More evacuations ordered as Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire continues to spread
The other week Ribe snapped a photo of the fire from just outside Santa Fe and between the wind and the sheer size of the fire impressed him, and the fire crews who are holding their own.“I’m actually really impressed with how the firefighters are doing it and holding this all over the place this is an extraordinary fire to deal with I’ve worked on other forest fires over the last 30, 40 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Ribe.
Cerro Grande fire victims were ‘fully compensated’ decades ago. NM gov seeks the same in 2022.
But Tom Ribe, author of “Inferno by Committee,” a book about the Cerro Grande fire, told Source New Mexico recently that there might be some key differences.
For one, many of the Los Alamos fire victims were Los Alamos National Laboratories employees with Ph.Ds. That made it easier for them to draw the nation’s attention and navigate the FEMA aid process.
In the area burned by the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon fire, many of those who suffered losses are low-income.
So finding a way to reach those who were impacted and fully compensate them will potentially be a new challenge from this latest escaped prescribed burn, Ribe said.
In light of all this, Ribe said of the folks affected by the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon fire:
“They’re going to need an advocate.”
Let's Talk: forest management
Prescribed burns are a commonly used land management technique that reduces the amount of combustible material (leaf litter and dead grass naturally occurring in the natural landscape) and performed only when conditions such as humidity, wind, and temperature are ideal for managing fires, and not conducted unless all required weather conditions are met.
Echoes of the Cerro Grande wildfire 22 years later
Tom Ribe, wildland firefighter and author of “Inferno by Committee,” a book about the Cerro Grande fire, said he sees plenty of parallels so far between what happened in 2000 and what happened in early April this year.
The Forest Service’s prescribed burn was “extremely risky,” he said. He recommends agencies only do prescribed burns in the very early spring or the late fall. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham recently called on the federal government to change its prescribed burn rules for the Southwest for that same reason.
In 2000, when the Park Service lost control of Cerro Grande, condemnation was swift about the timing, in particular. Many called the Park Service officials “amateurs,” Ribe said.
“The Forest Service piled on with that, too,” at the time, Ribe said. “And now we’re seeing that anybody can do it. Anybody can make a mistake.”
As feds stay quiet on state’s largest-ever wildfire, theories circulate about its cause
On Monday, Michelle Burnett, a spokesperson for the United States Forest Service, declined to comment on whether investigators are looking into whether the Calf Canyon fire started earlier than April 19. The service also did not answer how it arrived at April 19 as a start date. “The comprehensive internal Declared Wildfire Review of the Las Dispensas prescribed fire is still ongoing, and the cause of the Calf Canyon fire remains under investigation. It would be premature to comment until either of those is complete,” she said.
There are now two investigations unfolding while the merged Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon fire grows: One into Calf Canyon’s origins and another as to how the prescribed burn escaped to become Hermits Peak.
Some answers to the second question lie in the past, said Tom Ribe, a wildland firefighter and author of “Inferno by Committee.” Just look at the last time we were in this mess — 22 years ago.
One month in, New Mexico’s largest-ever fire fuels anger and despair
Prescribed burns are controlled, intentional fires meant to clear vegetation and reduce the risk of disastrous wildfires, and experts say they rarely go awry. When considering a prescribed fire, authorities rely on models that take into account temperature, humidity, fuel moisture, wind speed and direction, said Timothy Ingalsbee, a former wildland firefighter and co-founder of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology. Wind in particular tends to be a wild card, he said. “It’s very often that when these prescribed fires burn beyond their plan, it’s because there was a change in the wind, in wind speed or wind direction,” he said. “It’s extremely rare that it’s a matter of negligence.”
Governor promises a temporary halt to prescribed burns while wildfires rage in New Mexico
An expert and wildland firefighter, Tom Ribe, told Source New Mexico that it was “extremely risky” to ignite a prescribed burn on a windy April day in New Mexico. He also said the forecast conditions should have given a burn boss pause April 6, but he also stressed the decision to ignite a prescribed burn is a complex and difficult one based on many factors.
Governor promises temporary halt to prescribed burns
An expert and wildland firefighter, Tom Ribe, told Source New Mexico that it was “extremely risky” to ignite a prescribed burn on a windy April day in New Mexico. He also said the forecast conditions should have given a burn boss pause April 6, but he also stressed the decision to ignite a prescribed burn is a complex and difficult one based on many factors.
Cerro Grande fire expert: Feds doing a prescribed burn in spring ‘extremely risky’
The guy who literally wrote the book on the destructive Cerro Grande fire in New Mexico said federal officials ignored the notorious blaze’s lessons when they decided to ignite a prescribed burn on a windy April day this year, sparking what’s now known as the Hermits Peak fire.
“It’s clear that it was an extremely risky time to do that, given that the fuels are so dry this year, given the way the winter was, and given the way springs are always windy here,” said Tom Ribe, author of “Inferno by Committee: A history of the Cerro Grande Fire.”
This app is helping Californians stay on top of wildfire risks
Zeke Lunder, an analyst with two decades of experience mapping wildfires, was already in the habit of sharing his expertise on Facebook, often writing posts providing insights into official announcements. This fire hit close to home, though, and he wanted to expand his offerings. Lunder started a website, The Lookout, which he populated with maps he built based on publicly available data, as well as analysis and interviews. Rather than offering emergency alerts, like Watch Duty, Lunder wanted a space to provide additional context for people interested in, and impacted by, wildfires—context that was not restricted by official protocols or talking points.
