Monday, January 2, 2012  FIREFIGHTERS had to abandon their truck when it became stuck while they were battling a blaze at Stonehaven on the outskirts of Geelong yesterday.

The crew of five fled the truck and moved to a safe area as flames closed in. Nobody was injured but the truck was badly damaged. The grass fire was brought under control.

Stephen Warrington, the deputy chief officer with the Country Fire Authority, said the safety of the firefighters was paramount and luckily nobody had been hurt.

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Firefighters put out a grass fire at Mount Duneed. Photo: Paul Rovere
"The tanker became stuck against a rock while trying to fight the fire," Mr Warrington said.

"Their training kicked in and the crew selected an open, cleared, safe area and moved there to avoid the flames.

"No one was injured but the tanker suffered flame damage to around half of its body."

The scorching day gave Victorians their first real taste of the bushfire season, with crews kept busy dousing grass fires.

Mr Warrington said it was a timely warning for the state and firefighters were preparing to combat conditions they had not experienced for up to 15 years.

Firefighters were called out to up to 200 blazes, many of them grass fires.

Mr Warrington said grass fires posed the biggest threat following recent rains on the back of a long drought.

''We've had 10-plus years of drought, but now our dams are full, rivers are up, grass is abundant. We haven't had these massive grass conditions across the state for a long time. I can't remember it being this bad in at least 10 to 15 years.

''The grass will dry out even more now. The heavy grasses will dry out very, very quickly for us and cause us concern from now probably right until the end of February.''

''Because of the amount of rain we've had, they've actually had a lot of trouble trying to get in to slash a lot of it.''

Mr Warrington said crews had done well to contain the fires in the high temperatures, although three firefighters were taken to hospital for heat exhaustion after battling a house fire at Hoppers Crossing.

Another fire burnt out up to 15 hectares of grassland near Warrnambool before being contained. Two fire-fighting aircraft and 17 tankers tackled the blaze, which broke out close to Koroit-Woolsthorpe Road at Koroit, north-west of Warrnambool, just after midday.

A fire in a paddock at Mount Duneed, south of Geelong, threatened two properties before it was brought under control around 3pm.

The blaze started on the property on Boundary Road about 2pm, and the towns of Mount Duneed, Connewarre and Breamlea were put on alert. It burnt out about three hectares before it was controlled. No properties were damaged.

Up to 50 fire-fighting aircraft were on standby during the day.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/crews-close-call-on-day-of-blazes-20120102-1pige.html#ixzz1iMRDQPEX

 

Thursday, July 14, 2011  Responded for a possible lightning strike, on scene trees making contact with powerlines,smell of brush fire smoke, no smoke or fire observed. Utilized TIC and found one tree fully energized from top to bottom, surrounding trees were not energized. Turned over to power company, who was impressed and thankful for the detection of a highly energized tree. LESSONS LEARNED
Use the TIC to detect electical hazards.
 

Tuesday, April 26, 2011  Two veteran Valentine Volunteer Firefighters were injured while battling a wild fire near Thedford on Friday. JD Osburn and Warren Rockwell were on the back of a Valentine rural fire fighting rig when the truck was trapped by the 50mph wind blown flames. Both men were wearing their complete wildland fire gear which helped to protect them. They were checked out by emergency medical personel on the scene and transported back to the Valentine Firehall on the fire truck. After arriving in Valentine, both men were taken to the Cherry County Hospital for assessment. Warren Rockwell was transferred to the Saint Elizabeth Burn Unit in Lincoln for futher assessment. JD Osburn was held for observation at the Cherry County Hospital.

Several hundred fire fighters from across central Nebraska were called to that large grass fire west of Thedford. Over 25 departments were involved including an aircraft that helped bring the fire under control about 6pm Friday evening. The fire is believed to have started on the Mike Finney place about 9 miles west of Thedford. Fueled by wind gusts of 50mph, the blaze raced for about 7.5 miles before it was finally contained about
1.5 miles west of Thedford. An estimated 11,000 acres were burned. The cause of the balze is not know at this time.
 

 

Tuesday, July 27, 2010  While responding on a routine brush fire, approximately 1/4 Acre in size, we noticed a pile of building materials (primarily fiberglass corrugated roofing material) had lit off as well. as we were peeling the layers of material back, one of our firefighters (who works for an excavating company) noticed there was a "hole" underneath and notified me of the situation immediately. Upon further examination, using pike poles, we uncovered a trench that was approximately 10' wide, 20' long and almost 30' deep. The homeowner was building some sort of bunker on his property with absolutely no shoring or stabilization in place. He said he stopped digging when he hit water! It had multiple fishers and a slough on both sides, and on the side my guys were standing on initially was almost 5' back underneath the very ground they were standing on. Thankfully, no one fell in or was injured. We immediately pulled everyone back from the trench and notified the County Fire Chief to come out and make a decision on what to do. The Homeowner had no building plans no permit and had not notified his homeowner’s insurance company of this bunker. To immediately rectify this situation, we barricaded the area off and placed plywood around all edges and utilized some fence panels the homeowner had on scene to cover the bunker up until the proper authorities could come out and investigate.


