Tag: Station Fire

The Los Angeles Times was the first news organization to point out that the U. S. Forest Service had a less than aggressive suppression effort in place on the morning of the second day of the fire that eventually burned 160,000 acres and claimed the lives of two firefighters in southern California. On Saturday afternoon they ran another in their series of articles, uncovering more damning details, including quotes from firefighters who were on the scene. Check it out HERE.

On October 12 Wildfire Today reported that investigators trying to determine the cause of the Station fire wanted to talk to Babatunsin Olukunle, 25, who was spotted by U. S. Forest Service workers as he walked away from the August 20 Lady Bug fire that started six miles away from the origin of the August 26 Station fire.

Mr. Olukunle was arrested on Thursday by sheriff’s deputies in Lancaster, CA and charged with one felony count of unlawfully causing a fire on forest land, the Lady Bug fire, which burned a few square feet. The investigators want to talk with him about the Station fire but they are not listing him as a suspect yet.

The Station fire started on August 26 and burned over 160,000 acres near Los Angeles. Two firefighters from L.A. County Fire Department were killed in the fire when their truck fell into a ravine. A reward of $150,000 has been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the arsonist.

The Station fire was officially 100% contained on Friday, October 16.

The Oct. 14 edition of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric had a segment about the controversy over day number two of the Station fire near Los Angeles and the fact that the number of firefighters and helicopters were reduced from the day before. Wildfire Today first reported on this October 1 HERE. The fire eventually burned over 160,000 acres and is the largest fire in recorded history in Los Angeles County. Which is saying something, considering the fire history in that area.

Adding fuel to the issue is a memo from the USFS regional office to the forest supervisors in California three weeks before the fire which ordered them to minimize the use of state and local firefighting resources as a cost reduction measure and that “fire resources be managed to ensure no deficits”.

An investigation is underway by the USFS, so we’ll wait to see what that uncovers.

When I learned how to fight fire in California we were taught to attack a fire aggressively and with overwhelming force. It’s hard to do that while minimizing costs and reducing assistance from your cooperators. But in the long run it can actually keep the fire smaller and reduce the overall costs. Bean counters sitting at desks in regional offices don’t always realize this.

Thanks Kelly

The LA Times has the story about how three weeks before the 160,000-acre Station fire near Los Angeles, the Regional Forester for the U. S. Forest Service sent a memo to the forest supervisors in California ordering them to minimize the use of state and local firefighting resources as a cost reduction measure. Federal firefighters make far less money than their state and local brethren. 

Here is an excerpt from the LA Times article:

An internal memorandum obtained by The Times instructed forest supervisors in the Pacific Southwest region to replace non-federal crews “as appropriate” and with the service’s own personnel and equipment “as quickly as possible.”

Forest Service officials have denied that cost concerns led them to deploy fewer ground crews and helicopters from Los Angeles County on the second morning of the Station fire.

Today, the No. 2 official in the Forest Service, Associate Chief Hank Kashdan, said the Aug. 5 memo should have had “nothing to do with our approach to suppressing a large fire, or a fire that’s going at any present time.”

Kashdan nevertheless said a Forest Service investigation of the attack on the Station blaze would examine whether budget worries had influenced the judgment of those deploying firefighters and equipment.

“It’s fair to everybody to let that investigation run its course and see what the review finds,” he said.

Now that the LA Times published the article on Sunday that said the U. S. Forest Service underestimated they threat of the Station fire near Los Angeles on its second day, some local residents are now calling for an investigation about how the resources were assigned early in the fire.

Many of the complaints revolve around how many aircraft were assigned on the second day, and that only three water-dropping helicopters were initially ordered that morning. The media frequently encourages the erroneous belief that if you utilize enough aircraft, a fire will go out, and the public has bought into this belief. Of course aircraft can’t put out a fire; it takes boots on the ground to do that.

It is always a difficult battle to win when you attempt to publicly debate tactics about a very specialized and technical operation, be it a war on the other side of the world or a fire in your own backyard. First you have to educate everyone who is engaged in the debate, but some people are impervious to education on a particular topic once their minds are made up.

My mind is made up, don’t bother me with facts.

Here is an excerpt from the most recent article in the LA Times about the criticism being aimed at the firefighting agencies:

Big Tujunga Canyon residents and others reeling from the Station fire called Monday for a federal investigation into what they termed a poor initial response to the deadly blaze by the U.S. Forest Service.

“It was beyond irresponsibility, beyond neglect,” said Cindy Marie Pain, who lost her Big Tujunga Canyon home to the fire, which broke out in the Angeles National Forest on Aug. 26.

