NJ Forest Fire Service: 2020 summary and snapshot of 2007

 I came across a December 23rd Facebook post from the NJ Department of Environmental Protection the agency that houses the NJ Forest Fire Service just now. They have done a series of what they call DEP snapshots to celebrate their fiftieth anniversary in 2020. This is their installment, after providing a summary of the 2020 fire season in New Jersey they offer a snapshot of the 2007 wildfire season, the year that the Warren Grove Fire burned more than 17,000 acres in the Pine Barrens. Their Facebook post should be embedded below, you will have to click "see more" to read the entire post or if you prefer you may go the link provided in this paragraph.

2019 - 2020 Australia Bush Fire Season: photojournalism

 As Australia is well into their summer (2020-2021) bush fire season, I have found myself reflecting on the devastating bushfire season of 2019-2020. I was on Youtube just now and came across a video of a digital photojournalism exhibition from the 2019-2020 bushfire season in Australia. The video is just under four minutes long, you may want to read about what went into each shot in this exhibition at this link from the Walkey Foundation

Direct link to video from the Walkley Foundation on Youtube

Holiday Greetings: The Shepard

My tradition during the end of year holiday season is to post The Shepard by Frederic Forsyth as read by Alan Maitland on CBC radio. I wish all of you a happy and safe holiday season during these difficult times of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Direct link to video on Youtube 

some uses of unmanned aircraft systems (drones) for fighting wildfires: mapping and fighting wildfires with fire

I wanted to find some information for you on how unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) or drones are being used by wildland firefighters to help them fight wildfires. In going through some of my files and bookmarks, two things jumped out at me. One was using UAS for mapping wildfires and the other involved dropping small round ping pong balls to fight fire with fire. Fortunately I found one good video in my bookmarks which lead me to two more videos I will share with you. I will let the videos speak for themselves. 

This video, from September 2020, is from KCAU in Sioux City Iowa reporting on drones in Colorado dropping special ping pong balls with chemicals that the video refers to as "dragon eggs" to fight wildfires with fire. 

Direct link to video from KCAU on Youtube

The second video is a report from ABC 15 in Arizona (August 2019) reporting on how wildland firefighters in Arizona used drones to map wildfires as well as dropping special "ping pong balls" to fight wildfires with fire.

Direct link to video from ABC15 in Arizona on Youtube

The third and final video is a September 2018 report from CNET on how drones were being used that summer in California to fight wildfires. This video is just under four minutes. At about 2:51 you will hear a reference to the US Government contracted with four contractors to fly fixed wing drones to fight wildfires on federal lands; I have no further information on this so I can not comment.

Direct link to video from CNET on Youtube

I am going to keep on with reading and otherwise learning more about how UAS are being used to assist wildland firefighters in fighting wildfires or in post-fire recovery and rehabilitation. I will share with you what I learn at the appropriate time.

reflections on unmanned aircraft systems (drones)

I have done some posts about my concerns about drone (unmanned aircraft system or UAS) incursions over wildfires, see for example this November 4, 2019 post and this April 17, 2020 post. Simply, because of the risk that drones can pose if they collide with a tanker or helicopter and airplanes, air operations over a wildfire will be shut down if there is a drone incursion. Drone incursions near airports are also a concern. Ok, I want drones to be operated safely and legally in compliance with FAA and other regulations. Having stated that, I am here to say that I have nothing against drones. While I am not an expert on unmanned aircraft system and have only seen a couple of drone operations from a distance, I know enough to know that in the hands of a trained drone pilot drones can do a lot of good.

Edited on December 23rd to add: the concern that I expressed in the above paragraph applies to situations when members of the general public fly unauthorized drones or UAS over wildfires. The same concern applies to when members of the general public fly unauthorized drones or UAS near airports. 

I have seen drone footage over areas burned in wildfires offering a folk like me a good view of the devastation of a wildfire with the cost of a helicopter or airplane surveillance flight. I believe but am not certain that some National Weather Service offices or their partners have used drone footage in storm damage reports. Then there are drone uses for land surveying.

