U.S. Forest Service to suspend prescribed burns in Colorado

U.S. Forest Service officials are preparing to announce a suspension of prescribed fires on federal land statewide — creating new challenges for managing wildfire risks.

Federal forest supervisors made the decision covering the 14.5 million acres of national forest around Colorado after prescribed fires scheduled this week on several individual forests were canceled — due to diversion of forest crews to suppress wildfires and to the continuing dry and exceptionally windy conditions.

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ ... ibed-burns

Now if only they'd impost a fire ban in the national forests until we get some significant moisture.

I really don't know if this is off topic but I was just reading a little on the up coming 10th anniversary of the the Hayman fires. I am still in shock that a public employee would start a fire on a red flag warning day. But thinking about that as well, and I am not telling anyone how to do their job, this is one of the driest March months ever. I know this is being a Monday morning QB but really it seems to me (not an expert) that waiting until it was wetter out would be safer?

A little from the fire site that knows about this stuff. I am wondering if bolded has never happened before? If so then I guess this is a learning event. But I don't know all there is to know about prescribed burns.

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Update per http://inciweb.org/incident/2809/

The Lower North Fork Fire started on Monday, March 26. Preliminary reports indicate that the fire was caused by embers from a prescribed fire (Rx). An investigation is ongoing. The Rx was ignited on Thursday, March 22 by the Colorado State Forest Service on Denver Water Department lands to reduce the level of hazardous fuels. The Rx was completed the same day. Firefighters mopped up remaining hot spots on Friday and continued patrols throughout the weekend. On Monday, a cold front passed through the area with wind gust over 50 mph. These gusts presumably carried embers from the interior Rx, across containment lines to receptive fuels starting the wildfire. It then spread into the crowns of the trees and driven by the strong winds, quickly advanced to the northeast onto private lands. Local firefighters immediately responded to the wildfire, but were unable to contain it, due to the extreme winds and dry and abundant fuels. Additional firefighting resources were called in from the surrounding area and adjoining states to help with the effort.

This intense wildfire resulted in the fatalities of two citizens, destruction or damage to 25 homes and numerous outbuildings, and caused thousands of residents to evacuate the area. One citizen remains unaccounted for.

Currently the wildfire is estimated at 4,140 acres and 15% containment. There has been no growth in the fire over the past two days. The fire is now being managed by Harvey's Great Basin Incident Management Team after transitioning with the local Jefferson County Incident Management Team on Thursday morning, March 29.

Add my above post to this and i don't think it adds up or they just made a mistake. It is pretty dry out there yet today is only a moderate fire risk. It sounds to me (not an expert) they were looking short term.

http://www.9news.com/dontmiss/259893/63 ... dfire-risk

DENVER - 9Wants to Know has obtained the documents showing fire supervisors thought the risk for the Lower North Fork prescribed burn was "moderate."

The prescribed-fire-plan document was filled out by fire supervisors and presumably Colorado State Forest Service officials before the burn took place.

I know Rx burns have gotten out of control before but don't know if they were re-kindles like this one.

In ParkCo one of the requirements to do a "private" burn is to be at the fire site at all times while burning and to thoroughly extinguish the fire when you're done. While this burn was done on a larger scale than me burning slash in the driveway, I would think the "thoroughly extinguish" should apply to either event.

How many prescribed burns were done successfully?

Couldn't give you a number, but there are lots and lots. Successful burns aren't news - we only hear about the ones that fail.

Exactly

Forget prescribed burns and find an alternative, e.g. chipper, loading in trucks and hauling it out. Stop the pollution and give our lungs a breather. Living near a national forest is hazardous to many's health.

Fire is a natural sequence of events in the forest. Chippers and loading in trucks is fine for trees I suppose. Doesn't do anything for the ground cover.