Air Tankers and Helos fighting wildfires: private citizen's perspective

Wildland firefighters whether in the air or on the ground do what they do to keep us safe. As you no doubt know, wildfires often occur close to or within the sight line of people's residences. Here are a couple of videos of aerial firefighting shot by private citizens from their property.

The first video was shot in August 2011 of aerial operations over the Warm Springs Fire in Wyoming. I am struck by the commentary of the videographer as she watched the aircraft (two of Neptune's P2-V tankers (10 and 44), a lead plane, and a helo with a bucket working the wildfire near her home. As I was watching the video, I sensed her gratitude. And at the end of the video she expresses her gratitude to the wildland firefighters in the air and on the ground who fought the wildfire. No homes were lost. Read the about this video comments here and click on show more. She thanks the local firefighters from Dubois Wyoming as well as all the non-local ground crews for their work in saving homes. Allow about six minutes to watch the video


Direct link to video

The second video was probably shot early on during the 2013 Rim Fire in California. Much of the video was shot by a homeowner from his roof. At the time the video was shot the Rim Fire had burned about 125,000 acres and was at 5% containment.  The Rim Fire ultimately burned over 257,000 acres in Stanislaus National Forest and Yosemite National Park and was fully contained in mid to late October 2013. I caution readers that you will some profanity early in the video and again towards the end, what I take to be an expression of awe as they watch the DC-10 tanker working the fire.


Direct link to video


I made several posts on the subject of the Rim Fire which you may access here (with the most recent post on the top).

Rim Fire - Yosemite - On the role of fire management

Yesterday I was visiting the Yosemite National Park website and I went to one of their multimedia pages called Yosemite Presents where I saw their video on the Rim Fire, also available on Youtube under Yosemite Presents. It turned out that I had bookmarked the video and I think that I first learned about the video from Wildfire Today (January 12, 2015).

I watched the video again yesterday, in fact I watched the video a couple of times and since I am in the process of researching the Rim Fire Post-Fire Recovery, I thought I'd share the video with you today. What I like about this video is that they talk about the role that controlled burns (including prescribed burns) can play to reduce the damage done by wildfires. I like the  explanation that accompanies Yosemite's Rim Fire Video:

As these unnaturally large fires become more commonplace due to previous fire suppression and climate change, Yosemite National Park is seeing the benefits of carefully allowing smaller, controlled fires on the landscape.

You will hear Deputy Fire Chief Taro Pusina talk about the firing operations his crew did during the Rim Fire with the aim of stopping the fire before it reached the Merced River drainage and two giant sequoia groves. They also talk about the role of prescribed burns in helping wildfires such as the Rim Fire from not burning quite as hot as it could, slowing down and cooling fires such as the Rim Fire.

A peek into wildland firefighting in Alberta, Canada

It is my intention to write about the Rim Fire Post-Fire Recovery. Some of you might recall that I wrote about the long-term effects of the Rim Fire in an article that I posted on December 7th. I have a lot of documents related to the Rim Fire Post-Fire Recovery from Stanislaus National Forest to go through and have just made contact with someone from Stanislaus. It is going to take some time to do my reading and to talk with Stansilaus. I expect that this process will take until after the first of the year. However, if I find some pertinent information about the Rim Fire or the Rim Fire Post-Fire Recovery in my wonderings on the internet, I'll post it here.

Updated on September 16, 2016: as sometimes happens, it turns out that I spoke to soon when I first wrote this article on December 9, 2015. I do remain interested in the Rim Fire Post-Fire Recovery, but make no promises on what I will be able to do in the future.

In the meantime, I thought that you might enjoy these two videos that I am embedding where you will get a peek into wildland firefighting in Alberta, Canada. Both videos are under two minutes long.


Direct link to video on Youtube


Direct link to video on Youtube

Rim Fire - Long Term Effects

I spent much of this afternoon going through many documents relating to the Rim Fire - Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER)  and Long Term Recovery. Recall that the Rim Fire started in August 2013. Before it was contained two months later, it grew to be the third largest in California history burning 257,314 acres in the Stanislaus National Forest (154,530 acres), Yosemite National Park (78.895 acres), Bureau of Land Management (129 acres), and private lands (23,760 acres) [Rim Fire Reforestation Draft Environmental Impact Statement, U.S. Forest Service, Stanislaus National Forest, R5-MB-279, November 2015, p. 1-2, obtained on December 7, 2015 from http://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=45612).

Obtained on December 7, 2015 from http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/photos/CASTF/2013-08-17-1950-Rim/picts/2013_09_17-09.40.14.506-CDT.jpeg where you may get high resolution version

You may recall that I wrote about the Rim Fire - BAER on November 6 and  November 11 2013, with another article on August 21, 2014.

