Fossil Creek Rescue Missions Continue

Fire Chiefs Report – April 2017

Fossil Creek – Rescue Missions Continue

The third major rescue mission of the year occurred on March 19th at the Upper Springs area of Fossil Creek. A 39 year old female, part of a large group of 38 hikers, suffered either a severe twisted ankle or closed fracture with severe angulation. Ambulance 421 responded as well as the Tonto Rim Search and Rescue Squad. The patient was loaded in a “Big Wheel liter” and a horse slowly pulled the litter four and a half miles uphill to the trailhead. The patient was transported to the Flagstaff Medical Center. This was a 10 hour rescue mission for Ambulance 421.

Fossil Creek – Another Rescue Mission

On the following weekend, March 26th, Ambulance 421 was again dispatched to another extended rescue at Fossil Creek Fossil Creek, this time for an injured hiker on the Upper Springs Trail. A male hiker severely twisted his knee in the trails boulder field and could not walk. Again, the Tonto Rim Search and Rescue Squad responded along with horses. This time the patient was mounted on a horse and he was slowly led up to the trailhead with other horseback riders. This rescue mission took nearly 7 hours.

Fossil Creek – Another Rescue – Three Weekends in a Row

On Sunday April 16th, Ambulance 421 responded to the Upper Springs Trail for a reported female hiker suffering severe dehydration and unable to walk. Ambulance 421 responded and put Tonto Rim Search and Rescue on standby. The patient was located about 3 miles down the trail. Following intake of water and snacks she was slowly walked up to the trailhead and declined any further medical care.

1 Coconino Forest Officials Walks the Upper Springs Trail

The Coconino District Ranger, and some of her staff, conducted a walk of the Upper Springs trail to obtain a firsthand evaluation of the condition of the four and a half mile trail. Joining them were the fire chief and the search and rescue coordinator for the Gila County Sheriff’s Office, Sergeant Dennis Newman. Also joining the group was retired sergeant Rodney Crook who previously coordinated the sheriff’s search and rescue operations.

There were two objectives to the walk; Evaluate the trails condition and second two determine potential helicopter landing zones along the trail.

Two helicopter landing zones were selected. One, expand the small landing zone just above the springs area (that only the Arizona Department of Public Safety helicopters can land) large enough to allow medical helicopters to safely land.

A second landing zone location was identified about a mile and a half up the four and a half mile trail. Both landing zones are located in areas where most hikers get in trouble.

The Forest Service has not announced when the clearing of the landing zones will be completed.

The Coconino District Ranger also indicated she may “re-consider” last year’s proposal by a number of agencies to improve the Upper Springs Trail wide enough to allow a side-by-side quad access to hikers suffering a medical emergency on the trail. This would reduce a 5 – 7 hour rescue effort to about an hour and a half. The project offered was a joint effort by the Gila County Board of Supervisors, The Gila County Sheriff’s Office, the Sheriffs Mounted Posse, The Tonto Rim Search and Rescue Squad, and the Pine-Strawberry Fire District. The project team had obtained funding, equipment, and a heavy equipment operator to complete the project. The project would not have cost the Coconino Forest a penny! The project was cancelled just a week prior to the October 5th start date on the project.

2 The Fire Chief Goes to Washington D.C. Over the Fossil Creek Public Safety Crisis

Over the last two years (2015-2016) rescue agencies, including the Pine Strawberry Fire District, have rescued 490 hikers in Fossil Creek. Sadly, there were four fatalities during the same period. This is a huge number of persons rescued. Many of these rescue missions took 5-7 hours to complete – sometimes longer (This past March the rescue to the female hiker consumed nearly 10 hours for Pine Strawberry crews). This puts a huge burden on local rescue agencies and the frequent rescues are wearing them out.

The fire chief and local rescue agencies have been frustrated with the lack of public safety concerns, and little response, from the Forest Service in addressing what is a true public safety crisis.

In an effort to address these concerns, and prod some response from the Forest Service, the Fire Chief went to Senator McCain’s office for assistance. Senator McCain arranged a meeting in his Washington, D.C. office with top Forest Service officials. The fire chief traveled to Washington for the meeting which was held on April 7th. Teleconferencing in to the meeting from Arizona were several elected officials from both Gila and Yavapai Counties. The attendees for the meeting are listed below.

Disappointingly, while the Forest Service listened politely, and asked a few questions, they did not make any commitments and did not express any urgency to resolve the crisis.

