West Region Wildfire Council Meeting Minutes 7/11/13

Transcription

1 West Region Wildfire Council Meeting Minutes 7/11/13 Meeting Attendance Last Name First Name 1 Austin Tom LH Fire 2 Barth Chris BLM 3 Bennett John Telluride Fire Agency 4 Chavez Thad USFS Zone AFMO 5 Davis Mike BLM UFMO 6 Ellis Steve DFPC 7 Falk Lilia WRWC 8 Gamboa Jaime USFS 9 Grovsner Paul Arrowhead Fire 10 Homstead Kelly BLM 11 Latta Trevor Ouray Fire Chief 12 Leitzinger Curt BLM Telecomm 13 McCarthy Jim Log Hill HOA 14 Morrill Scott Gunnison 15 Odom Luke DFPC FMO 16 Oxford Ross NPS Fuels Specialist 17 Rogers John Log Hill/ Montrose Fire 18 Rowan Tad Montrose Fire 19 Shelby Austin CSFS Montrose 20 Staehle Alan Ouray Fire District Objective/Purpose The Council gathered to discuss the following: Introductions Introductions were made by those that attended; roster above. Approval of Minutes Minutes approved Wildfire Outlook Fuels Area Resources Area Fires

2 Restrictions Update Regional Approach Fire Assignments/ Open Discussion Wildfire Outlook WRWC members in attendance discussed fuel moisture levels, predicted weather patterns and area fires. Jaime Gamboa gave a report of the conditions on the Forest, saying that ERCs continue to be in the high percentiles and named particularly the 1000hr fuels stating they were around 9% at the last reading. Mike Davis with the BLM echoed Jaime s report but saying that 1000hr fuels on the BLM were reading about 4/5%. The group talked about the multi-agency coordinated restrictions calls that have been taking place every Monday morning. This has provided a great forum for regional discussion about what folks are seeing locally in their counties and FPDs. The group commented that the restrictions this year were well coordinated, much better than last year and extremely better than in years past. Delta, Gunnison, Montrose, Ouray and San Miguel Counties were remaining in Stage I restrictions as of the meeting but would be discussion what approach to take on the next restrictions call. Grand Mesa remains without any fire restrictions at this point in time. At the time of the meeting, only Hinsdale County, out of the WRWC area was in Stage II restrictions. Folks brought up that the regional model for restrictions is being closely looked at by some other areas around the state for the coordinated efforts. The group also talked about what resources were available in the region, stating everyone was fully staffed with some additional severity resources in place. As larger fires start around the country and even in the region, those resources will begin to be pulled away from our region, but folks are working diligently to ensure that as many resources are available as possible. The group discussed how this year s high elevation spruce/fir fires have been record setting, making reference to extreme fire behavior as well as noting the fire that crossed over the continental divide near Wolf Creek. Chris Barth summarized the July fire outlook from Predictive Services and stated that potential is increasing to above normal in July where as August, September and October returned to normal potential. For the short term, we can expect increasing moisture in the region which will remain throughout the weekend. Fire Assignments/ Open Discussion Lime Gulch Fire: Chris Barth

