Surviving Forest Fire

[zenheretic]

Trent Rock's recent thread got me to thinking back to my Forest Fire fighting days and what little I can still remember about what to do and not to do should you be in the forest when there is a fire. What little I have is for the North West, some rules work well in other regions, but California and the Southest both have fuel or terrain issues that change the game.

Like surviving a lot of scenarios, many of the solution's for evading forest fire seem quite obvious when you read them, but may be elusive had you not considered them beforehand.

Being above a fire, during the day, is bad juju. Fire burns up, you need to relocate. If the fire is moving fast you will not be able to run uphill faster then the fire will burn. This is especially true if you are in any terrain feature that will act as a heat and smoke chimney...for example avalanche chutes will funnel heat and fire up faster than a ridge crest.

Ideally you would move parallel to the fire, you can run faster than uphill and safer too.

Another option, if there is time, is to start a fire where you stand or look for fire spots that have jumped the main fire line, you want to move to the burned area. If the firestorm is racing towards you, the wind will be blowing towards you, so a fire started at your location will burn upwards/away from you. Get as far into the burnt area as possible. scratch out a pit for your face, more if you have time. Keep backpacks on...hopefully you are wearing natural clothing as the synthetics will melt. (BTW Nomex pants that Forest Service uses are some of the best outdoor pants you can hope to buy, they don't burn, they dry fast, and they don't rip)

If it is night, the fire usually calms down but you are still at risk. Oddly you have more risk if you are BELOW the fire at night. Heat rises from the valleys at night so cool mountain top air rushes down the mountains to take its place. So the winds normally blow downwhills at night (uphill during the day of course). In the right conditions, the fire can move very far at night.

If you have no where to run too, look for rock outcroppings or other places of low fuel. Riparian areas, streams, and even Aspen/Cottonwood trees grow in areas with a higher water content. You still might die, since if it is dry enough, or the wind is strong enough fire will burn right through these areas, but at least you aren't hugging a pine tree.

Seeing smoke. The general rule is the blacker the smoke, the hotter the fire, so dark black smoke means big trouble.

The greatest time of day for a fire flare up is just a few hours after the sun zenith through a few hours of cooling. So roughly 1-3pm.

Naturally strong winds can fan a fire any time of day or night...having a scanner that gets the weather updates is always handy to have.
That is all for now, add what you know, and flame away...

 

[Brian Jones]

Zen,

Awesome post! Wow, never knew. Why haven't been around here more often? :thumbup:

I'd better see your smiling face more often here in the future or I'll light you on fire and k....well, you know the rest.... I'm just telling ya...

Seriously, with the droughts happeneing around the country, we should examine this as it applies to different environments, regions, and terrain.

Regarding day and night/wind flow - in hilly or mountainous terrain, we tallk about setting up shelter higher than 50 ft above a valley floor at night to stay wanrer due to the reversal of windflow. It can be 15-20 degress or more F at that level compared to down at the floor of a valley, so it fits in with your advice on where NOT to be at night, and where to be during the day in a fire.

I learned a lot from your post, and looking forward to hearing more from you and our other members! :thumbup:

 

[JTR357]

Very informative post...thanks Zen:thumbup:

 

[Lawlor69]

I agree, great post. A good book on the subject, too, is Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean, the same guy who wrote A River Runs through It and Other Stories. A River Runs through It, the movie with Brad Pitt, is based on the book.

The book isn't by any means a manual, but you definitely learn a lot about how to survive a forest fire by reading it!

I recommend it.

 

[mapper66]

Fire on the Mountain is a book I found quite instructive, and a really good read. It is the story of the South Canyon fire in 1994 that took the lives of 14 brave firefighters. Granted those guys (and gals, 4 died in the fire) were out there putting it all on the line, doing things we wouldn't, and it goes into the inner workings of how USFS managed fire and fire supression, but still I learned a lot from that book. If you are interested in wildland fire and the on-the-ground decision making process that decided who lived and who gave their lifes that day, it is a must read. I need to go read it again.

Edited to add - it was written by John Maclean, Norman's son.

 

[lmalterna]

Zen,
Great post! Once you are located in a backburned area and teh fire is coming your way, shallow pit is dug-- what can/should you use for cover if there is time? branches would be burned away so nothing to support a soil roof. Would a reflective emergency blanket be useful or would it be too likely to melt?

Thanks,
2Door

 

[bcornelis]

This is a good thread. I am glad you did not refer to the portable foil shelters that some fire fighters rely on (up here we call them shake and bakes). If you are a firefighter make sure that you have a good crew boss and at least one or two experienced people on the crew.

 

[hollowdweller]

This reminds me of the song about the 1949 Mann Gulch Fire:

When Dodge realized that they would not be able to outrun the fire, he started an escape fire, taking a match and lighting a ring around him so that the fire would "jump" over him and his crew. He ordered everyone to lie down in the area he had burnt down. In the book that he later wrote, he claimed that he had been "lifed off the ground" several times by the fire. He later claimed he had never heard of such a fire being set, it just seemed "logical", and it was thought to be an on-the-spot invention. However, plains Indians had used the technique to escape grass fires and it had been written about by authors in fiction stories in the 1800s.