McCain Office On-Site Attendees

Tracy Perry, National Director of Forest Service Law Enforcement and Investigations

Chris Boehm, Deputy Director of Forest Service Law Enforcement and Investigations

Emilee Blount, National Director of Forest Service Engineering Programs

Tony Edwards, Forest Service Legislative Affairs

Nick Matiella, Senior McCain’s D.C. Office Staff

Johnathan Pacheco, Senior McCain’s D.C. Office Staff

3 Stephen Shadegg, Outreach Director for Arizona Attorney General

Gary P. Morris, Fire Chief, Pine Strawberry Fire District

Teleconferencing into the meeting

Tommie Martin, Chairwoman, Gila County Board of Supervisors

Tom Thurman, Chairman, Yavapai County Board of Supervisors

Adam Shepherd, Sheriff, Gila County Sheriff’s Office

Dennis Newman, Sargent, Gila County Sheriff’s Office, Search and Rescue Coordinator

Scott Mascher, Sheriff, Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office

Richard Martin, Captain, Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office, Search and Rescue Coordinator

Trent Blanchard, Senator McCain’s Phoenix Office

County Wide Wildfire Seasonal Planning Meeting

The annual pre-season wildfire planning meeting was again hosted by Gila County Board of Supervisor Tommie Martin at the county maintenance facility in Star Valley on March 22nd. It included all the fire districts in the county, appropriate county and state agencies and representatives from the Tonto National Forest. Response capabilities, data, and resources were updated and readied for the season.

Governors Wildland Briefing

On April 11th, the fire chief joined other fire chiefs from around the state at the Governors annual wildfire assessment briefing at the Capitol. In the past, weather predictors have used the past 10 – 20 years of weather patterns to predict moisture and fire risk for a summer fire season. This past winter and spring weather patterns were different than decades past and described as “weird patterns” and this year’s predictions are the most “uncertain”, thus, reducing the accuracy of predicting wildfire risk. The higher elevations still retain moisture while the rain in lower elevations has created a heavy load of “fine fuels” (i.e. tall grass) that is rapidly drying out. Most of the fire activity will likely be in the lower elevations of the State.

4 Fire Break Pile Burns

The week of April 3-7 saw the burning off of a large number of log piles on 30 acres of property in South Pine. These piles were created years ago as part a forest thinning project and were burned to further reduce the risk of a wildfire penetrating the Pine community. This was a collaborative effort by the Pine Strawberry Fire District and the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management. Piles were ignited over a three day period. Weather conditions moved smoke away from Pine and the pile logs were so old and dry they burned very clean with limited smoke and were nearly 100 per cent consumption by fire. Only ash remained. It was a very successful and well planned burn.

Brush pit open

The volunteer coordinator overseeing the two “brush pits” (one east of Payson and another south of Pine) has retired after 17 years of working on the Pit staffing coordination. To date, there is some uncertainty as to whether to Pit will be open this year. Additionally, after more than a decade of burns, the Pit is filling with ash and charcoal and needs to be expanding. Both Supervisor Martin and the Northern Gila County Fire Chiefs Association are pursuing a solution.

CERT Program Expands

The Pine Strawberry area Citizens Emergency Response Team responsibilities have expanded to include supporting emergency scene rehabilitation for emergency crews. They now can be called up to respond to major fire scenes, or other extended emergencies, to provide fluids and snacks and cool down for crews working the scene. There is now a stock pile of snacks and water in tub containers stored at Station 41 that can be quickly transported to emergency scenes. This support will allow crews to extend their work performance.

CERT team members were used throughout the three day pile burning project.

Firewise Community Event May 20th

The Pine Strawberry Fire District has been working closely with the Pine Strawberry Fuel Reduction, Inc. to prepare for the May 20th Firewise community event at the Ramada. Lectures and demonstrations will be available to attendees. A post card has been developed similar to what the Fire District used for last

5 Novembers ballot measure. The post cards briefly describe Firewise measures that should be done to protect homes and properties along with an invitation to attend the May 20th event. They will be mailed the week of April 17th.

Captain Brandt goes to North Carolina

Pine Strawberry Fire District Captain Joel Brandt has been dispatched to North Carolina to be the incident commander for a Type 4 wildland fire. This fire is in the same neighborhood as last fall’s fires in North Carolina and Virginia. Large wildland fires have, in the past, been rare for these states and as such there is limited expertise available to manage them. The federal government has been calling on western states to provide this expertise. Captain Brandt is projected to be committed for two weeks.

Fire District with Zero Work Place Injuries

CopperPoint Insurance Companies, the State of Arizona’s industrial compensation company, issue a certificate to the Pine strawberry Fire District citing that there were zero workplace injury claims.