LESSONS PLANS: We realized real quick that some trench classes are in order and also, more importantly, to increase our situational awareness while operating on any emergency scene because you never know what you will find or what you are going to encounter. This was a routine, everyday, bread and butter call that turned into much more at the drop of a hat. We very easily could have been working a trench rescue if one of our guys had even stood on the building materials.
 

 

Sunday, June 27, 2010  A slurry bomber trying to land at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport crashed yesterday, suspending drops on 2 of the larger wildfires burning in Colorado. Both the pilot and the co-pilot are OK. Slurry bombers are used to carry fire retardant to be dropped onto fires. Rangers at Rocky Mountain National Park say slurry drops used to fight the fires have been suspended at both the Cow Creek Fire burning in Rocky Mountain National Park and the Round Mountain Fire until further notice.
 

Friday, May 7, 2010  Call them "interns" or "probies" or whatever else comes to mind. But they're the future of the Fire Service. My cautionary tale began almost two years ago as the "unusual pattern of thunderstorms" formed off the coast of Northern California in mid-June, early for wildfire season. Within a few hours, we found ourselves fighting a total of four fires simultaneously within our 40-square-mile district. I'd been with the department for five months and counting. Hadn't missed a call, training or meeting in my tenure to date. So it made sense that I'd be there ready when the worst happened, as it did. I had never faced wildland fire. Ironically the night before this all began, our "Safety Officer" ran a regular training to get us ready for wildland fire season. After spending a night on the ridge ducking for cover as rain, hail and lightning hit around me, I stood by my post. When the morning arrived, I was relieved of duty and headed down the ridge to open the main station knowing that the local community (even though it's small) would want to know what was going on. Long story short: I was assigned to a reported newly discovered blaze up on a higher ridge (I was told we were on a routine patrol). I was issued my webbing on the way up the ridge, but it was not fitted to me at the time. When I arrived on scene with the officer that brought me up, I was separated and assigned to fireline cleanup. The web gear was about two inches too small for my waist making breathing difficult, but the ops leader just yelled at me to just suck it up. I have lived among the coastal redwoods five years now, but I'd never seen a hundred foot tree go up like a matchstick. After about 20 minutes of brush cleanup I realized I was separated from the buddy pair I'd been assigned to. I made it back, but I was dealt a serious blow of dehydration and panic. I was exposed to more than I could handle too early in my training. I had been separated from my buddy, and I had to climb back up a few hundred feet of smoke filled pathway. But not only did I have to deal with an ill-advised high-speed evac in a half full tender that ultimately took the apparatus out of service, but on top of everything else I was blamed for all that happened, particularly by officers who were not on-scene at this particular fireground to understand the scenario or the end result. There was no rehab. There was no follow-up. My repeated requests for CISD were denied, and as of last week my request for Workers' Comp was denied. I guess none of my former colleagues have dealt with PTSD. Not pleasant. Would never wish it upon them.

LESSONS LEARNED: Keep an eye on your "interns", "probies" or whatever you call them. They're the next generation of the Fire Service, but if they are thrust into situations they are not trained for, the chance for long term damage is great. If someone in your unit is hurt, PLEASE ensure they get the support and help they need from a chaplain, CISD or regular firefighters. The consequences are just not worth it. Bottom line: I have NOT quit the Fire Service despite the fall I took almost two years ago. I plan to follow in my family's FDNY footsteps in doing the right thing and finding a home within the Fire Service that will welcome me. My calling is toward dispatch, so when I have recovered I plan to work with County Fire/EMS Dispatch ECC.

 

Thursday, April 29, 2010 
Courtesy of WildlandFire.com

Click this link for the report on the Station Fire which resulted in the LODD's of Fire Captain Ted Hall, Superintendent 16, and Fire Fighter Specialist Arnie Quinones, Foreman Crew 16-3

www.wildlandfire.com/docs/2010/lessons-learned/camp16Ssair.pdf


 

 

Saturday, March 27, 2010  On March 26, 2010 in  Coleraine Minnesota an arson set wildfire spanned three fire districts. A 3 5year old firefighter was struck in the head by a tree while fighting this wildfire,unfortunately the tree was being cut down by another firefighter. Luckily the firefighter had all his PPE on. He was taken to the local ER, treated and released but will be off duty for a period due to neck and back pain. Minnesota DNR is investigating this incident.