I have also read of drone uses in connection with wildland firefighting.I have various accounts in online media sites about how drones can assist wildland firefighters, I will take a look at my files and bookmarks for these articles and hope to make another post soon. In the meantime, I do know that Bill Gabbert of Fire Aviation has written extensively about unmanned aircraft systems. For example, in September 2020 he wrote about a quad-rotor UAS operated by Bridger Aerospace last summer and fall, mapping fires among other uses. Just this month Bill wrote two articles, on December 6th Bill wrote about a company called DroneSeeding that is licensed by the FAA to fly UAS in post-fire seeding operations. Just last week (December 16th) he wrote about work that Parallel Flight Technology is doing on heavy lift UAS capable of carrying 100 pounds for up to two hours. This UAS technology could be a big boon to wildland firefighters by transporting some equipment to the back country in addition to post fire animal rescue.

As I said, I have seen other reports of how unmanned aircraft systems may help wildland firefighters as well as aid in post-fire rehabilitation. Over the coming months, I will try to pay more attention to such articles that I come across and report back here as appropriate.

 

2020 and 2019 wildfire season: Midewin Hotshots crew videos

The Midewin Interagency Hotshot Crew, based in the Midewin Tallgrass Prairie in Wilmington, Illinois is the only hotshot crew in the eastern region. As a resident of the eastern region, I am honored by their work fighting wildfires. They are a national resource. The Midewin Hotshots have a nice Facebook page that may be found here. 

I seemed to have missed posting their 2019 crew video, Included among the states where they fought wildfires in 2019 are Virginia, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, New Mexico, Alaska, and Michigan.

Direct link to 2019 Midewin Hotshot crew video on Youtube

In 2020 they worked wildfires in Missouri, Midewin Tallgrass Praire (Illinois), Michigan, Arizona, New Mexican, Washington, and Oregon. A listing of their 2020 crew is listed at the end of the video. 

Direct link to 2020 Midewin Hotshot crew video on Youtube

Nice fire photography including shots of tankers and helicopters in both videos. Thanks for your service where you honor the eastern region.

2020 wildfire season: initial attack on small brush fire in San Diego County CA

 Enjoy this video of two helicopters working a small brush fire in San Diego County California in support of wildland firefighters on the ground. Thanks to their efforts, this November 2020 brush fire was contained about about two acres. This is a fine example of initial attack successfully containing this brush fire at small acreage burned. Thanks to my friends at the NJFFS Section B10's video of the week page who shared this video from Onscene TV about three weeks ago.

Direct link to video from Onscene TV

2020 wildfire season: summary of NWS Incident Meteorologists (Dec 11th)

I want to thank all the NWS Incident Meteorologists (IMETs) who have been deployed on 188 incidents this year. As of Friday, December 11,  2020 there are zero IMETs out on missions. Even so, I know that IMETs are ready to serve if they are needed. Remember that earlier this year IMETs were deployed to Australia to help with their devastating bush fire season.

IMETS save lives!

2020-2021 Australia bush fire season: air attack working with bush fire fighters

 Two things have been on my mind recently. One is knowing that we enter into winter here in the United States where wildfire season in California and other western areas never really ends, Australia and New Zealand and other areas south of the equator are in summer. In particular, I have been thinking about Australia and wanting to say that I am hoping that perhaps this bush fire season might not be as bad as last season's horrific bush fire season. I do what I can to try to follow at least the highlights of the Australian bush fire season. 

The second thing on my mind this week has been about the important role that Single Engine Air Tankers play in working wild or bush fires in support of fire fighters on the ground. SEATs are smaller air tankers with an 800 gallon tank.  However, they can work from smaller air strips as long as there are reloading facilities available. In some cases, retardant and/or water-foam reloading my done through portable equipment. They are a very effective tool in the air attack arsenal, especially when they can reload near the fire. 

Just this morning, I was checking out the weekly video highlight page from my friends at the NJFFS Section B10 page when I came across a video, just under six minutes with footage of ground and air attack on a scrub fire on Kangaroo Island in Australia. You will see some SEATs working the fire along with ground crews. This scrub fire started on December 4th and crews were still working the fire on December 5th. Enjoy.

Direct link to video on Youtube

RIP General Chuck Yeager

General Chuck Yeager died December 6th in Los Angeles California, here is an obit from the New York Times.

I do not recall exactly when I first learned that General Chuck Yeager was the first to break the sound barrier. However, it does seem like I have always known about General Yeager. I first watched the movie, All the Right Stuff where Sam Shepard portrayed General Yeager sometime in the mid to late 1980s on video tape. Sometime early in my interested in aviation and early one writing this blog on aerial wildland firefighting, I came across General Yeager's autobiography, Yeager, in a now defunct bookstore. I was very eager to read books by or about pilots because it was and still a way that I can fly and learn about flying. So, I bought the book which I enjoyed and have read a couple of times since then. 

