ID-BOF-burnover of Cascade Complex ICP

[mcleod]

ID-BOF-Cascade Complex

209 from 1900 yesterday
Paul Broyles, IC (T1)

Significant events today (closures, evacuations, significant progress made, etc.):
Portions of the Boise, Payette, and Salmon Challis National Forests remain closed. Both the Monumental and North Fork Fires are growing significantly. Yesterday showed a combined fire growth of 27,240. Multiple improvements are threatened at this time. Due to rapid fire growth the number of improvements threatened is undetermined. The southern flank of the North Fork fire is threatening the Cascade Complex ICP. The "Stay in Place Plan" was implemented at Cascade ICP at 16:00 due to this threat. At approximately 1730 a running crown fire enveloped Cascade ICP. A defensive strategy was in place. Some infrastructure and two historical cabins were lost in the Knox Ranch/ICP area. Planning continues to reallocate resources to manage the significant change of both fires.

Remarks:
Yesterday the Monumental and North Fork fire grew a combined 27,240 acres. Today¿s fire growth will most likely mimic the previous operational period.

more info here on the ICP burnover:

Central ID Fire Update http://www.fs.fed.us/idahofires/audi.../indexpm.shtml
(snip)...

Late today, the North Fork Fire spotted across the South Fork of the Salmon River and burned toward the west and south flanks of the Cascade Complex Incident Command Post and base camp. The Incident Management Team had a “shelter in place” plan for such an event and activated it. Incident Commander, Paul Broyles, said, “We had a good plan, we activated it, and it worked.”

Damage to the Incident Command Post and base camp included the loss of one yurt (large tent), 5 firefighter tents and minor damage to one pickup truck. There were no injuries. The rest of the camp facilities are intact. Two historic structures belonging to Knox Ranch, next to the Incident Command Post, were lost. Firefighters were successful in protecting structures around Warm Lake, including the Youth on A Mission Camp, and the Juniper Outfitters facilities and the historic structures at Stolle Meadows.

[abercrombie]

from theysaid:

Who says you never see any action in ICP. Just received this.
Adventure and Excitement and the Camaraderie, still remain as the main
attraction of Fire.

COMT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, how BIZARRE is this, the following excerpt is from
www.inciweb.org <http://www.inciweb.org/> and then look at Cascade
Complex in Idaho....this really happened, although the news always DOES
dramatize everything...The blurb makes it sound like we were engulfed,
but actually, I was in there stomping out embers with the best of
them...they knew for 2 days that the ICP, which is at Knox Ranch, which
is in the middle of the Forest, with LOTS of sub-alpine fir, would be
burned around, if not over...there was NO place for us to go, so they
implemented the "Stay In Place" Plan...around 1500 we all had to put on
our PPE (personal protective equipment) which means nomex pants and
shirt, hard hat, goggles, leather gloves, and then medical passed out
face masks for breathing, we had to leave our trailers, and sit in the
middle of the ICP, which is a fairly large open area...the Incident
commander, Paul Broyles talked to us, and then spent time going through
the crowd, reassuring everyone that we would be fine, it was sort of
like a strange "party", we drank water, took pictures of everyone
dressed up for FIRE FIRE, (I'll have to email pictures when I get home,
as this is not my computer) and then about 1730 the FIRE came right in,
it was a blast of hot air and wind, we crouched (about 200 of us) with
our backs to the fire, then the embers showered down, some caught the
dumpster (which was in the MIDDLE of camp, FULL of cardboard) on fire,
the fire fighters rushed in with fire extinguishers and such, the
Hotshots were brought in from the line to fight at the edge of camp, we
moved our tents out of the nice "forest sleeping area", THEY PLUMBED
all around the tents, sprinklers started going, (but not getting our
tents wet) we all moved around stomping out embers before they could
start big grass fires, it was the MOST bizarre situation I've ever been
in...but the BIGGEST show was in the air, we had the giant sky crane
(mosquito ship) and a Medium helo taking turns dropping water on the
fires (camp was by this point completely surrounded by fire, we had a
flock of birds in camp with us) and at the very end, in came the HEAVY,
the Chinook with it's 'whup whup', it exactly stopped in midair, lowered
itself straight DOWN, and then dumped it's bucket of a gazillion
gallons of water right on two historic structures they were trying to
save (yup, this morning all there are are the old brick chimneys left)
we all screamed and cheered, then it came back twice more, but the smoke
was thick and it left to go back to the fire they had pulled it
from...sooooooooooooooooooooo will I ever have such excitement at a fire
again??? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm probably not... this morning I had breakfast
with a man whom I'd given his resource order to when I was in St George
Utah, he's the facilities dude for the team, and yesterday I posted time
for a crew from St. George, Utah, and a person on the crew is the son of
a lady, Roscinda, whom I just worked with in St. George, Utah, last
week......fire is SUCH a small world, and the Meteorologist is my friend
Coleen D(snip), whom I first met at the Fischer fire in Leavenworth, WA,
and then saw her a couple of June's ago, in the Salt Lake airport when I
was returning home from St. Louis, Missouri!!!!! What are the chances??

