Non-stop! Now in Lakeland, GA

Hello everybody,

Did you enjoy my last post? I have more stories to tell you. I hope you still want to know more about this great experience I am having in south-east USA. Here, in the PFTC 20-day Course, we don't stop burning; "everyday is a burn day" (even though if you don't put fire on the ground). Here we go! Three more burns!

BURN UNIT 5 - (FF80) - 10th, April 2013 - The Ford farm, Lakeland, GA

****BRIEFING

-Size: 32,38ha (80.00ac).

-Fuel model: mainly SH4 (1 year rough).

-Main winds: SE.

-Objectives: reduce brush and general ground cover, not smoking the Highway and firefighters safety.

-Concerns: bees, indigo snakes.

-Burn boss trainee: Jeremy Bradley.

****DEVELOPMENT

-Test fire in the NW corner (in the joint of the northern trail of HOTEL and the SW trail from ALPHA); fire behavior favorable.

-Team 1: black line with BACKING FIRE from BRAVO to CHARLIE. Then one lighter brought fire around the hardwoods (NE-SW direction) at the same time that other lighter brought fire from CHARLIE to INDIAN. When the NE plot was burned, same operation with the plot ALPHA-INDIAN-HOTEL-Test fire emplacement. Some STRIP HEADING FIRES needed for reaching desired fire intensity.

-Team 2: black line with BACKING FIRE from joint of Test fire road and western boundary of the unit to hardwoods limit. HEAD FIRE (built with strips) in direction WE, from the western boundary to the HOTEL-Test fire emplacement trail. High intensity fire. Then same operation with the SW unit. Then one lighter burned from FOXTROT to ECHO to INDIAN. while the other fired from FOXTROT TO HOTEL and to INDIAN.

-Both Teams: firing from INDIAN TO ECHO (E side) and from CHARLIE to DELTA, meeting in the middle of ECHO-DELTA trail.

-All resources: mopping-up opperations.

-Collaborators: 1 type 6 enginee, 1 UTV, 3 people (Georgia Forestry Commision, great guys).

****DEBRIEFING

-You can find conclusions together with these of the next burn unit (which was done after that, the same day).

****PHOTOS

BURN UNIT 6 - (Longdale) - 10th, April 2013 - The Ford farm, Lakeland, GA

****BRIEFING

-Size: 15,38ha (38ac).

-Fuel model: mainly SH4.

-Main winds: S.

-Objectives: reduce brush and general ground cover, not smoking the Highway and firefighters safety.

-Concerns: bees, indigo snakes.

-Burn boss trainee: Jeremy Bradley.

****DEVELOPMENT

-Test fire conduced in NW corner (ALPHA); fire behavior as expected.

-Team 1: black line using BACKING FIRE (also built with some short strips) from ALPHA to ZULU.

-Team 2: black line using BACKING FIRE (solid lane, technique "2 - 1": one lighter firing the edge and the other burning deeper inside. Distance between lighters depending on fire behavior. Who's the first depending on wind direction: the first taking wind is the second bringing fire) from ALPHA to BRAVO. Same from BRAVO to CHARLIE (with some strips EW).

-UTV bringing fire from ZULU to DELTA at the same time that Team 2 fired from CHARLIE to DELTA.

-All resources: mopping-up opperations.

-Collaborators: 1 type 6 enginee, 1 UTV, 3 people (Georgia Forestry Commision).

****DEBRIEFING

-Good feelings using controllated head fire.

-We were ables to maje good an at the same time fast briefing with the second unit.

-Great communications, perfect cordination.

-Good job working with people just met few minutes ago.

-Challenge of working with variable winds, with many shifts.

-Safe maneuvers.

-Always taking in account local knowledge (impresive ecologycal-fire knowledge about the burn units and the environment by GFC crew. Excelent job. Thank you very much).

BURN UNIT 7 - (no name) - 11th, April 2013 - The Ford farm, Lakeland, GA

****BRIEFING

-Size: 44,53ha (110ac).

-Fuel model: mainly SH4.

-Main winds: S-SW.

-Objectives: reduce brush and general ground cover, not smoking the Highway, reduce wildland fire hazard, improving ecosystem for wildlife development and firefighters safety.

-Concerns: bees, indigo snakes.

-Burn boss trainee: Peter Harris.

****DEVELOPMENT

-Test fire conduced with success in NE corner: fire behavior favorable.

-Team 1: doing test fire and holding until Team 3 finish their opperation.

-Team 2: black line with STRIP HEADING FIRE all over the eastern edge of the 3 units. Low fire intensity forced to change firing technique. UTV fired wider and larger strips in EW direction.

-Team 3: black line around unit 2. When done Team 1 firing unit 1 using STRIP HEADING FIRE and Team 2 with ATV firing unit using STRIP HEADING FIRE.

