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Report: Burn Plan Deficiencies Contributed to Montana Wildfire
MATT VOLZ
Associated Press
HELENA, Mont.--Deficiencies in the burn plan, disregard for a changing weather forecast and leaving little room for error may have contributed to a prescribed burn this summer that turned into a wildfire, according to a U.S. Forest Service review released Monday.
However, Helena Forest Supervisor Kevin Riordan said he believes there was no negligence in the decision to go ahead with the burn northwest of Helena on Aug. 25, despite a burn ban in effect for Lewis and Clark County residents and a red-flag fire warning forecast for the next day.
"There isn't any one factor that anybody can point to," Riordan told reporters in a conference call Monday. "I think they were all little pieces that added together that lined up into the scenario that it did become."
Forest Service officials set the fire 11 miles southeast of Lincoln on the morning of Aug. 25. The burn was part of a plan to reduce the density of vegetation that could have led to a severe fire in the area.
Several hours after the fire was lit, the wind changed direction and grew stronger, causing embers to drift outside the planned burn area and into dense fir trees and dead pine trees. Several spot fires broke out, with one racing across 20 acres.
The fire crews stopped the burn and focused their efforts on trying to put out those spot fires. They departed by 8 p.m. with the area smoldering. But the next afternoon, the fire flared up and quickly spread out of control.
The fire eventually burned in a 2,000-acre area, leading to the evacuation of about two dozens homes near Stemple Pass. No injuries were reported, though some structures were reportedly damaged.
The cost to fight the wildfire was approximately $3 million, which doesn't include property damage claims, Riordan said.
Five Forest Service employees from Utah, Idaho and Montana participated in the internal review that examined the plan for the prescribed fire and the decisions personnel made at the site of the burn.
They found that the burn plan lacked depth in some areas, lacked documentation in others and that its analysis "underestimates potential fire behavior within the prescribed fire unit."
Another deficiency noted was that from the time the plan was approved in February 2009 to the actual burn in August 2010, additional pine trees had died from a mountain pine beetle infestation that were not included in the plan.
Also, the plan did not address amount of sub-alpine fir in the area that ultimately contributed to the rapid spread of the fire.
At the site, there was no evidence of monitoring of live fuel moisture, the report reads. The weather forecast had changed from the day before, with stronger wind and wind gusts forecast for that day, particularly along ridge tops.
Fire officials at the site monitoring the conditions decided to go ahead anyway, because the conditions there were still within the acceptable limits. They believed the prescribed burn would be completed before the extreme fire conditions arrived the next day.
But the wind shifted and grew stronger that afternoon, leading to the spot fires outside the burn area. Fire officials believed they had those spot fires under control by the end of the day Wednesday, but the fires flared up and spread when the red-flag conditions arrived the next day.
"They really had some confidence that they would be able to pull that off prior to the event coming in (on Thursday)," Riordan said.
It was that short window that proved to be the final straw in the chain of events.
"There was little opportunity for error or course correction when (spot fires) occurred," the report reads.
Panel members recommended the Forest Service thoroughly discuss the most current weather forecast before going ahead with a burn.
They also recommended the Forest Service improve the specificity and clarity of their burn plans, including discussions on the potential of spot fires igniting and spreading, plus additional research and modeling into the spread of fire in sub-alpine firs and dead lodgepole pines.
Finally, the report recommended improved communication with residents and the media in getting the word out ahead of prescribed burns.
"I'm not trying to push anything off or say 'no big deal' to any of these things," Riordan said. "I think it's small pieces of something that adds up to be a bigger thing.
"There are changes, I think, that (will) result from this review report," he added. But, "prescribed fire is a great tool in our tool box, and it's one we're going to continue to use."
Associated Press
HELENA, Mont.--Deficiencies in the burn plan, disregard for a changing weather forecast and leaving little room for error may have contributed to a prescribed burn this summer that turned into a wildfire, according to a U.S. Forest Service review released Monday.
However, Helena Forest Supervisor Kevin Riordan said he believes there was no negligence in the decision to go ahead with the burn northwest of Helena on Aug. 25, despite a burn ban in effect for Lewis and Clark County residents and a red-flag fire warning forecast for the next day.
"There isn't any one factor that anybody can point to," Riordan told reporters in a conference call Monday. "I think they were all little pieces that added together that lined up into the scenario that it did become."
Forest Service officials set the fire 11 miles southeast of Lincoln on the morning of Aug. 25. The burn was part of a plan to reduce the density of vegetation that could have led to a severe fire in the area.
Several hours after the fire was lit, the wind changed direction and grew stronger, causing embers to drift outside the planned burn area and into dense fir trees and dead pine trees. Several spot fires broke out, with one racing across 20 acres.
The fire crews stopped the burn and focused their efforts on trying to put out those spot fires. They departed by 8 p.m. with the area smoldering. But the next afternoon, the fire flared up and quickly spread out of control.
The fire eventually burned in a 2,000-acre area, leading to the evacuation of about two dozens homes near Stemple Pass. No injuries were reported, though some structures were reportedly damaged.
The cost to fight the wildfire was approximately $3 million, which doesn't include property damage claims, Riordan said.
Five Forest Service employees from Utah, Idaho and Montana participated in the internal review that examined the plan for the prescribed fire and the decisions personnel made at the site of the burn.
They found that the burn plan lacked depth in some areas, lacked documentation in others and that its analysis "underestimates potential fire behavior within the prescribed fire unit."
Another deficiency noted was that from the time the plan was approved in February 2009 to the actual burn in August 2010, additional pine trees had died from a mountain pine beetle infestation that were not included in the plan.
Also, the plan did not address amount of sub-alpine fir in the area that ultimately contributed to the rapid spread of the fire.
At the site, there was no evidence of monitoring of live fuel moisture, the report reads. The weather forecast had changed from the day before, with stronger wind and wind gusts forecast for that day, particularly along ridge tops.
Fire officials at the site monitoring the conditions decided to go ahead anyway, because the conditions there were still within the acceptable limits. They believed the prescribed burn would be completed before the extreme fire conditions arrived the next day.
But the wind shifted and grew stronger that afternoon, leading to the spot fires outside the burn area. Fire officials believed they had those spot fires under control by the end of the day Wednesday, but the fires flared up and spread when the red-flag conditions arrived the next day.
"They really had some confidence that they would be able to pull that off prior to the event coming in (on Thursday)," Riordan said.
It was that short window that proved to be the final straw in the chain of events.
"There was little opportunity for error or course correction when (spot fires) occurred," the report reads.
Panel members recommended the Forest Service thoroughly discuss the most current weather forecast before going ahead with a burn.
They also recommended the Forest Service improve the specificity and clarity of their burn plans, including discussions on the potential of spot fires igniting and spreading, plus additional research and modeling into the spread of fire in sub-alpine firs and dead lodgepole pines.
Finally, the report recommended improved communication with residents and the media in getting the word out ahead of prescribed burns.
"I'm not trying to push anything off or say 'no big deal' to any of these things," Riordan said. "I think it's small pieces of something that adds up to be a bigger thing.
"There are changes, I think, that (will) result from this review report," he added. But, "prescribed fire is a great tool in our tool box, and it's one we're going to continue to use."
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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