However, it is unknown if the crew heard or understood him. The group had 'spread out' in the absence of Dodge, and was strung out along a good stretch. The noise of the fire had also become intense by that time. The 'escape fire' technique had not been part of their training. Dodge later stated that someone said, "The hell with that, I'm getting out of here". The other team members hurried towards the ridge of Mann Gulch. This is because they knew that fires spread much more slowly once they reach the top of a ridge.

Only two of them, Bob Sallee and Walter Rumsey, managed to escape through a crevice, came to the other side of the ridge in Rescue Gulch, and found a safe location, a rockslide with little vegetation to fuel the fire. Diettert had been close behind Sallee and Rumsey, but he did not go for their crevice, for unknown reasons. The two had no way of knowing if the crevice actually 'went through' so it was lucky that they survived. Two other members survived with heavy injuries and died within a day. Unburnt patches underneath the bodies indicate that the rest of the team, including Jim Harrison, suffocated before the fire caught up with them.

 

[hollowdweller]

The Tune:

My name is Dodge, but then you know that
It's written on the chart there at the foot end of the bed
They think I'm blind, I can't read it
I've read it every word, and every word it says is death
So, Confession - is that the reason that you came
Get it off my chest before I check out of the game
Since you mention it, well there's thirteen things I'll name
Thirteen crosses high above the cold Missouri waters


August 'Forty-Nine, north Montana
The hottest day on record, the forest tinder dry
Lightning strikes in the mountains
I was crew chief at the jump base, I prepared the boys to fly
Pick the drop zone, C-47 comes in low
Feel the tap upon your leg that tells you go
See the circle of the fire down below
Fifteen of us dropped above the cold Missouri waters

Gauged the fire, I'd seen bigger
So I ordered them to sidehill and we'd fight it from below
We'd have our backs to the river
We'd have it licked by morning even if we took it slow
But the fire crowned, jumped the valley just ahead
There was no way down, headed for the ridge instead
Too big to fight it, we'd have to fight that slope instead
Flames one step behind above the cold Missouri waters

Sky had turned red, smoke was boiling
Two hundred yards to safety, death was fifty yards behind
I don't know why I just thought it
I struck a match to waist high grass running out of time
Tried to tell them, Step into this fire I set
We can't make it, this is the only chance you'll get
But they cursed me, ran for the rocks above instead
I lay face down and prayed above the cold Missouri waters

And when I rose, like the phoenix
In that world reduced to ashes there were none but two survived
I stayed that night and one day after
Carried bodies to the river, wonder how I stayed alive
Thirteen stations of the cross to mark to their fall
I've had my say, I'll confess to nothing more
I'll join them now, those that left me long before


Thirteen crosses high above the cold Missouri waters
Thirteen crosses high above the cold Missouri shore

 

[Brian Jones]

(BTW Nomex pants that Forest Service uses are some of the best outdoor pants you can hope to buy, they don't burn, they dry fast, and they don't rip)

That's good, because I'd probably wet myself severely if this happened to me.

 

[zenheretic]

Zen,
Great post! Once you are located in a backburned area and teh fire is coming your way, shallow pit is dug-- what can/should you use for cover if there is time? branches would be burned away so nothing to support a soil roof. Would a reflective emergency blanket be useful or would it be too likely to melt?

Thanks,
2Door

I am glad you did not refer to the portable foil shelters that some fire fighters rely on (up here we call them shake and bakes).

Hi Imalterna,

I purposefully left off any coverings because I don't know. As bcornelis mentioned, there is a small "pup tent" made out of reflective material (We called 'em shake and bakes too). There are much thicker and heavier than the average emergency blanket. A bit larger than the old US army canteens and weighed at least five pounds. Extremely unlikely someone would be carrying them out in the woods, unless the were fire fighting. If someone just had to have them one might find them in second hand stores...as some folks tend to steal from Fred Smith Supply and sell to second hand stores.(Forest Service gear is marked with a FSS on it...or Forest Service Supply.) Obviously second hand stores in towns where they fight fires. Western Montana and Idaho, for example. They look like this but usually in yellow container...
http://www.edarley.com/finditem/23610 Like a crash helmet, they should only used once...don't even buy one if the seal is broken. Again highly unlikely you would want one, at five pounds you could have two extra quarts of water and some food.

Frankly, if you had time to build a lot you would be better off getting out of the area. What I was talking about is when it is clear you have no chance of outrunning the fire.

 

[zenheretic]

I agree, great post. A good book on the subject, too, is Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean, the same guy who wrote A River Runs through It and Other Stories. A River Runs through It, the movie with Brad Pitt, is based on the book.