Questions raised after controlled burn near Las Vegas, N.M., goes out of control
Given that history, it’s always big news when a prescribed burn turns into a wildfire, said Tom Ribe, a longtime public advocate and author of a book that retells the Cerro Grande Fire with a critical eye about what went wrong.
Ribe said he’s reluctant to criticize forest managers in this situation because he doesn’t want to discourage them from what’s otherwise a healthy practice.
Prescribed burns are tricky because they must be done when forest debris is dry enough for the flames to consume an ample amount, Ribe said. Sometimes fall and winter are too damp, so forest managers opt for the spring, when the debris is drier but also when New Mexico is windy, he said.
“It definitely is risky this time of year,” Ribe said.
Forest Service stands firm in dispute on fire retardant
Photos of red or orange retardant being dropped from airplanes make good, but misleading, public relation images, said Tim Ingalsbee, executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology in Eugene, Ore.
"We used to call them photodrops," said Ingalsbee, a wildland fire ecologist and former firefighter with the Forest Service and the National Park Service.
Ingalsbee said "bureaucratic inertia" keeps the federal government from a deeper examination of fire retardant, for which the Forest Service contracts for helicopters and airplanes, a lucrative arrangement for companies.
California Congressmen Push for Aggressive Fire Suppression
Timothy Ingalsbee of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology said that this effort represents a mindset back from the 1930s. "We live in a very different world now. Climate-driven wildfire events have really surpassed human abilities to control all fires, to prevent all fires, to put them out when they burn." He said that it's past time to start working with fire not just for the good of the land, but also for our own health and safety, and for the health and safety of wildland firefighters.
Interview: Wildfire scientist says LaMalfa’s recently introduced wildfire suppression legislation takes the wrong approach
"This legislation that proposes that we put out every wildfire--it's impossible to implement. There's nothing about that [legislative proposal] that would change the outcome of a fire like the Dixie Fire or the Caldor Fire because they're not proposing at the same time to build up more resources or to support wildland firefighters doing their job better. They're just taking away one of the tools we have." said wildfire scientist, Zeke Lunder.
"To say that there's absolutely no time to let public lands burn for resource benefits--that's ridiculous!"
How one Oregon town put politics aside to save itself from fire
The Forest Service — no longer able to conduct the business of managing timber sales as usual — focused instead on building access roads for firefighters and thinning trees deemed a wildfire threat. “It was almost presto-chango,” said Timothy Ingalsbee, executive director of the nonprofit Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology. “All of a sudden the Forest Service, instead of doing timber extraction, was all about tinder reduction.”
How one Oregon town put politics aside to save itself from fire
Things had started to change in Ashland in the ’60s and ’70s: A new generation of residents saw the forests of the Pacific Northwest not as an industrial resource for exploitation, but a place for recreation and serenity. Throughout the 1980s, activists set up camps to block logging roads, gave speeches outside ranger stations, filed lawsuits, and lobbied politicians — a period known as the Timber Wars. Then, in 1990, environmentalists got the spotted owl on the endangered species list, and shortly thereafter a judge stopped all logging on state and federal land in southeastern Oregon.
The Forest Service — no longer able to conduct the business of managing timber sales as usual — focused instead on building access roads for firefighters and thinning trees deemed a wildfire threat. “It was almost presto-chango,” said Timothy Ingalsbee, executive director of the nonprofit Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology. “All of a sudden the Forest Service, instead of doing timber extraction, was all about tinder reduction.”
New federal plan aims to prevent wildfire in high-risk areas of Oregon. Supporters say wildfire prevention spending could create forest industry jobs; critics say it’s too heavy on logging
Tim Ingalsbee, executive director for the Firefighters United For Safety, Ethics and Ecology, said the plan brings nothing new other than funding. He said he’s disappointed it focuses on fighting fire instead of working with fires when they naturally occur.
“To me a wildfire strategy would be centered on that,” he said. “How are we going to live and work with wildfire instead of the same old obsolete paradigm of how can we prevent wildfire or if it happens, how can we fight wildfire.”
Fire strategy stuck with old tactics, experts warn
Although it uses the words “paradigm shift” 13 times, the U.S. Forest Service’s new wildfire crisis strategy appears stuck on old tactics, according to area fire experts.
“I saw no new strategy but rather a potential increase in the same fire control strategy of ‘fuel treatment’ to enhance fire control,” retired Forest Service fire scientist Jack Cohen said after reviewing the documents released on Tuesday.
Intentional blazes spark new complaints in fight against wildfire
People and groups critical of backfires said they're not looking to end their use. "By using wildfire, you can steer wildfire," said Tim Ingalsbee, executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology and author of the report on Oregon's Biscuit Fire.
But the environment in forests has changed, thanks to drought brought on in part by climate change, and the Forest Service is being reactive rather than proactive, critics said. Even where backfire is effective, Ingalsbee said, forest managers need to ask what the cost is in landscapes burned at high intensity and wildlife habitat damaged.
"Lack of planning leads to crisis," Ingalsbee said. "They're managing fire as if it's unforeseen. It's time we prepare for it. We can't prevent it."
Yelling timber
FUSEE believes that doing better requires a complete reevaluation in how we view and treat wildfire in our society; the organization strives for a “paradigm shift” in society’s relationship with wildfires, manifesting in new firefighting strategies that focus on using controlled burns and working with wildfire as a natural occurrence.
“Nothing influences fire like fire,” Ingalsbee says. “We’re pitching that new kind of strategy for active ecological fire management — incorporating this concept of fire mosaics and prescribed fires.”