In my wonderings this afternoon I came upon  The Sierra Nevada Conservancy's webpage devoted to the Rim Fire (with links). I learned about two videos that I want to share with you. The first video is a before and after (Rim Fire) video of the area burned by the Rim Fire posted on the Sierra Nevada Conservancy's Facebook page. Unfortunately, I could not get the embed code to work, that happens sometimes. Please go here to watch the 2 minute video, it is very striking.

Finally, here is a nice video from California State Association of Counties (CSAC) looking at some of the long-term effects of the Rim Fire on the region, both environmentally and economically. Michael Sweet wrote this blog article of his visit to the Rim Fire burn area.


Direct link to video on youtube

Rim Fire one year later - debate over plans for forest recovery

In my wonderings, thanks to Michael Archer's Wildfire News of the Day on August 19, 2014, I saw this interesting story (hopefully embedded above) on a debate surrounding forest recovery in the aftermath of the Rim Fire of one year ago. I wrote a two part series last November on the Burned Area Emergency Response on November 6, 2013 and November 11, 2013 (with video of burned area).

A direct link to the National Public Radio article and audio may be found here. I post this without comment, I'll let you decide what you think about this debate.

Rim Fire - Burned Area Emergency Response (2 of 2)

direct link to video

This video from the Tuolumne River Trust shows aerial footage shot in 2008 of the area burned in the Rim Fire in the first two minutes of the video. In the final two minutes you will see some footage shot on the ground in early September 2013 of some of the burn area. I believe that the river you see in the footage is the Tuolumne River which runs through the area burned by the Rim Fire, go here to see a map of the Rim Fire burn area on inciweb (it might take a couple of minutes to load).

I found the video when I read a nice article from a KQED report on the Rim Fire BAER. I also found a Sept. 8, 2013 article from the Huff Post Green (with photos) on the team of scientists involved in the Rim Fire BAER.

I was interested in some pictures of the Rim Fire Burned Area Emergency Response that are posted on this flickr page. In addition there are some more photos, some of them seem to be identical or similar to the ones posted on flickr that I found on Inciweb's Rim -- BAER photo page, with captions so you know exactly what you are looking at. There are over 60 photos on this page, I was interested in the damage to the soil and how the area has recovered in the weeks immediately following the fire, so I am highlighting these photos here:

soil damage

soil stabilization

water repellency

recovery 1

recovery 2

recovery 3

recovery 4

Revised on November 19, 2015 to correct URLs to Rim Fire - BAER on Inciweb. I am never quite certain how long such links remain active.

Rim Fire - Burned Area Emergency Response (1 of 2)

Some wildfires cause damage that if unchecked could jeopardize the ecosystem, watersheds, and even human populations (see U.S. Forest Service on Burned Area Emergency Response). Where there is post fire damage Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) kicks in, the USFS has a webpage with some background information on BAER that may be found here.

It has been a couple of years since I have written about BAER, and when I saw a couple of references on the internet about the Rim Fire BAER, I thought I'd write an article or two about BAER. Recall that the Rim Fire burned 257,314 acres or 402 square miles late last summer and was not fully contained until Oct. 24th.

There are three main stages of rehabilitation after a wildfire (see the Rim Fire - BAER page on inciweb for more information, 

1. fire suppression repair

2. emergency stabilization - BAER

3. long-term recovery and restoration

The latest progress report (Oct 30th, 2013) available to me as I write this on 6 November of BAER accomplishments at the Stanislaus National Forest where the Rim Fire burned may be found on this inciweb page. Among other things, one focus of BAER in the aftermath of the Rim Fire is to prepare for rain.

Stay tuned for more on the Rim Fire BAER in my next article.

Revised on November 19, 2015 to correct URLs to Rim Fire - BAER on Inciweb. I am never quite certain how long such links remain active.

Rim Fire (CA) - on the fireline

There have been a few thousands wildland firefighters on the ground along with various equipment working the fire. I was looking around for some video of groundpounders working the Rim Fire when I came upon a great Vimeo channel from Sunshine Pictures devoted to the Rim Fire, the page may be found here. I hope that you spend a few minutes checking out their channel. Sunshine Pictures says this, in part, about the video clips on this channel:

The clips are educational in showing wildland fire suppression tactics at work on the ground along with the general conditions of smoke and fire.

Sunshine Pictures promises more videos to come, and I know that I'll be going back to check out their channel. It is in the spirit of education that I embed one of the videos from Sunshine Productions here.

