News and opinion about wildland fire
A wildland firefighter in Spain told us about this video featuring the BRIF (reinforcement brigade forest fire). It covers their training and shows the firefighters working on fires.
The unit is celebrating their 21st anniversary after being created by former members of hotshot crews in 1994. Since then it has grown into 10 bases staffed by 600 firefighters.
In 2012 we had another video about this organization that impressed us with their skill in using flappers to suppress brush fires.
A person with the handle of @carlesdumont has been tweeting information today about a fire that we believe is in the Catalonia region of Spain. (I hope the pictures are visible below.) Google translated the person’s Twitter description as, “Prevention and suppression of forest fires; Palamos & Playa Del Carmen”.
El foc arrivant a #Calonge, molta precaució!! #IFVall_llobrega #incendis pic.twitter.com/lZABnEp62A
— 289-GI-014 ||*|| DUI (@carlesdumont) March 16, 2014
A warning was issued for boats to give a wide birth to the water scooping air tankers working the fire.
@cFocas de @magramagob a punt per carregar al Port de #Palamos. pic.twitter.com/8XoEOnNHvm
— 289-GI-014 ||*|| DUI (@carlesdumont) March 16, 2014
MT @Gironanoticies: 400 people evacuated due to #wildfire in Vall-llobrega, #Spain. [CATALÀN] http://t.co/rCuUlvSIRa pic.twitter.com/Hp0IN4KROq
— The Disaster Channel (@DisasterChannL) March 16, 2014
Molt bona aquesta companys, arabtoca descansar, salut!! #iiff #incendis #sabadell @MaerBombers pic.twitter.com/lrku1nsaYE
— 289-GI-014 ||*|| DUI (@carlesdumont) December 22, 2013
A video report, in Spanish, of a fire in Spain has some interesting visuals.
The video below features teams of bomberos (firefighters) in Spain who conduct prescribed fires and educate local residents about fire prevention. Their organization is called Equipos de Prevención Integral de Incendios Forestales (EPRIF), or Integrated Forest Fire Prevention Team.
It is interesting to see how firefighters in another part of the world accomplish the same tasks as those in North America, but with a different twist. We thank them for making the English language version of this video.
SPANISH Prescribed Burn Team – EPRIF from Madrid on Vimeo.
When we wrote about a fire engine near Jaen, Spain being used for purposes other than suppressing wildland fires, we asked for other photos of engines multi-tasking. Jesús Morcillo i Julià sent us the photo above with this description:
I’m a wildland firefighter in Valencian Community, in the East of Spain.
The service where I work is “Unitat de Brigades d’Emergència de la Generalitat Valenciana” or simply UBE.
The UBE is the essencial emergency service where valencian wildland firefighters are assigned and our mission is wildland firefighting and other emergency actions, mainly in the administrative area of the Valencian Country.
As you can see, during the off-season we and our vehicles are destinated to restore normalcy after the frequent snowstorms.
I hope you like the pic. It was taken in the Penyagolosa’s Natural Park, a really beautiful spot.
That’s all. Congrats for your very interesting website.
Thanks Jesús.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized2 Comments on What some fire vehicles do in southern Spain in January 
A new follower of @WildfireToday on Twitter, @m_sanchez_ruiz, posted the above photo Friday with this caption:
Vehículos contra incendios adaptados con palas quitanieves del dispositivo INFOCA. Esta semana han intervenido en Jaén.
Google Translate translated it like this:
Fire Vehicles fitted with snow plows INFOCA device. This week intervened in Jaén.
I’m thinking the photo was taken near Jaen in southern Spain. Wikipedia says the elevation there is 573 m (1,880 ft). A little research into “INFOCA”, again with the help of Google Translate, yielded this:
Canario Plan for Civil Protection and Emergency Management for Forest Fires
We would like to see other photos of fire vehicles being re-purposed during the off-season.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized3 Comments on Fighting a brush fire with flappers and a helicopter The video below shows something that I didn’t think was possible — fighting a brush fire with flappers. I have used them on grass and leaf litter fires, but never imagined that they could be an effective tool on a brush fire. However in this video which shows firefighters in Spain, they have the assistance of water drops from a helicopter.
It is an interesting video that features a helicopter-based wildland firefighting crew. Here is the description that is on YouTube, translated from Spanish by Google Translate:
Diary of a firefighter
A brief tour of the work of the fire fighters of BRIF (reinforcement Brigades forest fire) from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment.
MAGRAMA currently has ten BRIF service during summer campaigns, distributed all over the country, and five smaller BRIF during the winter-spring season, in the north and west of the peninsula during the winter also BRIF perform preventive tasks ranging from cleaning up tracks controlled burning. Their bases are located in areas of high fire risk or high forest wealth that must be protected. At the same time, seeking to achieve strategic locations by helicopter anywhere in the State within a reasonable time.
The video also has some footage of a fire whirl or fire tornado, however it is much smaller than some of the others we have reported on. But still, I would not want to be standing next to it.
Thanks go out to Juan
