News and opinion about wildland fire
I admit that I had to look it up to find out where it was, but Stones River National Battlefield near Murfreesboro, Tennessee had a wildfire in the park on Wednesday. Apparently they suppressed it with the help of the local fire department without too much drama. The park has an active prescribed fire program, but this one was not planned.
Ashley McDonald, public information officer for Murfreesboro Fire and Rescue Department, said the fire burned about nine acres.
UPDATE at 7 p.m. ET, March 18, 2013:
The fire is contained, thanks in part to some rain on Monday. Most of the firefighters have been released. The number of structures burned has been raised to 50. Below is a video from Knoxville’s WATE broadcast early Monday morning:
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Originally published at 10 a.m. Monday at 10 a.m. ET
A fire in eastern Tennessee has burned hundreds of acres and approximately 35 large rental structures in Pigeon Forge between Gatlinburg and Knoxville. In what looks like a carbon copy of Saturday’s fire in Horry County, South Carolina, the fire began in a structure and then spread to the vegetation, eventually igniting dozens of large rental cabins. In photos, the structures appear to have multiple guest units. Black Hawk helicopters from the Tennessee National Guard assisted firefighters by dropping water dipped out of Douglas Lake and other sources.
Estimates on the size of the fire, which is burning outside Great Smoky Mountains National Park, range from 145 to 300 acres.
Thanks go out to Bill and Dick
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized1 Comment on Wildfire morning briefing, November 25, 2012 
Additional resources ordered for Colorado’s Fern Lake Fire
A large Type 1 helicopter and six smokejumpers have been ordered for the Fern Lake Fire which has been burning in Rocky Mountain National Park since October 9 eight miles west of Estes Park, Colorado. The jumpers will fill overhead positions on the fire.
Dry and unseasonably warm weather has contributed to the fire spreading in recent days to a total of 1,200 acres. For the month of November, the area has only received 0.01″ of precipitation. A record was recently set for the highest Energy Release Component (fire danger index) recorded for this time of year. The weather forecast for the next seven days calls for more dry weather, except for a 10 percent chance of rain on Monday.
Little direct action has been taken on the fire due to steep terrain, hazardous trees, heavy fuel loads, and the difficulty in extracting a firefighter should an injury occur.
Other articles on Wildfire Today about the Fern Lake Fire
Cameras to watch for fires in Oregon
Two web cameras are being installed to watch for wildfires near Lake Chinook in Central Oregon. Firefighters will be able to access the images on their computers or cell phones, according to the Bend Bulletin. The Oregon Department of Forestry has plans for eight web cams in Grant, Hood River, Wasco and Wheeler counties.
Dogs rescued that were found by firefighters
The dogs that were part of a dog fighting operation discovered by firefighters while suppressing a fire near Rogersville, Tennessee are being rescued. Personnel with Animal Rescue Corps have removed 65 dogs from the facility in Cheatham County. Firefighters had to suspend their suppression operations after they discovered the facility threatened by the fire that housed dogs and roosters used for dog and cock fighting.
Opinion: how to reduce cost of wildfires
An opinion piece at the Denver Post has some suggestions on how to hold down the increasing costs of suppressing wildfires in the west. Here is an excerpt:
…For example, mapping areas at high risk of fires and landowner education of the costs of building in the WUI must expand.
The federal government also should provide technical assistance and incentives to local governments to direct future building away from the WUI. At the same time, Congress could limit or restrict mortgage deductions for homes in the WUI, while also allowing insurance companies to charge higher premiums in fire-prone areas.
Thanks go out to Dick
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized4 Comments on Wildfire briefing, November 19, 2012 Firefighters discover dog fighting operation
Firefighters working to put out a wildfire near Rogersville, Tennessee had to suspend their suppression operations after they discovered a facility threatened by the fire that housed dogs and roosters used for dog and cock fighting. Firefighters rescued about 40 of the animals. Here is an excerpt from an article in the Times News:
Hawkins County Sheriff Ronnie Lawson told the Times-News Sunday the suspected operation is now the subject of a criminal investigation, and although no arrests had been made he hoped to be able to release more information about that on Monday.
Murrell added, “It put a damper on the firefighting efforts last (Saturday) night because everybody had to pull off until we found out what it was. Then it took most available law enforcement and fire (personnel) to try to get all the dogs out.”