Here is one of the videos from Sunshine Pictures on their vimeo channel devoted to the Rim Fire. Depending on the browser that you use, you might have trouble seeing the embedded video, if that is the case, click on the link that says Geronimo Hotshots. According to the info that accompanies the video, "The first clips show the crew digging a small chunk of line in a thick duff layer. The next clips show the crew linking or putting a ring around a spot that had escaped the main fire line."

Geronimo Hotshots from Sunshine Pictures on Vimeo.

Rim Fire (CA) - Sept. 3 update

The LA Times is reporting that the Rim Fire is at 75% containment, having burned 235, 841 putting it less than 5,000 acres shy of being the third largest fire in Californian history, go here to see the LA Times article.The latest update from Inciweb on the Rim Fire may be found here. Full containment is estimated to be a few weeks away.

Here are a couple of articles that Mike Archer of Firebombers Publications shared yesterday and today. As I was writing this article, I saw that Mike Archer linked to the above LA Times article today.

time lapse video on flickr by Jeff Sullivan

USA Today (9/2/13) article on the fire referencing # of personal, equipment and helos working the fire

KMPH 9/1/13 report and video on the role of Fresno AAB and a hotshot crew

Fox News (9/2/13, Associated Press) on how weather has affected firefighters working the fire

Stay safe everyone!

Revised on October 12, 2015 to removed a dead link.

Rim Fire (CA) - Aug 28

The Rim Fire has burned 187,466 acres and is at 23 percent containment per the latest update available to me from Inciweb at the time I first wrote this article. (Inciweb's incident page for the Rim Fire is no longer available).

Rim Fire Time Lapse (video uploaded on Aug 23, 2013)

direct link to video on youtube

Another look at a California National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk from the 1-140th Aviation Battalion (Air Assault) working the Rim Fire shot from the helo by Mater Sgt. Julie Avery.

direct link to video on dvidshub

DC-10 dropping on Rim Fire

direct link to video on youtube

Rim Fire Photo gallery from KCRA

Bill Gabbert (Wildfire Today) on virtual tour of the Rim Fire area
Bill Gabbert (Fire Aviation) photos of Nat Guard Helos arriving to work Rim Fire


More articles:
Article from U.S. Air Force on MAFFS deploying to CA to help with wildfires with pictures
LA TImes article on Rim Fire, may soon be sixth largest fire in CA history

Revised on October 12, 2015 to remove dead link.

Rim Fire update - 8/26/13

I wrote this past Friday (Aug. 23) about the Rim Fire, I follow up on that post here. According to the latest information available from inciweb about the Rim Fire  (8/26/13, 3:30 PM EDT), this fire has burned 149,750 acres with 15 percent containment (see note at bottom). Tankers deployed to the fire include but are not limited to MAFFs, DC-10 tankers, and helos. Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today continues to provide updates about the Rim Fire here.

I am embedding two videos, the first is shot from a UH-60 Black Hawk Helo from the 1-140th Battalion (Air Assault) of the California Army National Guard (videographer, Sgt. 1st ClassJesse Flag. More information about the fire, the crew of the UH-60 and what you are seeing on the video may be found on the about this video page for this video (from California Guard). I happened to find this video on youtube earlier this afternoon, however Mike Archer of Firebomber Publications also mentioned this same video in today's edition of Firebomber Publications. The link that Mike shared for this video is from OC Breeze, and this same video may also be found on dvidshub.

The second video is footage of MAFFS 6 working the Rim Fire. MAFFS 6 is from the Channel Islands (CA) Air National Guard. Bill Gabbert shared this video along with two other videos of MAFFS working the Rim Fire on Fire Aviation on Aug. 23, 2013.

direct link to video

Revised on October 12, 2015 to removed dead link. Specifically, I removed the link to Inciweb's incident page on the Rim Fire. If I recall, incident pages on Inciweb are removed 6 to 12 months from the time of the last update to the incident page.

Rim Fire (near Yosemite in CA)

The Rim  has been burning since Aug. 17 and is at 2 percent containment. KCRA is reporting that the fire grew to 105,620 acres over night, go here for their report. I understand that tankers and helos working the Rim Fire include (but are not necessarily limited to) at least one of the DC-10 tankers, C-130 MAFFS, and helos.

KCRA has good coverage on the Rim Fire and other fires in northern CA. Here are some links that you might be interested in:

• video report from McClellan Tanker Base
• report on Rim Fire (8/23/13, 7:36AM PDT
• slide show of Northern CA Fires including Rim and American Fires
• Live Wire on No.CA wildfires

Other pages:

• Wildfire Today article on Rim Fire
• Wildland Fire hotlist continuing incident thread on Rim Fire.

Revised on December 10, 2015 to remove dead links including dead link to inciweb page on Rim Fire.