Thinking of the three firefighters who lost their lives on the Knowles/Snyder Fire this past Saturday. All three were assigned to Rifle Helitack: Emily Barker (38, Michigan), Nick Hutcherson (27, Arizona), and Sydney Watson (27, Alabama); they deployed emergency shelters but were overcome by a rapidly spreading flame front. I worked for 9 years on the Rifle District of the White River National Forest.

The District Ranger in Rifle grew up in the area, and I’ve known him since my time there as Range program manager on the district. We talked yesterday. Rifle Helitack was responding to the Knowles Fire. They were trapped and burned over by the Snyder Fire, which was 6 miles away when they were inserted. That’s how volatile and fast moving wildland fire can be.

To honor them, this is an acoustic version of “Wish You Were Here.”

Unsung heroes.
I am about 1/2 mile from a “prepare to evacuate” zone, and that’s a good way to be reminded of how important those people are.

Very sad. Those dropped behind lines with only what they can carry and no ready resources to rescue them are very courageous. Godspeed. Prayers for healing for the survivors.
been around FF's quite a bit.

If not initial attack got to wonder what three on the ground on a growing and established fire could do and the reason for being placed there.
When bad things happen these kinds of question are asked.
Many of the fires I have been around. Most ground crews do more watching and after burn work than anything. In the west anyways.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: old rugged cross,

ORC, they were on IA on the Knowles Fire, I’m sorry, I tried to convey that. They were overtaken by the Snyder Fire that blew up and ran 6 miles while they were dealing with Knowles. There was a squad on the ground, pretty much the capacity of the helo they use for helitack. In addition to the 3 killed, 2 more remain hospitalized.

Curious, in what capacity were you “around” wildfire that led you to form that opinion of hand crews?

Lived in Rural major wildfire area's in the west all my life. Been in (pre) evacuation status a few times. seen the crews inhabit the small communites for the summer multiple times. Establish a huge presence and do very little in terms of the amount of resources brought in. Currently have helo's flying daily overhead waiting for one to breakout. Happens every year. Have mega fire camps, not uncommon to have hundreds staged locally. Had a big one a few years ago that was about 1-1/2 miles up the road. Every morning between 9-10 am (after breakfast was served) A vehicle procession of firefighters and equip. headed up to the base of the fire. All exited their vehicles and stood around all day watching helo's bucket water. Later afternoon all loaded back in to their vehicles and headed back to camp for dinner. Went on all summer.

They could of put the fire out the first day it started. Happens all the time. Every single year.

Living not to far from where Yarnell AZ where 19 hot shots were lost I deeply appreciate and respect what they do. When you see stats like in the current local fire named the “ pocket fire” north of Sedona of 7+ miles of fire break dug by hand, it reinforces they do a lot of very hard manual labor. Like a lot of other emergency response operations I imagine there is a whole bunch of “ hurry up and wait” but being out there swinging a pick or shovel in near triple digit temperatures takes a special kind of tough

Firefighting in these parts has changed a lot over the years. Back when I was doing it in the early 80s, we did initial attack on pretty much every single fire. Lookouts were there and effective enough that when they called in a smoke, we'd be on it very quickly and most of them were kept very small. Helos and planes dropping retardant were rare then. Nowadays, very few lookouts are manned (most of the old towers are rented out by the USFS/State for camping), and most "initial attack" occurs by air. This, IMO, is not effective, as evidenced by the fact that years ago large fires were few and far between. If we had one over ten acres or so, we failed. Whereas now, many are 5-10-20,000 acres (if not more).

Not the point of the thread though...

It breaks my heart whenever these tragedies happen. I can only imagine the horror and pain that they experienced. My heart goes out to their families and loved ones.

Thanks TMats. We are diminished. Perfect song of remembrance.

I teach the Wildlands chapter every year for our fire academy. I try very hard to inculcate into our students just how dangerous wildland firefighting is. It's one of the most unpredictable and dangerous things a firefighter can do.

Rifle is my home town. Breaks my heart.

My mom lives up near Rifle Gap, and every year it seems like it gets worse. The Meeker fire was damn scary.

Our main city Prescott, just held a remembrance of the 19 Granite Mountain Hot Shots killed in 2013.
Very sad time for our community.

link

quote:

Originally posted by KMitch200:
Our main city Prescott, just held a remembrance of the 19 Granite Mountain Hot Shots killed in 2013.
Very sad time for our community.

link

Yeah, that one hit me hard too. My wife and I lived for years in Yavapai County, and I went to Jr. college in Prescott at Yavapai College. The ties are deep.