California Fire News
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| CAL FIRE - TCU has suspended all burning permits Posted: 02 Jun 2007 10:11 PM GMT-06:00 The Tuolumne-Calaveras Unit of Cal Fire has suspended all burning permits in Calaveras, Tuolumne, and parts of Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties, effective at 8 a.m. Monday. Tuolumne/Calaveras Unit Chief Mike Noonan said eliminating debris burns could help stop those fires from escaping and putting lives and property in danger. An escaped debris burn has been established as the cause of a 111-acre fire May 22 outside San Andreas. State Responsibility Areas of Tuolumne, Calaveras, Eastern Stanislaus and Eastern San Joaquin counties - all within the Tuolumne/Calaveras Cal Fire Unit - are affected by the ban. Wednesday's declaration "... rescinds all previously approved Dooryard Burn Permits and large-scale Project Burn Permits," a Cal Fire announcement said. Dooryard permits are those Cal Fire issues to homeowners to burn piles of yard waste and debris. "Property owners wishing to burn debris on their property are now prohibited from doing so unless they can prove that their project burn must be completed for health or safety reasons," Cal Fire said. "Any planned burning site must be inspected and approved before a permit may be reissued." "Experience has shown that suspending debris burns is an effective way of preventing wildfire escapes, especially as California enters a period of hotter and drier weather," Noonan said. "Although all fires cannot be prevented through a burning suspension, their numbers can be significantly reduced." Noonan added that individuals are responsible to use fire safely, "and to prevent fires that destroy lives, homes, vehicles, and the wild land." Campfires will be allowed in designated campgrounds with permission of the jurisdictional authority. |
| Posted: 02 Jun 2007 11:10 AM GMT-06:00 CA-LMU Island fire: CA-LMU Island fire Honey lake, 20 acres. Structures threatend Update: official name of fire now CA-LMU - Lightening Series 100 acres threatening additional structures Update: 542 acres, 20% contained. Threats to Janesville & Herlong. Also Nevada University Wildlife Sanctuary south of Honey Lake. Do not expect containment until 6/9/2007 |
| New wildland fire guidelines for firefighter safety Posted: 02 Jun 2007 10:55 AM GMT-06:00 New wildland fire guidelines to focus on firefighter safety 12:48 AM PDT on Saturday, June 2, 2007The U.S. Forest Service will refine the guidelines used by wildlands firefighters to send a strong message throughout the agency's ranks: No home is worth dying for. That recommendation was included among several nationwide initiatives laid out by the Forest Service in an action plan obtained Friday. The plan comes after last week's report by the Forest Service and Cal Fire detailing the events of October's Esperanza Fire that killed five Forest Service firefighters in Riverside County's San Jacinto Mountains. That report pointed to "risky" choices, possibly stemming from a culture in which safety is secondary to saving property, and contributed to decisions that led to the firefighters' deaths. Though short on specifics, the latest plan aims to improve firefighter safety through the use of improved mapping and better evaluation of whether crews should attempt to save a home. Some worry that the report hints that the Forest Service might reduce protection of homes in high-risk fire conditions. Short of risking lives, firefighters should defend structures whenever possible, said Terry McHale, public policy director for CDF Firefighters, a state firefighters union. He said defending property is built into firefighters' training and mindset and changing that would be difficult, particularly as homes continue to be built in fire-hazard areas. "It would be a frightening precedent in this era of urbanization ... to say we are not going to defend homes. All of a sudden you're going to say we're not going to protect properties," McHale said. Hundred-foot flames overran Engine 57's crew as the men fought to protect a vacant home built in an area designated as nondefensible on a 2002 map. The map was not available to the crew at the time of the Esperanza blaze. "This was a major tragedy in the 102-year history of the U.S. Forest Service and we want to make sure the message about what happened gets out," said Tom Harbour, federal director of Fire and Aviation Management. "We owe it to Engine 57." Changes in Mentality Without a clearly defined standard for what risks are acceptable, firefighters have long been given mixed signals, said Dick Mangan, who was a Forest Service firefighter for 40 years and has conducted studies on wildlands firefighter deaths. Mangan said the plan, if implemented correctly, could finally address the problem firefighters face about whether to defend a structure or let it burn. He said firefighters have been taught in classrooms that firefighter safety is more important than protecting homes, but there is an underlying pressure to act heroically in the throes of a major fire. On one hand, firefighters are criticized for letting a fire consume a home and praised for saving homes in dangerous situations. "Maybe we could get to a point when they would be patted on the back for walking away, with their crew still intact," Mangan said. The plan released Friday calls for increased creation and distribution of maps showing high-risk areas, highlighting areas like Twin Pines, where the Esperanza tragedy took place. Such maps, if made public, could have big ramifications for homeowners -- and for insurance companies, which are already beginning to balk at the unchecked growth in fire-threatened areas. Mangan praised the Forest Service for addressing the issue. "These are social and political issues," he said of the potential fallout from releasing such maps. "(But) you take a little managerial courage and say, 'I don't want another funeral for five firefighters,' " he said. McHale, of the CDF union, said any shift in policy to reduce protection of property would require local governments to