The book isn't by any means a manual, but you definitely learn a lot about how to survive a forest fire by reading it!

I recommend it.

Lawlor, I believe the story you speak of is what hollowdweller is talking about down in this post.

This reminds me of the song about the 1949 Mann Gulch Fire:

Good find HD, that was story is used quite a bit as a teaching tool and starting point...not to mention covering it all better than me...

 

[mapper66]

Part of the tragedy of the South Canyon fire was a group of firefighters were making a mad dash for a ridgeline and safety on the other side. One made it and lived, although he was badly injured by the fire. Most of the others stopped to deploy the fire shelters, and died in them. It was truly a sad part of the book, I think most of them were within 100 yards of the ridgeline. I'm going from memory and it has been a while since I read the book, but I beleive that is accurate.

 

[lmalterna]

Thanks again Zen. I was trying to think of something I might have on me that would improve my/our odds. My wife and kids are always with me and they are not as mobile as I am-- more likley to get in a situation where they cannot outrun the fire. Virginia is not a heavy forest fire state but they do happen and this bit of information is something I will not forget.

Thanks,
2Door

 

[mapper66]

I just went and found the book and looked it up. Man I choke up even now reading that part...

There were 13 firefighters in a line headed for Hell's Gate Ridge. There was a small group of 3 or 4 towards the front, and all but one stopped to deploy fire shelters. Maclean made the point in the book that at this point the fire had become a "wide coherent fire burning the entire fuel complex". It swept through shiny green oak, dead branches, any fuel that stood in it's path; no place was safe, not the black and not the green.

The one survivor of that group seems to have heeded what Maclean calls one of the firefighters guidelines: FEAR, or f**k everything and run.

 

[Jenner 515]

Part of the tragedy of the South Canyon fire was a group of firefighters were making a mad dash for a ridgeline and safety on the other side. One made it and lived, although he was badly injured by the fire. Most of the others stopped to deploy the fire shelters, and died in them. It was truly a sad part of the book, I think most of them were within 100 yards of the ridgeline. I'm going from memory and it has been a while since I read the book, but I beleive that is accurate.

I've hiked Storm King mountain where this occurred, they have momunments up to the firefighters on that spot now. It is very steep and yeah, most of the markers where they fell are within 100 yards of the ridge.

The slope they were working is at the top of a natural chimney, and there was a ton of the gambrel(?) oak all through there.

Two Helitack crew were also part of this tragedy they were a ways further up the ridge.

Some things I remember...

With those Nomex Pants...Black Leg. If you sweat at all and you're working in all that ash and smoke, at the end of a shift your legs were black.

White Boots...heavy and clunky...never turned an ankle though.

"Keep one foot in the black" I never had to use this advice...but I understand the importance of it.

 

[actiondiver]

The book Cache Lake Country by John Rowlands should be a book every on in the forum would appreciate. In the book there is a forest fire coming but the author saw the signs and made for a lake. In the sand he was able to bury his kit to keep it dry and protected from fire. He also scuttled his canoe temporarily buy filling it with rocks. Even still, in the lake, surrounded by animals he said it was very difficult to breathe.

 

[Return of the J.D.]

What can anyone tell the rest of us about what to look for in avoiding "natural chimneys" and any other accelerating geological features?

And I need a little help interpreting the "keep one foot in the black" advice, too--can someone connect the dots for me?

 

[Swampdog]

Black ground is safe, it has already burned, so it is a safe place to get out of the green stuff which will burn. As far as smoke color goes - more wildland firefighters have been killed in the grass fuel model (WHITE smoke) than any other type of fuel. Grasses holds moisture so it burns white in color, it also burns extremely fast so it will travel as fast as the wind blows.
I worked on the Yellowstone Fires of 1988 in Montana and Wyoming, on one of the fire (Clover-Mist Fire) we had 30 mph wind with 3% relative humidity (rH). Mother Nature started the fires in June (lightning) and She put them out in September (snow). All the rest of the time is was one big cluster F$#K...
Fuel, weather and topography will determine how fast a wildfire will move, just be ready to react - look for manmade or natural barriers to stop the fire spread around you. The fire shelter tent is a last ditch tool to protect you airways from being cooked ( read: kiss your ass goodbye). A forest ranger in Florida used one in a fire shelter deployment and he survived the wildfire because he protected his airways; doctor at the hospital had to surgically remove his fire helmet because it melted to his head! He sufferd third-degree burns over 60% of his body and survived. How's that for Wilderness Survival?
Please say a prayer for the safety of our firefighters and have a fire safe day!

 

[zenheretic]

Here is an interesting compilation of all fire deaths from 1910-1996.
Glancing through it, you might notice how many were caught by surprise by wind changes or unexpected flair-ups. For me that says two things, pay close attention to that weather channel if you in the same forest as a fire, and don't rely on others to tell you it is safe out within such a such distance (they normally keep civilians far away, but ya never know)
http://www.nwcg.gov/pms/docs/fat_pdf.pdf