One of the best articles I’ve read on the use of prescribed fire on Cape Cod’s Pitch Pine & Scrub Oak Barrens: Bringing Back the Burn from the July 2005 issue of Northern Sky News. Archived here.
Following up on this earlier post.
Bottom line:
15 full-time Patrolmen where given layoff notices.
6 were saved for the year by funding the Federal Stimulus funds.
7 “bumped” themselves into other DCR positions (laying off junior employees in those positions).
2 were laid off.
They have a seasonal force of 54.
This is down from the early 1980s when they had, in addition to 16 Patrolmen, 53 fulltime firefighters who worked both on apparatus and towers as needed, plus 104 seasonal firefighters.
Interesting reply from this T&G Article:
Its 13 fire districts for 13 Wardens and one Chief.In those 13 fire districts they had a total of 16 fire patrolman positions to cover the whole state of Massachusetts.
Only 6 Patrolman positions was saved, 4 in the Southeast down the cape region,1-North Middlesex and 1-Hampshire County on federal grant programs for a year or two .
So actually they lost 10 fire patrolman positions not funded anymore and never could fill the 53-fulltime fire truck & tower positions that was never filled thru the many years when they became vacant from retirement,they just kept on cutting positions of about 53 fulltime fire positions gone already since the 80′s..
They also had back then 104 fire seasonal employees to man all 52 towers to fill in on days off & assisting the engine operators fighting fires ,each district had at least one fulltime tower man so in case the fire tower was needed in the late fall or winter dry season the tower position would be manned.Remember the seasonal tower positions are only staff from April to October,.That leaves out the months of November, December, January, February, March if there is no snow cover and have a dry period of no snow,warm temps,low humidity you could still have fire breaking out and it has happen before past fire history.
Posted by ret.Firefighter | report abuse
And the main article:
By Brian Lee TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
9 comments | Add a commentPicture
Enlarge photo
Recent significant brush fires after record rainfalls have surprised some people, a state official said.
But all the ingredients, including the aftereffects of the December 2008 ice storm, are in place for such fires, said David Celino, the state’s chief forest fire warden in the state Department of Conservation and Recreation.
“It does take the public by surprise, especially when we have open burning through May 1,” Mr. Celino said. “People, coming off the rains with historical flooding, look at the idea of having a fire threat as not there, when in fact it’s easy to get escape fires with this kind of a weather pattern.”
Among the incidents was last week’s 350-acre brushfire on Tekoa Mountain in the western Massachusetts town of Russell. State officials put together a 20-person crew out of the DCR to contain it within two days, Mr. Celino said.
In Central Massachusetts, there was an estimated 55-acre brush fire in Dudley Tuesday. It was in a heavily wooded area between Hayden Pond and Corbin and Baker Pond roads near the Charlton and Oxford lines.
It took about six hours and firefighters from six surrounding towns and the DCR to extinguish the fire, according to Dudley Fire Capt. David J. Konieczny, whose department walked the area Wednesday to make sure it was completely out.
Earlier this month there was a six-acre brush fire on the south scenic face of Mount Pisgah Conservation Area Trail in Northboro.
According to Mr. Celino, in many cases the ice storm increased the volume of tree limbs and branches on the ground, particularly in central and northern Worcester County, into Hampshire and Franklin counties and central and northern Berkshire County at elevations higher than 1,000 feet.
A year later the fuels on the ground have cured in the affected areas, creating the problem, he said.
After a year of curing, and with the recent rains, the area has seen fine fuels such as leaf litter, sticks and twigs become main carriers for some fires, he said.
The rainfalls were followed by dry air from the Arctic region. The low humidity and dew points can essentially dry out in less than a day the light surface fuels, Mr. Celino said.
Add to it southerly warm and dry winds and it makes for high fire danger, he said.
Capt. Konieczny of Dudley said he was impressed that the fire was first seen from a DCR fire observation tower in Princeton, quite a distance from a tower in Charlton that was not staffed at the time.
Mr. Celino said there was good visibility that day.
“The Dudley fire was a great example of how we were able to make the best of what we have,” he said. “The towers were able to locate that fire and then we were able to put state resources on the fire to help get containment.”
However, staffing levels in the towers concern Northboro Fire Chief David M. Durgin, who said he believed it played a factor in the Mount Pisgah fire. He said fire towers in Princeton and Sudbury were not staffed at the time, so they couldn’t see it.
“That’s why the fire ended up being as large as it was, six acres, and no early notification,” he said.
In October, Chief Durgin wrote his local legislators stating his concern about potential DCR staffing levels as a result of budget cuts.
“It’s a case where the state is saving money, but the cities and towns, even if someone had been put in those two towers on overtime that day, it would have been cheaper than the ultimate costs of the number of towns I had to bring in mutual aid to extinguish that fire,” he said.
Mr. Celino said the tower program is his agency’s top priority.
“We know that it’s valuable to the fire service, getting early detection, and so even though we did go through part of a staff reduction plan, we realized that the tower program is a priority,” he said.
Its seasonal roster reflected that concern, as seasonal workers were brought in earlier than usual this year, he said.
There are more than 40 fire towers statewide. Most are staffed by seasonal workers, Mr. Celino said. The agency is employing 54 seasonal workers throughout the state through the first week of October.
During high fire danger days the state can staff about 22 towers, depending on what the shifts are, he said.
“If we can get anywhere from 17 to 22 of those towers up, and those are our key towers, they provide us pretty good coverage across the state,” Mr. Celino said.
The DCR has 13 district fire wardens and six patrolmen who work with towns during fire season, as well as with the seasonal workers, he said.
Last October, 15 patrolmen received layoff notices but only two were laid off. Six jobs were saved with federal stimulus money, and seven went elsewhere in the agency through bargaining rights, Mr. Celino said.
State Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, D-Barre, said his office has been in touch with the state office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and the DCR. They were told that the federal stimulus money that was allotted at the beginning of this season will last for two seasons to keep the towers manned.
“The challenge for the forest fire issue is what happens when the federal stimulus money goes away?” the senator said, adding he hoped that things would get better as the economy improves.
Because some forest fires along the Route 2 corridor are caused by train sparks, he said he would be “more than happy to go after the railroads” for liability.
“If Joe Six-Pack threw a cigarette they’d be going after him, that’s for sure,” Mr. Brewer said.
Patricia A. Correia, fire warden in northern Worcester County, was at a three-acre brush fire Wednesday at Bearsden Conservation Area in Athol. She said its cause was most likely the railroad that runs through the conservation area.
As other posts in the search talk about the 50 square mile fire that was centered on Sterling, CT and Coventry, RI…let’s take a look from the New London Day as to conditions in the region south of that fire that week.
The fires in that area began on Thursday, April 30th, 1942.
One common theme in these newsclippings is re-kindles of fires.
These clippings were found through this query: http://www.google.com/archivesearch?q=brush+fire+source:%22The+Day%22 (You can further define it by date ranges).
April 28th:
May 1st, mentioning Westerly firefighters who the morning after their own 350 acre fire left to help in Coventry:
May 2nd:
May 4th. That a “state pumper” came out of Lebanon is interesting. There aren’t currently any large DEP facilities in Lebanon. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen another reference to a fairly high up (or top) State Fire Warden living in Lebanon though.
May 4th. This is a different fire from the large Westerly fire mentioned above! If I have the timeline correct, the first article refers to a 350 acre fire between White Rock Road & Boon Bridge Road on Thursday, April 30th. This is north of downtown Westerly, by the Pawcatuck River. This article is for 300 acres off Shore Road, which today is Old Route 1 east of Watch Hill (I assume this is the road referred to in the article), on Saturday, May 1st. Over one square mile in two days…plus they had sent help to the large fire to the north!
