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As all of us intently monitor the Yucaipa fire today, we need no reminder that the National Forest remains extremely vulnerable to catastrophic fire.
After we personally experienced a near-miss with fires reaching our home within several hundred yards away on three sides, we later learned that the fires continued to burn underground for months or longer.
Effective fire prevention management is a safety and economic issue, reducing the risk of life and limb for our valiant firefighters, residents and visitors while saving loss of property and billions of dollars during this economic crisis.
I sent a letter to Federal, State and local elected leaders, and received two responses and follow-ups from Congressman Jerry Lewis. I met separately with Forest Service Supervisor Virginia Wade-Evans and Cal Fire Unit Chief Thomas O’Keefe for several hours to discuss my concerns in greater depth.
Congressman Lewis candidly reported that Congress no longer considers these major disasters as a priority. Yet fire has affected drought-stricken areas throughout the entire Western and Southeastern U.S., including even Florida. Arson and human-generated fires are unique among natural disasters. The SBNF provides an easy target for urban or international terrorism.
California wild fires are a federal, state and local responsibiligy. Wildfires know no political boundaries or partisan politics. Insufficient funds are being budgeted for fire prevention while incomplete estimates have been made regarding the direct/indirect economic impact and cost/benefit of fire prevention vis a vis fire suppression. Yet Governor Arnold Schwarzeneggar proposes to increase insurance fees to cover the cost of fire suppression.
The following questions remain unanswered:
• We need a completed direct and indirect analysis of the total cost of the Grass and Slide Fires.
. We also need comparative a cost analysis for prevention versus suppression utilizing an actual case study here on the mountain. We were offered a unique opportunity to analyze this issue when a reserve force remained behind immediately after control of the Slide and Grass Fires. Where are we today?
• The Press Enterprise on October 25, 2007 stated that a, former SBNF supervisor, identified serious problems, requesting assistance from Washington, D.C. before the catastrophic Old Fire four years ago, and was told to shred his report. What happened?
• I learned from several sources that personnel and equipment were deployed away from the San Bernardino Mountains on October 22, 2007, the first day of the fires. Why were not resources immediately available, possibly avoiding the catastrophic consequences that followed? What is being done to remedy that situation?
The proposed Federal budget reduces appropriations for wildfires whereas a focus on prevention could reduce the cost of catastrophic fire suppression. The County of San Bernardino has budgeted funds for only a portion of the San Bernardino National Forest. We are only as strong as our weakest link.
More than two years ago the U.S. Forest Service completed a management intervention plan for the Slide Fire area that today remains under funded and unfinished. Suppression must be matched by prevention based on sound forest management practices monitored by knowledgeable citizens and utilizing personnel on a year round basis.
CAL FIRE estimates that the economic impact of the recent fires costs us billions of dollars. The recent forest fires closed the critical interstate rail and truck freight corridor connecting the Port with the rest of the country. That has a huge negative impact on our economy. Furthermore, the loss of tourism and tourism potential is not included in these calculations nor is a study being undertaken to address this important sector of our economy. The San Bernardino National Forest serves a market of more than 43,000,000 people annually in one of the most intensely utilized forests in the world. Yet fire has forced closure of major areas affecting thousands of acres for a year or longer, more than 20%, preventing their recreational use.
The Mountain Communities must address the security and economic impacts of wildfire as part of the disaster management program
But if we could float the idea that we're building Weapons of Mass Destruction...THEN we'd get a little more attention.
There is a lawsuit regarding an incident that occurred on a fire in Washington State, 4 firefighters lost their lives in the Thirty Mile Fire. What follow is an excerpt of an article written regarding the situation. Actually, it's the end of the article. More information on the actual incident and the rest of the articlecan be found here:
http://www.wildlandfire.com/hotlist/showthread.php?t=5512And it's a litigious world.
"There are people out there who are always ready to blame somebody else," Mangan said.
It's also an increasingly flammable world. It's getting crowded, too.
And that makes things expensive and dangerous.
1988: THE START OF A TREND?
When Mangan arrived in Yellowstone National Park in 1988, he saw fire behavior like he'd never seen before.
"And I never thought I would see it again," he said. Prior to 1988 "we had big fires, but we didn't have them year after year."
Massive fires have erupted all over the West since 1988. Flames like those seen in Yellowstone have blazed across swaths of Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, California and Montana, blackening vast landscapes.
Over the past decade there have been scores of fires that charred more than 100,000 acres, including the 2006 Derby Fire south of Big Timber that burnt 224,000 acres and the 292,000-acre Bitterroot fires near Hamilton in 2000.
Those fires destroyed dozens of homes.
Many scientists blame climate change. Between 1987 and 2003, wildfires in the western United States burned 6.7 times the acreage they burned in the previous 16 years, according to research by Stephen Running of the University of Montana, a lead author on the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change.
Running maintains climate change is aggravating natural drought cycles. And the next 50 years will be even warmer and drier, he told Congress in November.
Even as the West grows increasingly flammable, it attracts more and more people. And many of them are building in what is known as the "wildland-urban interface" or WUI, places with a high likelihood of burning.
According to the Bozeman-based think tank Headwaters Economics, 14 percent of private, forested land adjacent to public land in the West contains homes. The U.S. Forest Service estimates that protecting those homes from fire costs as much as $1 billion a year in tax money.
That's because so much muscle and airpower focuses on trying to save homes built in flammable forests.
While 86 percent of private forest land remains undeveloped, if half of it is subdivided and built upon, firefighting costs could rise to as much as $4.3 billion yearly, according to Headwaters.
"By way of comparison, the Forest Service annual budget is approximately $4.5 billion," the Headwaters study says.
Intensive use of manpower and aircraft often are cited as the main reason why firefighting is so expensive in the WUI.
Mangan offered further explanation, illustrating the complex relationship between the WUI, the dry forests, the potential liability issues and the rivers of money spent on firefighting every year.
Using a "burnout" is a time-tested firefighting technique, Mangan said. It consists of selecting a road or a ridgetop or building a fireline in the fire's path. Crews ignite the woods between the line and the fire, robbing it of fuel, sometimes a few hundred acres worth. The strategy calls for sacrificing acres to gain control.
Now, there might be three or four $500,000 homes in that area," he said.
That makes it difficult to ignite a burnout, which makes it difficult to gain control.
If the fire escapes "you spend $30 or $40 million putting out a fire we could have put out for $30,000 or $40,000," he said.
Congressman Lewis might want to read our book, "Hell on Earth: The Wildfire Pandemic," which will be released next month, if he thinks wildfires aren't a big problem, and part of an even bigger catastrophe on the horizon. You're right Arch, the thousand fires burning in California are relatively insignificant. That is, compared to what has been happening in the Amazon and Asia and elsewhere. Check out the book when it comes out:
http://www.amazon.com/Hell-Earth-Wildfire-David-Porter/dp...WE all could do our tiny little bit today by supporting the Firefighters Pancake Breakfast in Lake Arrowhead Village. It gives us a chance to say something nice to individuals that risk their lives to save our "stuff". Most of these guys (and girls) must leave their families often to go help fight fires in Big Sur, Goeleta, etc. and it would be real nice to thank them in person for all they do. And of course, every last one of them helped protect us during the Slide and Grass Fires last year.$5 gets you pancakes, sausage, bacon, juice, milk, and Starbucks coffee. Kids under 6 eat free. They always have lots of cool stuff on display too. See you there! Thank You Firefighters
Musicians (08:53 pm)
Fire Season
