Thirty Mile Fire
On July 10, 2001 four U.S Forest Service Firefighters died while battling the thirty mile fire. Six others injured including two hikers. The thirty mile fire was the second deadliest fire in Washington state history.
The fire started by campers thirty miles north of Winthrop in Okanogan National Forest in the Chewuch river valley. The fire was only 25 acres in size when twenty one Forest Service firefighters were dispatched to the fire.
The Northwest Regular Crew number six was the first to be on the scene, there objective was
constructing direct fire line in the canyon during the late morning and early afternoon hours. Later in the afternoon the crew was attempting to control spot fires located east of the Chewuch river. Within minutes of doing the objective they were cut off from the escape route when flames rushed up the river drainage. The area was enduring a lengthy drought and moisture levels in larger fuels were dangerously low.
The drought was near historic high levels for the time of year. In the moments before the entrapment on of the squads and the crew boss trainee were working with a fire engine and its three person crew when a spot fire erupted right next to the road. The seven Northwest Regular Crew number six and a engine crew got in there vehicles and drove south past the fire along the edge of the road. While driving they radioed the other 14 crewmembers who were working north further up the river about the dangerous situation. The 14 crewmembers and the incident commander and two Northwest Regular number six squad members were suppressing spot fires between the river and the road ¼ mile north of the first squad when they were informed of the situation that was threatening there es...
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...aced involuntary manslaughter. The name of the firefighters that were killed are Tom Craven 30, Devin weaver 21, Jessica Johnson 19, and Karen Fitzpatrick 18.
I think they did the right thing by charging him with manslaughter. His actions on the fire were not acceptable, he was not acting like a IC and was not doing his job at all. He killed four people because his actions and most likely his low level of training. If they had the correct PPE and working Equipment and Knew to follow the ten standard firefighting orders and the eighteen watch out situations they most likely would of all survived and never been in that situation of deploying there shelters.
Work cited
The United States Department of agriculture Forest Service investigation report on the thirty mile fire.
www.fs.fed.us/t-d/lessons/documents/Thirtymile_Reports/Thirtymile-Final-Report-2.pdf
It is so sad to see the horror of forest fires and how they corrupt our beautiful land. So much damage comes out of what started so small. At least 603 square miles of land were burned in the early stages of the Arizona fire only a couple of years ago (BBC 2). In a Colorado fire 2.3 million acres had been burned (BBC 3). That land could have been saved if the use of prescribed burns had been in the area.
The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America is about Teddy Roosevelt’s attempt to save the beautiful scenery of the West. Roosevelt used his presidency as a springboard to campaign for his want of protection for our woodlands, while doing this he created the Forest Service from this battle. In this book, Timothy Egan explores the Northern Rockies to analyze the worst wildfire in United States history. This disaster is known as the “Big Burn,” the 1910 fire that quickly engulfed three million acres of land in Idaho, Montana and Washington, completely burned frontier towns and left a smoke cloud so thick that it hovered over multiple cities even after the flames had been extinguished. Egan begins this story about the Big Burn of 1910 with the story of how the United States Forest Service came into existence.
Synopsis In West Warwick, Rhode Island, on February 20th, 2003, during the performance of the band Great White, a fire broke out that eventually claimed the lives of 100 people and injured an additional 200. The band’s tour manager arranged for, and ignited pyrotechnic props, large fireworks designed to display a shower of sparks. Sparks ignited foam soundproofing near stage. The fire spread quickly and quickly.
"Our Lady of the Angels School Fire." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Apr. 2014. Web. Apr. 2014.
I’ve decided to review The Fires of Jubilee by Stephen B. Oates for my book analysis. I was very hesitant on doing my analysis over this piece because I have so many opinions, and different viewpoints on this book. With so many opinions however, this was the best book for me to write 4 pages over. It was extremely easy for me to read Fires of Jubilee and really get into the text, because growing up my Mom would always tell stories about slaves and old slaves tales passed down from earlier generations of mine. Being of split-heritage I always get 2 different viewpoints and stories told to me and my brother by our great-grandparents, so reading this explained way more of the story of Nat Turner than I was previously told of when I was younger.