From the New London Day, 19 April 1980:
Fort Shantok is no longer a state park — it was transferred to the Mohegans in 1996, following their federal recognition in 1994, and is adjacent to today’s Mohegan Sun casino. The Mohegans have a long history of friendly relations with colonial and later state authorities; in 1645 Uncas was beseiged at Fort Shantok by a force of Narragansetts until a relief force led by Thomas Leffingwell arrived.
South End Fire Department, in Old Lyme, also no longer exists. They were shutdown by their town, who took possession of the town owned station and apparatus. The department was left with the rescue truck they held title to, which was later sold to Eastford, and as part of that deal my company (Mortlake) purchased the Hurst tool and its gas-powered pump as a backup unit.
The Springfield Republican has this nice photo essay up on the ’99 and ’01 Tekoa Mountain fires.
Added to the ’93 and ’10 fires, this mountain sure burns often!
Here’s the photos, from 1999 unless otherwise noted:
Connecticut Army National Guard flying a bambi bucket. I knew New York & Massachusetts Guard units would fly buckets, I hadn’t heard of Connecticut doing so before.
From the funeral of Deputy Chief John Murphy who died at the 1999 Fire.
From the 2001 fire.
From the 2001 fire.
As reported in this post on CTFire-Ems.com:
Plymouth 4/12/10
The DEP has been fighting a forest fire in a section of the Mattatuck State Forest all day today. It is located north of Greystone Rd. and east of Todd Hollow Rd. The fire was actually discovered late Sunday night, but because of darkness, access issues, and rough terrain, it was decided to wait until daylight before sending crews in. Access to the area was by foot only. This will most likely be the largest fire yet in CT this season. It looks to be around 100 acers so far. There was intense fire activity in the afternoon with wind gusts carrying the fire over several fire lines and some 10′-15′ flame heights.
And a later update:
DEP had a line around the fire and was out of the woods by nightfall last night, so there wasn’t a need to activate the Wildfire Crew. Though there was talk on Monday afternoon of bringing in a helicopter and fire crew if we couldn’t get it. It dosent show it on the google map, but Todd Hollow Rd runs south all the way down to the Train Tracks near Greystone Rd. So that was our line to the west, and the tracks were eastern line. A hand line was cut over the top from Greystone to Todd Hollow through heavy mountain laurel at some spots 5″-6″ in diameter. The DEP had 16 firefighters on scene Monday Using 3 saws and 4 leaf blowers and hand tools. There were about 10people on scene today checking the line (it held) and burning out a small section near Todd Hollow Rd. So far it looks to be around 140 acers. Will post some pics later
You can see the extensive, low green of the Mountain Laurel thicket described above in the aerial photo from Google Maps. I kind of like this winter time images better then summer ones for looking at wildfire locations.
Judging from the flat ground, and the aerial photo, I’d assume the first picture was taken in the flats by Todd Hollow Road. That is a decent size grove of fairly big white pines. Those are generally found in hollows — first because they’re protected against high winds, and second because of the moisture available by the streams.
The forecast for Sunday & Monday called for winds out of the north and northwest, which would’ve had them blowing down that hollow, while the fire naturally would want to burn uphill. Along with a difficult to access location, very understandable the size this grew too!
This is a different section of the forest, actually quite a bit of distance as well as a river and Route 8, from my hike back in 2008 that is in this photo essay.
From the Waterbury Republican American on 4/14:
One of the larger brush fires in Terryville Fire Chief Mark Sekorski’s memory is out after burning 137 acres in Mattatuck State Forest since Sunday.
The fire, in a remote area just feet off the “blue trail” hiking trail, “is on the top scale as far as brush fires go,” Sekorski said. About 25 Terryville firefighters and 23 state park rangers responded to the fire Sunday after a 7:58 p.m. call, but found it too dark to do anything in the steep, rough terrain. The closest homes, off Greystone Road, were in no real danger, Sekorski said. The wind was on their side, blowing away from the homes.
The same winds brought the smoky smell of dried, burning brush a few miles south, into downtown Waterbury. Several residents there called the fire department concerned, police said Monday.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
It is my understanding from non-media accounts that the first containment line being constructed through the mountain laurel along the north side of the fire was over run, with the (second hand) report that one DEP employee stated it was the first time in 20 years he has had to run for safety on a fire in Connecticut.
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, 10:42AMRUSSELL – 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.
I never realized how extensive the pitch pine / scrub oak community is along the Connecticut and Rhode Island border, particularly in Coventry and West Greenwich along the state line. This area is probably around 10 square miles. As this was a major portion of the May, 1942 fires one can imagine the fire spread that would have occurred in such an isolated area. An old rail line runs roughly along the northern side of this pitch pine forest; as the arsonist was a railroad section foreman we’re left to wonder at this time how much that played a roll. Also interesting is why this area is still pitch pine — was it always? Why is the Connecticut side more mature? Was it better attention on the Connecticut side towards re-planting with white pines and more active fire suppression post 1942? Is it simply a difference in soils?
From a firefighting perspective, the difficulties posed by acre after acre of this:
Compared to more typical New England mixed forests:
Is fairly dramatic.
In the latter case, it is relatively easy to construct control lines even if occasional obstacles must be bypassed. A crew using a backpack leaf blower could build quite a bit of line quickly, reinforcing it with a burn out to the body of the main fire.
In the former, in the pitch pine with a thick story of underbrush (probably blueberry or huckleberry; I’ll have to re-visit the area this summer when the leaves are out to tell for sure)…building control lines away from the fire will be much, much more difficult. Backpack blowers are out, at best Council fire rakes might help. With the higher flame heights from brush compared to hardwood leaf litter a wider line is probably needed as well as making a burn out a more risky tactic to try.
Except along established control lines such as roads, it would seem the best tactic is the hot and dirty work of directly attacking the fire along the flanks, hopefully with a hoseline! Lacking that, then with indian tanks and hand tools while making slow progress compared to simple leaf litter, despite having a fire that is burning hotter, higher, and faster to deal with.
West Greenwich saw a continuous decline in population from 2,054 in 1790, to only 367 in 1920.
By 1940 the population had increased to 526. Still very small for it’s 51.3 square miles!
The border between West Greenwich and Coventry, west to the Connecticut border, is a large area of pitch pine and scrub oak. One thing I need to research more is why — is there a change in soil by Connecticut, as well as north and south, that favors more mature forests? Or is this purely a function of repeated fires keeping the pitch pine ecosystem dominant?
Nice article from the Vineyard Gazette on prescribed burns on the Vineyard. Archived here.
This included mentions of some major historical fires:
May 12, 1916: 20 square miles, blamed for extinction of the heath hen.
1926: 10 square miles for the year
1927: 10 square miles for the year
1929: 4 square miles for the year
I have a lot of photos to parse through from this fire yesterday:
http://www.d90.us/fire/7_April_2010_467_Providence_Pike_Hampton/index.html
Fire came in as a smoke investigation in our district, it was finally located approximately a mile southeast of the calling party, a half mile off the road with no access by heavy vehicles due to recent very heavy rains that have the ground saturated in low spots.
While he is not accused currently in the large fire that claimed 40 cottages in Alton, NH last April, which was called in originally as a brush fire, an Alton Firefighter has been charged with four arsons and officials claim he has admitted to eleven dating back to 2006. From the Union Leader:
By ROGER AMSDEN
New Hampshire Union Leader Correspondent
Monday, Mar. 22, 2010
Corriveau Routhier, Manchester, NHALTON – Police say a 22-year veteran firefighter has confessed to setting 11 fires over the last four years in this community and in New Durham.
