Jim Strain, Assistant Chief for Operations with the South Dakota Division of Wildland Fire Suppression, distributed the information below about the condition of Austin Whitney who was seriously injured while fighting the Coal Canyon fire north of Edgemont, South Dakota on Thursday, August 11. This is the same fire on which Trampus Haskvisk was killed when their engine crew was burned over. Information about Trampus’ funeral can be found HERE. Three other firefighters were also injured on Thursday but were treated and released.
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Just wanted to pass on an update on the condition of Austin Whitney, the SDS WFS seasonal firefighter that was involved in the burn over of State Engine 561 on the Coal Canyon fire on Thursday.
This information has been provided by the family and Austin, and they want to share this information, so feel free to pass on to anyone else that wants to know. My e-mail list is by no means inclusive.
Austin is at the Western States Burn Unit in the North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley. I accompanied the family down to Greeley on Friday, and have been in contact since my arrival back home. But as of today, Austin had 13% of his body burned, and will be going procedures starting Monday to skin graft the serious burned area on his left elbow and arm. Thankfully, his lungs and airways were spared from the heat. But he has a long road ahead with recovery and rehab. Austin is engaged and alert, shows a determined spirit, visits with the nurses and family when he can, and is talking to friends and family on his cell phone.
The family asked if some of fellow fire crew members from the Hot Springs field office could visit, so I have sent down Steve Esser, Ben Maisel and Kevin Fees today to visit with family and Austin before he starts the skin graft procedure. Steve will provide an updated report to us when gets back. In addition, Bob Whitney, Austin’s dad, did an interview with the Rapid City Journal about Austin, and that should be in the newspaper soon.
The Wildland Firefighter Foundation has been most supportative and helpful. They have provided the rental car and motel rooms for the family and his fiancé, Becky Dawson. The Greeley Fire Department has dropped by everyday to check on the family.
Cards and letters can be sent to: North Colorado Medical Center, Attn: Austin Whitney, Burn Unit, 1801 16th St, Greeley Colorado, 80631. We will be working with the family to get a Caring Bridge website set up. Bob and Julie Whitney, Austin’s mom and dad, are always appreciative of any support they can get at this time.
The funeral for Trampus Haskvisk who died fighting the Coal Canyon fire north of Edgemont, South Dakota will be at 2:00 p.m. Tuesday, August 16 at the Mueller Center on 6th Street in Hot Springs, SD. Trampus was a five-year veteran with the South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression Division so I hope there is a large turnout as a show of respect for him and his family.
Below is the information about the funeral service that was distributed by Rod Seals, Operations Chief for the Rapid City Fire Department:
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Schedule for Funeral Service for Firefighter Trampus Haskvitz
Note: All Public Safety and Emergency Responders are encouraged to attend the funeral/celebration of life services for Trampus Haskvitz. Because we are unsure of the number of you that will be attending, we ask that you RSVP by calling Rapid City Fire Department, Station 1 at (605) 394-4180 with the following information: Agency name, total number of personnel attending (including family) and number of emergency vehicles that will be in the procession.
Tuesday Line-Up:
All South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression Division, Black Hills National Forest – Hells Canyon District, and the National Park Service – Wind Cave personnel are asked to arrive at the Mueller’s Civic Center 11:30 to line up for the procession. Line-up for these agencies will be in front of the Muellers Center on 6th street. Your family is welcome to sit with you in a designated seating area.
All WFS, BHNF-Hells Canyon District, and NPS-Wind Cave personnel are asked to follow the signs to the staging area within the Mueller’s Civic Center. Seating will begin at 1:30 pm.
All other Public Safety Departments & Agency Personnel not included in the list above are asked to line up on Galveston Avenue (1/2 block east of the Mueller Center) starting at 12:30 pm. Departments are asked to use the following route when lining up on Galveston Ave. Highway 18 Bypass turning right onto Galveston Avenue.
Seating will begin at 1:00 pm.
The funeral service will begin at 2:00 pm.
Tuesday Procession:
Following the service, WFS, BHNF-Hells Canyon District, and NPS-Wind Cave personnel should line up outside the Mueller Civic Center as Firefighter Trampus Haskvitz is escorted to a fire engine. After Trampus is escorted firefighters are asked to return to their vehicles as quickly as possible.
The procession will run west of 6th street, left on South River Street, right on Cold Brook Avenue, left on School Street, entering Evergreen Cemetery. A map will be handed out as you line up in the staging area.
During the procession the Fall River County Dispatch will sound the emergency sirens twice.
If your agency provides you with a Class A Uniform, please wear it.
