Fire Camps Research Articles

The Impact of COVID-19 Prevention Measures on Interagency Hotshot Crews in 2020

Abstract In the 2020 fire season, the fire management community developed and tested a wide range of new practices to meet challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic. To better understand the effectiveness of different innovations and which should be considered for more permanent use, we surveyed Interagency Hotshot Crew (IHC) superintendents in January 2021. We focused on identifying innovations that, regardless of COVID-19, the IHCs would want to keep and why, as well as those that proved problematic. The survey focused on paperwork, briefings, and fire camp and incident command post setup. Results found clear benefits from many of the changes to operational efficiency and crew health and wellbeing; challenges were generally tied to logistical and communication issues. The results of this survey speak to the logistics of running large incident command operations and could be applied both outside the US and outside the field of wildland fire management. Study Implications: There may be meaningful benefits beyond mitigation of COVID-19 spread for continuing to use virtual paperwork, virtual briefings, and dispersed camp setups while supporting large fire suppression operations. Operational efficiency was seen as a clear benefit of many of these changes, with the often-mentioned advantage to a particular practice enabling crews to spend more time on the fireline. The new practices also appear to contribute to overall crew physical health. However, the benefits to crew health, efficiency, and effectiveness will need to be assessed against the increased logistical support required from incident management teams.

Investigation of COVID-19 Outbreak among Wildland Firefighters during Wildfire Response, Colorado, USA, 2020.

A COVID-19 outbreak occurred among Cameron Peak Fire responders in Colorado, USA, during August 2020–January 2021. The Cameron Peak Fire was the largest recorded wildfire in Colorado history, lasting August–December 2020. At least 6,123 responders were involved, including 1,260 firefighters in 63 crews who mobilized to the fire camps. A total of 79 COVID-19 cases were identified among responders, and 273 close contacts were quarantined. State and local public health investigated the outbreak and coordinated with wildfire management teams to prevent disease spread. We performed whole-genome sequencing and applied social network analysis to visualize clusters and transmission dynamics. Phylogenetic analysis identified 8 lineages among sequenced specimens, implying multiple introductions. Social network analysis identified spread between and within crews. Strategies such as implementing symptom screening and testing of arriving responders, educating responders about overlapping symptoms of smoke inhalation and COVID-19, improving physical distancing of crews, and encouraging vaccinations are recommended.

Supporting Wildfire Response During a Pandemic in the United States: the COVID-19 Incident Risk Assessment Tool

The onset of the global pandemic in 2020 significantly increased the complexity and uncertainty of wildfire incident response in the United States, and there was a clear role for decision support to inform and enhance coordination and communication efforts. Epidemiological modeling suggested the risk of COVID-19 outbreak at a traditional large fire camp could be substantial and supported the broadscale implementation of mitigations, and management of COVID-19 required expanding the response network to interface with entities such as local public health agencies, hospitals, and emergency operations centers. Despite the early issuance of medical and public health guidance to support wildfire management functions under a COVID-19 modified operating posture, an identified gap was a scale- and scope-appropriate tool to support incident-level assessment of COVID-19 risk. Here we review the development and application of a COVID-19 Incident Risk Assessment Tool intended to fill that gap. After prototyping with fire managers and risk practitioners, including early-season use on several incidents, we built an online dashboard that was used operationally throughout the 2020 fire season. We summarize usage statistics, provide some examples of real use on wildfire incidents, and report feedback from users. The tool helped to fill a critical information gap and was intended to support risk-informed decision-making regarding incident logistics, operations, and COVID-19 mitigations.

Notes from the Field: Understanding Smoke Exposure in Communities and Fire Camps Affected by Wildfires- California and Oregon, 2020.

Notes from the Field: Understanding Smoke Exposure in Communities and Fire Camps Affected by Wildfires- California and Oregon, 2020.

Potential COVID-19 Outbreak in Fire Camp: Modeling Scenarios and Interventions

The global COVID-19 pandemic will pose unique challenges to the management of wildland fire in 2020. Fire camps may provide an ideal setting for the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. However, intervention strategies can help minimize disease spread and reduce the risk to the firefighting community. We developed a COVID-19 epidemic model to highlight the risks posed by the disease during wildland fire incidents. Our model accounts for the transient nature of the population on a wildland fire incident, which poses unique risks to the management of communicable diseases in fire camps. We used the model to assess the impact of two types of interventions: the screening of a firefighter arriving on an incident, and social distancing measures. Our results suggest that both interventions are important to mitigate the risks posed by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, screening is relatively more effective on short incidents, whereas social distancing is relatively more effective during extended campaigns. We conclude with a discussion of model limitations and potential extensions to the model.