Stark Liedtke, 43, was arrested Friday night after police responded to a report of a suspicious person on Range Road in Alton. Liedtke was questioned by police, who said that he smelled of gasoline, and his vehicle was later found near the site of a suspicious fire that had taken place on February 20.
An accelerant sniffing dog brought to the area by Sgt. John Southwell of the state Fire Marshal’s Office led investigators to two plastic bottles of gasoline in the woods near Liedtke’s vehicle.
Investigators say that Liedtke confessed that he had been trying to set the abandoned building which had partially burned on Feb. 20 on fire and subsequently admitted to setting several other abandoned homes on fire in both Alton and New Durham.
Alton Police Chief Ryan Heath said that Liedtke was arraigned in Laconia District Court Monday morning on four charges of arson, three of which date back to 2006, and one count of attempted arson, as well as loitering or prowling and criminal trespass charges.
He is being held on $30,000 cash bail ands faces a probable cause hearing on the charges on March 31.
Heath said that the investigation is continuing and additional charges are expected to be filed.
Fire Chief Scott Williams said that Liedtke was fired from the department. He said Liedtke’s wife, who is an EMT with the department, remains a member of the department.
I’ll try and follow up in person to see if these layoffs did occur. My understanding is the fire patrolmen all had enough seniority they would be “bumping” — while the Patrolman positions would be eliminated, the actual worker would “bump” someone else and take their job causing junior employees to actually be laid off.
Checking the DCR’s website today, they are hiring seasonal tower operators in at least Carver and Sandwich, and a seasonal “fire laborer” in Leominister.
Mass. fire officials fuming over wildland staffing cuts
October 22nd, 2009BOSTON — Fire officials are fuming that high-paid pals of Gov. Deval Patrick have kept their cushy Department of Conservation posts while the agency is axing more than half of the state’s 30 forest firefighters.
The layoff of 17 forest firefighters will leave just one per county and means the state’s 42 fire towers — perches used to spot flare-ups — will go unmanned, officials said.
“It’s going to be a big hit to public safety,” said Trevor Augustino, vice-president of the American Federation of State, County and Municpal Employees Local 2948, which represents the forest firefighters. “They’re cutting with an ax, not a scalpel.”
The Herald reported yesterday that the DCR terminated 91 workers, but kept Patrick’s campaign manager’s sister, Patty Vantine, and two other managers she hired. The three make a combined $251,000 annually.
DCR spokeswoman Lisa Capone said 57 of the terminations were voluntary while 34 were pinkslipped. Of those 91, seven were managers. “Those percentages reflect the proportion of union vs. management throughout the agency,” she said.
Orange Fire Chief Dennis Annear, president of the Massachusetts Forest Fire Council, said the cuts have “destroyed” an effective service that’s been around for 100 years. Annear said the DCR jakes are crucial in rural western Massachusetts where they often lead under-trained volunteers into dangerous blazes.
“We use these individuals to lead a crew,” Annear said. “Some departments don’t have the right protective gear to go out in the woods and they definitely don’t have that expertise.”
Annear said the cuts are particularly painful since the DCR has been aggressively promoting tourism at state parks.
“Tourism is great but somebody’s got to pay to treat these people or go rescue them in the woods,” he said.
Capone said the DCR is “maintaining our commitment to public safety.”
Copyright 2009 Boston Herald Inc.
By Dave Wedge
The Boston Herald
I also found this in the November 11, 2009 DCR Stewardship Council minutes:
Patti Vantine, Director of Administration and Finance informed the Council on/of the following matters:
The magnitude of the current (2010) operating 9c cut was between 4-8%, however the final
requirement for DCR is 5.2%.
Cuts have been saved by mandatory management furlough up to nine days, an unspecific cut,
and an earmark that was removed.
Voluntary layoff and retirements are being wrapped up, and involuntary layoffs are nearing the
end of the bumping process.
A final projection number will be tallied once the full bumping/retirement process is complete.
Our state revenue has slightly increased for October.
o DCR was able to maintain six firefighters, one Warden in each district.
o The overall budget for DCR is $78,348,984 after the 9c budget cuts.
o Environmental Police has taken a $1.5m cut.
(DCR also transferred many of their parkway and bridge assets from the “Emerald Necklace” system around Boston to the newly formed MassDOT … I wonder how that factored into budget cuts if at all? Later on in the minutes it reported 55 DCR employees transferred to MassDOT, but that DCR would still provide snow control for the current budget year.)
A January, 2010 presentation noted that the DCR had seen it’s operating budget cut by 23% from FY2009 to mid-year FY2010. In 18 months it had lost 171 full time positions, including 54 to voluntary layoff / retirements, 37 unfilled positions eliminated, and 29 layoffs.
This is a great write up of the ’47 Maine fires, archived here (You’ll need to scroll down the archive version a bit to get to the article).
It was the worst disaster in the history of forest fire protection in Maine, resulting in heavy property losses and human privation.
The tragic results were: 215,000 acres of fields, pastures and forests burned, of which 180,000 acres were forested; the death of 16 people due to indirect causes brought about by the fires, but no loss of life in actual fire fighting; nine communities leveled or completely wiped out; 2,500 made homeless. Property losses were estimated at $30,000,000 of which $7,000,000 included millions of feet of mature timber, thousands of cords of cut and uncut pulpwood, and millions of board feet of sawed lumber stored in lumberyards. Suppression costs came to $300,000. It was heart-warming that many fire departments canceled fire bills for services and equipment to towns that were stricken by the fires.
And this quote particularly impresses me:
There were witnesses of crown fires racing through dry and shriveled hardwood leaf foliage.
Which I interpret as being the heat wave ahead of the main fire was so intense as to dry out the leaves on the already drought stressed hardwoods…then ignite them as it passed.
I wasn’t planning on another fire tower post today, then I stumbled on this press release today:
The Angeles National Forest Fire Lookout Association is currently seeking individuals for its volunteer Fire Lookout Program. The group works to restore, maintain and staff historic fire lookout towers in the San Gabriel Mountains. Volunteers interpret the natural and cultural history of fire lookouts and the surrounding Forest lands for visitors and help disseminate information on current fire conditions.
Fire lookout towers, one of the primary means by which forest fires were reported in the early 1900s, were closed on the Angeles National Forest in the 1980s. However, Vetter Mountain Lookout, off Highway 2, was reopened by the U.S. Forest Service and Fire Lookout Association in 1998, as part of a historical preservation project. Slide Mountain Lookout, located above Pyramid Lake off Interstate 5, was reopened in 2003.
Despite newer technologies being used by the U.S. Forest Service to detect fires, volunteers at these lookouts continue to practice vigilance and provide a valuable contribution to the conservation of National Forest lands.
Do you have to take a second thought I’d be all over that if (God forbid) I lived in L.A.?
Linking this back to New England, there is an active volunteer fire tower program in southern Maine, operating the towers at Mount Agamenticus, Mount Hope and Ossipee Hill. Here’s an article from the Press Herald (archive). Maine closed their state fire tower network in 1991, deciding aircraft were more cost effective. This year, as covered in this post, they further reduced their aircraft coverage replacing the contractors with the Civil Air Patrol.
New Hampshire was vigorously defending their still state staffed towers in the 2004 Concord Monitor article (archive), but in 2009 they reduced the staffing by laying off the full time fire tower staff and offering them part-time positions to manage the towers on high danger days as detailed here (archive).
In addition to the 16 state towers in New Hampshire, a 17th is municipally manned by a career firefighter from Moultonborough, which in 1987 re-opened a tower the state had closed in 1981. Ironically, in 1988 Moultonborough had a 316 acre forest fire, the largest in New Hampshire since a 1952 fire in Moultonborough covered 2,500 acres.