LESSONS LEARNED:Be carfeul, communicate when falling trees.

Make sure you wear all appropriate PPE. Sometimes us structural FF's take wildland fires not so serious and that is tactically wrong. TRAIN TRAIN TRAIN and maybe let the wildland boys fall the trees!

 

Wednesday, March 10, 2010  I was detailed to an upper county station and assigned to ride the engine. A call came in for a field fire about 10 minutes from the station. The brush truck responded, with me riding on the right. Once we got there, we were directed by the farmer's family, to an area about a half a mile away from the road. When we got on scene, there was a utility truck fully envolved sitting right next to a pole. There were high tension power lines over head, coming from the power plant. There was mutual aid stations responding from a nearby county. They stretched hand lines, as did I and another firefighter. Myself and the other firefighter from my station had a really good angle on putting this fire out quickly. The mutual aid company was only hitting the side of the tool box area, doing absolutly nothing for the fire. So, my partner I and I hit this and had very good success putting the fire out. Little did we know that the power line we continued to cross over again and again, (at first we had STRONG impression it was connected to the spool on a truck on the high ground being dead)was VERY charged. When my partner hit the line with water, it lit up the night sky! The safety officer was there and ordered us to shut down and return to the top of the hill. He then told us there was no life safety and the fire was controlled, we should have let it go and get out of the "attack" mode mind set

LESSONS LEARNED: With that being said, I learned to look around, there was a reason the "other" county department was not doing anything. I was a victim of the type A personality that told me do something, don't stand there. GET OUT OF THE TUNNEL VISION OF PUTTING THE FIRE OUT, HURRY! I almost lost my life that day and I was in Iraq in my previous life, so death was a daily reality for me. Not that I live wreckless, but I had the hero complex and with my military background, it was telling me to attack.

 

Wednesday, January 20, 2010  It was March 18 2009 my self and a forestry crew of 6 were on a forest fire in Jonson County KY, the fire started out small when we arrived so we saddled up and started the attack the dozer operator that was a retired forest ranger and a long friend of my family cut the dozer line to the top of the hill we were planning out the attack and he said guys something doesn't feel right im going to get off the hill you should come to myself and 2 others stated putting in our hand lines just as we were told the ranger and another crew member walked over the rock facing to start the other attack the wind started picking up and the fire was growing hotter and faster, when we got our line in I took the chainsaw and was cutting dead trees and scrubs out so the fire wouldn't jump our lines. When I looked back up all we could see is a wall of fire so we started to run as fast as we could I threw my chainsaw down the other guys had a blower and a drip torch in hand they threw their things down as well as we were deploying our fire shelters I was trying to maintain radio contact with our boss the ranger and got no reply I tried for 20 minutes or longer and got nothing when the wind died down he finally replied to my mayday he said that the fire was to large for a crew that small to even try to control and told us that the fire was up in the canopy of the trees that we needed to get off the hill as soon as possible. When we reached the trucks the dozer operator was in panic he said that he couldn't even hear what we was saying the roar of the fire was so great. As we were leaving it started to rain and I told the boss that I was actually scared for my life that day . He said son I was scared for the crew and not myself if you don't come home I don't come home when you make it home I make it home when we made it back to our standby location we were talking about what had happened that day and the office said that we didn't even need to be there because that was our 4th fire that day and we were to small of a crew to even be on fires.

LESSONS LEARNED:

The things that I leard was to not over exhaust the crew, and to listen to what the wise old owl of the crew says even know we are much younger and more energetic.

 

Sunday, February 1, 2009  I was assigned to a division on initial attack of a vegetation fire. On arrival we had a slow moving fire in leaf duft and fire in the tree canopy. I instructed my crews to place a hose lay around the perimeter of the fire to meet up with division A and specifically instructed them to stay out of the black to avoid snags. At this time, I noticed a freelancing firefighter from the other division wandering into the black to perform mop up on several burning stumps. At this time a large burning tree limb fell striking the firefighter in the head and knocking him to the ground. He sustained minor contusions to his head, most of the trauma was avoided by use of his helmet but he also sustained some 2nd degree burns to his face and neck from the ember shower.

Lessons Learned: When fire reaches the tree canopy you cannot wander into burned areas much like a collapse zone on a building. Trees that have been burn are greatly weakened and will fall on you with sometimes fatal results. 8 firefighters have been killed by snags in the last 10 years. Avoid the black, work indirect fire attack and stay out of areas that need snag hazard mitigation. Timber fires are not grass and brush fires.



