Tag: Station Fire

Here is the preliminary, or “72-hour” report, issued by the Los Angeles County Fire Department about the two firefighters that were killed on the Station fire near Los Angeles on August 30, 2009.

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GREEN SHEET

INFORMATIONAL SUMMARY REPORT

Camp 16 Incident Vehicle Accident and Fatalities

August 30, 2009

CA-LAC-09196997

This Informational Summary Report is intended as an aid in accident prevention, and to provide factual information from the first 72 hours of the accident review. To that end it is published and distributed within a short time frame. Information contained within may be subject to revision as further investigation is conducted, and other reports and documents are received.

SYNOPSIS

On the afternoon of Sunday, August 30, 2009, at approximately 1645 hours, a County of Los Angeles Fire Department, Camp Superintendant (Fire Captain) and Camp Foreman (Fire Fighter Specialist) were involved in a single vehicle accident near Los Angeles County Fire Camp 16 (near Mt. Gleason).

Both firefighters died as a result of their injuries.

72 additional personnel were assigned to provide structure protection for Fire Camp 16 and they were forced to use structures, vehicles and fire shelters for protection from the rapidly approaching fire front.

These additional personnel included 2 Type 1 Engine Companies, 1 Type 4 Patrol, 1 Battalion Chief, 3 Crew Foreman, 3 California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation employees and 55 inmate firefighters.

Several of the personnel received injuries while trying to access and render aid to the firefighters who were involved in the vehicle accident and during the sheltering events.

NARRATIVE

On Saturday, August 29, the decision was made to evacuate all non-essential personnel from Fire Camp 16 due to the advancing fire front. A plan for defending the camp was developed and briefed to all of the remaining personnel.

On Sunday, August 30, 2009 at approximately 1500 hrs, personnel gathered at the camp helipad and observed fire to the west of the camp. At approximately 1530 hours, the decision was made to feed the inmate firefighters in anticipation of increased fire activity.

At approximately 1615 hours the fire conditions around the camp began to deteriorate very rapidly. There was an increase in temperature and wind speed. The decision was made to “shelter in place” the inmate firefighters while the engines and patrol were deployed as per the briefed plan.

During this time frame the Camp Superintendant and Camp Foreman drove to the area of the helipad and began a firing operation that was part of the briefed plan.

At approximately 1630 hours the dining facility was becoming untenable due to fire involvement. The order was given to the inmate firefighters to prepare fire shelters for deployment.

At this point there was radio traffic from the Battalion Chief advising all personnel to move to the north of the dining facility where there were better conditions. The personnel moved to the north with some utilizing their shelters to protect themselves. When they arrived at the crew transports they were directed to enter the transports for additional protection.

At approximately 1715 hours an accounting of all personnel began and it was determined that two personnel were missing. A search of the area was started for the missing individuals and their vehicle.

A short time later the missing vehicle was located approximately 800 feet below the road and it was determined that both the Camp Superintendant and the Camp Foreman had received fatal injuries.

CONTINUED SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS FOR EXTREME FIRE BEHAVIOR

Have adequate resources available to support all emergency operations at all times.

Maintain current information on fire weather forecasts and expected fire behavior. Identify adequate safety zones and escape routes, and update them regularly.

Maintain Situational Awareness and know what the fire is doing at all times.

Identify trigger points which allow for adequate time to evacuate after receiving notification by posted lookouts.

Allen Breed wrote a compelling article for the Associated Press about how the Station fire near Los Angeles completely destroyed Camp 16, and the story of the 55 inmate firefighters that watched in fear as the chow hall in which they had taken refuge burned around them.

This is how the article begins. Read the rest of it HERE. (Note and update on December 31, 2009: the article is no longer available. A more recent article about Camp 16 is on Wildfire Today HERE.)

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As he reached the door of the chow hall, Henry Navarro looked to his right and uttered an expletive. Then he looked to his left and spat out an even stronger one.

Many of the inmate firefighters at Mount Gleason Conservation Camp had been training for just this scenario for years. But nothing could have prepared them for the gantlet of fire they must now run.

The chow hall was supposed to be the “safety zone” for the more than five dozen people at the station. But it and every other building in the ridgetop camp were now engulfed in flames.