Massachusetts has, by far, the largest and most active fire tower system in use in New England. You can see a nice video here on the Ludlow fire tower (archive). Although the Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control does not staff all their towers all the time, they have some 43 towers available to staff as local fire conditions dictate.
Rhode Island doesn’t currently use their towers, although at least one is opened up from time to time for open houses (archive). The others, from a casual observation driving by, are slowly rusting away. Connecticut has removed all their purpose built forest fire towers, although some facilities (such as the observatory on top of the UConn water tower) that weren’t fire specific remain. While I don’t believe any Vermont towers remain in service, many still stand and unlike those in southern New England are open to the public to climb:
(I do have that archived as VT_Fire_Tower_Hike_WCAX_200806261758015082_3647538.flv in case the video disappears).
Some quick and dirty statistics gathered from here (archive).
Major Fires:
1930 — 34,700 acres in R.I.
1942 — 24,500 acres in R.I.
1951 — Acreage not specified
The 1930 and 1942 fires started in Connecticut. 1942 burned about 14,000 acres on the Connecticut side; unsure at this time how many burned in 1930. From personal recollection of stories heard but not confirmed yet by research the ’51 fire burned generally the area between the 1930 and 1942 fires.
1935 — 63% of R.I. forested
1938 — Hurricane, eventually 80 million board feet of lumber salvaged
1953 — 64% forested; 281 million board feet standing
1998 — 59% forested; 1,316 million board feet standing
On a bit less land, the volume of trees in Rhode Island expand four fold in 45 years. What that speaks directly to is the lack of “maturity” in the woods of 1953, which relates to forest fires. Immature woods are brushier and more prone to hot fires and younger trees are more prone to lethal injuries to their bark. As the forests mature, they become less likely to burn and more resistant to the impact of what does burn.
There’s been two interesting things to come out of the Halifax news.
Halifax was struck by Hurricane Juan on 29 September 2003 with 100mph winds, with unofficial gusts to 145mph.
Hurricane intensity in northern waters
While hurricanes this far north tend to weaken their cyclonic wind speeds, they gain forward speed. This is a graphic of that effect from the 1938 Hurricane.(1)
We know historically the hurricanes are one of the major disturbances of forests, probably matched in the degree and geographic area only by ice storms. Other severe disturbances like tornadoes, straight line winds, and microburts tend to affect much smaller geographic areas.
Here a few comments from 1938:
The combination of soggy ground, strong wind and the sail surface of a full complement of leaves proved too much and many shade and forest trees were broken or blown over by the hurricane. … Practically all older stands of white pine east of the Connecticut River were partially or completely destroyed. Governor Wilbur Cross appointed committees to make recommendations dealing with Forest Fires, Timber Salvage and Forest Rehabilitation. Austin Hawes, Hurricane Damaged Forests still a valuable state asset
The fire danger from the downed trees was regarded as a great peril. The New England Forest Emergency Office was created by the U.S. Forest Serivce to coordinate the effort to mitigate the fire danger and salvage the lumber. United States Forest Service. A pictorial report on the New England forest emergency project with notes on its operation.
The photo below is from the Harvard collection showing an untouched Pisgah Forest (NH) four years after the ’38 Hurricane, compared to salvaged forests in Petersham, MA and was retrieved from this site. Keep in mind when reading their perspective (against salvage) that Pisgah and even Petersham are fairly high, cool areas that keep their snow covers later in the year then areas further south and east in New England, and at least with Pisgah are fairly isolated from homes and business.
1942 -- Aftermath of Hurricane of 1938
This is a contemporary report, from 70 miles east of Pisgah, in Lee, N.H. of the conditions of 1941 and looking forward to 1942:
FOREST FIRE WARDEN’S REPORT
The 1941 fire season was the worst on record in the State of New Hampshire.More fires occurred, more 25 area was burned over, greater damage was done to our woodlands, higher losses were sustained in other real property burned and the cost of suppressing fires was greater.
There will, perhaps, never be more ideal conditions for fire than existed in 1941. A scarcity of rain left the forests in a highly inflammable condition. The accompanying high winds spread fires with almost light- ning rapidity through the parched forest lands. These conditions, coupled with human carelessness, made 1941 outstanding in the state’s forest fire record.
As we approach the 1942 fire season, we wonder just what may be in store for us. The woodlands are in as critical condition as they were last year, if not more so. Blown down trees still clutter sizable acreages of our woodland areas ; the increased tempo in lumbering operations due to war demands are each day adding to the fire hazard an ever increasing number of acres of slash land; and we face the coming fire season with greatly reduced personnel, due to the shifting of men from our small communities into the armed forces of the country and into defense industries.
If, however, everyone will be careful, if they will follow the rules and regulations laid out for the use of fire in and around woodlands, much of our difficulties will be eliminated — our fires kept few in number with a consequent saving of expense to town and state. There are so many possibilities for trouble this year it will require the whole-hearted and patriotic cooperation of everyone concerned if we are to avoid serious difficulties.
Persons hostile to the best interests of our country and subnormal individuals affected by the excitement of the times may easily cause tremendous confusion and disruption of local activities by deliberately starting fires in our woodlands. Suspicious circumstances connected with every fire should be made known to the proper authorities. Wardens and Deputies are being instructed this year to investigate all fires carefully. Parties at fault will be held strictly responsible. With our forces weakened, it becomes more necessary for everyone to comply with regulations which have been set up to govern the use of fire in our woodlands.
These are briefly as follows :
1. Secure a permit from your local forest fire warden to burn brush or other debris in or near woodlands, or where fire may be communicated to such lands, once the snow has left the ground. Violation of this requirement makes the responsible party liable.
a. To a fine not to exceed $500.00 or imprisonment of not more than one year or both.
b. To the town for expenses incurred by the warden in attending or extinguishing such fire.
c. For damage to abutting owners if fire runs upon abutters’ property.2. DON’T drop or throw from any vehicle while same is upon a public highway or private way and DON’T drop, throw or otherwise deposit on or near woodlands any lighted match, cigar, cigarette, live ashes or any other substance liable to cause a fire. Violation of these prohibitions penalizes whoever is found guilty with a fine of not more than $25.00.
3. DON’T fail to promptly notify your local warden of any fires you see.
The 1941 fire record for Lee is as follows : Number of fires 12 Acreage burned 118 Cost of suppression . . . $757.40 No. of permits issued .
FRANK I. CALDWELL, Forest Fire Warden [, Lee, N.H.].
Retrieved 6 May 2009 from here.
Allowing a forest to “naturally” recover, and that’s a difficult word to define in a southern New England landscape where fire from man has played a role since the glaciers retreated, at the very least requires preparation and defense. A single careless or deliberate spark in a pile of debris like the Pisgah picture above would ignite a long burning, intense fire that’s likely to seriously damage the organic matter in the soil below. Good and sufficient fire breaks are needed to keep fires from the outside out, and keep intense fires on the inside from escaping.
Which brings us to this picture from Halifax, whih was taken at a fire which started, in the general the area were the big fire started the next day (archive). These conditions certainly could be found among the worse of the December 2008 ice storm.
29 April 2009 Halifax Fire
That picture probably illustrates two of the keys in dealing with fires in the ice storm area — hoses and helicopters. I suspect a third part would be bulldozers to quickly re-open forest roads if necessary. In my town, in the wake of hurricanes or other severe wind events, we will use a front end loader in conjuction with chainsaws to quickly re-open roads for fire apparatus to pass. On a major fire you may even see a need for dozers to actually build fire line to push dead brush back into the black.
There was another incident out of Halifax that’s good to keep in mind:
House being investigated for arson
…the investigation began after firefighters arrived at the house to battle the rapidly growing wildfire.