Should you not have a Class A Uniform, you are asked to wear your Class B (tie and uniform shirt) or Class C Uniform (agency uniform with no tie).
Crew personnel should wear their crew shirts.
Incident personnel should wear either a Rocky Mountain Team shirt or nomex.
On Thursday, August 11, a firefighter employed by the state of South Dakota was killed in an entrapment on a wildfire. Here is an excerpt from theRapid City Journal:
A Hot Springs seasonal firefighter died and two others were injured after being caught in a burn-over while fighting the Coal Canyon Fire near Edgemont on Thursday afternoon.
Trampus Haskvitz, 23, died from injuries he suffered when winds from a storm system pushed the fire into the area he was working, trapping him and two others.
Haskvitz and the others were fighting a lightning-sparked fire about 9 miles north of Edgemont.
The injured are Austin Whitney and Kevin Fees, also of Hot Springs. The men were airlifted to Rapid City Regional Hospital.
Whitney is being transferred tonight to a burn center in Greeley, Colo.
Fees is in stable condition at Rapid City Regional Hospital.
“This is very sad news,” Gov. Dennis Daugaard said in a prepared statement. “Linda and I are praying for Trampus’ loved ones, and for the firefighters who were injured. Too many times in recent weeks, South Dakotans have been reminded just how much we owe to the firefighters, law enforcement and others who risk their lives to protect us all.”
The three firefighters were seasonal employees of the South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression Division.
Our sincere condolences go out to the families and co-workers, and we hope for a quick recovery for the two injured firefighters.
South Dakota firefighters have been busy over the last month. The WhoopUp fire that burned from Wyoming into South Dakota blackened over 10,000 acres in mid-July and prompted a fire behavior advisory that warned of unusually high rates of spread on fires due to heavier than normal winter and spring rains that led to a thick growth of grass.
I have had some requests to see more of the photos of the WhoopUp fire that I took southeast of Newcastle, Wyoming on July 18, 2011…. so, I put a bunch of them in a slide show.
The WhoopUp fire started four days ago on July 17, and late today the incident management team for the first time made a good quality, fairly current, map available to the public. It can be found on InciWeb and clearly shows the controlled and uncontrolled portions of the fire perimeter as of 8:00 a.m. today. It is a great map, but maps like this could have been made available to the public two or three days ago. A Geographic Information System (GIS) specialist can make one of these in a couple of hours after someone flies around the fire with a GPS receiver.
Providing this important information to the public that is affected by the fire is an important responsibility of the fire managers. Ideally, the Situation Unit on a fire would collect the fire perimeter data late in the afternoon near the end of the burning period and the updated map would be available later that night or no later than 7:00 a.m. the next morning. And if the fire team is fully staffed, they could even do this twice a day if the fire is moving rapidly.
InciWeb is the place these maps should be posted, since we have been trained for years that it is the default place, the one common source, for information about large wildfires and other incidents across the United States. Posting photographs and maps on Flickr and other obscure commercial and government agency sites, like some fires have done over the last month, does not serve the public. And it leads to questions and confusion about copyrights for documents and photos that are in the public domain. Government photos have appeared on Flickr with a copyright warning — for photos that should be in the public domain.
But getting back to the updated information on InciWeb… The new adjusted size is 8,884 acres, down 1,116 acres from the 10,000-acre figure that was on InciWeb around noon today. The acreage figure includes both fires, WhoopUp and Barell. The new map, with data current as of 8:00 a.m. today, shows no completed fireline on the Barrel fire, which is 4 miles south of the WhoopUp fire. Since the main WhoopUp fire appears to be approximately 80-90% contained, the Team was going to shift some resources to the Barrel fire, so maybe they made significant progress on that fire today, making use of the two heavy air tankers and the three heavy helicopters.
In looking at the new map, the Barrel fire appears to be approximately 1,500 acres. The map also shows a fire that is new to me, about a mile northwest of the Barrel fire, perhaps 30-60 acres in size.
Since the Incident Management Team is now beginning to provide some current information to the public on InciWeb, we will cut back on the production of our cobbled-together maps. While they have been fairly accurate, using the best satellite data available, they can’t compare to one made when you have access to a helicopter and a GIS specialist.
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UPDATE at 1:42 p.m. MT, July 21, 2011: According to updated information at InciWeb, the official size of the two fires combined, WhoopUp and Barrell, is now 10,000 acres, an increase of 2,629 acres over the size that was announced this morning. Smoke can be smelled in Hot Springs, SD.
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7:21 a.m. MT, July 21, 2011. We will update this article as needed today.