And their leaders — Capt. Ted Hall and Foreman Arnie Quinones — were somewhere out there in the inferno.

The order was given to make a run for the crew carriers.

As a swamper, essentially the senior inmate, David Clary had a radio and rode up front with the foreman. When everyone was in the small buses, he made a head count.

Meanwhile, the foremen were checking in with each other over the radios. Someone tried calling for Hall.

“Supe 16?” the radio barked.

Silence.

“Supe 16?” the call went out again and again.

The men heard nothing except the pounding of their own hearts and the ferocious roar of seemingly insatiable fire.

The LA Times has two interesting articles about the Station fire near Los Angeles. One is titled “L.A.’s nature haven, reduced to wasteland”. The other examines the cost of fighting the fire, which to date is $43 million.

The Station fire as seen from Mt. Wilson observatory, 8:22 p.m., Sept. 5The fire again was very active on the southeast flank on Saturday. Firefighters saved 23 recreational cabins near Three Points, east of Chilao early Sunday morning. The fire has burned 157,220 acres making it the tenth largest fire in California in modern history. It is 51% contained.

The firefighter who was exposed to cyanide on Tuesday remains in the hospital, but it is not a life-threatening condition. And the firefighter who fell off a 20-foot cliff on Wednesday and had a possible broken femur, has only a deep bruise and was released from the hospital.

If weather and fire conditions are favorable, today firefighters will use aerial ignition equipment on helicopters to burn out or backfire areas on the southeast side of the fire. They still expect to put in direct line on the fire’s edge in the San Gabriel Wilderness when it can be done safely.

Here is an update from the incident management team on Sunday morning:

Steep and rugged terrain combined with continued warm seasonal temperatures to challenge firefighters on the eastern perimeter of the fire yesterday. Even as crews mopped up and reinforced existing line, they dealt with spotting northeast of Chilao, and significant runs north of Cogswell Dam.

Crews planned on strengthening line and reducing fuel in the Chilao area today. Those plans changed when fire spotted over a dozer line east of Alder Saddle and west of Winston Ridge. As of 5:00 p.m. yesterday the fire remained west of the pushing east from the saddle. The most active fire for the day burned in this area, generating smoke columns for many miles in all directions. As part of a predetermined contingency plan, the incident command opted to dispatch fire and law resources to the community of Juniper Hills. No evacuation were ordered, but it is requested that all residents,especially animal owners, prepare themselves for any possibility in the future.

The area north of Cogswell Dam also generated significant fire during the afternoon hours. Heated southern and western aspects created intensified fire behavior, with significant upslope runs through heavy fuels. Hotshot crews, inserted with the intent to directly attack the fire, pulled back to safety with the increase in activity.

Thanks Dick

Here is an updated map of the Station fire near Los Angeles showing heat detected by satellites at 3:21 a.m. PT Sept. 5. The red areas contain heat that was detected within the previous 12 hours. The yellow area is the latest fire perimeter provided by the incident management team working on the fire.

GEOMAC

Below is another map, this one distributed by the incident staff. You can’t see a lot of detail, but it does have the completed line designated in black. However, the report below from the fire officials said the western perimeter line is complete, so the map is a little out of date.

The fire officials report, Saturday morning:

Firefighters made good progress over night and completed line construction on the western perimeter of the fire. They also successfully burned out areas between Bear Mountain and Chilao to extend the fire line on the northeastern perimeter. The fire is currently burning in the San Gabriel Wilderness. Today firefighters will continue to improve existing lines and concentrate efforts on containing the east and southeast flanks of the fire.

The fire has burned 154,655 acres, or 242 square miles, and is 49% contained.

In the news about the Station fire near Los Angeles:

Cause of the Station fire

Investigators found a “substance” near the point of origin that they have sent to a lab for analysis. It was not a device, but according to an LA Times source:

There was material that didn’t belong there. It was clear evidence that the fire was intentionally set.

Life in fire camp

An excerpt from the Missoulian:

“Good morning!” Capt. Chip Paulson shouts from the canvas deck chair beside his fire engine. Never mind that it’s just shy of 4 p.m.