Firefighters realized there was a fire inside the house and “they saw stuff that made them believe that this was a suspicious fire,” he said.
“It didn’t take the investigator long to confirm that it was, indeed, suspicious.” Chronicle-Herald
From powering trucks to portable pumps, the internal combustion engine was one the major technological innovations that improved forest fire fighting, allowing firefighters to respond quickly over long distances to deliver large volumes of water.
Imagine trying to keep a fire small when depending on horses to transport your equipment, and without many of the improved tools of today!
This is a New Jersey fire warden from 1911 (from the book New Jersey Forest Fire Service) equipped with shovels, milk cans (used to carry water), garden watering cans, and some sort of larger tank.
New Jersey Fire Warden Victor Bush, 1911
From Britt Crosby’s CapeCodFD.com site we have an early fire wagon in Massachusetts:
Men filling soda acid extinguishers, Southeastern Massachusetts
Soda acid extinguishers required a recharge cartridge of sulfuric acid and sodium bicarbonate; inverting the extinguisher would produce carbond dioxide which would pressurize the extinguisher. Each extinguisher held 2-1/2 to 3 gallons of water and depending on the fire intensity, terrain, and skill of the firefighter could knock down 50′ to 200′ of surface fire.
The Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control built specialized wagons to use instead of the adapted farm wagons above that were discussed in the 1918 book, “Forestry in New England.” While in use throughout the eastern part of the state they were most common in the southeastern section.
A two horse model, like the one below, carried 14 soda acid extinguishers, 14 water cans and sufficient to refill 2 extinguishers each, shovels, rakes, mattocks, and chemical charges, along with 8 men.
Massachusetts two horse forest fire wagon
The one horse model below was carried a smaller amount of equipment and only four men. Basic apparatus economics held true even back then. A one horse wagon cost $300, while the two horse wagon carrying twice the equipment and manpower only raised the price to $450.
Massachusetts one horse forest fire wagon
Another early option to either watering cans or soda acid extinguishers was the one and two man bucket pumps. A one man pump, like the one below, carried four gallons of water and was considered adequate to knock down 50′ to 150′ of fire. It was considered a little less efficient, but considerably cheaper to purchase and recharge, then a soda acid extinguisher.
One man pump
A two man pump carried eight gallons and took two men to carry.
1 May 2006 was a day with Very High fire danger and Red Flag warnings across southern New England. Auburn, MA received a call at 10:42 for a brush fire. By the end of the afternoon 125 acres had burned, an abandoned mansion was lost, and aid from 38 towns and cities and 4 forest fire districts was required.
Approximately 80 acres of this area burned with enough intensity to kill / severely injure the canopy trees — this is highly unusual in southern New England in modern times.
Relative Humidity was low — 15-30% with northeast winds at 15mph gusting to 25mph. Showing how fast fire conditions can change in New England, only a week earlier heavy rains had crossed over southern New England, dumping between 1-1/2″ and 6″ of rain. The northeast winds portended the heavy rain that would move in on the morning of May second.
Since the fire this area was also on the edge of the December, 2008 ice storm. The impact was noticeable and would impact future operations but is not severe.
This is a map of the area from July, 2007 that shows the extensive severely burned area (the brown discolored areas). I’m eyeballing it to be about 80 acres, and the overall fire was put at 125 acres which I believe is reasonable — not all areas hit that stand killing intensity.
The fire appears to have originated south of this lane. The tree appears to have been snapped by the ice storm. A hang up like this one is a challenging one to cut safely, yet it also isn’t safe to allow forestry trucks to pass underneath — a situation that would delay access to fires along the lane in the future.
(There are smudges on the photos taken April 26, 2009 — I had water spots on my camera lens.)
Near the tail of the fire area was this tree, it’s main trunk killed by the extensive burning of it’s bark, which was “stump sprouting” new growth. Hundreds, probably thousands, of these small snags will stand for years to come, surrounded by the fine brush of regrowth.
This mountain laurel, judging from the standing dead trunk, was about 4′ tall when the fire burned. In areas the mountain laurel easily topped 6′. Like the snag in the previous picture, the dead trunk provides additional dry fuel that would intensify a future fire. Mountain laurel provided the fuel load that allowed the fire to be intense enough to kill the hardwood trees. You can read more about the fire ecology of mountain laurel here.
This is a mix of regrowing brush and some living and some fire killed overstory trees. When looking at these photos (click on them for the full size version) the tell tale sign of killed trees is the lack of the smallest branches — only the trunks and main branches remain.
A mix of living and dead trees. Approximately point “A” on the map. Fire potential here is elevated further by the lack of shade; while it may not be a critical difference in spring time this could contribute in summer and fall to the area being prone to larger, hotter fires then otherwise would occur. One of the big reasons for the decline in size and intensity of forest fires in southern New England is the success of previous generations in suppressing fires and allowing the forests to mature. While there are exceptions, in general the larger trees were more likely to survive while smaller trees were fatally injured by the flames.
More dead trees. Approximately point “B.” In the middle of the picture is the top of a white pine that broke off in the ice storm.
Many hardwood saplings coming up, I’m not sure what species these are — I should revisit later in the year when I can identify the leaves.
This is the first steep hillside — about a 30% grade. It’s also strewn with rocks, and soft soil — absolutely treacherous to walk over. The fire killed few if any trees on these steep slopes. My observation is there wasn’t much mountain laurel to provide dense amounts of fuel. From a tactical perspective, it would be near impossible to build a fire line through this mess and clambering over the terrain with an Indian Tank would be inviting a sprained ankle. Hose lines would work best, albeit slow to progress.
Looking towards the top of the hill you can see a mixture of killed trees and ice storm damage.
After a climb of 100′, we come to these flats (point “C” on the map), showing a mixture of fire and ice storm damage. The mountain laurel thickets started up again on the flats, providing the fuel for the stand killing intensity.
This picture is chilling to think of how quickly our forests could revert to this state by a combination of disturbances in quick succession — say a major hurricane followed by a few dry years and killing intensity fires burning through the slash. Like this patch, they would then be at increased risk for decades of additional fire disturbances until a mature forest can regrow.
At this point I intersected the woods road along which I took the photos in 2006. This is further west along that road, at point “D” on the map.
Looking through the woods you can see a steep rise — pushing 60% slope at parts — and then a flat area on top looking awful sparse. If you look at the map, that is the area of the most intense damage. My guess is the fire intensified from a combination of later in the day (more pre-heating), elevation (windier), and having a wider fire front. The destroyed mansion was located at the blue dot.
The woods road at this point passed through very tall, very dense mountain laurel — 6′ high or better judging from the dead trunks. Some trees had scorch marks and mushrooms growing in fire-killed bark 15′ above the ground.
The acronym LCES stands for Lookouts, Communication, Escape Routes, and Safety Zones. In this case a safety zone — ordinary hardwood duff, with it’s low, slow burning characteristics was only a hundred feet or so away in the hollow between this point at the steep hillside. However the mountain laurel looks like it would’ve been impenetrable to get there. It’s a place like this I fear seeing guys in structural bunker pants and ill fitting boots getting caught in southern New England, unable to move quickly enough down the trail to escape an oncoming fire.
Let’s review a few key pictures from the fire day itself. These were taken along the woods road at approximately point “E.” You can find more at my original write up here.
Yes, it burns! There was a small draw to the east of the road, so the fire had a uphill run to my location. I had gotten in here before I saw any firefighters or officers, so I’m not sure if they planned to make a stand here earlier or I just had good dumb luck in finding the spot.
