The Wooden Nutmeg

Russell along with Bureau of Forest Fire Control and mutual aid are battling a hundred acre fire in steep terrain:

RUSSELL – A Massachusetts Army National Guard helicopter has joined efforts Monday to put out a wind-fueled brush fire that has been burning on Tekoa Mountain for several days.

Tekoa Mountain, steep and remote, is often hit by brush fires, especially this time of year when conditions can get extremely dry. A fire on the mountain in 1995 burned 587 acres. An even larger fire there four years later blackened more than 1,200 acres.

Russell Deputy Fire Chief John E. Murphy, 64, died of a apparent heart attack while fighting that April 1999 fire.

From MassLive, archived here. The video I have saved as tekoa_2010_video1.flv.

There are some nice night time shots from Sunday evening at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snO6Xgnu3u0, which I have saved as tekoa_2010_video2.flv.

The Exploring Western Massachusetts blog has a nice post on Tekoa with some good pictures of the terrain being faced (and pitch pines!).

4/14 Update:
Fire consumed 320 acres:

By George Graham, The Republican
April 14, 2010, 10:42AM

RUSSELL – A small plume of smoke wafted up from Tekoa Mountain Wednesday morning as firefighting operations against a large-scale brush fire that burned here for about four days wound down.

Russell Fire Chief Michael Morrissey said late Wednesday morning that the fire, which burned over 320 acres, is under control and confined to a small area across the Westfield River from the Jacob’s Ladder rest area on Route 20.

A group of about 20 firefighters, down from about 75 Tuesday, were at the scene Wednesday fighting hot spots, Morrissey said.

A firefighting command center, set up at the Jacob’s Ladder rest stop been closed down.

Elsewhere, firefighters in Granville said Tuesday they believe they have extinguished a smaller fire that burned up to 45 acres on Sodom Mountain.

In Russell, town firefighters worked with crews from Westfield, Agawam, Holyoke, West Springfield, Montgomery, Easthampton, Northampton, Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee and the state Department of Conservation and Recreation Bureau of Fire Control.

In all, a total of 75 firefighters and a helicopter apiece provided by state police and the Massachusetts Army National Guard battled the fire that cut a zigzag patterned trail of flames across Tekoa Mountain.

About 15 firefighters from Granville, Tolland and Southwick fought the Sodom Mountain fire until about 3 p.m. Tuesday.

Granville Fire Chief James Meadows could not be immediately reached for comment.

As a bonus find, the Russell Fire Department has a great wildland SOP posted on their website (actually, all the SOPs I looked at I liked — clear, concise, no BS, gave everything relevant without micro-managing or trying to address every conceivable situation):

WILDFIRE INCIDENT RESPONSE GUIDE
6.01 PURPOSE
To establish guidelines that will provide the incident
commander and personnel with a safe and effective way of
handling fires involving forest, brush and/or ground cover.
6.02 PROCEDURE
A. Upon arrival a report on conditions.
l. Determine actual location of fire (including size).
Use topographic maps or GPS for precise location.
2. Direction and characteristic of fire travel.
3. Type of fuel burning (light grass, heavy bush).
4. Exposures.
5. Action being taken by first arriving unit.
B. Request additional equipment.
C. Determine plan of action based on priorities and resources
available.
6.03 SAFETY
A. All members shall wear necessary protective clothing in
accordance with the hazard.
B. The use of a personnel accountability system will be
required and maintained by the incident commander or his/her
designee
C. Safety rules for operating vehicles “off road”.
l. Have a means of escape should your position be over
run.
2. Avoid commitment of units on narrow roads in heavy
brush areas.
3. It is not uncommon for heavy vehicles to become stuck
off road.
4. Before taking a unit “off road”, you must know
location and direction of fire travel.
D. Post a guard when advancing and manning lines in brush
areas. Some things to be especially cautious of are:
l. Spot fires below your crew and frequent spot fires.
2. Aircraft making retardant drops.
3. Heavy equipment working above your crew, i.e. falling
rocks, etc.
4. Changes in wind velocity and direction.
E. A means for escape shall be made known to all fire
personnel working in brush areas. Stay close to the burned
areas.
F. All personnel should know the location and direction of
travel of fire head(s).
G. Attempt to not allow fire personnel to become exhausted.
Provide rest periods. Frequency will be dependent upon topography and weather conditions.
H. Be alert to the possibility of downed electrical wires;
there may be energized fences as a result.
I. Do not go downhill to attack a fire.
6.04 CONTROL
A. Base all actions and strategies on current and expected
behavior of fire.
B. Structural protection and life safety take priority over
extinguishment of brush.
C. If offensive attack (direct attack) is indicated, choose
an anchor point and hit the head of the fire, if possible.
If that is not possible, establish an anchor point and
start on the flanks and work toward the head.
D. If the fire is a large, hot, fast moving one, then a direct
attack may not be possible. In such cases, an indirect
and/or parallel attack may be utilized by cutting a fire
line a distance ahead of the fire (or utilizing natural
fire breaks, such as highways) to halt the progress of the
fire.
l. This may require writing off losses (structures, etc.)
in the path of fire.
2. Indirect attack is commonly used in conjunction with
fire retardant drops and back-firing techniques.
E. Different methods of attack may be used simultaneously
according to the situation.
F. If assigned structural protection, keep hose lays flexible
enough to be able to quickly break away in the event of
being over run.
H. If additional resources are needed the Massachusetts
Bureau of Fire Control District 11 should be contacted. They have added supplies of hand tools, back pack pumps, tractors. The request for a county task force may be made through dispatch. The incident commander must provide the numbers for equipment type and personnel needed.

6.05 COMMAND
A. Fires requiring the coordination of two (2) units or more,
should have the Incident Command System put into effect.
B. Establish a Command Post
C. The Incident Commander has responsibility for the entire
operation. He also has responsibility for assigning (on
as “as needed” basis) the following positions during brush
fire operations:
l. Operations
2. Support
3. Sectors/Division.
4. Liaison positions between various agencies.
E. Radio communications should ensure the IC has the ability
To communicate with all functions and also the ability to
provide working crews with emergency information.