Erskine Fire - Kern County CA - listening to the radio tape

Listening to the Erskine Fire radio tape

TF = task force = 5 fire trucks (various types)

ST = strike team = 5 fire trucks of the same type
Type 1 engine - big structural pumper
Type 2 engine - structural pumper
Type 3 engine - big brush truck
Type 6 engine - small brush truck
Type 1 helo - biggest helo
Type 2 helo - 2nd biggest helos
Type 3 helo - small helo - seats three people usually IIRC



Fire started June 23 2016

Times given are just the markers on the radio tape - they are not the real times

1350 - 3 beeps - first alarm interagency - station 72 area

1420 - tone sets start - 8 or more tone sets are transmitted - 1 sec
tone followed by 4 sec tone for every set

1500 - tone sets stop

call is announced

first alarm interagency - station 72 area - key map 69? 6 Boy -
Erskine at Appollo - Crew 10 - Bat 4 - Bat 7 - 2 dozers - E336 - E371
- Helo 407 - WT11 - Patrol 72 - Pat 78 - Eng 376 - Crew 11 - A/G 41
167.475 - Tac is NIFC Tac 2 - Kern 3 - VFIRE 23 - still pending on a
Fire name

phones ringing in background

first mention of address came at 1530 which was 100 seconds after first 3 beeps

units sign on

1840 - lite smoke showing per 72

2134 - P72 tells E72 that route in is flagged

2348 - E72 reports 2 acres - multi spots - starting to run up the hill

2508 - Helo 407 signs on from Keene - 2 SOB - 2 hours of fuel - ETE 17 minutes

2726 - Company 76 at scene - ("1608" is the time stamp from the
dispatcher - i can use this to calculate all of the real times)

2837 - 72 wants 76 to protect the structure to the North - 76 OK

2917 - Bat asks 72 if he needs more resources - 'I will decide in a
moment - 1 structure is threatened - I can protect it if 1 resource
gets in here - (otherwise) "it will just run up the hill from there"


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oy vey

openness - news media didnt play that part of the tape

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 At this point it seems to me that they sent just about every fire truck in
the area immediately - but maybe they didnt send them to the right
side of the hill - that will take more study to uncover.

I noticed that E72 was not sent but they did respond. Like I said
before - each of the Kern County stations has 3 people on duty 24/7;
and each station has a big pumper and a small pumper - i dont know if
they roll both rigs at the same time or not. Something tells me that
there are absolutely no volunteer firefighters; and off duty staff are
not (promptly) used.

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Continuing with Part 2 of this post

they had absolutely no clue that the fire had gone into the Squirrel Valley area

=========================

0045 - 2 air tankers and 1 air attack airborne from Porterville - ETA 11 minutes

100 - request medium task force - (is 5 more Kern County brush engines)

256 /1613 PM - Eng 371 at scene

720 - Helo 407 at scene

815 - want evacs ordered?

1025 - starting Ty3 ST thru Porterville - (USFS engines)

1119 - fire will hit Cook Peak -then depending on winds, will hit ???
in a couple of hours

2000 - send a Porterville TF to Yankee Canyon

2237 - getting lots of phone calls for spotting into Squirrel Valley -
try to check with Air Attack

2400 - get engines from the Desert (side) into Squirrel Valley

2400 - calls for 1 home burning already in Squirrel Valley

2549 - TF 5230 paged (maybe) - (they were ordered back at 100 on the
tape - 24 minutes previous - maybe this was a formality)

2730 - E371 and E72 will head to Squirrel Valley - ETS 15 minutes

========================

they thought the fire would take 2 hours to reach the homes in
Squirrel Valley - seems that it only took 45 minutes

oy vey

they had 3 or 4 helos plus 2 tankers and 1 air attack over the fire -
plus who knows how many EMS and police helos - and no one noticed the
fire burning into homes apparently - ?????????