Chief's Monthly Report
Fire Department
Monthly Progress Report
West Valley Fire Department
Yakima County Fire District 12
For the Meeting of August 10, 2010
Agenda Topic: Department Monthly Progress Report
Prepared By: Chief Dave Leitch
Date Prepared: August 9, 2010
The primary purpose of this report is to keep the Board of Fire Commissioners informed as to the activities and progress on major programs or objectives. The items listed, as near as possible, are in priority order. As a second purpose, this report will be shared with the Officers management Team and all fire personnel to keep them informed as well.
Operations:
July was an extremely busy month for alarms and personnel hours. This was also the first month that station 1 personnel and equipment responded from their new station and the auto-aid agreement with Yakima Fire was no longer in effect.
The largest incident was the Cowiche Mill Road Fire that started July 18 in Fire District 1 (Highland). This fire is still under investigation by the County Fire Marshall’s Office. It burned most of Cowiche Mountain for a total of 6,200 acres. The fire crested the mountain top around 1620hours and made a significant run across no-man’s land then into our Fire District. A warm day with high winds contributed to the rapid spread of fire both upslope and down slope. Attached to this report is a list of equipment that was on the fire during the peak of the fire activity. Land ownership was very mixed; the majority of ownership included; BLM 206 acres, Cowiche Conservancy 1,496 acres, DNR School Trust 624 acres, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife 1,131 acres and 2,372 acres in private land. There was approximately eighteen miles of fire line on this fire.
Assistance from the State’s Fire Mobilization Plan was granted two and ½ hours into the incident. An Type III Incident Management Team was brought in from the Tri-Cities to manage the fire from June 19 at 0700 hours until June 21 at 1400 hours. The majority of cost to suppress this fire will be covered under the Mobilization Plan. We anticipate some funding from the BLM and DNR on the land rehabilitation work. The Fire District will have cost associated with the first two and ½ hours of equipment and personnel, which will include aircraft.
There were three injuries on this fire; though minor injuries, it was an extremely serious incident that took place as the fire slammed into the residential areas on the south fire line. All three were treated and released from YVMH. The engine they were riding in was overcome with smoke and fire while exiting from a structure. It was a long driveway against unburned fuels, when the fire hit. The visibility of the road was lost due to the fire and heavy smoke. The truck went off the roadway and settled in tall sage brush on the right side on the uphill side of the driveway. All three firefighters made a hasty retreat out of the cab by exiting out of the driver’s door. They then ran south down to a mowed field where there was sparse to light fuels. They were then immediately picked up and taken out of the area.
The 1994 Central States pumper came to rest in and on a large group of tall sage brush that was on fire. That fire and the wind driven heat and flames from the adjoining fuels contributed to the total consumption of WV engine 31. Until such time as we can purchase a new Engine 31, arrangements have been made with the Highland Fire Department to lease a 2004 Central States Engine. This engine is very similar to what we currently operate in the District.
An independent investigation was conducted by the Tri-Cities IMT on the burn over and loss of Engine 31. That report is now being made available to those involved. The Fire District staff is reviewing the report and over the next several months will make changes or recommendations based on the investigation report. A “Lessons Learned” class will be produced and shared with all personnel in the Fire District. On August 5 an After Action Review (AAR) was conducted with all West Valley personnel. On August 12 an AAR will be conducted with all of Yakima Counties Chief Fire Officer’s and command staff from the responding mutual aid agencies.
The Fourth of July was relatively quiet with only a few calls during the weekend. Two of those calls were the direct result of fireworks. We also had a lightning strike fire that resulted in a couple of acres burned off the end of Tieton Drive.
JUNE 2010 2009
Total incidents in District 85 85
Station 1 20 22
Station 2 28 33
Station 3 23 15
Station 4 7 7
Station 5 6 0
Yakima 0 7
Union Gap 1 1
Y-T-D 370 449
Automatic Aid Received: 2010 2009
From Yakima 0 1
From Union Gap 2 1
Y-T-D 19 13
Automatic Aid Given: 2010 2009
To Yakima 0 9
To Union Gap 2 2
Y-T-D 27 58
Mutual Aid Received: 2010 2009
July 1 2
Y-T-D 1 3
Mutual Aid Given: 2010 2009
July 8 10 Y-T-D 11 16
Inter-local:
Progress has been made with the Highland Fire Department this past month. All of the West Valley officers met with the Highland Fire officers to discuss the MOU between the two agencies. The meeting was well received by all of those in attendance. As stated above we are leasing an engine that the Highland Board has made available to us. Our AAR with the county responders will be done jointly hosted by West Valley and Highland.
No progress to date with Union Gap Fire Department. Both chiefs have had brief conversations but nothing formally between the two or with the consultant Bob Merritt.
As stated above the agreement between the City of Yakima and the Fire District is no longer in effect for automatic aid. All operations are normal for station one. The crews have been doing a good job responding to calls, including the ones to areas in which they did not respond to before. Likewise, Yakima is not responding into the Fire District. This past month we both had a few calls each that required mutual aid to assist each other.
