS training in California

The California Channel Islands Air National Guard Station at Port Hueneme is conducting annual refresher and certification training this week for their crews that staff the C-130 aircraft used as air tankers when outfitted with the transportable Modular Airborne FireFighting System (MAFFS).

The Wyoming and North Carolina National Guard MAFFS units will train in Cheyenne, Wyoming beginning April 28, while the Colorado Springs Air Force Reserve unit will hold their training the week of May 16.

The four military units that host MAFFS crews have a total of eight C-130 aircraft that can be activated when what remains of the federal air tanker fleet is committed to going fires or initial attack.

Michigan man dies of injuries suffered while burning brush

A 70-year old man died after he was badly burned in a brush fire near Hart, Michigan on Monday, April 8. From mlive.com:

Roger D. Kludy, 70, died at the hospital, according to Oceana County Sheriff’s Lt. Craig Mast. There was little information known about the incident early Tuesday morning, Mast said. But authorities believe Kludy was burning brush on Adams Road Monday afternoon when something went awry and Kludy suffered severe burns. Michigan State Police is handling the investigation, Mast said.

South Carolina brush fire burns or damages 13 structures

A brush fire near Greer, South Carolina that started from a lit cigarette, caused damage estimated at $1.8 million on Wednesday, April 2. The fire destroyed three units in a condominium and a single family dwelling. Nine other structures were damaged.

Training residents to spot wildfires

“Woods Watch” training is being offered Friday to residents in Flagstaff, Arizona. According to the AP, in the one-hour course participants will learn how to properly report incidents that could start wildfires, such as people sneaking into closed areas and disregarding fire restrictions.

Incident Management Teams meet in Cheyenne

Incident Management Teams from the Rocky Mountain Region are holding their annual meeting in Cheyenne, Wyoming this week to review standard operating procedures, discuss new policies, and get to know each other before the wildland fire season begins. About 250 team members will attend from Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

Dozens of structures destroyed in South Carolina brush fire

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags

Saturday afternoon a wildfire in Horry County, South Carolina spread to a single-family home and then ignited and burned 26 buildings containing 109 housing units. All are considered a total loss.

On Sunday a spokesperson for the South Carolina Forestry Commission said the fire’s point of origin was near power lines.

Ten search and rescue teams made up of county police and firefighters went through the community looking for possible victims.

South Carolina firefighter killed while responding to fire

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , ,

A volunteer firefighter with the Dorchester Rural Fire Department was killed Sunday afternoon. Michael Louis Broz, 58, of Ridgeville South Carolina was responding in his own 1977 Ford truck to a fire in Francis Beidler Forest, an Audubon wildlife sanctuary, when the truck left the road and struck a tree. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Mr. Broz was the only occupant and was wearing a seat belt, according to the Highway Patrol.

Our sincere condolences go out to his family and other members of the fire department.

Wildland firefighter LODDs, 2010

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

At Wildfire Today we try to keep track of the line of duty deaths (LODD) of firefighters working on wildland fires. The past year, 2010, again produced a lengthy list of firefighters who passed away while doing their job. We make no claim that it is a complete or official tally. If you are aware of any that we missed, let us know. Some of the dates are approximate and may be the date of the report of the fatality. The last three incidents are gray areas, in that the victims were not all firefighters, or were not necessarily actively involved in fire suppression at the time of the incident. They were included because they were very significant incidents.

At the end of the list is a report from the U.S. Fire Administration providing their statistics on the number of LODDs for 2010.

January 11. Australia. A firefighter was killed and four others were injured when their fire truck rolled over while they were responding to a grass fire at Lake Mokoan near Benalla in northeast Victoria, Australia. (map)

April 11. Kansas.  A firefighter was overcome by smoke and died while working on a fire west of Peru.

April 24. New Brunswick, Canada. A pilot from Grand Falls, with Forest Protection Ltd., was conducting a practice flight in a water bomber when the plane crashed shortly after taking off from the airport.

June 23. Washington. The chief of the Franklin Fire District 4 in Basin City, Washington, was killed when a snow cat that had been converted to a fire apparatus rolled about 100 feet down a hill while he was working on a vegetation fire.

July 30. Russia. Wildfires in Russia killed at least 25 people including 2 firefighters, and destroyed over 1,000 homes. Some reports say three firefighters died in the fires.

July 31. Canada. An air tanker crashed while working on a fire in British Columbia. The Convair 580, operated by Conair, went down in central B.C. The two pilots were killed.

August 2. Arkansas. A firefighter was operating an Arkansas Forestry Commission 2002 International tractor trailer, and was en route to check on the status of an earlier fire. The tractor trailer load reportedly shifted causing the vehicle to cross the roadway center line, go into a ditch and then overturn.

August 11. Portugal. Civil protection officials said a female firefighter died, one fireman was badly burned and their team had to be evacuated when they found themselves surrounded by flames after a sudden change in the direction of the wind in Gondomar region. On Monday, a fireman was killed and another seriously injured when their truck fell into a burning ravine in the mountainous Sao Pedro do Sul area.

August 13. Spain. Two firefighters were been killed in wildfires. The blazes hit near the village of Fornelos de Montes in the country’s northwestern Galicia region, close to the border with Portugal, where several forest fires are still raging.

September 21. Spain. A 46-year old firefighter died while extinguishing a wildfire in Senes.

September 24. Ohio. A firefighter was killed when a pressurized tank failed and he was struck by debris.

September 24. Virginia. A firefighter collapsed and later died while working on a fire in New Church, Virginia off Route 13.

November 16. South Carolina. A firefighter was suppressing a grass fire in the median of Interstate 20 when a van rear-ended a sedan as they approached the fire scene. The sedan was pushed into two parked fire trucks causing them to crash into a firefighter, causing his death.