Sturbridge working their forestry into location. This was a good location to make a stand — while you can see the higher mountain laurel in the background, between it and the fire picture above was much lower laurel — may 2′ high, probably a patch that burned years ago. They are cutting a hole in the brush to allow the unit to turn around so it can be headed out in case a quick retreat is needed. Additionally, a good safety zone is only a few dozen feet west of this location where the laurel suddenly ends and it is not so thick as to be able to be hard to move through.
Even if the picture is deceptive. We’re only on the edge of the thicket here.
Wildland gear is not standard issue in New England at this time. I honestly prefer the guy in a T-shirt, jeans, and workboots over having someone in completely inappropriate structural PPE on a woods fire — they are far more likely to seriously injure themselves from exhaustion or a fall due to wearing that gear then the guy in jeans, tee, and good boots is to burn himself. The guy wearing the good wildland guy isn’t a state guy either — it’s very unusual to see that level of complete wildland PPE on a municipal firefighter here, at best you usually see just a wildland shirt with jeans.
There is another crew working in from the railroad tracks who directly attacked the flank with a hoseline working up from the railroad tracks to the woods road (one the right or east side). One of these lines would be used to protect the Sturbridge’s position in case the fire got over the lines being made, and the other hose would be used to work a line to the left (west) of the road.
A well dressed firefighter making short work of the burning laurel. That’s an 1-1/8″ Massachusetts forestry hose line. From this point they started working the fire to the left, burning mostly in duff from here up the steep hill.
Later on, Sturbridge’s location quite safe, the crew moved from protecting it to stretching another line through the hollow to hellp with mop-up on top of the hill.
This picture shows the rather sparse laurel at this point and how easy it would be to get from the road to a safe area. This, I don’t believe, was true at point “D” as I mentioned above, where there was still a lot of thick laurel between the road and a safe zone.
I like the easy to carry bundles if you carry your hose that way. Give me a backpack though and I’d be happier.
Water supply for this area was established by Oxford laying in a 4000′ 5″ line with their reel truck. I don’t know if it was a consideration in the decision to lay a line, but by this point tankers were being used to support operations in residential areas threatened by the head of the fire.
Halifax, Nova Scotia experienced a major wildfire yesterday. Wildfiretoday.com had this good post that alerted me to it.
Halifax, NS 30 April 2009
The statistics, per this CBC article, are:
2,000 acres
8 Homes destroyed;
7 Homes damaged:
450 Homes evacuated;
58 Firefighters(1)
5 Helicopters
Fires like this are not unprecedented in the northeast, however they are much less common then the western or southern U.S. and less common regionally then they were prior to 1955 (2).
In 1947 Maine burned. The Portland Press Herald has this good remembrance (archive) of the fires. As part of the reaction to that, the first interstate forest fire compact was established in 1949 — the Northeast Forest Fire Protection Commission. This Commission expanded to an international agreement in 1969 when Quebec joined New York and the New England states as members, and later expanded to include New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
While today the states in the northeast can call for national assistance through the National Interagency Fire Center, through NFFPC manpower familiar and equipment appropriate for the typical terrain, fuels, and fire conditions in the northeast are directly available. For example, member states and provinces have access to Quebec’s fleet of CL-215 and CL-415 water bombers, which are better suited to the regional fire situation then western style aerial tankers.
In 1951 the Commission held a major drill at Great Mountain, Norfolk, Conn., that you can read about here.
While much has changed over the last 60 years to reduce the frequency and size of typical fires, we still have woodlands that will burn ferociously in the right circumstances.
Those circumstances may not even be an extended drought; an ordinary dry periods combined with a major (or series of) forest disturbances can create serious problems. As mentioned in a number of posts including this one yesterday, much of north-central Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire are under the gun starting next year due to the ice storm this past December. It seems a similar disturbance played a role in Halifax according to a CTV report:
The fire flared up yesterday but was thought to be under control, until winds picked up Thursday afternoon, sparking 15 metre flames that jumped from treetop to treetop.
Officials have yet to pinpoint an exact cause of the fire, but some said an abundance of brush and remnants of downed trees from Hurricane Juan in 2003 gave fuel to the fire.
5-1/2 year old dead fuels! Hurricane Juan had made landfall at Halifax, with winds clocked at 100mph and estimates upwards of 145mph. While downed trees in direct contact with the ground I presume would have been well on the way to rotting by now, tree tops and others that where hung up against tree trunks or stacked on top of other fallen trees and thus unable to wick up moisture from the soil would still be in decent shape to burn.
This report from the local newspaper, the Chronicle and Herald, filed this afternoon provides some more details from the authorities:
Mr. Currie [Halifax Fire & EMS] said “the leftovers from hurricane Juan have been an issue. They’ve been an issue from the start and they still are an issue. It’s very difficult moving in and around this area with all the blow-down.”
Paul Schnurr, a forestry technician with the Department of Natural Resources, said Friday’s “wind conditions are somewhat the same (as the Porters Lake fire).”
“It’s a wind-driven fire, very fast moving, very hard to contain. It certainly moves faster than a lot of people can walk and that makes it very, very difficult.”
Fires can burn big and hot here. Just this past Wednesday I walked a fire that was of stand killing intensity over about 60 acres back in 2006, something I will write up soon. While I’ve seen such areas as a tourist in California, I’ve never seen an extended area in New England that had seen such intensity. It gave me a new appreciation of how bad of shape our forests were in before modern fire suppression was well established and became effective in reducing what had been a common occurrence. Earlier this month there was the 40 cottages lost at Alton, N.H., and now the Halifax fire. Southern New England will experience the right circumstances again, and the level of fire activity will shock many people.
Halifax, NS 30 April 2009
(1) I assume this is probably just forestry agency personnel, and more municipal firefighters would’ve been involved.
(2) For reasons left to a future post to explain, 1955 seems to be a good demarcation point to mark when “modern” forest fire protection all came together and gelled into an effective system in New England and it was clear that frequent, major fires were on the decline. A pioneering fire warden from 1915 would be amazed to see how things had changed by 1955; a fire warden from 1955 would recognize today as essentially the same as his time in organization, strategy, tactics, and tools — albeit tweaked and improved.
Today’s Worcester Telegram & Gazette has a very well done article (archive) discussing the potential impact on forest fires of the December ice storm.
David Celino, the state’s chief forest fire warden, said weather is the key factor and changes from week to week, citing a recent seven-day span when very dry air, a steady breeze and dry fuel on the ground created optimum brush fire conditions.
What makes this spring’s brush fire season, and those for the next several years, unusual is the tree damage from the ice storm.
Mr. Celino acknowledged the dual challenge of safety and logistics.
“There is the obvious issue of trying to walk through woods over downed limbs to reach a fire. And there’s the other issue of broken-off limbs that are weakened and hanging that could come down at any time, causing injury, he said.
“Next fall, next spring, the fall of 2010, that’s when the ice storm damage begins to pose a fuel issue, as the broken limbs, that are now still green, dry out and add to the problem of fuel on the forest floor,” he said.
Ashburnham Fire Chief Paul J. Zbikowski said his department has been fortunate so far, in that there haven’t been any brush fire calls “too deep into the woods.”
“The reports I’ve been getting are that what we see along the edge of the roads is nothing compared to what we’d be likely to encounter in the deep woods, say in the state forest. There is debris everywhere on the ground, and entire areas are impassable,” he said
“One of our priorities is to get our dirt fire roads opened and passable as quickly as possible. That at least gets us closer to the fire. Once we get off the road and into the woods, we’re trying to navigate around downed limbs and trees while carrying 5 gallons of water in a backpack pump,” Chief Zbikowski said.
I’ve already touched on this specific topic, organized under Disturbances, Ice Storm.
Deerfield, MA experienced a 50 acre brush fire on Friday.