As of Sunday night the fire, which started on Thursday, had burned about 1,800 acres.
Petition to hire the DC-10 air tankers
The managers of the Facebook page for the DC-10 air tankers have organized a petition drive designed to convince the US Forest Service to award a long-term contract for the DC-10s. More information is at our Fire Aviation web site.
Coal seam fire burns 1,000 acres
A wildfire that started from a mostly underground fire in a coal seam has burned 1,000 acres of land in Boone County, West Virginia. Firefighters are suppressing the fire using leaf blowers, rakes, and dozers. Trees that were down as a result of a summer wind storm and then Hurricane Sandy have added fuel to the fire and complicated access to the area. We have reported on numerous other coal seam fires over the years.
Pole Creek Fire affected the economy of Sisters, Oregon
Some wildfires may enhance the economy of a rural area by spending money at local businesses. But too often tourists stay away in droves or in the case of the Pole Creek Fire near Sisters, Oregon, population 2,000, the dense smoke in the community forced some residents to temporarily leave the area. An article in a Firewise publication reported that even though 800 firefighters were housed at an incident base a few miles down the road, in September restaurants had their revenue decrease by 40 to 50 percent. Stores saw less business and motels experienced reservation cancellations up to five weeks out.
In September we reported on a study about the economic effects of large wildfires which showed that on average, the US Forest Service spent six percent of wildfire suppression funding in the county where the fires occurred. Amounts of local spending varied from zero to 25 percent.
The Pole Cree Fire started from lightning on September 9 and burned 26,795 acres before it was contained October 20.
Fire management decisions affect local communities
When land management agencies make decisions about using less than aggressive initial attack strategies, attempt to manage fires “on the cheap”, or allow a fire to burn naturally for weeks or months, they may not accurately realize the long term economic and health effects those decisions can have on the local population. These may or may not have been issues in the management of the Pole Creek Fire, but they are too often mentioned as factors that have crept into fire management over the last decade.
World Bank says temperatures may rise 7.2 degrees
The World Bank reported that the planet may see temperatures rise by 4 degrees Celsius, or about 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100, resulting in more wildfires, extreme heat waves, a decline in food supplies and a ‘life-threatening’ rise in sea level.
Thanks go out to Dick
After 32 years of trapping wild hogs, darting nuisance bears and chasing wandering elk, Kim Delozier, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Chief Wildlife Biologist, is retiring. Knoxnews.com has an article, describing some of his more interesting memories. Here is an excerpt.
…In the early 1990s, the Smokies and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tried unsuccessfully to reintroduce red wolves in the park. None of the wolf pups born in the park survived, and after 10 years, the project came to a halt.
“We couldn’t release enough wolves to out-compete the coyotes in the park,” Delozier said. “You just can’t take a captive animal, open the cage and expect it to make it in the wild.”
In 2001, the park launched an ambitious program to bring elk – a species that hadn’t roamed the mountains since the late 1700s – back to Cataloochee Valley in North Carolina. Delozier said what he remembers most about this successful campaign was the tremendous support from partners like the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, the Friends of the Smokies and the public at large.
“Unlike the wolf reintroduction, bringing elk back to the park was something people genuinely wanted to see happen,” he said.
Delozier’s favorite memory from his three decades on the job? That would be a late afternoon in Cataloochee Valley when he was greeted with the sight of 15 or 20 elk grazing just hours after their release.
And his worst memory? Delozier said that by far it would be May 21, 2000, the day Glenda Ann Bradley, a 50-year-old elementary school teacher from Cosby, was mauled to death by a 112-pound black bear while hiking in the Elkmont section of the park.
In his office, Delozier keeps Bradley’s funeral announcement on the wall. Delozier said even though the bear had no prior record of aggressive behavior, he still felt guilty.
“I feel responsible for all the bears in the park, nomatter what they do, whether they’re good or bad,” he said. “Part of the reason I’m ready to retire is this feeling of responsibility for every pig, elk and bear in the Smokies. You just know when it’s time.”
The National Park Service planned to burn 700 acres at Cades Cove in Great Smoky Mountains National Park last week. This photo from their Facebook page was posted on November 13. It is undated, but is most likely from that project. The park burns some of their fields on a three-year rotation to keep trees from invading and to preserve the historic scenes.
