There has been much discussion obout the purpose of the U.S. Forest Service since it recently disclosed that it was forced to take funds from other USFS programs to fund firefighting. One of the questions has been, “Is the USFS a fireifghting organization?” and whether it should be in the firefighting business. Some politicians have even expressed surprise that the USFS is a firefighting entity. Is this possible? Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday evening I watched several L.A. County Fire Department engines head down Pacific Coast Highway. Soon the trucks carrying the inmate fire crews followed. We had just had a fire near Malibu earlier in the day. This was troublesome because of the size of the response. Read the rest of this entry »

Greg Kowalski has come to California to learn to be a wildland firefighter. At Los Angeles County Fire Department Helitack Camp 8 Greg spend a month of intensive training. One afternoon he and his fellow trainees are shown a video from the US Forest Service about being trapped in a wildfire. -

Day Seven. Afternoon. Lessons Learned.
The class consisted of watching a series of Forest Service videos called Lessons Learned. Each focused on a particular fire and began with a Forest Service Ranger telling us that, between 1926 and 1990, four hundred wildland firefighter fatalities had occurred. Read the rest of this entry »

First Recorded Fire Shelter Deployment
October 29, 1804
William Clark
The Prarie was Set on fire (or caught by accident) by a young man of the Mandins, the fire went with such velocity that it burnt to death a man & woman, who Could not get to any place of Safty, one man a woman & Child much burnt and Several narrowly escaped the flame. … The couse of his being Saved was a Green buffalow Skin was thrown over him by his mother who perhaps had more fore Sight for the pertection of her Son, and [l]ess for herself than those who escaped the flame, the Fire did not burn under the Skin leaveing the grass round the boy. This fire passed our Camp last [night] about 8 oClock P.M. it went with great rapitidity and looked Tremendioius.

Here’s what’s going on in our national parks and forests, and it’s not pretty. The U.S. Forest Service is responsible for forest fires as well as for our park facilities. The way the budgeting process works, each year the USFS budgets a specific amount for all of its operations. Read the rest of this entry »

I wish I could say that my assignment started out with something really cool, like cutting hot line with fire just a few feet away, but then I’d be making things up. We actually started our assignment staging for a day. That’s right. We reported to camp, four fires burning uncontrolled in the immediate area, and we were sent to a campground at Lake Pillsbury to sit and wait. Read the rest of this entry »

OXYGEN, HEAT and FUEL are referred to at the “Fire Triangle” Take any one of these things away, and you will not have a fire, or it will be extinguished.

Fuel characteristics will determine the fire intensity and rate of spread

FUEL TYPE- grass leaves, brush with high oil content will result in fast burning rapid rates of spread. Read the rest of this entry »

The following message was found posted Anonymously on the net…
Anonymous
something to think about
Tue Aug 12, 2008

I helped carry Jim Ramage to the helicopter that would take him on his last flight. His remains were draped in an American flag. Firefighters hovered over the remains of four that day and I had been ensuring that Jim was taken care of. He was carried with honor and dignity up a steep hill by myself, Jim Morrison and four firefighters. Read the rest of this entry »

The United States Fire Administration Announces the 2007 Firefighter Fatalities Report

The United States Fire Administration (USFA) has released today its report Firefighter Fatalities in the United States in 2007. The report continues a series of annual studies by the USFA of on-duty firefighter fatalities in the United States. The USFA is the single public agency source of information for all on-duty firefighter fatalities in the United States each year. Read the rest of this entry »

We knew the fire was approaching as we heard the freight train sound. We saw the orange glow take definition as the flames crowned in the nearby trees. The other engine crew on the road closer to the fire had reported such extreme fire behavior that they had already taken shelter in their chosen Read the rest of this entry »