So today the air is still full of smoke, we'll never see the sun,
everyone has bronchitis from the sounds of the coughing, but we are all
safe...I have to say, this Team and the IC just rock !!! 'Lectra' is
sitting in the parking lot covered with ash, as is my tent, but that's
OK, I was able to hose all the dust from the Arizona Strip off my tent
before I left for the GREAT North Woods, I guess I'll get the ash off
the same way, when I get home! Everyone be safe out there, particularly
if you're on the way to another FIRE FIRE !!!

[abercrombie]

from theysaid

To : COMT

I am glad to find out that everyone in the ICP is ok, it could have certainly been decidedly different.

I do find it interesting and worrisome regarding the attitude of the comments sent to They Said. It seemed (I may be all wrong on this, just my opinion) that there was a real lack of situational awareness in how much danger the team personnel thought they were in and that with a lot of hard work, a lot of skills used, and a bit of luck no one got hurt and "EVERYONE IS GOING HOME".

Zimm

[abercrombie]

Ab,

Here is a PDF providing photos to accompany an earlier posting by COMT.
As they say, "A picture is worth a thousand words".

Kellie


www.wildlandfire.com/docs/2007/id-bof-cascade-icp-burn-by.pdf (1755 K pdf file)

[abercrombie]

Discussion thread for this is located here:

http://www.wildlandfire.com/hotlist/...ead.php?t=1529

This thread is closed except to first-hand accounts. Please send those to abercrombie @ wildlandfire.com. (Take out the spaces.)

[abercrombie]

SAFETY BULLETIN : Cascade Complex Combined 24 and 72 hour report
09/17/2007
www.wildlandfire.com/docs/2007/24-72cascade-1.doc
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
File Code: 6730
Date: September 14, 2007
Route To:

Subject: Preliminary Briefing (Combined 24 & 72 Hour Reports)
Cascade Complex Wildland Fire
Boise National Forest

To: Chief of the Forest Service

THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS PRELIMINARY AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE:

Critical Information:
On the afternoon of August 12th 2007, two individuals funded through a wildland fire resource order were moving roll-on garbage dumpsters from a spike camp. The couple was involved in a motor vehicle accident within the closure area of the Cascade Wildland Fire Complex. The accident disabled their vehicle and apparently resulted in non-life threatening injuries to both occupants. Following the accident the individuals left their vehicle and began hiking towards the Cascade Complex Incident Command Post. During or shortly before this time, the road they were on was closed due to fire activity. While hiking along the closed road, the individuals were overrun by the wildland fire. The individuals took shelter from the fire in or near a culvert. It does not appear that either individual was injured by the fire. Several hours later the couple was discovered along the same road by other contractors who then transported them out of the fire area. The couple was then given first aid by firefighters and Emergency Medical Technicians and then transported to the Cascade Wildland Fire Complex incident command post. They were subsequently transported to local hospitals, one by air ambulance and the other by ground ambulance. Both were treated and released within 24 to 48 hours.

For reasons unknown at this time, the facts surrounding this entrapment were not reported to the Washington Office until September 13, 2007.

On August 13th the Cascade Complex Incident Command Team implemented a Stay-In-Place plan as the Cascade wildland fire burned around their Incident Command Post. The Stay-In-Place plan, the decision to implement the plan and the decision to remain in place for several days following the event resulted in several unintended consequences including the fact that numerous individuals were subjected to elevated levels smoke and carbon monoxide resulting in acute respiratory symptoms and illness.

On September 14th, 2007 an Accident Prevention Analysis (APA) Team was formed based upon a verbal delegation of authority from your office to review both of these incidents. A law enforcement investigation is underway reviewing the motor vehicle accident.

/s/ Steve Holdsambeck
for Randy Draeger
Occupational Safety and Health Program Manager.

cc: Larry Sutton
Ralph Dorn

[abercrombie]

7 minute You Tube video of the Cascade Complex Incident Command Post burnover:

Cascade Complex camp "burn around" Aug 13, 2007
From: geostrophic
Posted: August 17, 2007
Views as of this posting: 1,067
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqa-T...elated&search=

(Warning: one obscenity at the beginning before the fire sound gets so loud all you hear is the fire sound. Ab.)

[abercrombie]

From theysaid:

Ab -

With all the people in the Cascade Complex ICP "Burn By" taking videos and photos I'm surprised so few have been posted at wildlandfire.com. <snip identifying info> Many people who were at the burn by had down-loaded their video and photos onto the laptops at the Comm Unit.

I brought home a DVD with about 30 minutes of videos and almost 2 thousand photos of the event!

Unfortunately, I do not know who took these photos or videos so I can't give them proper credit.

I've taken several of the videos and photos and pieced them together into a 15:40 minute Windows Media Audio/Video file of the highlights of the burn by.

This video file is 220 meg.


AK Old Timer


Two versions of this almost 16 minute video are linked below. Both are Windows Media Audio/Video files. The video includes the briefing and gives a feel for how the ICP staff handled the experience at the time.


Smaller/ Lower quality:
First is a more compressed version that OA made of the original video AK Old Timer sent in.
It is still very large at 39 megabites:
www.wildlandfire.com/videos/cascade.wmv


Huge, but Higher quality:
Here's the original that AK Oldtimer sent in. Do not try this if you have dialup.
HUmonGous FILE at 228 megabites, but higher quality:
www.wildlandfire.com/videos/CascadeFireICPBurnBy-August13,2007.wmv


We'll see how this works. Many thanks, AK Old Timer. Ab.