With smoke from wildfires turning day into night, flame burning night into day, the Escondido firefighter figures he might as well call it morning. And at the massive incident base camp outside Los Angeles, half the population is always beginning another long day of fighting fire.

Clinging to the sere foothills overlooking the massive Hansen Dam, the camp is a military-style bivouac whose itinerant residents are battling back the flames from the largest wildfire that has ever threatened the “City of Angels.”

“This is a city,” U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Barbara Rebiskie says as she looks out over the mass of trailers and the clusters of dome tents that have sprouted like mushrooms on the soccer and baseball fields above the dam. “It’s like you watch it grow overnight.”

There are 4,700 people working the Los Angeles fires, with crews from as far away as Canada and New Mexico. And every one of them has to be paid, fed, showered.

On the main street of the camp, trailers line the tarmac like concessions on a carnival midway. There’s one for timesheets, another for equipment check-out, and others for communications, logistics and emergency medical care.

“You name it,” says Rebiskie, “it’s here.”

In the 100-degree heat, the stew of odors from diesel fuel, portable toilets, frying meat and burning wood is almost overpowering at times. In some places, the carbon monoxide from idling vehicles was so thick that the Department of Health cordoned off areas with police tape.

In the dirt parking lot where the crews park their engines, tankers rumble up and down spraying water in a seemingly futile effort to keep down the dust. But life at the camp is far from spartan.

Procession for fallen firefighter Ted Hall going on now

A procession is moving Ted Hall, one of the two firefighters killed on the Station fire, from West Hollywood to Victor Valley. According to Google Maps, it should take from 2-4 hours, depending on traffic. HERE is a map showing the route.

It’s hard to tell exactly, but it began around noon PT. As of about 12:15 PT, the vehicles were “exiting Valley from SB 605 heading towards FS43”. LA County FD is providing frequent updates about their location via their TWITTER account.

Cause is arson, homicide investigation begins

If anyone is killed on an arson-caused fire in California, the arsonist can be charged with murder. Here is an excerpt from an article in the New York Times:

A wildfire in the foothills north of Los Angeles that has claimed the lives of two firefighters, ravaged more than 250 square miles and destroyed more than 60 homes was caused by arson, the federal Forest Service said.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has begun a homicide inquiry looking for the person or people responsible for the wildfire, which continues to burn.

The blaze, known as the Station Fire, has burned for over a week in the Angeles National Forest outside Los Angeles. After a forensic investigation, officials with the U.S. Forest Service determined on Thursday that the fire was started intentionally, and they labeled the firefighters’ deaths homicides, the Associated Press reported.

The authorities did not say where precisely the fire is believed to have begun and whether they had identified any suspects.

State highway department workers angered at the loss of their homes near Mt. Wilson

From the Los Angeles Times:

For decades, an enclave of Caltrans workers has lived in a group of 80-year-old homes alongside Angeles Crest Highway, about 10 miles northeast of the Mt. Wilson Observatory. It is their job to keep the highway free of debris, rocks and snow for the benefit of thousands of people who travel to the top of the Angeles National Forest year round.

At 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, those residents –- who include four families, some of whom have lived here for more than a quarter century — were taking stock of their losses. Three of four historic homes were destroyed adjacent to a relatively new $4-million Caltrans maintenance center.

[Updated, 8:41 p.m. The center, which was constructed with fire-resistant materials, was largely unscathed.]

The California Department of Transportation employees who lived at the remote location known as Chilao were deeply embittered by having been, as they put it, abandoned by firefighting crews as flames bore down on them Monday afternoon.

Some were too angry to talk about it. But equipment operator Robert Torres, whose home was the only residence spared, offered a few comments on their behalf.

“We were left on our own here,” he said. “At one point, there was a helicopter flying overhead with a bladder full of water and not dropping. What does that tell you?”

“Before we evacuated, we were waiting for a strike team to arrive or an aerial drop of water or fire retardant,” Torres said. “That never happened.”

Late Tuesday afternoon, it seemed especially upsetting to the residents that an extraordinary amount of attention was being paid to saving property at nearby camping facilities and the Mt. Wilson complex.

“The U.S. Forest Service knows we’re here,” Torres said.

Thanks Dick and Kelly