Pain and other residents said they were outraged by a Times article Sunday that reported the Forest Service had underestimated the danger posed by the fire and scaled back an attack on the flames the night before the blaze began to rage out of control.

“When it’s small, that’s when you jump on it,” said Bronwen Aker, a Vogel Flats resident who set up a website, www.angelesrising.org, for fire victims.

Her home was spared, but those of many of her neighbors were destroyed.

“A lot of residents are incredibly embittered about the way it was handled,” Aker said.

Bob Kerstein, who lost a cabin and a house on gold-mining property that his family owns in the forest, said Congress should investigate the Forest Service’s tactics.

“It’s crazy what happened here,” he said. “There are a lot of heroes in this — the firefighters who were on the line. But the people who should be held accountable are the people who made the decision not to put the fire out in the 48 hours after it started.”

Leo Grillo, an actor who runs an animal sanctuary that was threatened by the blaze, said any investigation should also examine the lack of a more aggressive air assault later in the fire, especially when it appeared to have flagged on Day Five.

“They had the golden opportunity to put it out and they didn’t,” he said.

The Times reported that the Forest Service had been confident that the fire was nearly contained on the first day, and the agency decided that evening to order just three water-dropping helicopters to hit the blaze shortly after dawn on its second day — down from five on Day One, documents and interviews show.

The Forest Service also prepared to go into mop-up mode with fewer firefighters on the ground, according to records and officials.

Early in the morning on the second day, the Forest Service realized that three helicopters would not be enough and summoned two more later in the morning, Angeles Forest Fire Chief David Conklin said. More engine companies and ground crews were also deployed, but it would prove too late.

On Day Two, the Los Angeles County Fire Department lent the Forest Service a heli-tanker but denied a request for another smaller chopper — an action that residents say should be reviewed. Chief Deputy John Tripp, the No. 2 official in the county department, said he withheld the second aircraft because he did not believe the fire was endangering neighborhoods near its suspected ignition point above La Cañada Flintridge, and because the county must hold on to some helicopters for other emergencies.

Thanks Dick

The Los Angeles times has a story that quotes the Fire Management Officer for the Angeles National Forest as saying they underestimated how many resources would be needed on the second day of the fire that has now burned 160,000 acres near Los Angeles. 

Here is an excerpt from the article:

U.S. Forest Service officials underestimated the threat posed by the deadly Station fire and scaled back their attack on the blaze the night before it began to rage out of control, records and interviews show.

In response to Times inquiries, officials for the Forest Service and Los Angeles County Fire Department said they probably will change their procedures so that the two agencies immediately stage a joint assault on any fire in the lower Angeles National Forest.

Angeles Forest Fire Chief David Conklin said his staff was confident that the Station fire had been “fairly well contained” on the first day, so it decided that evening to order just three water-dropping helicopters to hit the blaze shortly after dawn on its second day — down from five on Day One — and prepared to go into mop-up mode with fewer firefighters on the ground.

The Forest Service realized overnight that three helicopters would not be enough, and brought in two more later in the morning, Conklin said. More engine companies and ground crews were also summoned, but it would prove too late.

“We felt we had sufficient resources,” Conklin said. “There’s always that lesson. We’ll always have that in the back of our minds.”

On the second day of the blaze, which started Aug. 26, the county Fire Department lent the Forest Service a heli-tanker but denied its request for another smaller chopper. Chief Deputy John Tripp, the No. 2 official in the department, said he made that decision because he did not believe the fire was endangering neighborhoods near its suspected ignition point above La Cañada Flintridge, and because the county must hold on to some helicopters for other emergencies. Helicopters are often key to corralling wildfires early on.

“If there was a threat that morning to the community of La Cañada . . . we would have dispatched more helicopters,” Tripp said.

In the future, he said, setting up a joint command with the Forest Service as soon as a fire breaks out — including possibly at high elevations — should make it easier for the agencies to muster each other’s helicopters, engines and ground crews. Currently, joint commands are established only if a blaze presents an imminent threat to foothill communities.

“We have to be that much more robust in our response,” Tripp said. “That’s what, on a personal note, I have learned from this.”

On the first day, the Forest Service expected that the Station firecould be controlled by the following afternoon, with no buildings lost and with minimal harm to the natural treasures of the San Gabriel Mountains, according to documents and officials. 

By nightfall on Day Two, the fire was burning nearly unchecked into the forest, despite low winds. The conflagration would become the largest in the county’s recorded history, blackening more than 160,000 acres of chaparral and centuries-old trees, destroying dozens of dwellings and killing two county firefighters who died when their truck fell off a mountain road.