Aurora, CO Brush Fire 5/2/14

[Guest]

This afternoon Aurora Engine 10 was dispatched to a brush fire in the 3300 block of South Flanders Street.  With multiple 911 calls a Brush Truck was added to the response.  As Battalion Chief 3 was leaving a firehouse several miles away he could see smoke in the air and requested a wildland fire response.  Engine 10 made access down a trail and pulled an attack line.

 

About an acre had already burned when I arrived...

   

 

 

[Guest]

Second due Engine 9 laid a 2 1/2" from a hydrant to supply Engine 10.

   

[Guest]

Brush 9 setting up for fire attack

   

[Guest]

Brush 9 making a direct attack

   

[Guest]

   

[Guest]

Engine 10 pulling line

   

[Guest]

Engine 10 hitting hot spots.  Battalion Chief 2 was assigned as the South Division Supervisor with Engine 6 & Tower 6 who were set up for structure protection if needed.  They can be seen in the background.

   

 

 

[Guest]

"MED 2" EMS & Rehab Supervisor and "Battalion Chief 3" Incident Commander

   

[Guest]

Low bridge... Brush 13 arriving on the trial

   

[Guest]

Battalion 2 & Company 6 on the South Division

   

[Guest]

Engine 9's Engineer hitting a hot spot

   

[Guest]

Last one with the wildland team mopping up.

   

[gmuhr]

Great photos!

[hank]

Good photos!

 

tHANKs

[Aaronw]

You may not be able to answer this, but with a reported brush fire why such a delay in getting a wildland response?

 

Around here a reported fire (car, structure etc) with just a threat of wildland will get a full wildland response in addition to the appropriate response to handle the reported call. 

 

I think your photos demonstrate quite well why we do that.

[Guest]

You may not be able to answer this, but with a reported brush fire why such a delay in getting a wildland response?

 

Around here a reported fire (car, structure etc) with just a threat of wildland will get a full wildland response in addition to the appropriate response to handle the reported call. 

 

I think your photos demonstrate quite well why we do that.

You're absolutely correct Aaron.  AFD sends very light responses to most fire incidents, especially wildland.  A vegetation fire no mater the size or location gets 1 Engine and usually 1 Brush Truck.  Surprisingly they only have two dozen members who are wildland qualified and very few firefighters have wildland PPE. 

 

It's an issue that is being addressed internally and hopefully they'll have some improvements soon.  Any type of structure fire even with multiple reports only gets 2 Battalions, 2 Engines & 2 Trucks... 16 Firefighters and 2 Chiefs.  An Aurora 2nd Alarm is equivalent to most other departments working fire response.

[Aaronw]

With Colorado's wildfire history I was surprised to see so much structural firefighting gear on a fire this size. I thought maybe the time of season / green grass had lulled the initial response.

 

Thanks for your answer, sounds like an individual department issue rather than a larger mindset.

 

 

Earlier in my career I've had the misfortune to fight some brush fires in structural turnout gear, talk about the wrong tool for the job. Pretty miserable even on a small grass fire.

[Guest]

With Colorado's wildfire history I was surprised to see so much structural firefighting gear on a fire this size. I thought maybe the time of season / green grass had lulled the initial response.

 

Thanks for your answer, sounds like an individual department issue rather than a larger mindset.

 

 

Earlier in my career I've had the misfortune to fight some brush fires in structural turnout gear, talk about the wrong tool for the job. Pretty miserable even on a small grass fire.

 

I hear ya, nothing worse than structural PPE on a wildland incident.  We have a few departments that cover mostly urban / suburban areas and don't have regular vegetation fires that one engine can't access or handle solo.  Those departments are the ones that don't issue wildland PPE, have single jacket wildland hose or progressive lays etc. 

 

There are other departments who boarder them that have a more significant wildland problem and send the world when a legit vegetation fire comes in.  We just did a historic strike team drill over the weekend and our I-25 cooridor departments are becoming much better and mutual aid and wildland I/A.  During the Waldo Canyon Fire a strike team of Type 1 Engine's from Denver was one of the first to arrive in Colorado Springs 2 hours away to help with the interface conflagration.