Fires were a very common obstacle at the time, but nothing was even close to the fire of 1871. On October 8th, firefighters received a call from the neighbor of Catherine O’Leary. Neighbors reported seeing a number of flames coming from the cow barn. Firemen instantly spotted the fire, but miscalculated how big it really was. This event was historically known as the Chicago Fire of 1871 (“People 7 Events”).
Policies regarding the handling of wildland fires continue to change and evolve as new information is learned each fire season. Attitudes have changed between complete wildland fire suppression to no suppression at all. We now seem to have reached a balance between the two schools of thought and fall somewhere in the middle.
On Sunday, October 18, 1871 the largest fire Chicago has ever seen broke out. Hundreds died and thousands of homes were annihilated. Devistation towered over the city, ashes floated gracefully through the air as bodies, houses and cherished items burned. People ran in fear, holding their young, crying for the gone, searching for saftey. Searching for life. Searching for hope.
fires in the first week of October, on Saturday night, October 7, a blaze broke
It's is still unknown to exactly what caused this fire to start. Due to the ground being dry and the houses and building being constructed of wood, the fire consumed the area rapidly. When the fire broke out and fire fighters were dispatched they were sent to a different location by accident. Fire fights that arrived were exhausted from a large fire from the previous day. The fire had consumed the city and was so wide spread the firefighters were unable to control the fire.
As people of the twenty-first century, we are all too familiar with the frequent occurrence of wildfires in our nation’s forests. Each year millions of acres of woodlands are destroyed in brutal scorches. It has been estimated that 190 million acres of rangelands in the United States are highly susceptible to catastrophic fires (www.doi.gov/initiatives/forest.html.). About a third of these high-risk forests are located in California (www.sfgate.com). These uncontrollable blazes not only consume our beautiful forests but also the wildlife, our homes and often the lives of those who fight the wildfires. The frequency of these devastating fires has been increasing over the years. In fact, in the years 2000 and 2002, it has been reported that the United States has faced its worst two years in fifty years for mass destruction fires (www.doi.gov/initiatives/forest.html.). The increased natural fuels buildup coupled with droughts have been a prevailing factor in contributing to our wildfires and unhealthy forests (www.blm.gov/nhp/news/releases/pages/2004/pr040303_forests.html). Due to the severity of these wildfires, several regulations and guidelines have been implemented to save our forests. In fact, the President himself has devised a plan in order to restore our forests and prevent further destruction of our woodlands.
"Wildland Fires of 2002 Summary." National Fire News. 11 Oct. 2002: 1 pg. Viewed 2 Nov. 2002 .<http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html>.
...he firm foresaw the significant probability of harm to firefighters using the training facility and acted to communicate the discovered risks to the government organization awarding them the contract. Communication was essential in persuading the government to address the safety issues because the site met the requirements set forth by law, reducing the perception of risk, and the design choice of replacing jet fuel with liquid propane created the unintended consequence of an increased risk that otherwise may have gone unnoticed if not for the actions of Giffels’ consulting firm. Giffels’ strategy to remain persistent in refusing to complete the contract and highlighting the significant risk his firm discovered proved successful when dealing with a client that at first appeared to have taken a minimalist approach by staying with the minimum requirements of the law.
Fire at any level can be devastating, yet the effects that wildfires have on every worldwide country really has left its mark on the land. As written by world renowned wild fire spokesperson Smokey the Bear, “Every year, wildfires sweeps through parts of the United States setting wilderness and homes ablaze. On average these raging infernos destroy about four to five million acres of land a year. But in 2012, wildfire burned more than 9.3 million acres, an area about the size of Massachusetts and Connecticut combined” (U.S. Wildfires). Destroying homes, crops, towns and of course forests. Yet the effects of these fires can be seen from a negative perspective as well as some positive. Plus there are natural causes as well as manmade that makes these destructive fires erupt and become almost unstoppable in seconds.