California Fire News

CA-BDF-shooting - Wildland Fire Posted: 03 Jun 2007 06:06 PM CDT CA-BDF-shooting: Wild land Fire CA-BDF-shooting This is located near the community of Lytle Creek, E of San Bernardino, W of Devore. 10 to 15 AC, AA on scene with 2 air tankers. Fire making long narrow run to the top. Last update from IC was several coptors apparently working. Several engines on it and at least 2 crews in route. 1 Air Attack and possibly some tankers.

CA - SQF- Gold Ledge - Wild land Fire Posted: 03 Jun 2007 05:49 PM CDT CA-SQF-Gold Ledge: CA-SQF-Gold Ledge Fire located Near Gold Ledge Campground on Mountain 99 North of Kernville in Tulare County. Fire is 150 + acres moving up slope. Requests: H-408 and Rio Bravo IHC from KRN Full SQF response and equipment from KRN. IC ordering more crews from SQF and KRN requesting a Type 3 S/T to cover the KRRD. Requesting 4 S/T Type 1 crews immediate need 2 Type 1 Helicopters 2 Type 2 Helicopters Engines for Structure Protection Objective - To keep the fire out of the Kern Plateau KC-FF View Public Profile Find all posts by KC-FF Web Cam Pictures from 2 of the Breckenridge cameras: http://sierrafire.cr.usgs.gov/ then select "Sierra Wildland Fire Reporting System (SWFRS)" RJM View Public Profile Find all posts by RJM

CA- TUU - Shannon - Wildland Fire Posted: 03 Jun 2007 05:42 PM CDT CA- TUU - Shannon - Wildland fire: CA- TUU - Shannon Southeast of Porterville off Reservation road. Road 296, 2 miles up deer Creek Road. 3 hand crews, 17 engines" Resource request for for structure protection.

NV-BLM-Honey: Honey Fire Posted: 03 Jun 2007 01:25 PM CDT NV-BLM-Honey: Honey Fire Updated:2007 By:Marnie Bonesteel Position:Public Information Officer Location: Hwy 395 North, Doyle area Start Date: June 2, 2007 Start Time: 1812 Current Size: 125 acres Fuel Type: Burning in brush and grass Jurisdiction: BLM Assisting Agencies: Reno Fire Resources Assigned: Air Tankers 3 Water Tenders Helicopters 3 Dozers Hand Crews Engines 6 Command Staff 2 Remarks: Fire is active in the interior, crews are making good progress.

CA-BLM-LARSEN - New Start: Larsen Posted: 03 Jun 2007 01:10 PM CDT CA-BLM-LARSEN - New Start: Larsen CA - BLM - LARSEN: New Start: Larsen Updated: 6/2/2007 - 1830 By: Marnie Bonesteel Position: Public Information Officer Location: 1 Mile south of Coleville, CA. Near Larsen Lane. Start Date: 6/1/2007 Start Time: 1523 Current Size: 150 acres Fuel Type: Pinion Juniper, Bitterbrush and Sagebrush Jurisdiction: Bakersfield BLM Assisting Agencies: Antelope Valley Fire Department, Mono County Sheriffs Office, California Highway Patrol, Nevada Department of Forestry, USFS. Public Safety: Homes in the area of the fire, Community of Coleville and surrounding residences and ranches. HWY 395 is open, no controls. Fire apparatus on the highway in the area of the fire. Other Threats: Cultural resources possible in the area. Resources Assigned: Air Tankers Helicopters 2 Water Tenders 1 Dozers 1 Hand Crews 8 Engines 4 Command Staff 9 # Personnel 210 Containment/Control: 25% Contained Containment Expected 06/04/2007 Remarks: Fuels burning within the black, no movement at this time. Continuing to secure perimeter and mop up. Marfil's Type III Team is in command of the fire."

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Honey fire

Honey
Updated: By: Position:	2000 Marnie Bonesteel Public Information Officer
Location: Start Date: Start Time: Current Size: Fuel Type: Jurisdiction: Assisting Agencies:	Hwy 395 North, Doyle area June 2, 2007 1812 125 acres, burning in brush and grass BLM Reno Fire
Public Safety: [Structures, Closures, etc.]
Other Threats: [Natural & Cultural Resources]
Resources Assigned:	3	Air Tankers	3	Helicopters
		Water Tenders		Dozers
		Hand Crews	6	Engines
	2	Command Staff		# Personnel
Containment/ Control:
Remarks:	Fire is active in the interior, crews are making good progress.

CA - BLM - LARSEN

New Start: Larsen

Updated: 6/2/2007 - 1830
By: Marnie Bonesteel
Position: Public Information Officer

Location: 1 Mile south of Coleville, CA. Near Larsen Lane.