This television report found an interesting story within a story about some prep school students who volunteer with Deerfield:
A raging brush fire burns 50 acres in Deerfield. 100 firefighters were deployed to the scene paralleling Upper Road, including some volunteer firefighters who were put to the test.
It’s the biggest brush fire in recent years, and it started in Deerfield. 50 acres were seen smoldering along the train tracks.
“We have approximately 80-100 firefighters deployed,” says Greenfield Fire Chief, Michael Winn.
Many on the Friday afternoon scene were volunteer firefighters, including four junior firefighters from Deerfield Academy.
“You got this horn. When it goes off, you sprint out of class and hope you have a spot on the firetruck,” says Cooper Magoon, a Jr. Firefighter.
“It was the first one I’ve been on that was an actual fire going on,” he says.
It started as a school-town partnership. Kids looking to explore fire training get real life experience, but Friday’s blaze was the biggest they fought, and the biggest they may ever see.
“I came in on one of the first trucks on the Deerfield brush truck and it was ripping. When we came by, there were flames all over the right side by the train tracks, I’ve never seen anything like it,” says Ryan Erf, a first year Jr. firefighter.
“Just the whole side was just covered in fire going all the way up the hill,” says Michael Mazur, describing the flames.
The fire extended and tore through the Deerfield woods. At no time were any homes threatened. That’s because the junior firefighters were dousing the outskirts, making sure, it didn’t spread.
“We’d be stamping out, or putting out the fire on the edge of the fireline,” says veteran firefighter Will Hickey.
It’s an experience they’ll never forget, and one, that makes them think about their firefighting future.
“I don’t know about their full time profession, but it’s something to consider,” Erf says.
The fire is out, but crews will be redeployed on Saturday and Sunday to recheck some of the hot spots.
The tuition and fees for Deerfield Academy currently are a bit over $40,000.
WWLP reported the fire took 3-1/2 hours to control and
Chief Yazwynski told 22News that the blaze was likely caused by a passing train. The train sparked numerous fires in about 8-9 different locations along the track.
Trains also caused this blaze on Saturday in New Hampshire:
Published: April 26, 2009 12:30 am
Passing train sparks 3 town brush fire
By James A. Kimble
jkimble@eagletribune.comNEWTON, N.H. — An army of firefighters spent much of yesterday afternoon dousing a series of brush fires in Newton, Kingston and Plaistow believed to have been started by sparks from a passing train.
Around 2 p.m., firefighters were called to the area of George’s Way and Cranes Crossing in Newton, a rural neighborhood near the Pan Am railways.
The train was coming from the state line, and traveled through Plaistow, Newton and into Kingston. The fires broke out in wooded and grassy areas along the tracks.
The four-alarm blaze stretched for miles, and brought out roughly a dozen fire departments from New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
Newton Selectmen Chairman Trisha McCarthy, who was manning the phones at the fire station yesterday, said the blaze appears to have started when a train coming from Plaistow through Newton to Kingston had its brakes lock up, sending sparks flying and starting fires in all three towns.
The fire claimed one trailer in the Whispering Pines Camping area in Newton, and one firefighter had to be taken to the hospital, according to Newton fire Capt. Dale Putnam. An update on the firefighter’s condition was not available last night.
Kingston fire Capt. John Merrill said his department sent at least a dozen firefighters to help, along with two engine trucks, a tanker and a forestry vehicle. The fire burned as temperatures topped 80 degrees, the warmest day so far this spring.
Merrill said the train was eventually stopped in Newfields to determine what had caused it to spark.
By early evening, firefighters were still on the scene, dousing hot spots along the tracks.
The Deerfield fire was also along a Pan Am railway.
This is a fire that plays an important part in this blog, which you can read in my welcome post.
This post is not an exhaustive history, but the highlights of some articles I already have in my archives. Someone mentioned this fire on another forum today, which inspired me to look at my notes again.
By the third day of the fire, some 3,000 men had been put to work on the fire with 400 more soldiers enroute from Niantic and Fort Devens. It had already destroyed 13 homes.
New York Times article, 1 May 1942
The perils of the fire fighters were undergoing were reflected in countless stories. One of these was told by Corporal Ralph Walsh of Woonsocket, who had become cut off from his fellow-Guardsmen and was badly hurt before being rescued.
He purposely bogged himself in a swamp when a raging burst of crown fire threatened to bombard him with flaming branches.
“I’ve been a woodsmen for a good many years,” he said, “But I never saw any fire as swift as this one. The lieutenant sent me for water and I guess I got lost because of the smoke. The next thing I knew, flames were rushing toward me in the underbrush. I started running ahead of them. It was terrible.”
“But you haven’t heard anything yet. I happened to look up in the air and there above me the flames were leaping from top to top among the pines. I had to keep going. Finally I saw an opening in the woods. I made for it and it was a swamp. I waded through the mud and that’s the last thing I remember.
This brief article from the Times said firefighters in Killingly (the town north of Sterling) controlled one fire that had burned one mile wide and three miles long.
Providence, R.I., May 3
With at least three forest fires still burning, although the worst was believed definitely over, Rhode Island State Police recorded today for the first time their convition that the outbeaks, which have spread damage in a sixty-square-mile area since Thursday, were incendiary.
Hartford, Conn. May 14 (AP)
The Connecticut and Rhode Island State Police announced jointly tonight the arrest of a man they said admitted starting forest fires which swept a wide area in both States two weeks ago, causing damage estimated as high as three million dollars.
…
Edward Francis LaCasse, 30, of Plainfield…was being held in Kingston, R.I. tonight and a … bench warrant charging arson would be sought in Superior Court at Putnam, Conn., tomorrow.
Arsonist Arrested
Justice moved swiftly in those days — only 8 days later he had been convicted and sent to prison. He admitted guilt to lighting the Connecticut fire, although it seems he didn’t admit guilt for fires lit in Rhode Island.
I believe (confirmation from two sources now — my father and this post, but no news articles yet that I have seen) that three Rhode Island firefighters died on these fires in a burnover incident when their truck stalled in heavy smoke. If that is true, it could explain his reluctance to admit guilt specifically to the fire which killed those firefighters.
Putnam, May 22.–(Special..)–Edward F. LaCasse, 30, volunteer fireman, of Plainfield, was taken to State’s Prison in Wethersfield Friday afternoon to begin serving a term of seven to 15 years imposed on arson charges in Windham County Superior Court here earlier…
Many fire ponds were constructed during the Great Depression to provide a ready source of water to fight fires.
Created to ease the financial strains of the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC, employed over 3,000,000 young men* between 1933-1942. The 21 camps in Connecticut provided barrack-style food and housing along with a small monthly stiped. The men worked o a variety of conservation projects including forest road construction, recreation area development and fire suppression.
A system of fire ponds, each holding a minimum of 7500 gallons of water, served as the main water source for fire suppression in the state forests. This particular fire pond was probably built by enrollees from Camp Connor in Stafford Springs circa 1936. The goal of building one pond per 100 acres on state land and one pond per 200 acres on private land was curtailed by the onset of WWII and the closing of the CCC camps. By 1941, the CCC had completed 404 water holes in the 80,000 acres of state forest and 269 holes on private land.
This fire pond, restored to the original conditionin 2001, illustrates one of several designs utilized by the CCC.
…
Many unrestored fire ponds can discovered along forest roads throughout Shenipsit and Nipmuck State Forest.
From this sign:
Sign at the Mountain Laurel Sanctuary, Nipmuck State Forest, Union, CT
This is the pond it refers to:
Fire pond at Mountain Laurel Sanctuary, Nipmuck State Forest, Union, CT
This is another style of pond:
Fire Pond in Natchaug State Forest, Hampton, CT
My observation is these ponds would have been most useful during the spring fire season, filled by snow melt and spring rains. In a normal summer today these are dry by mid-summer, and thus not available in the summer and fall fire seasons during a drought. I doubt this would have been any different seventy years ago.