November 23. California. One inmate was killed and 12 were injured when their crew carrier vehicle was involved in a head-on accident. Three of the injured were in critical condition. The elderly driver of the other vehicle was also killed. As far as we know the inmate crew was not assigned to a fire at the time of the crash.

December 5. China. A massive wildfire in Tibet’s Sichuan province killed 22 people, including Chinese soldiers during a rescue operation. Of the 22 killed, 15 were soldiers, two were workers with the grassland administration, and five others were local civilians.

December 6. Israel. At least one of the 43 government employees that were killed in the Carmel Mountain fire in Israel was a police officer. The Police Chief in Haifa (Israel) died in the Line of Duty from her burn injuries after 4 days of hospitalization. She was the first ever woman police chief there, and was gravely injured in the Carmel forest fire, while driving along with the bus full of Prison Service cadets that burned and killed the cadets as well.

Below is the The U.S. Fire Administration’s report of the on-duty firefighter fatalities in 2010. Click on FullScreen to see a larger version.

Continue reading “Wildland firefighter LODDs, 2010”

The South Carolina burnovers

Author BillPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags ,

On Friday Wildfire Today covered the two burnovers on the Highway 31 fire near North Myrtle Beach in South Carolina.  The Post and Courier interviewed the tractor plow operators that became entrapped and has a very interesting article told from their points of view. Here is how the article begins, but you should read the whole piece at the Post and Courier (link no longer works).

Eight hours into the state’s worst wildfire in 30 years, with visibility next to nothing and flames shooting up pine trees, Wayne Springs and Terry Cook manned bulldozers on the fire’s left flank.

The smoke was bad enough, but now it was getting dark. They were working in a muddy area around a power pole when Springs’ bulldozer got stuck. Cook came around to help pull him out, but she got stuck too.

The wind shifted. Suddenly, instead of being behind the fire, they were in its path.

[…]

Springs radioed for help, but the fire was running too fast now, faster than he or Cook ever could run. The fire was like a giant tumbleweed, throwing off embers into the distance as the mass of flames rolled toward them.

Neither Springs or Cook had seen anything like this before. Springs, 43, had been running plows for the Forest Commission for five years, and Cook, 44, had been doing it for four.

But their training kicked in, and they quickly pulled out bags containing special reflective aluminum blankets. “We’re deploying our shelters,” Springs said over the radio, the equivalent of sending a mayday.

They crouched in the bog, water up to their knees, and put the shelters over their heads as the fire roared closer. In western wildfires, some firefighters have panicked and run as the fire passed over, dying in the process.

Springs and Cook fought the urge to bolt as the 10-story-high flames neared. They heard bay bushes pop all around them, the waxy leaves fueling the fire with a substance as flammable as petroleum.

When Cook got under her shelter, she noticed the light from the fires turned the blanket orange.

Two minutes later, it was over.

Springs and Cook pulled off the blankets and watched the fire race ahead of them and out of sight. The forest smoldered around them. Cook got out her cell phone and snapped a photo of Springs with his shelter slung over his shoulder and thought she would remember that image for the rest of her life.

Justin Gibbins, battalion chief with the Horry County Fire and Rescue, heard the drama over the radio and waited. “We were holding our breaths,” he said. “When they came out, they looked very startled.”

[…]

At one point, Gibbins found himself in smoke so dense that he couldn’t see more than a few feet ahead. Less than 100 feet away, a Forestry Commission truck drove up with a bulldozer on a trailer bed. But the fire shot toward the worker as he tried to pull off the bulldozer’s chains.

“The fire came so quick, he had to run,” Gibbins said. The driver managed to save the truck, but the fire claimed the dozer.

We are very glad the firefighters are ok.

SC fire: 2 burnovers and a fire shelter deployment

Author BillPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , , 4 Comments on SC fire: 2 burnovers and a fire shelter deployment

On Wednesday, April 22 during the initial attack phase of the Highway 31 fire near North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, there were two separate incidents in which tractor-plow units were burned over.

The South Carolina Forestry Commission (SCFC) has released 24-Hour Preliminary Briefing reports on both incidents.  There were no injuries or fatalities in either case. Both reports refer to extreme fire behavior with spotting occurring 400-500 yards ahead of the main fire, which was burning in bay fuels. The fire reached approximately 9,000 acres during the initial operational period.

Here are excerpts from the SCFC reports:

Incident #1:

During the initial attack, a SCFC tractor-plow operator was on his tractor in the process of unloading while parked on a road right-of-way. Before the tractor was unloaded, the fire came out of the woods adjacent to the right-of-way and the operator left his unit and ran to a nearby safety zone. The operator was not injured, but the fire burned over the firefighting unit (tractor and transport) and was significantly damaged.

Incident #2:

During night operations, 5 SCFC tractor-plow units were constructing firebreaks in a power line right-of-way. Two units reached a wet area ahead of the remaining tractors and became stuck. The fire rapidly approached the right-of-way, and both tractor operators exited their units. The tractor-plow operators located a wet area within the firebreak and deployed their fire shelters in close proximity to their tractors to deflect radiant heat from the approaching fire. They remained in the shelters for a very short time period and suffered no burns or other injuries. The fire caused no damage to the tractor-plow units.

Geeze.  Be careful out there folks.

In case you are not familiar with tractor plows, here are some photos that I took on the Blackjack fire on the Okeefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia in 2002. On this particular plow, hydraulics are used to raise the tires, which in effect lowers the disks and the plow into the soil.

tractor plow on trailer
Tractor plow. Photo: Bill Gabbert
Tractor plow up close
Tractor plow up close. Photo: Bill Gabbert

Thanks, Mark.