2011: Arizona Monument Fire Devastates Over 30,000 Acres Within the Huachuca Mountains. This paper will cover the scope of the events of the Monument Fires as well as the basic summary of need for the State of Arizona for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding. Background. On June 12, 2011 in Sierra Vista, Arizona – a city near the Mexican border, a suspected human-caused fire was started within the Coronado National Monument Park, along the southern tip of the Huachuca Mountains in Southern Arizona and quickly shot through the canyons south of the city of Sierra Vista. Over the course of 14 days, the wildfire burned to some extent 100% of the park’s acreage; destroyed a total of 62 homes, 18 outbuildings and 4 businesses (Youberg & Pearthree, 2011) and mandatory evacuations were in effect due to the fires moving quickly towards the outskirts along with the danger of the smoke that blanketed the town. The fire was wind-driven spread and was aided by high temperatures and low humidity. The Monument Fire burned 30,526 acres by the time of containment a month later on July 12. Unfortunately, the disaster would not over when the fire was finally extinguished. A burned landscape presents a number of safety hazards that either did not exist prior to the fire or are increased by the effects of the fire. These types of hazardous conditions may continue for several years after a fire. The fire had destroyed the grasslands and trees that grew along the canyons of the
Wildfires started as an annual and seasonal occurrence in the south western region of California since the early 1930’s in part
wildfires can be very dangerous to wildlife plants people and buildings the plants help to fuel the fires and that just makes it worse than it would be in a area with a lot less brush to fuel the fire. Wildfires can be very destructive this wild fire burnt 3,000,000 acres of land that is about the size of the state
On August 21, 1910, at four pm, a massive wild fire broke out. This Great Fire of 1910, also known as the Big Blowup, spread from Wallace, Idaho to western Montana and into a small amount of Washington. The Great Fire of 1910 lasted for two days and spread because of hurricane winds that shot trees up like flying torpedos ( Quinn ). The cause of the fire was from leftover timber that was heated up from the sparks of the railroad nearby. The timber was from campers, loggers, and homesteaders. The wild fire destroyed over three million acres of forest. Also, 1910 was the driest year and Idaho didn’t get rain since May ( Jamison ). One of the lead firefighters saved all but six of his men while finding safety in an
In August of 2013, a severe and fast spreading fire, called Dubbed as the well-known largest fire in history, as “The Rim Fire.” The fire ha burned much of the forestland an area of approximately 402 square miles. I could see some of the damage and affects, even as of this visit a few years after it happened. Surprisingly, in some areas along the many miles and ranges we traveled to stop, some looked even more burned out than others did, then some areas looked untouched where some areas almost next door on another turn seemed destroyed. Many areas along these mountains were eerily quiet. It felt chilling and creepy. Yet, it was peaceful and still I could find beauty in the death that occurred. Later, the Rim Fire was investigated and found to have been caused by a careless hunter, one man and his idea to start an illegal
On Sunday morning, October 20, 1991 the five acre fire re-ignited shortly before 11:00 am. Again, this fire began as a small brush fire that soon rapidly spread southwest. The fire conditions were much worse this time around. The origin of the fire was on a steep hillside in what some have called a box canyon above state Highway 24 near the entrance to the Caldecott Tunnel. This is a wooded area with heavy underbrush, narrow streets, and steep terrain. The unusual weather conditions are described in FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Report as follows: "...an unusual east wind, at speeds in excess of 65 miles per hour, that raced down from the crest of the Oakland-Berkeley Hills. Coupled with record high temperatures well into the nineties, the hot, dry winds gusted and swirled through five years of drought-dry brush and groves of freeze-damaged Monterey pines and eucalyptus trees. All the conditions for a major disaster were present that morning of October 20, 1991." With wind speeds gusting at about 65 miles per hour, the houses nearby were quickly in harm’s way. These winds are currently known as the “diablo winds” but are similar to the Santa
The reduction of vegetative cover during and after fire can have a severe negative impact on several different factors including: water quality, soil erosion, wildlife and threatened or endangered species, introduction or spread of invasive and exotic species, and economic or social impacts to the surrounding communities. We will implement a vegetation monitoring protocol that will help guide us in restoration and recovery efforts of the High Park fire scar and the surrounding areas and watershed. A collaboration with the US Forest Service will be aggressively pursued in the hopes that a combined use of the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program and our separate vegetation monitoring protocol can be utilized. We will use the burn severity field data collection points and cross-reference them with the FIA data points to see if there is any overlap between them. If there is then the FIA data points will be given preference as those points can possibly provide more information than solely High Park Fire data collection points. If there is not the ability to utilize the FIA data collection points, due to privacy, cost, or unforeseen reasons, then the High Park Fire data collection points will be
