Friday, August 2, 2019

Howe Ridge Fire - Initial Response - 2018

https://youtu.be/-2oQyTcSj6I

25 minute video - interviews of all fire officials

LE = law enforcement

wildfire takes out 1 section of Glacier National Park

the fire was spotted during daytime when still under 1 acre - 1
firefighter walked into the fire but could do nothing - the forest
floor was littered with huge logs

note - the park only has 2 Type 6 engines every summer afaik - 2
people per engine - and they have a huge area to cover

note - local structural FDs are few and far between

note - local fire bosses are supposed to know how fire will spread in
their districts - they are not supposed to be caught by surprise

note - if 2 airtankers cant stop the fire after 4 or 5 hours of work -
then sending 1 extra helo after 12 hours really is futile - why wasnt
10 more tankers added after 1 hour? - because they were all in
California? - or every last one was busy? - where were they? - (no
mention of this in the video)

note - "severity funding" is extra money given to the Park by the
Washington DC office when fire weather gets much worse than normal -
in this case it apparently just paid for 1 or 2 extra fire trucks -
(this is just vaguely mentioned at beginning of video)

note - this is very close to Canada - perhaps they had some resources to send

note - they were at PL3 and PL4 iirc - Preparedness Level 5 is the
highest Level (and usually involves the callup of soldiers for fire
duty iirc)

What was the problem here? Was it 90% a mobilization issue?

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