Total Energy Intake and Self-Selected Macronutrient Distribution During Wildland Fire Suppression

Wildland firefighters (WLFF) work long hours in extreme environments, resulting in high daily total energy expenditure. Increasing work-shift eating episodes and/or providing rations that promote convenient eating has shown augmented self-selected work output, as has regular carbohydrate (CHO) consumption. It remains unclear how current WLFF feeding strategies compare to more frequent nutrient delivery. Our aim was to determine WLFFs' self-selected field total energy intake (TEI), composition, and feeding patterns during wildland fire suppression shifts. WLFF were deployed to fire incidents across the United States throughout the 2018 fire season. Preshift food inventories collected at basecamp provided item-specific nutrient content (kilocalories, CHO, fat, protein). Work shift consumption (TEI, feeding frequency, episodic composition) was monitored in real time by field researchers on fireline via observational data capture using mobile tablets. Shift work output was also quantified via actigraph accelerometry. Eighty-six WLFF (27.5±6.4 y; 16 female, 70 male) worked 14.0±1.1 h shifts, with a TEI of 6.3±2.5 MJ (1494±592 kcal) (51±10, 37±9, 13±4% for CHO, fat, and protein, respectively). WLFF averaged 4.3±1.6 eating episodes (1.4±1.3 MJ [345±306 kcal] and 44±38 g CHO·episode-1). WLFF who consumed >20 kcal·kg-1 averaged less sedentary activity than those consuming <16 kcal·kg-1. Data are presented as mean±SD. Not including fire camp meals (breakfast, dinner), the present work-shift TEI approximates 33% of previously determined WLFF total energy expenditure and demonstrates that current WLFF consumption patterns may not deliver adequate nutrients for occupational demands.

Prisoners on the Fireline: The Application of Ethical Principles and Guidelines to Prison Fire Camps

Our society gives certain rights and protections to those who are punished and incarcerated, deeming them a vulnerable group in need of additional protections because they are under state control. Despite these protections, prisoners are still susceptible to mistreatment and abuse. This paper delves into one area in which prisoners are particularly vulnerable—the use of prison labor to fight wildfires in the western United States. In this paper, I first broadly discuss prison labor, before going into the current ethical principles and guidelines in the field of corrections that address the treatment of prisoners and prison labor. I argue that these principles and guidelines should be augmented to help those in corrections to make decisions about what is ethical; suggesting that how researchers evaluate proposed research projects could serve as a model for decision-making. I then introduce prison fire camps, considering whether they are ethical by research ethics principles, and suggesting how they can be changed to better reflect the values professed by our society.

Race in California's prison fire camps for men: prison politics, space, and the racialization of everyday life.

The vast majority of social scientists agree that race is "socially constructed." Yet many scholars of punishment and prisons still treat race as static, self-evident categories. One result is that not enough is known about the production, meanings, and consequences of race as experienced by prisoners and those who guard and manage them. The author's research on California's prison fire camps uncovers the micro-level ways in which race is performed and imbued with meaning; he reveals how racial understandings color people and settings. One puzzle is that prisoners in California's fire camps will fight natural disasters side by side, sharing water and provisions, but separate into racial groups when in the camp itself. In part to answer this (and in part to develop better understandings of race and prisons more generally), the author unpacks the variegated nature of punishment and the spatialization of race and advocates for research that is faithful to the constructivist framework.

A geo-information system approach for forest fire likelihood based on causative and anti-causative factors

Innumerable forest fire spread models exist for taking a decision, but far less focus is on the real causative factors which initiate/ignite fire in an area. It has been observed that the majority of the forest fires in India are initiated due to anthropogenic factors. In this study, we develop a geo-information system approach for management of forest fire in Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary, Tamil Nadu, India, with the objective to develop a forest fire likelihood model, integrating GIS and knowledge-based approach for predicting fire-sensitive initiation areas considering major causative and anti-causative factors. Amongst the various causative factors investigated, it was found that wildlife-dependent factor (antler collection and poaching) contributed significantly to fire occurrence followed by management-dependent factors (uncontrolled tourism and grazing), with much less influence of demographic factors. Similarly, anti-causative factor (stationing of anti-poaching/ fire camps) was considered as quite significant.The likelihood model so developed, envisaging various factors and flammability, accounted for different scenarios as a result of pair-wise comparison on an ordinal scale in a knowledge matrix. The inferential statistics computed indicated the robustness of the model and its insensitivity to moderate changes. It makes it possible for this forest fire likelihood model to predict and prevent a forest fire in an effective and scientific manner because it can assume forest fire likelihood in real time and present in proper time.

“Another Second Chance”

Many scholars and practitioners treat rehabilitation as a black box that, if working, necessarily outputs low(er) recidivism rates. In contrast, this article proposes a constructionist view that asks how those on the front lines of the “carceral archipelago” actually think about, and experience, rehabilitation. Here I examine California's prison fire camps, atypical carceral settings in which state prisoners work as wildland firefighters. The camps present a puzzle: how is it that there exists in California—routinely considered an extreme case in the shift toward warehouse prisons—a penal setting in which rehabilitation not only survives, but affects many aspects of everyday life for prisoners, staff, and administrators alike? The answer, I argue, is that despite some important historical continuities—especially around work and the twin impulses to reform and punish (cf. Garland 1985; Hutchinson 2006)—rehabilitation has evolved considerably. This includes a focus on an abstract notion of work ethic not dependent on the learning of concrete work skills, as well as a neoliberal discourse about personal responsibility. In sum, rehabilitation exists in the fire camps not in spite of the “punitive turn,” but in many ways precisely because of it. Implications include: (1) rehabilitation can be (and perhaps always is) more malleable and multifaceted than is often recognized; (2) the fire camps are simultaneously prisons and nonprisons, and those in them both inmates and heroes; and (3) punishment is a messy, variegated phenomenon in which the relationships between larger discourses and social structures and practices on the ground are dynamic and varied.