-All teams: burning unit 4 using STRIP HEADING FIRE with narrow strips, getting desired fire behavior.

-All resources: mopping-up opperations.

-Collaborators: 1 type 6 engine, 1 UTV, 1 ATV, 4 people (GFC).

-Note: we burned this unit with RH 87%, 85%, 84%, 76% and 64%, and in the same moment we put the last drop of fuel in the ground it started a huge rain. Incredible and impresive: burning with and 79,2% average of RH. That shows clearly the importance of local knowledge: I was all the morning saying: "That's not going to burn". And burned... And with high intensity. Learned lesson.

****DEBRIEFING

-Very high moisture in fuels and RH forced to adjust many times firing techniques.

-Excelent having UTV and ATV for doing fast and wider strips.

-Too much time holding, wasting time needlessly. Too much time figuring out tactis.

-Objectives finally met with huge RH.

****PHOTOS

Few minutes after it started to rain strongly:

 

Here we go!

BURN UNIT 8 - (Lodge) - 13th, April 2013 - The Ford farm, Lakeland, GA

BURN UNIT 9 - (Clear cut "a") - 13th, April 2013 - The Ford farm, Lakeland, GA

BURN UNIT 10 - (Clear cut "b") - 13th, April 2013 - The Ford Farm, Lakeland GA

All of these units were burned the same day. Burn unit 8 in a independent maneuver and Burn units 9 and 10 in two complementary maneuvers.

****BRIEFING

-Size: 8,09ha (20.00ac) +11,09ha (27.40ac) + 63,97ha (158.00ac).

-Fuel model: mainly SH3.

-Main winds: N.

 -Objectives: reduce brush cover, improve ecosystem development, reduce wildland fire hazard and firefighters and public safety

-Concerns: chiggers, ticks, snakes, bees.

-Burn boss trainee: Jeremy Bradley.

 

****DEVELOPMENT

-Maneuvers started in Lodge unit. Test fire was conducted succesfully in south east corner and crew broke in two teams. Team 1 did black line from test fire to south west corner and then to north west corner. Meanwhile Team 2 did black line to north east corner (BACKING FIRE and one strip). When accomplished, both teams rejoint. Therefore, five lighters were abble to do STRIP HEADING FIRE with solid line all over the unit, starting in the south line and with W-E direction. Actions were done with perfect timing and good communication.

-After that crew moved to Clear cut "a" unit. The burn in these unit was the worst burn we did; at the same time the most learning burn. Our main concern was not pushing smoke into 135 Highway, so we started to clean the western side. Black line in the southern line and then STRIP HEADING FIRE to north side. Then crew broke another time in two teams. Team 2 did black line with BACKING FIRE and one strip to the eastern corner of that unit. Fire behavior was intense, so that BACKING FIRE gave us our first SPOT.

-We were lucky and Darren (Georgia Forestry Commision) was close with the dozer. The spot was supressed quickly and safely.

-Team 1 burn the norther edge of the unit. Team 2 started to black line the southern corner of Clear cut "b". The south field in that side was our first concern, so we wanted a good buffer to avoid possible spots. It was a long walk from the beggining to the wet area. Although we had to do STRIP HEADING FIRE in W-E direction, so finally we walked many kilometers. All that unit was burned with that firing technique and Team 1 clearing the eastern edge.

****DEBRIEFING

-That day I felt unsafe (doing southern strips in Clear cut "b"), we were very lucky with the spot, we were very lucky with a near-miss (burning fuel splashed in FIRB(+)'s face and shoulder without serious damages and we were really INEFFICIENT (refueling was slow, so far, communication was bad and maneuvers imprecises).

-I am not going to write more about that because I will do a learned lessons review in other post. You will find there all important information.

****PHOTOS

Here we go! Pete wearing FULL PPE, always safety first! 

Our agile and fast field coordinator: jumping, trying to fly, burning... Awesome:

Some of the collaborator's stuff (usefull for prework and spots. Thank you very much for your work Darren, Jason & CIA):

Remind: always stay hydrated!

Intense fire behavior that day:

 

Deb has an infinite patience with me, haha. Do we look happy?

More burns under our belts, more experience in our brains. I am so glad to work with theses guys and the collaborators. In the next posts you'll see our last burns, learned lessons and more interesting stuff. We weren't able to burn the BURN UNIT 11 - (no name) - (no date) - The Ford farm, Lakeland, GA because of the rain and because of whe ran out of time. They were 25,51ha (63ac) with a low loaded SH3 fuel model.

  Thank you GFC crew in Lakeland. I appreciate so much working with you. Many things learnt!

I also want to keep in mind Duse. This excelent guy picked up a very bad infection and had to leave us. Hope you are now better and making fun with our photos. BRAP!

Keep safe! Look over your head!