They would have been useful for filling Indian tanks, as well as portable pumps and hose.
Today forestry agencies around the U.S. continue to improve rural water supplies, often under the auspices of the U.S. Forest Service’s Rural Community Fire Protection cooperative program they administer.
RI Rural Community Fire Protection Program
RC&D [Resource Conservation & Development] partnered with the DEM- Division of Forest Environment to provide rural communities with fire protection assistance. In 2006 RC&D designed, produced, and
distributed 200 Dry Hydrant Guidance Manuals to local fire departments, held four workshops across the state on the program and received 19 applications for dry hydrants from six rural fire departments. When installed these hydrants will improve fire protection for an estimated 13,000 residents of these communities.Rhode Island Resource Conservation & Development 2006 Annual Report
These static water supplies are considerably larger then the old hand dug fire ponds of the CCC, designed to support both wildland and structural fire protection. This is a representative dry hydrant installation:
[Photo of the Hampton hydrant will go here, once I find it...]
There is a couple ways to estimate coverage for the old water holes.
One is we can assume a square grid with perfectly even distribution. 100 acres would be approximately 2,000 feet square. From the center of that square to a side would be 1,000′ while reaching a corner would take 1,400′.
Another is to use a circle centered on the water hole. A circle 1,200′ in radius would cover approximately 100 acres, while a circle 1,650′ in radius would cover approximately 200′ acres.
* For perspective, the U.S. population in 1940 was 134 Million, of which 5.6 Million were males between the age of 20 and 24. A proportionately sized program today would employ some 7 Million men, with about 2 Million in active service at any given time.
Civil Air Patrol pilots on wildfire patrols
,
Sunday, April 19, 2009AUGUSTA – One of the nation’s best-kept secrets is getting some air time in Maine this year.
In a brand-new program starting this month, prompted by substantial budget cuts, the Maine Forest Service has contracted with the Civil Air Patrol to conduct fire-watch patrol flights on five statewide routes.
“We’re excited about this,” said Kent Nelson, the service’s fire prevention specialist. “This is really going to help out both our agencies and hopefully reduce the amount of wildfires.”
With more than 56,000 members nationwide, the nonprofit Civil Air Patrol is the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force. Founded in 1941, the air patrol originally assisted the War Department by defending the nation’s coastline during World War II.
Its volunteers perform homeland security, disaster relief and counter-drug missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies, according to Civil Air Patrol Web sites.
Members also play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to the nearly 22,000 young people participating in its cadet programs.
“Certainly, the Civil Air Patrol is going to do a good job,” said Maine Forest Service chief pilot John Knight of Old Town. “We have no doubt about that.”
Nelson said Knight got the idea last year to use the resources of the air patrol after learning that other states have been using it for smoke- and air-detection flights.
Maine Wing Civil Air Patrol Lt. Mary Storey of Auburn agrees it’s a timely idea.
“It will be cost-effective and save Maine a lot of money,” Storey said. “Maine says they’re broke and we fly free. Whereas in the past, (the Forest Service) used to take a big plane up at $1,000 an hour, with us, it’s $100 an hour.”
Knight figured using Maine’s Civil Air Patrol on a call-when-needed basis as opposed to a general contract would save, on average, $57,000 a year. That’s based on the average flight time through private contracting in the past decade.
Civil Air Patrol flights will be frequent in the spring when fire danger is high, with fewer in the summer when lush grasses reduce the fire risk. Flights will increase again in the fall, as the fire danger rises.
Prior to using aircraft starting in the 1930s to find wildfires, for many years the Forest Service relied on a network of triangulating fire towers across the state.
“The beauty of the fire patrol over that system, of course, is that you can fly right over the fire and give the exact latitude and longitude and also help direct whoever’s responding – whether it be a fire department or one of our rangers – to exactly where the fire is and which road to take and where the closest water source is,” Knight said.
Savings-wise, Knight said, the last 17 towers closed by the service were costing $450,000 a year to staff and maintain.
In 1991 or 1992, three airplane fire patrol contracts for the same area cost $45,000 in the first year, he said.
An even greater savings is expected to be realized by using Civil Air Patrol planes and pilots instead of private contractors to fly five 250-mile routes instead of nine shorter routes to cover the whole state.
When Maine has any kind of high fire danger, air patrol pilots and planes will be used in tandem with state aircraft and those from other state agencies, such as state police, marine patrol, and fish and wildlife, officials said.
Maine’s Civil Air Patrol has 17 volunteer mission pilots who fly the small red, white and blue airplanes.
“We’re often called the best-kept secret,” pilot Warren King of New Auburn said, as he examined one of two Cessna 282 planes tied to the tarmac at the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport.
“We’re trying to let the public know what we’re doing and why we’re doing it,” Storey said. “It’s all for them.”
Article from the Sun Journal. There’s also this companion piece which interviews a CAP pilot.
If I’m reading the article right, the Maine Fire Service has replaced 9 contract aircraft with 5 Civil Air Patrol aircraft, which fly longer routes.
I was able to pull some ballpark figures out of it though which seem reasonable:
Per-tower cost, 1991: $26,470.
Figure for staffing, electricty, telephone, maintenance, etc that doesn’t sound unreasonable. I’m assuming that’s paying someone to work fulltime for six months or so, say April 1 — Nov 1, not sure what you do with them when it’s raining. But it’s not like you’ll find many people who are healthy enough to climb an 80′ tower but will agree to only work part of the year, and then only as needed, for may fifteen bucks an hour, and won’t go batshit crazy looking at the woods all day long.
3% inflation gets you to $43,750/tower/year in 2009.
Aircraft cost, 1992: $45,000.
One aircraft replaces about 6 fire towers. (You can read the article as saying all three planes together only cost $45,000 but I think that has to be a grammatical mistake.)
3% inflation gets you to $74,400/aircraft/year in 2010.
That inflation adjustment I made is pretty close to the low end of Ontario’s cost, which in 2006 was $87,750 Canadian ($325/hour x 270 hours/year — http://fire.feric.ca/36502006/DetectionWorkshop/McAlpineDetection.ppt)
Doing the math another way, they also say the CAP will save $57,000 a year, and the CAP charge to the state is $100/hour. 270 hours x $100/hour = $27,000… $27,000 + $57,000 = $84,000…right in the ballpark of what Ontario spends.
The purpose to towers and aircraft are to find fires faster so they’re kept smaller — using less manhours, fuel, etc to control and consuming less resources like timber or homes.
We know we don’t typically have fires in Connecticut that threaten many buildings (not that it can’t happen), and we know we don’t normally have fires that truly threaten timber. So we can’t realistically talk about “losses prevented” in Connecticut today.
So we’re talking about having to save marginal extra expenses — Overtime for DEP guys out on the fire line, payments to volunteer fire companies for assisting DEP, fuel, etc.
That would mean a fire tower saving about $45,000 a year in extra costs, or an aircraft saving about $84,000 (private) or $27,000 (CAP) in a year. We’d need about 15 towers to cover Connecticut, or one aircraft.
I wish the math wasn’t so stark, ’cause I really do think fire towers are cool.
But we’d need to return to a day of a much more persistent, much more serious forest fire problem then we have today to make them worthwhile.
More on fire tower economics from Ontario:
http://fire.feric.ca/36152002/WorkshopPresentation/Economics.ppt
http://www.forestry.utoronto.ca/courses/jfg475f/detectnotes.pdf
http://fire.feric.ca/36502006/DetectionWorkshop/McAlpineDetection.ppt