Start Date: 6/1/2007

Start Time: 1523

Current Size: 150 acres

Fuel Type: Pinion Juniper, Bitterbrush and Sagebrush

Jurisdiction: Bakersfield BLM

Assisting Agencies: Antelope Valley Fire Department, Mono County Sheriffs Office, California Highway Patrol, Nevada Department of Forestry, USFS.

Public Safety: Homes in the area of the fire, Community of Coleville and surrounding residences and ranches.
HWY 395 is open, no controls. Fire apparatus on the highway in the area of the fire.

Other Threats:

Cultural resources possible in the area.

Resources Assigned:

Air Tankers

Helicopters 2

Water Tenders 1

Dozers 1

Hand Crews 8

Engines 4

Command Staff 9

# Personnel 210

Containment/Control:

25% Contained

Containment Expected 06/04/2007

Remarks:

Fuels burning within the black, no mo"

California Fire News

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.

CA-LMU Island fire 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, 2007 By BEN GOAD and KIMBERLY TRONE The Press-Enterprise PDF: Accident Review Board Action Plan - Esperanza (USFS) The 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.

Fatal fire possibly arson 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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Editorial: Fault for Esperanza deaths rests with many - not just firefighters Posted: 02 Jun 2007 01:48 AM CDT Editorial: Fault for Esperanza deaths rests with many - not just firefighters: Editorial: Fault for Esperanza deaths rests with many - not just firefighters By Timothy Ingalsbee The Press Enterprise Copyright 2007 The Press Enterprise, Inc. All Rights Reserved RIVERSIDE, Calif. — "People are searching through the Esperanza Fire Accident Investigation Factual Report to learn the causal factors that led to the tragic deaths of the five firefighters who were burned to death while defending a remote vacation home from an arson-caused wildfire. The investigation determined that fast-moving Santa Ana winds drove the wildfire up a steep, brush-covered topographic "chimney," causing it to "blow up" in a pattern typical of several California wildfires that also led to firefighter fatalities. 'Overconfidence' Much of the news media focused on the report's conclusion that human factors were the primary cause underlying the tragedy, especially the firefighters' "overconfidence," "excessive motivation to achieve their assignment" and "lack of situational awareness" that they were entrapped and standing in the path of a fire blowing up below them. This is a routine refrain in firefighter fatality investigations: Their "can do" attitude caused them to take unacceptable risks, and they failed to follow standard procedures to ensure their safety. While the firefighters did make some mistakes in a situation that allowed no room for error, this standard conclusion - blaming the victims for their own deaths - conveniently lets other complicit human factors off the hook from scrutiny and criticism. For one thing, land-use policies that allow homes to sprawl into fire-prone wildlands are never raised in accident investigations. The area burned by the Esperanza Fire has in fact burned several times over the past 40 years, including three wildfires that killed firefighters. Capitalizing on the vegetation clearance caused by the Esperanza Fire, vacant lots for new construction are currently for sale in the area, setting up conditions for another possible tragedy in the future. Once homes are built in wildlands, state regulations require homeowners to manage vegetation to reduce fuel hazards around their structures. Yet government enforcement of these regulations is notoriously lax. The remote vacation home that the fallen firefighters were trying to defend was surrounded by ornamental vegetation planted by the homeowner. In fact, that home had already been identified as "nondefensible" in a 2002 wildfire protection plan Cal Fire had developed for that area. As passionate as people are to uphold private-property rights, they should be equally committed to private-property responsibility to reduce wildfire hazards. Another human factor that gets only brief mention in the accident investigation report is that the public tolerates and even expects firefighters to take safety risks to protect private property from wildfires. In time, vegetation will regrow and homes can be rebuilt, but fallen firefighters are permanent, irreplaceable losses affecting whole families and their communities. Extreme Fear There simply is no piece of property worth the life of any wildland firefighter. Perhaps the most challenging human factor underlying firefighter accidents is the public's fear of fire, which is causing firefighters to aggressively suppress too many wildfires. Sensationalistic news stories, demagogic politicians, agency and industry anti-fire propaganda, and other key opinion makers all foment in people an extreme, irrational fear of wildfires. Given the twin crises of climate change and government budget deficits, we will need to be much more strategic in selecting where and how we suppress fires - we cannot fight them in all places, at all times and at all costs. One of the most important lessons we all should learn from the Esperanza Fire is the need for a new approach to firefighter safety that does not heap all responsibility on the shoulders of "ground-pounding grunts" and then blame the victims when accidents happen. Rather, improving firefighter safety depends on examining a broad range of human factors - including the actions (or inactions) of homeowners, developers, regulators, politicians and journalists, as well as firefighters. "Esperanza" is Spanish for "hope." In accordance with that name, the Esperanza Fire should offer some hope that the real lesson to be learned from this tragedy is that firefighters and the public they serve all share a responsibility for learning how to work safely and live sustainably with wildland fires. Timothy Ingalsbee, Ph.D., is the executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology in Eugene, Ore. "

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