HERO AND INMATE: WORK, PRISONS, AND PUNISHMENT IN CALIFORNIA'S FIRE CAMPS

The debate over penal labor has been a vociferous one, as advocates and proponents have, for at least a century, made their case for or against the practice of putting prisoners to work. Nonetheless, conspicuously absent from this discussion have been the very people who most directly and intimately experience that work: prison inmates. In this article, I examine penal labor as it unfolds in one particular carceral site, namely California's prison fire camps in which state prisoners do manual labor and fight fires. The results reveal that binaries in which prison labor is positioned as either entirely good or entirely exploitative do not mesh well with the multifaceted experiences of those on the ground, who find elements of both at play. The fire camps are, therefore, an atypical case study that will hopefully serve as impetus for more research into the experiences of prisoner workers, as well as a starting point for deepening and complicating the existing debate over work and punishment.

Carboxyhemoglobin Values in Wildland Firefighters

Carbon Monoxide (CO) is known to be a potentially deadly gas. Headaches may occur at 5%-10% carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) saturation. Symptoms and dysfunction increase to 60% COHb saturation where coma and death are likely. Wildland firefighters (WLFF) are often exposed to CO in wildland fire smoke, from vehicle engine exhaust, generator exhaust, volatile fuels and small engines such as water pumps. PURPOSE: The purpose of this project was to obtain preliminary data on carboxyhemoglobin levels in WLFFs. METHODS: COHb was measured in 408 WLFF who reported either working in some smoke or near engine sources of CO. COHb data were collected both during wildland fire suppression and in fire camps. Information collected included duration and time of smoke exposure, "intensity" of smoke, cigarette smoking status and WLFF job. COHb data were corrected to a standard half life of 5 hours for measurements made post shift. RESULTS: WLFF who worked >10 hours in smoke had higher COHb levels than WLFF with shorter smoke exposures (4.3±4.7% vs. 2.5±1.9%, p<0.05). Workers who reported being near generators had higher COHb values (5.2±3.4%, p<0.05) than those working in wildfire smoke (2.6±2.0%) or those working near diesel trucks (2.2±1.8%). Working in heavy smoke resulted in higher COHb saturation than working in light smoke (5.2±4.8% vs. 2.8±1.9%, p<0.01). Field work around generators and diesel trucks resulted in modest COHb (2.7±2.1%) but Mark 4 pump operators had higher (p<0.05) COHb (6.2±3.0%). Only 6 of 408 individuals exceeded 10% COHb saturation. Smokers had overall higher levels of COHb than non smokers (3.8±2.5% vs. 2.3±1.6%, p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: WLFF averaged modest COHb saturation levels from wildfire smoke or engines but few were found to exceed even 10% COHb saturation. However, there is evidence that chronic low level CO exposure may have lasting health effects. The evidence from these data is inconclusive to state that CO exposure is a major problem in WLFF. However smoke conditions during the period of study were not extreme with only 12 subjects reporting working in heavy smoke for extended periods. We suggest further study to evaluate COHb saturation during extended work in heavy smoke as well as the cumulative effect that both tobacco smoking and firefighting might have on WLFF. (Values are COHb saturation ± std. deviation).

Continuous GPS Monitoring of Structural Deformation at Pacoima Dam, California

INTRODUCTION In September 1995, a system of three continuously operating GPS receivers was deployed to monitor the displacements of Pacoima Dam relative to a stable station nearby at Fire Camp 9 (2.5 km away). The dam has been monitored in near real-time for over two years through a joint effort of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the County of Los Angeles, making use of the network infrastructure of the Southern California Integrated GPS Network (SCIGN). This study demonstrates the feasibility of effective and timely monitoring of engineered structures using the Global Positioning System (GPS). In much the same way that strong-motion seismic recording instruments have made essential contributions to engineers' understanding of structural response to earthquake shaking, precise measurements of a structure's static displacements can indicate subtle damage that could be of concern for public safety. Conventional surveying methods have been used in the past to monitor static displacements...

Forest Fire Problems—A Progress Report

Forest and wildland fires in the United States of America destroy about 4 million acres annually, at an estimated direct cost of about $350 million. In the state of California alone, about 270,000 acres of timber, recreation, and watershed values are destroyed yearly. Under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, a research group at the Operations Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, has begun a program to study the application of operations research to forest fire control systems, this paper is a progress report on that program Problem areas that have been explored to date are (1) Initial attack planning, (2) man and equipment mobilization, (3) economics of detection systems, (4) fire camp organization, and (5) fire agency communications. Although it is still too early to provide definite recommendations in these areas, certain approaches appear very promising. One of the present limitations to OR studies is a lack of fundamental knowledge about (1). The macro-physical behavior of fire, and (2) the effect of varying suppression tactics upon this behavior. Nevertheless, the problems of forest fire control provide an exciting and worthwhile area for future research.