In the summer of 1910 Northern Idaho and Western Montana were hit by what seemed like a never ending series of destructive forest fires. With the spring bringing hardly any rainfall and drying winds from the Columbia plains, creeks began to disappear and the montane forests became dry. Intense heat along with high winds and dry vegetation create the perfect environment for forest fires. In June and July several dry electric storms hit the mountains and fires began to develop in isolated corners of the forest. The U.S. Forest Service which had just been developed in 1905 consisted of forest rangers on horseback climbing the mountains and protecting the forest from fires (Bergoffen, 1976). As the
The article, “Firefighter dies battling California's 4th largest fire in history, officials say,” explains to the reader about a very tragic wildfire that unfortunately killed a courageous fireman. Reports conclude that the brave man killed was a 32-year-old man named, Cory Iverson. His very upsetting decease will leave behind his pregnant wife and two-year-old daughter. Published on December 14th, 2017, this article captures the reader’s attention right away. Due to the deplorable blaze in Montecito California, thousands of people were forced to evacuate out of their homes, to a safer environment where the oxygen is not littered with smoke and ash. To elaborate, the article, “Firefighter dies battling California's
The Rim Fire of 2013 ravaged the slopes of the Stanislaus National Forest leaving many areas severely burned and unable to recover. Restoration efforts have been made and 56,000 saplings were planted in 2016 in the most severely burned areas; but the forest still has a long way to recovery. Fires are a naturally occurring hazard in the Stanislaus National Forest, and have contributed to the replenishment, control, and sustainability of the forest; but fires of the Rim Fire's intensity are very rare. The Rim Fire destroyed over 277,314 acres of habitat, harmed many mature trees, and ruined the layers of topsoil, and increased erosion and runoff. The devastation of the Rim Fire would not be have been so intense if it weren’t for past fire
These fires highlighted that there were not enough fire fighters and resources to combat such fires. They highlighted areas that lacked emergency service protection and showed a lack of preparedness (San Diego Fire Facts, 2016). Years after the fires, some changes that came about include: wood shake shingles being banned on new construction and could not be used as roof replacements (Mainar, 2013) and 100 feet became the new defensible space, an increase from 65, between the fuel, for example vegetation, of the fire and the structure (Mainar, 2013). There’s an increase in code compliance officers in the field from two to seven (Mainar, 2013). Evacuation procedures and notices were
According to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), there are many factors that will affect the direction of emergency management in the coming years. These can be classified as global challenges, global opportunities, national challenges, national opportunities, professional challenges, and professional opportunities. Global Challenges include some issues like global climate change, increasing population and population density, increasing resource scarcities, rising income inequality, and increasing risk aversion. Global Opportunities has to do with increased scientific understanding of the hazards and societal responses, as well as revolutionary technologies. National Challenges involves increasing urbanization and hazard exposure, interdependencies in infrastructure, continued emphasis on growth, rising costs of disaster recovery, increasing population diversity, terrorist threats, low priority of emergency management, legal liability, and intergovernmental tensions. Due to these factors that will affect the direction of emergency management in the coming years, there is need for us at emergency management division to adjust operational plans to meet these challenges and especially changes emanating from constant changes expected in technology and other threats we face.
On May 18th, 1980 a fiery explosion erupted from a quiet mountain in Washington State, only 100 miles from Seattle. For hundreds of miles thick, dark smoke blew everywhere, and herds of animals, along with huge parts of the forest, left completely demolished. Until many years later, entire ecosystems wiped out entirely. To avoid being completely destroyed, dozens of families evacuated from their property. But geologists learned stuff, so it’s all cool.
Each year, lightning starts about 24 fires in Yellowstone National Park. The wildfires are usually small. Most wildfires burn less than 100 Acres. These small wildfires are allowed to burn. They clean the forrest floor. This helps new plants and trees to grow. In 1988, rainfall in April and May was higher than normal in the park. No one thought that summer would be the worst fire season in 125 years. Despite a lot of spring rain, the park was very dry by June. The park was in a drought. Once started, strong winds help wildfires sweep the park. Thousands of firefighters comes from all over the world to help. It didn't seem to matter. The flames were unstopable. Many areas of the park had to close. Sadly, the wildfires didn't stop until September.
Throughout its history, FEMA has had two main missions. First, FEMA’s mission is to enhance the federal government 's capacity to deal with and survive foreign attacks. The main types of foreign attacks that FEMA is tasked to respond to relate to terrorist attacks and nuclear war. The second mission of FEMA is to assist state and local authori¬ties to respond to man-made and natural disasters that are to enormous for the local and state resources to respond to efficiently. While national security focuses more on civil defense, state and local authorities are more focused on natural disasters such as hurricanes, storms, floods and potential nuclear power accidents. These divergent focuses really presents FEMA with huge challenges since federal security authorities’ main objective is quite different from state or local authorities’ focus. Considering that FEMA designed the Federal Response Plan, the agency has the challenge of balancing these interests while working on its two key missions.
Each year visitors cause campfires with cigarette buds, especially during droughts. Fires have burned the Sequoia trees and put the animal and plants in danger.