I have a tremendous amount of respect for you, General Yeager, and your role in aviation history. Thank-you for all that you did in aviation, for bringing us into the faster than sound era. And you continued in military aviation for years after you broke the sound barrier. May you always fly in favorable winds.

Here are two short videos honoring General Yeager that I think honors him and his role in aviation history.

Direct link to video from that National Museum of the U.S. Air Force Museum

Direct link to video from CBC

2020 wildfire season: Glass Fire Tanker and Helo footage

 I don't know about you but sometimes I just like to look at footage of air tankers and helicopters working a wildfire in support of the wildland firefighters on the ground. I found this footage today in my wonderings on Youtube, it is about 30 minutes of tanker and helos working the Glass Fire in California in September/October of 2020. According to CAL FIRE, the Glass Fire burned 67,484 acres in Napa and Sonoma Counties California. At the time of this writing, the cause of the fire is under investigation. 1,555 structures were destroyed and another 282 were damaged.

Direct link to video on Youtube uploaded by Craig Philpott

2020 wildfire season: NWS Incident Meterologist deployed to Burn Fire (Orange County CA)

While areas burned earlier in the western U.S. may be beginning post fire rehabilitation and recovery, with the recent Santa Ana winds and Red Flag Warnings in California, I wondered if any wildfires would crop up. I heard about the Bond Fire in Orange County, CA yesterday, perhaps through the news feed on my devices or on social media. The fire started late the night of December 2nd from a house fire. I read Bill Gabbert's December 3rd coverage of the Bond Fire. Bill's coverage is in line with other reports I read this afternoon: 6,400 acres burned to date. Evacuation orders remain in place as I write this. According to a tweet earlier today from Orange County Fire Authority, there have been 11 aircraft working the fire in support of the wildland firefighters on the ground.

I do check the US National Weather Service IMET Facebook page most days to see about recent deployments and other news from the IMET (Incident Meteorologist) office. When I checked this morning, I was pleased to see that a US National Weather Service Incident Meteorologists from the NWS San Diego Weather Forecast Office was deployed to the Bond Fire the afternoon of December 3rd. 

With critical fire weather still forecast for the Los Angeles area through December 5th and again early next week, I am relieved that an IMET will be working this fire to provide location specific forecasts so that the wildland firefighters and the nearby residents will be safe. IMETS save lives. 

Burned Area Emergency Response: helicopters perform post fire seeding

Even before a wildfire is fully contained, recovery begins. At this point, I am not getting into the complexities of post-fire recovery on federal v state lands, size of the fire, and severity of the damage. Here I am considering seeding fire damaged lands following a wildfire, seeding using helicopters. As I understand it, seeding is important, especially in moderate to severe soil damage from the fire, to stabilize the soil and to seed the landscape so that plant germination takes place. I expect that aerial reseeding will be occurring over many of the areas burned out west in this devastating fire season. 

Thanks to Mike Archer's Wildfire News of the Day email for November 30th, I learned of a November 29th article from the Lewiston Tribune reporting on aerial reseeding of some of the areas burned by the Evans Canyon Fire which burned 75,817 acres near Naches in Yakima County,Washington. This is a good article, I hope that you take a few moments to read it. They say in part about this aerial reseeding: 

Helicopters and crews are reseeding land burned by the Evans Canyon Fire this summer between Naches and Ellensburg, the start of what will be a long recovery. … The wildlife department hired contractors to complete 300 of 750 scheduled acres of seeding with a helicopter in forested draws around Cleman Mountain and Black Canyon.

Those native mixes will replenish riparian areas susceptible to erosion, as well as some shrub-steppe landscapes. Confer Morris said seeding around the Wenas and Umtanum creeks would focus primarily on native grass species and sterile triticale.

I do not have videos of this particular aerial reseeding, but I do have a couple of videos that I will share to give you an idea of how helicopters do aerial reseeding. Smaller helicopters with mechanisms for buckets have a small metal bucket that holds the seed that is then dropping over an area designated for reseeding. In the first video, you will see a helicopter being loaded for seeding and then taking off.

direct link to video on Youtube

In the second video, you will see the helicopter (it is small) flying with the seeding bucket and then dropping at about 50 seconds.

direct link to video on Youtube