Fort Sill Fire - Troy Wallace, a firefighter with Fire Station #1 in Fort Sill, Okla., fills the 400-gallon tank of a brush truck after he and other Fort Sill firefighters helped extinguish the wildfire at the Mountain Wilderness Refuge in Wichita. With which the fire was extinguished. . (Photo credit: USA) View original
FORT SILL, Okla., July 12, 2018 – The Fort Sill Fire Department was a true friend when the fire broke out at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge on July 2nd.
Fort Sill Fire
"It was almost certainly lightning and it was back in the special use area," Booth said.
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"The Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge sent out a blanket request for help same day, same night, for anyone," he said. "It was clear that the fire was growing quickly and it was a threat. It was approaching the (North Mountain) wooded area, which limited our fire management options in terms of what we could do."
The Special Use Zone is not open to the general public, and the fire is completely undeveloped. Booth said if there was no danger of the fire escaping, shelter firefighters would have let it burn. However, in this case there was a risk of the fire spreading to private land outside the shelter.
Fort Sill firefighters were the first to respond. Jay Mickey, fire management officer for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Oklahoma/North Texas fire area, said he was on the scene when the fire started and continued to work through July 4.
Fort Sill Deputy Fire Chief Michael Patterson said the five-man crew rotated through the 12-hour period. Shift changes were at 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. For each shift, Fort Sill sent a battalion chief in a command vehicle to provide security, accountability and oversight. The battalion chief was in direct contact with the incident commander. Two brush trucks also went out with two firefighters on each rotation.
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The first rotation was from Fort Sill Fire Station #1 on the northwest corner of Randolph Road and Fort Sill Boulevard. It is the closest station to the Western Range. The second rotation came from Fire Station #4, Building 6041 Rothwell Street, which is the closest station to the Arbuckle Range.
Fort Sill firefighters were called back after July 4 to handle some fires there as part of their normal duties, Patterson said.
At the time, fire crews had a black line around the shelter fire and received help from other parties.
"We first sought help from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service," Booth said. Some firefighters came from other refuges in the area, including the Washita and Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuges. Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge had a bulldozer on loan to Salt Plains, so while they waited to retrieve it they borrowed one from the National Park Service's Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Sulphur, Oklahoma, which sent both a firefighter and an equipment operator. The U.S. Forest Service provided a full firefighting team from the Ouachita National Forest in southeastern Oklahoma.
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Helicopters from the 211th Aviation Regiment, 2nd General Support Aviation Battalion at Fort Sill also contributed to the effort. The helos performed the "Bambi Bucket" mission, plunging buckets of water into Lake Elmer Thomas and flying them into a special-use area to extinguish flames in areas inaccessible to firefighters on the ground.
Although firebreaks were established around the fire, firefighters continued to put out ropes and hot spots July 5-7, Booth said.
"We're trying to monitor and control those edges. It's still hot near the borders, and then we burn it from the inside. It's about 4,100 acres right now," the refuge director said on July 5.
The fire was located north of the refugee headquarters in an area called Winter Valley and Geronimo Ridge. No casualties were reported, but firefighters continued to monitor the situation.
Fort Sill Modified Record Fire Range 2 08 :: Diversified Construction
"We have to get over it because of the weather. It's really hot, and if we get a good, strong wind from the south, it's going to blow it back onto private land. We can't risk it," Booth, Fort Sill. said. Oklahoma, February 21, 2019 – What Fort Sill fire and emergency services do to keep the post and community safe is truly a multifaceted response, according to Fort Sill Fire Chief Clint Langford.
"The general public, when they think of fire protection, they think of firefighters and their response," he noted. "But the important thing is prevention. We want to stop a fire before it starts.
“At Fort Sill, we created what we call our Wildfire Suppression Plan, which is a collaboration not only with the fire department, but also with field operations and the DPW (Directorate of Public Works, specifically their Department of Natural Resources ). Comprehensive and simultaneous planning. And the military units themselves.
"Within this plan we have established protocols that can limit training activities in fields in adverse weather conditions, to areas where there may be high fuel load (lots of vegetation).
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"This process involves something called a deliberate risk assessment that identifies the hazards and risks that may arise during the unit's training program and the steps taken to limit or eliminate those hazards. In our case, wildfires."
“We are working closely with range operations and commanders in the field to identify steps to take to end the spread of wildfires while allowing military units to continue their critical mission.
Prescribed fires are one of the most effective means of preventing forest fires from starting and reducing the intensity of those that do start.
"The process is very simple. The reason it's so effective is that the prescribed fire destroys the fuel.
Fort Sill Modified Record Fire Range 2 21 :: Diversified Construction
"A lot of people think of it as a controlled burn, but it's actually a prescribed burn. A prescribed burn is like a prescription: there are preset parameters that we use and they're what we use to set the fire. It has to be completed before
Other factors to consider are wind, weather, temperature, relative humidity and smoke dispersion so as not to affect the surrounding community.
"An example of this would be burning strips along the perimeter of our facility. Typically, some of them are 100 feet wide (so wildfire sparks can't jump off the road just outside the perimeter fence). Create an area of buffer for..., free of vegetation, which would normally prevent an uncontrolled fire from spreading outside the facility.
"Our second priority is Fort Sill's mission requirements. Examples of that are clearing an area, or building a new training complex, or clearing vegetation so the explosive ordnance disposal team can go in and clear that land. It doesn't blow up. weapons
Fort Sill Modified Record Fire Range 2 38 :: Diversified Construction
"The third priority is habitat and ecosystem health. This can be anything from a prescribed fire to clear invasive red cedar to prevent that species from taking over native grasses and perennials, or to clear it and reduce its growth . Vegetation to encourage. healthy growth of native trees and grasses as called for by our natural resources."
Some of them must be done annually, others every two years and others once every five years. Annually, that equates to about 30 burns covering about 30,000 acres, roughly one-third of the facility.
"However, Mother Nature does not always cooperate. As I said before, we will never start a fire unless our minimum and maximum weather parameters match exactly.
"In fact, we probably complete 60 percent of our burns annually, and anyone who lives in Oklahoma long enough understands why. Oklahoma weather doesn't always cooperate."
Fort Sill Modified Record Fire Range 2 33 :: Diversified Construction
The Fort Sill Fire Department has three mutual aid agreements with other fire departments in Comanche County, including the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, the Lawton Fire Department, and the Fire Department's Fish and Wildlife Service firefighters. USA in all fire departments within Comanche County Emergency Management. .
Langford said these agreements are not just for fires, but for all emergency responses, including hazardous materials, rescue and anything for citizens to call 911.
Fort Sill has received help from the Lawton Fire Department and several volunteer fire departments on prescribed fires in the past, the fire chief said.
Fort Sill never calls on its mutual aid partners for help when a fire breaks out in one of the affected areas, as Fort Sill firefighters are specially trained to know what to look for in terms of explosive devices and safety protocols.
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He sent an engine and a tanker to help with a recent structure fire at the former American Legion post, just off the Madison Park exit of I-44.
Firefighters set up a tanker operation, with the tankers being filled from Fort Sill fire hydrants, then headed to the fire scene to dump the water.
"Our guys are very well trained and experienced in fighting wildfires. Our leadership at Fort Sill has given us the resources we need to protect our community. For wildfires alone, our forest fleet includes nine brush trucks and two tankers, 1,800 liters of coal and another 3,000.
"Training is key
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