A Silent Witness: Dissecting a Fire

20150810_094052

Giant redwood near Miranda belches smoke. [Photo by George Monroe.]

Welcome to our letters to the editor/opinion section. To submit yours for consideration, please send to [email protected]. Please consider including an image to be used–either your photograph or something applicable to the letter. However, an image is not necessary for publication.

This letter by, Myers Flat Fire Chief George Monroe, originated as a comment but, with his permission is shared here.

Monroe describes the fire near Miranda yesterday that cost thousands of dollars and multiple hours of firefighter’s and park ranger’s time:

A large goose pen (a hollowed out redwood tree) at least 15 feet in diameter (the park ranger said 18 feet, I’ll measure it someday), was on fire in the State Park.

This majestic old growth redwood tree was lucky that a dedicated group of fire fighters, park rangers and a park tree climber arrived at scene quickly. With an initial attack, [they] knocked down the fire that spread to the surrounding dead redwood limbs, redwood needles and thick forest duff as well as the heavy fire that was raging from inside the tree and spreading upward through the bark and straggly limbs of the giant redwood. 

With a concerted effort different ideas were discussed about how to put the fire out that had spread up the exterior of the tree up to 150 feet high. A helicopter drop was ordered but we were told that it would be a few hours if we could get one at all. Next, a small smooth bore nozzle was used, but that only reached about fifty feet.

Then, a twenty four foot ladder was deployed but that only got us another 24 feet. We had another 75 to go. The park ranger told us that a climber/faller was on his way to assess the situation. Having worked in the old growth woods in the 70’s, I knew that to fall this particular tree would be a major project and take a half a day minimum. But none of us wanted to see this forest guardian felled, although one of the fire chiefs felt that if it was a threat to more of the forest, it would have to come down. The park service climber/faller felt that “we can save the life of this tree.”

Another possible option I thought we had was to use CAFs (Compressed Air Foam) to shoot foam (water combined with a foam solution and given an extra kick with high pressure air) further up in the tree. A firefighter ran off to get his CAFS fire engine.
As it turned out, the compressed air foam only gained another fifteen feet.

The climber was able to climb 100 feet into smaller redwood trees on either side of the giant, and direct a garden hose (we call it a pencil line) sized stream onto the burning patches that were burrowing deep into the bark in places high up in the tree. Success! (almost).

When I left at noon, most of the fire crew were still down (way down) with the park rangers who were setting up to spend the night monitoring the tree in case it reignited. A sprinkler was set up inside the hollowed out tree which was still billowing smoke.

Bottom line: Five fire engines (with crews) were dispatched to this fire at 5:58 am. NO one had breakfast. A CAL FIRE Battalion Chief was dispatched as well as a Division Chief who showed up later.
A park ranger, a parks climber faller were dispatched. (Three cheers to the fire fighter who brought us breakfast burritos at 11 o’clock!!!) And then there are the investigators who will try to determine how the fire was started and then there are the park employees who [spent] the night babysitting the redwood.

Hundreds of man/woman hours, thousand and thousands of dollars, spent on resources and the perhaps thousands of dollars that may have to be spent on an engine pump that became overheated by using maximum pressure for too long by trying to shoot CAF way high in the tree…

Facebooktwitterpinterestmail

Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules

Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

20 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
nines
Guest
8 years ago

I love you.

Ernie Branscomb
Guest
8 years ago

Thanks George. (Chief, No Feathers)
We had several hollow trees around Redway that transients would camp in. None of them seemed to realize how flammable dried redwood trees are. We would have several calls a year. One tree we had in Whitmore grove was the source of much grief for us. After one incident a CDF captain (who will go unnamed) put down the cause of fire as “Bozos camping in tree with warming fire”. The Battalion Chief chewed him out and told him that he could not use terms like “Bozos” in an official state report. He changed it to “low income tourists camped in tree with warming fire”. After that we referred to the tree as “Bozo Tree”. We went to a few more fires there, eventually the tree became so weakened it fell in a storm. Kind of a sad end actually.

Ben
Guest
Ben
8 years ago

More than once, I have noticed a fellow heading that way who was extremely inebriated recently… I should have talked to Bernie about him…

Rooster Cogburn
Guest
Rooster Cogburn
8 years ago

god damn geese!

Jeremy Swartz
Guest
Jeremy Swartz
8 years ago

Miranda and all others shine for the community. We r proud you took the call. God bless and get some

Judy Stanfield
Guest
Judy Stanfield
8 years ago

This is so sad! I walk in this park quite often and love this tree. Why someone would set it on fire just baffles me. I thank those who worked on this fire and tried to save this majestic tree and shame to whomever set it on fire!

trackback

[…] A Silent Witness: Dissecting a Fire […]

trackback

[…] A Silent Witness: Dissecting a Fire […]

trackback

[…] A Silent Witness: Dissecting a Fire […]

trackback

[…] A Silent Witness: Dissecting a Fire […]

trackback

[…] A Silent Witness: Dissecting a Fire […]

trackback

[…] A Silent Witness: Dissecting a Fire […]

trackback

[…] A Silent Witness: Dissecting a Fire […]

trackback

[…] A Silent Witness: Dissecting a Fire […]

trackback

[…] A Silent Witness: Dissecting a Fire […]

trackback

[…] A Silent Witness: Dissecting a Fire […]

trackback

[…] A Silent Witness: Dissecting a Fire […]

trackback

[…] A Silent Witness: Dissecting a Fire […]

trackback

[…] A Silent Witness: Dissecting a Fire […]

trackback

[…] A Silent Witness: Dissecting a Fire […]