3 There was a miss-communication between the County and the Forest about who was putting out information but at the end, the Forest, Team and County were putting out information via each other. Each entity was able to let go of who the information was coming from. Royal Gorge Fire: Chris Barth Major impact on the city and tourist destination tram, bridge, river, park buildings were all effected by the fire Ride the Rockies was supposed to ride over the bridge when the fire was burning Transport of over 600 inmates 8-12% of Canyon City budget comes from taxes collected at the Royal Gorge. This is going to have a huge financial impact on the city as well as the employees as the RG is the 2 nd largest employer in the area besides the Dept. of Corrections. The group discussed some re-entry and recovery topics about what happens after the fire is out and the team leaves. WRWC could be a good forum to hold discussions for recovery actions. Steve brought up the side note about what happens when cities or counties have withholdings that they own in the WUI in terms of agreements in place for who pays if/when there is a fire. Steve brought up the example of Buckhorn Lakes in Montrose County, which is owned by the City of Montrose. Black Forest Fire: Luke Odom Black Forest Fire was 100% on private land- challenges due to reliance on certain Fed resources Luke dealt primarily with SERF agreements and said that everyone in our region was really on top of their paperwork and agreements. Other incoming resources were not as organized and really slowed down the system by needing paperwork, etc. WEBEOC, the state resource ordering system was used quite a bit at the Black Forest Fire. ROSS is another ordering system for fire resources. There have been several issues because the two ordering/ status systems don t work together. Some people showed up to the fire without being NWCG qualified and it was difficult to utilize them. 67 engines on Black Forest showed up with only 800mhz radios and no BK radios. Had to find those engines radios Folks are putting together a list of suggestions for how to have WebEoc filter resources better. Aviation and the military was heavily involved at first Many high ranking officers, police and fire fighters homes were in the burn area. Military assets weren t carded so they were grounded-which started a conflict. Luke mentioned that many of the fire officers had homes in the area and it was tough for them to pull back and see the big picture Black Forest was a unique fire in that fire fighters were being asked to do other things than just fight fire (elk falling into burned homes basements). This is important when we are talking about balancing fire fighter safety with public needs. Discussion about the recently media attention due to the 19 firefighters lost in Arizona. Much attention about the increased risk fire fighters are putting themselves in to save structures. Discussion about building codes and how to incentivize firewise principles and Fire Adapted Communities. Why is it fire fighters responsibility to save homes? No Home for a Life Article. Papoose Fire: Scott Morrill (Gunnison EOC) Scott activated the Gunnison EOC when the Papoose Fire started

4 Scott brought up the power of social media and how it can quickly get out of hand. (Example of discouraging people from heading toward Lake City during the fire, public members got very upset) Pointed out that mis-information from the public is VERY hard to correct Echoed the topic about re-entry and recovery planning The resource ordering systems (WebEOC and ROSS) are not working. They don t interface and there are just too many requests to keep up with. Also brought up that a 14 day assignment for VFD s is really hard to ask. Montrose Fire Protection District: Tad Rowan Sent a type 6 engine to West Fork Complex Montrose wasn t listed as available except for locally-got a call in the middle of the night asking for resources to head to South Fork from the State EOC. West Fork Complex: Kelly Homstad Mapping 1.4 miles of maps on plotter paper 50 maps in the IAP Public had the opportunity to take maps after they were used (bin set out) Prescott Area: Jaime Gamboa Things are happening very quickly and burning more intensely Eask Fork Fire: Paul Grovesnor Decided to send out a R-911 to residents in the Arrowhead area just alerting them of the fire near Silverjack area to raise awareness Team met with Arrowhead and was impressed by how much work had been done in the area. Good wake up call for residents Arrowhead will be conducting a full scale evacuation drill next summer (July) Jim McCarthy Jim suggested that the group as the regional insurance managers to have a discussion about requiring defensible space around homes. He related his suggestion to how California has required defensible space otherwise you can t get insurance. Tom Austin Log Hill area has had five starts in the last few weeks Good experience working with the BLM hand crew. Thad Chavez Stayed around the region; Duty Officer and IC training on West Fork Complex Trevor Latta (Ouray Fire) Have had several starts including the Camp Bird Fire which was human caused Worked with a ~30 member crew Looking into district boundaries and resource placement (City FD out fighting wildfires) John Bennett (Telluride Fire) Things have been pretty quiet, had a few unauthorized camp fires over the Holiday weekend, but folks have been very good Open Discussion

5 Luke mentioned that there is a decontamination center at the dams at Blue Mesa Reservoir and at the Ridgway State Park- Buckets can be cleaned there and then are good for use around our region. Log Hill Mesa Fire Protection District recently won an award from FireWise Communities USA for their FireWise Events (Log Hill FD Open House/ Evacuation Exercise and Community Chipping Days) Lilia is applying for ~200 acres of hazardous fuels reduction in Ouray County through the DNR grant opportunity that is available. Chris is teaching a PIO course in Gunnsion next week. NEXT MEETING Thursday, May 9 th :00 PM 5:00 PM Montrose Public Lands Center 2465 S. Townsend, Montrose, CO North Building Conference Room