Evacuations were lifted Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. for the WhoopUp fire, which straddles the border between Wyoming and South Dakota seven miles southeast of Newcastle, Wyoming. The strong winds that were forecast for Wednesday did not materialize, at least at the Red Mountain weather station southeast of the fire. The Barrel fire four miles south of the WhoopUp fire, the result of two fires burning together, is being managed with the WhoopUp fire and has been active over the last 24 hours. It will be the main focus of firefighters on Thursday, Steve Till, a spokesperson for the fire told us.
Numbers:
Acres: 7,371, which includes both the WhoopUp and Barrel fires, an increase of 1,827 acres.
Containment: 40%, down from 60% yesterday.
Helicopters: 3 Type 1 (heavy), and 1 Type 3 (light)
The weather forecast for the fire area on Thursday predicts 90 degrees, winds out of the southwest and west at 8-14 with gusts up to 16-18, relative humidity of 17%, and 0-12% chance of precipitation.
Map showing heat detected by satellites on the Whoopup and Barrel fires at 3:00 a.m. MT, July 21 2011. The red areas represent active burning, while the black and yellow areas indicate heat detected within the last 12 or 24 hours respectively. The brown cross-hatched area is the fire perimeter provided by the incident management team at 10:00 p.m. July 19, 2011. MODIS/Bill GabbertFirefighters burn out from a wet line on the WhoopUp fire, July 19, 2011. Photo: Frank Carroll, USFSWhoopUp Fire. Unknown date. Photo by Shelia French.
The Rapid City Journal has an excellent gallery of photos of the fire and also a few taken at the air tanker base at Rapid City Regional Airport. The caption on THIS picture is, unfortunately wrong, and should read: “I’ll be glad when they get that busted hose fixed. It’s getting old filling the air tankers with these damn buckets!”
A few updated facts about the WhoopUp fire from a spokesperson for the fire:
A recent GPS mapping flight revealed that the fire has burned 7,343 acres.
Today there are two or three heavy air tankers available and one more on order. (The number varies depending which official source you talk to.)
Four large Type 1 helicopters are assigned to the fire. These typically come with significant entourages and large fuel and maintenance trucks. They are working out of the Newcastle Airport. It’s quite a coup to get four of these large helicopters on a 7,000-acre fire. They can be VERY effective if a water source is nearby, with each dropping many thousands of gallons of water every hour. One smaller Type 3 helicopter is on the fire, primarily being used for mapping, observation, and intelligence gathering.
The Barrel fire five miles south of the WhoopUp fire began as two separate fires that, according to a spokesperson for the fire, grew together. The suppression of that fire is being handled by the WhoopUp fire organization.
Today a new fire started along the railroad tracks near Edgemont, 34 miles south of the WhoopUp fire (map). It burned a couple of hundred acres between two roads before firefighters burned out from the roads and stopped the spread.
=================== UPDATE at 9:50 a.m. MT July 20, 2011: updated the map and included more details about the WhoopUp and the Barrel fires, and added a new map showing nine other fires in the area.
==================== 8:45 a.m. MT, July 20, 2011:
We will update this article throughout the day.
Here is a map of the WhoopUp fire showing heat detected by satellites at at 3:59 a.m. MT July 20, 2011. The red areas depict active burning, while the yellow and black areas indicates heat detected within the last 12 or 24 hours respectively.
Whoopup fire map, 3:59 a.m. MT, July 20, 2011. MODIS/Bill Gabbert
The heat sources in South Dakota about five miles south of the WhoopUp fire are from a new fire, the Barrel fire. It is being managed by the same team suppressing the WhoopUp fire.
A spokesperson for the fire, Hollie Belmedico, told us that firefighters made good progress on the 5,544-acre fire Tuesday night and now they are able to call it 40% contained. There are at least 250 firefighters and six dozers assigned, along with a mix of Type 1 and Type 3 helicopters. Ms. Belmedico did not know how many helicopters or air tankers will be available today or the size of the new Barrel fire.
The weather forecast for the area of the fire has changed a little. Yesterday the Weather Service said the relative humidity would bottom out at 31%, but today they are forecasting a minimum RH of 25%, a high temperature of 83, winds out of the northwest (then north and later northeast) at 11-23 gusting up to 31, a 31% cloud cover, and 0-10% chance of precipitation. The predicted winds and the lower humidity could cause the fire to spread to the southeast, and later in the afternoon and evening to the south and eventually the southwest — unless the firefighters have strong firelines in place on the south side of the fire.
The map below shows fires or reports of fires that firefighters have responded to in the Newcastle and Custer area since July 18. Most of them were suppressed at less than 3 acres.
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