Personnel:
We have dropped two personnel from the Department from lack of participation. One left due to work and another moved out of the Fire District. We will have a few more leaving at the end of summer to pursue further schooling.
Training: by Lt Jim Lange
In July our drills covered, SCBA quarterlies with our station drill/equipment check, drafting all apparatus and portable pumps, the Round Table with James Rowan for our firefighters and officers, rehabilitation evolutions, the annual firefighter BBQ and games night and we finished the hose testing at Station 2.
We were also busy with fires, that we will be using information from, in our on-going pursuit to be better trained.
August will bring a full drill schedule of an After Action Review of the Cowiche Mill Fire and our yearly required driver training. The new recruits will also be starting their recruit school. They will start with a CPR/First Aid class and progress into accountability, communications, PPE and SCBA training, and end with a drill ground day of ladders and ventilation.
Logistics: by Captain Darin Deccio
This month has been very productive, we received the new turnouts budgeted for this year, and I have started handing them out to the firefighters. The old turnouts returned that are still in service will be going to the new recruits. We were short on some PPE for the new folks, I ordered it and will be handing it out as well.
The interagency crew will be starting on painting the rest of station 2, and some touch up painting at station 3. Flow testing of the fire hydrants on the Yakima Tieton system will also start this month. Some of the projects have been put off due to the Cowiche Mill Road fire and a few DNR fires they have responded to.
I have requested quotes from several vendors for pricing on equipment lost on the fire engine. The insurance company is waiting for this in order to cut a check. We have received the check from VFIS on the engine for what we had it insured for.
Chief Leitch is working on a purchase proposal for an enclosed cargo trailer. This trailer was proposed last year but we did not act on it. The trailer would be used as a cache for all of our extra wildland equipment. Most of the equipment has been purchased with BIA grant funds over the past two years. We had asked for funding last year and again this year from the BIA grant system for the purchase of the cache trailer but have not been successful. Currently we have a need to get this equipment in a trailer so it is much easier to get out to a fire scene.
Last month the Board authorized Chief Leitch to purchase a used fire apparatus. The one we were interested in was the City of Tieton engine that was declared surplus by the City. The Highland Fire Department decided to purchase the truck after all from Tieton City and offered them $165,000. They in turn knew we needed a first out engine ASAP and have made it available for us until we can purchase a new engine to replace WV engine 31.
Public Education: by Captain Christy Boisselle
July’s focus was addressing. August’s focus is again going to touch on defensible space, striking while the iron is hot from the Cowiche Mill Fire. The outside Information Boards will be updated with defensible space information. I am currently working with the Yakima Herald on putting something together on defensible space, even if you DON’T live in the mountains.
We are in the process of hiring our next Ameri-Corp member. Their anticipated start date is October 1, 2010.
I had the opportunity to work with the Type III team during the Cowiche Mill Fire as a PIO. This was a great opportunity, almost like getting thrown to the wolves. The phone rang non-stop for two straight days, interviews were given to major TV and radio stations, as well as our local stations.
Good of the Order:
This was a very busy month for West Valley Fire. With one of our biggest wildland fires in many years now behind us, we continue to pick up the loose ends. Over 50 structures ended up inside the fire or along the fire perimeter. Another 50 to 75 were outside of the fire line, but were in danger if the fire was not stopped. There was a lot of moving parts on this incident in a very short and compressed time frame. Our firefighters rose to the occasion from start to finish, they were there when needed. Not one family lost their home in this fire that lasted for 3 days.
There will be many lingering effects from this incident for a long time. We will work through the tough issues and learn from our mistakes. My promise to the Board and to the firefighter’s is to learn from our mistakes, improve in our efficiencies and continue to be a leader in the Fire Service.
We are very fortunate to have so many hard working, well outfitted and dedicated firefighters in our organization. Our Department’s involvement in many local, regional and state fire programs is what made the difference on this fire; from the initial call for additional resources, management personnel, and use of aircraft, cost sharing and “Lessons Learned”. It is unfortunate that we lost a fire engine on this fire, we are very fortunate that it was only a fire engine. The public we serve have been very appreciative of our efforts; I think we have earned their trust and support after an incident of this magnitude.
Respectfully submitted,
Dave Leitch, Fire Chief
Resources Committed to Initial Attack from Sunday July 18th 1336 hours until Monday July 19th 0900 hours.
Command 12
Brush Engines 22
Tenders 5
Structure Engines 16
Ambulances 3
Utility 2
Dozers 5
Helicopters 4 Type II (. 150 to 250 gallon bucket), 1 type I (1000 gallon bucket)
Air Tankers 1 based out of Moses Lake, 1 out of Redmond, OR 7 loads total from MLTB
Air Attack Platform 1 out of Wenatchee
Lead Plane 1 out of Oregon
Rehab Units 3
State Mobilization “Hasty Mob” 1 strike team each from Benton, Klickitat and Kittitas (15 units)
Hand Crew 1 (20 person Ahtanum Crew)
YSO, WSP, Yakima Dept of Emergency Management, County Public Works, County Drug Task Force, Red Cross, Search and Rescue.
Just over 200 people in the IA effort.
Estimated Total cost: $880,000
