Meadow Creek WFU Fire
Location: ~13 mi NE of Rifle, Garfield Co. CO
Specific Location: White River NF, Lat 39° 42´ 0″ Lon 107° 34´ 23″
Date of Origin: 06/28/2010
Cause: Lightning
Situation as of 09/02/2010 6:00 pm
Personnel: none
Size: 1,480 acres
Percent Contained: 0%
Costs to Date: Costs to Date: $1,120,000
Fuels have begun to dry, and fire is slowly showing signs of increasing behavior.
***************
Situation as of 08/05/2010 4:00 pm
Personnel: 2
Size: 1,452 acres
Percent Contained: 0%
Costs to Date: Costs to Date: $1,090,000
Fire has taken some precipitation (.60 in) over past seven days but continues to smolder in shletered 1000 hours and duff. There will be hunters scouting for elk in the area surrounding the fire prior to hunting.
***************
Situation as of 07/29/2010 6:00 pm
Personnel: 62
Size: 1,452 acres
Percent Contained: 0%
Costs to Date: Costs to Date: $1,028,600
Destaffed the non-existent fire line in anticipation of rainfall. There will be hunters scouting for elk in the area surrounding the fire prior to hunting season opening. If fuels begin to dry, and fire behavior starts to increase in the following weeks, public safety could be an issue, but what the heck. We spent a million bucks of the taxpayers’ money doing jack. Now we have to go home. See ya. NIMO signing off.
***************
Situation as of 07/28/2010 6:00 pm
Personnel: 62
Size: 1,452 acres
Percent Contained: 0%
Costs to Date: Costs to Date: $983,600
Continued monitoring of fire behavior on the north and west edges of the fire. Training fire for the Boise NIMO Team. They are practicing Let It Burn.
***************
Situation as of 07/27/2010 6:00 pm
Personnel: 76
Size: 1,452 acres
Percent Contained: 0%
Costs to Date: Costs to Date: $924,000
Training fire for the Boise NIMO Team. They are practicing Let It Burn.
***************
Situation as of 07/25/2010 6:00 pm
Personnel: 76
Size: 1,350 acres
Percent Contained: 0%
Costs to Date: Costs to Date: $807,000
Monitor fire spread within the Main Elk Creek drainage. Completed the aerial ignition plan. This plan will be executed only if conditions warrant. Continue development of trainees which are filling a variety of position on the incident. Training fire for the Boise NIMO Team. They are practicing Let It Burn.
***************
Situation as of 07/23/2010 6:00 pm
Personnel: 71
Size: 1,350 acres
Percent Contained: 0%
Costs to Date: Costs to Date: $647,000
Reduction in acreage due to more accurate mapping. Fire being “monitored”. Training fire for the Boise NIMO Team. They are practicing Let It Burn.
***************
Situation as of 07/22/2010 6:00 pm
Personnel: 68
Size: 1,500 acres
Percent Contained: 0%
Costs to Date: $570,000
Completed line preparation with the hydroaxe along the Hadley Point ATV trail south of the fire in anticipation of burnout operations. Continued monitoring fire spread on other areas of the fire.
The Boise NIMO Team is currently developing a LTIP (Long Term Incident Plan) for the fire, “which assesses values at risk and establishes a long term management plan for the incident. This will address values at risk, long term objectives, and actions to be taken if management action points are reached. It will also meet the leader’s intent preserved by the forest, which is expanded upon within the WFDSS decision.”
What that gibberish means is that instead of obeying the law and doing a NEPA analysis BEFORE the fire, some hare-brained quasi-process will be drawn out until the Let It Burn fire goes out by itself. Then the government functionaries will pin medals on themselves for their creative non-compliance with the Law.
***************
Situation as of 07/19/2010 6:00 pm
Personnel: 92
Size: 1,214 acres
Percent Contained: 0%
Boise NIMO Team assumed command today at 0600 and is continuing previously established tactical objectives. Training and Public Information are key elements of the overall strategy.
***************
Situation as of 07/18/2010 6:30 pm
Personnel: 93
Size: 908 acres
Percent Contained: 0%
Target acres remain at 27,000. Fire size doubled since yesterday. Personnel also doubled. Boise NIMO Team will assume command 7/19 at 0600.
Creeping, running with short crown runs in mixed conifer.
Planned Actions: Continue to hold south and west flanks, letting fire burn to east and north. Structure protection is in place.
Note: no NEPA, no ESA consultations with USFWS, no public involvement, no plan.
***************
Situation as of 07/17/2010 5:00 pm
Personnel: 52
Size: 400 acres
Percent Contained: 0%
Target acres remain at 27,000. Fire size doubled, personnel quadrupled. Spotting 1/4 mile in front of fire, running, torching with short crown runs in close canopy.
Significant fire growth yesterday, helicopters barely keeping up on SW edge, 2 SEATs ordered this afternoon to reinforce the SW. Other resources on order include T-1 crew, engines and NIMO Team. NIMO Team will transition at 1600 7/18.
NIMO stands for National Incident Management Organization. NIMO is composed of seven member incident management teams with complex fire management as the primary focus of their positions.
The Meadow Creek Fire has been classed as a “complex fire management problem.” Fuels are mainly Gambrel oak, the same fuels that killed 14 firefighters on the South Canyon Fire on Storm King Mountain in 1994 (about 25 miles E of the Meadow Creek Fire). The area of the fire is also in a prime oil and gas leasing zone of the White River NF. Hence the complexity.
***************
Situation as of 07/16/2010 5:45 pm
Personnel: 14
Size: 225 acres
Percent Contained: 0%
Target acres increased to 27,000. Whatever, man. There’s no plan. They have no idea what they’re doing.
IC transition to Winslow Robertson, ordered T-1 Crew for tomorrow (7/16) possibly indicates some impetus to actually contain the fire, at least partially.
***************
Situation as of 07/15/2010 5:00 pm
Personnel: 14
Size: 160 acres
Percent Contained: 0%
Target acres reduced to 20,000
Fire allegedly being monitored, but there are no monitoring reports.
***************
Situation as of 07/01/2010 5:30 pm
Personnel: 19
Size: 5 acres
Percent Contained: 0%
Target acres: 67,000
Although the fire is only five acres, and a firecrew plus helicopter are on the scene, no effort is being made to contain or control this fire. Instead it is hoped that 67,000 acres will burn. No NEPA, ESA, NHPA, APA compliance, just Let It Burn.