 

Wednesday, October 8, 2008  Yesterday a Boiling Spring Lakes fire truck caught on fire inside the out of control blaze of St. James Plantation.

The truck stalled out while firefighters were responding to the fire. The firefighters made it out unharmed, but the truck burned to a crisp. According to the fire department, the truck is covered by insurance, but the state wants to look into why it got so close to the flames in the first place.

Boiling Spring Lakes was one of seven fire departments to respond yesterday.


 

Saturday, October 4, 2008  Subject: PERSONNEL AND EQUIPMENT SAFETY Area of Concern: RETARDANT/SUPPRESSANT APPLICATION Discussion: On August 27, 2008 a Single Engine Airtanker (SEAT) crashed on the Flat Bush Fire, Northwest of Meeker, Colorado. Debris from the accident damaged two federal wildland fire engines and narrowly missed the six crewmembers. The approach to the drop brought the SEAT over the location where the engines and crewmembers were staged. Aerial supervisors and incident pilots constantly work with ground crews to ensure drop areas are clear of personnel prior to dropping retardants or suppressants. The lesson learned here is that when applicable, we need to apply this measure of safety to personnel and equipment located in and around the aircraft’s final approach and departure path. This can be accomplished by working through the aerial supervisor or communicating directly with the tanker/helicopter pilot to safely relocate personnel and equipment. Don’t assume that aerial resources can always see you. If you have concerns communicate them immediately. Additional information on retardant use and effectiveness can be reviewed in the Aviation portion of the Incident Response Pocket Guide (IRPG).

 

Saturday, October 4, 2008  Just passing along a sobering reminder about how quickly and how badly (could have been a lot worse) being in the wrong place at the wrong time on a wildfire can be. Ray Holk poses atop what's left of his vehicle after a fire weakened Douglas Fir broke off and fell onto the road where he and another firefighter had just parked to checkout some of the fire.  They heard the tree crack as they stepped out and ran hard to get away.  This was truly a close call.  Another vehicle had pulled away from this spot a few seconds before.

This is on the Kitson Fire, on the Willamette National Forest.  It happened about 4:30 PM on September 26, 2008.


 

Monday, August 4, 2008  My engine company had been assigned to work on a fire in the Northern California area. The date of the incident, July 15,2008 at about 1800. We were assigned to support a critical backfiring operation on the division we were assigned. There was a Type II Fire Hand crew from Alaska that was put in charge of the burning operation for the evening. I was asked to walk down a trail and assist with water support, due to the fact that the intensity of the fire had increased in the area. Throughout the course of the fire we had been unable to secure the proper LCES protocols due to the terrain and fuels on the fireground. Somehow the communications were not passed on that we needed to stay off from the trail, another issue was the fact that communications to cease all burning operations had also not been properly conveyed. My engine company proceeded down the trail as was requested by the STL on the division. As I led the two other people from my engine down the trail, we encounter a few large pockets of smoke that were very thick and white in color. This was not a great deal of concern at the time, the firing operation was being done on a mid-slope with burning down hill to create a backing fire. We noted that a hose line had blown on our way down the trail, as we came through the third large patch of smoke, everything turned black. We then realized that we were in trouble and we had fire coming right at us. Within a matter of a few seconds we had flames all the way around us and lapping over our heads. I instructed my crew to run back toward the blown hose and seek cover under the water curtain that it was providing. We had two choices at this time, make it back to the blown hose or deploy a fire shelter. We were able to reach the blown line after running about 150 feet, we stayed under the water curtain while the flame front pushed passed us. After the flame front passed we were then able to push up hill and out of any further harm. We all did what we were trained to do, covered our airway and get out of the heat. I am happy to say that other than a few mild burns, scorched hair and delamination of my right boot we were able to escape major injury. After going back to the site of the burn over, we found that we had been walking across the top of a narrow canyon. We were later informed that there had been a great deal of roll out causing fire to establish itself in the bottom of the canyon, causing the large push below us. I can honestly say that this was a close call, I have never felt heat like this in the seven years that I have fought wild land fire or the four years that I have fought structural fire.

LESSONS LEARNED:
Communications should be conveyed properly at all times. If you have any doubt that communications are not understood, please take the time to ask. Take the time to have good crew cohesion, the fact I did not have any of the firefighters I was in charge of question me made it easier to provide a safer outcome. LCES, 10 Standard Fire Orders are there for a reason, just because you follow the rules does not mean that every crew on your fire will do the same. Be safe in all you do.... we all go home, every time!!!