dramatically change their attitudes about home construction in wildland areas. "We have to have better planning on where we build -- whether or not it's a feasible space," McHale said. Local Solutions Riverside County Supervisor Bob Buster this week reiterated his call for local policymakers to take a hard look at what, if any, development should be allowed in fire-prone areas. Buster said the size and location of the priority areas must be identified. State and national fire agencies need to take a leadership role in helping policymakers realize the need to reassess development in fire-hazard areas, he said. "It's a new land-use front we have not dealt with before," Buster said. "We don't want another Esperanza." Those concepts might not have made their way down from state-level discussions to the boards and city councils that decide where new homes can be constructed. In 2004, the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties adopted a collaborative plan that recommended governments shape policies, zoning and land-use controls to reduce the losses associated with catastrophic blazes. Riverside County Fire Chief John Hawkins said Friday that had not seen the U.S. Forest Service report but that he planned to review it. "Then I will have a better idea of where we are going," said Hawkins, who has mostly declined to comment on the Esperanza Fire because of the criminal prosecution of Raymond Lee Oyler. Oyler, a Beaumont mechanic, has been charged with five counts of murder and arson in the Esperanza blaze. He has pleaded not guilty to those and other arson charges. Pat Boss, a retired U.S. Forest Service firefighter and liaison to the family of Engine 57 Capt. Mark Loutzenhiser, said cooperation is strong between Cal Fire, the Forest Service and mountain communities. But Boss said Forest Service firefighters are primarily trained to defend forests, while Cal Fire is more focused on property protection. "We train together, we strategize together and our evacuation plans are in sync," Boss said. "It's too bad they didn't use those maps developed in 2002, but still things happen," Boss said. "It was not Engine 57's fault." Four of the firefighters -- Loutzenhiser, 43, of Idyllwild; Jess McLean, 27, of Beaumont; Jason McKay, 27, of Phelan; and Daniel Hoover-Najera, 20, of San Jacinto -- died Oct. 26, the day the flames overtook them. The fifth, Pablo Cerda, 23, of Fountain Valley, died Oct. 31. |
| Posted: 02 Jun 2007 10:30 AM GMT-06:00 Visalia Times-Delta - www.visaliatimesdelta.com -: " EXETER — CAL FIRE officials said Friday the cause of a fire that turned fatal Thursday has not been determined. A 1-year-old boy died in the residential fire, but the mother believes that the death of her son might have been prevented. An autopsy showed that Jonathan Gomez, 1, died of smoke inhalation, Exeter police said. Esbeyde Calvillo, 20, and her two sons Alonzo Gomez Jr., 2, and Jonathan have called 301 S. Orange Ave. in Exeter home for the past four months.But with the boys' father in jail and little money for rent and utilities, Calvillo said she was getting ready to move back to Visalia and live with her mother. The home hasn't had gas, electricity or water on for at least a week. Calvillo said that's why she isn't sure how a fire started in her home Thursday, but she believes it was arson. Exeter Police Chief Clifton Bush said an autopsy showed Jonathan died of smoke inhalation. Bush said the work of two Exeter police officers and CAL FIRE firefighters to rescue Jonathan was heroic. But Calvillo disagrees — at least when it comes to the claim that the officers tried to save her child. Bush said before a firefighter pulled Jonathan's body from the burning house, two Exeter police officers tried to rescue the boy. "The smoke and the flames were so intense [the officers] couldn't get the baby," Bush said. "My men made a heroic attempt to rescue that baby." Exeter police and fire personnel responded about 9 a.m. Thursday to a report of a structure fire. Officers found the home engulfed in flames, and were told that a 1-year-old was still inside, according to Exeter police. Calvillo said she rescued Alonzo Jr. before the police arrived, but a separate attempt to save Jonathan failed when officers pulled her away. Bush said his officers, one at a time, tried to hoist half of their bodies onto the window sill and searched for the baby with their hands after Calvillo warned them that a baby was inside the burning home — just inside, by the window. "One of them told me it was pitch black in there," Bush said. Bush said the officers could stand the heat and smoke no more and let a CAL FIRE firefighter continue to search for Jonathan. The firefighter entered the room and eventually found the body. The mother's story differs. Calvillo said she and her two sons were sleeping when she awoke to find that her room was on fire. Calvillo said she exited through the bedroom window — without either of her children — and stopped a vehicle on Chestnut Street. "I ran out and yelled, 'Help my house is burning! My children are in there!' " Calvillo said. She said she returned to the bedroom window and hoisted herself onto the sill to rescue her two children. She said she grabbed Alonzo Jr. but when she went back to try to rescue Jonathan the police officers wouldn't let her make an attempt. "I was trying to let them know that my baby was still in there," Calvillo said. "I went back to grab [Jonathan] and had him. I had my baby, but he slipped because the [officers] pulled me out." Calvillo said she told officers that Jonathan was still inside the room. "The [officers] still didn't go in there," Calvillo said. "They thought I was talking about [Alonzo Jr.]." Calvillo said she believes that somebody who knows the children's father used gasoline to light the house on fire. Bush said investigators have not determined if it was arson. "She made the statements that somebody did this," Bush said. "But we still don't have any evidence that this is a crime until the arson investigator comes back with more information."" |
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