Rim Fire: Emergency Stabilization-Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) #CaFire

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Rim Fire: Emergency Stabilization-Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) #CaFire

THREE PHASES OF WILDFIRE REHABILITATION

There are three phases of rehabilitation following wildfires on federal lands:

Fire Suppression Repair

Emergency Stabilization-Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER)

Long-Term Recovery and Restoration

Fire Suppression Repair is a series of immediate post-fire actions taken to repair damages and minimize potential soil erosion and impacts resulting from fire suppression activities and usually begins before the fire is contained and before the demobilization of an Incident Management Team. This work repairs the hand and dozer fire lines roads trails staging areas safety zones and drop points used during fire suppression efforts.

Emergency Stabilization-Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) is a rapid assessment of burned watersheds by a BAER team to identify imminent post-wildfire threats to human life and safety property and critical natural or cultural resources on National Forest System lands and take immediate actions to implement emergency stabilization measures before the first major storms. Fires result in loss of vegetation exposure of soil to erosion and increased water runoff that may lead to flooding increased sediment debris flows and damage to critical natural and cultural resources. BAER actions such as: seeding mulching installation of erosion and water run-off control structures temporary barriers to protect recovering areas and installation of warning signs may be implemented. BAER work may also replace safety related facilities; remove safety hazards; prevent permanent loss of habitat for threatened and endangered species; and prevent the spread of noxious weeds and protect critical cultural resources.

Long-Term Recovery and Restoration utilizes non-emergency actions to improve fire-damaged lands that are unlikely to recover naturally and to repair or replace facilities damaged by the fire that are not critical to life and safety. This phase may include restoring burned habitat reforestation other planting or seeding monitoring fire effects replacing burned fences interpreting cultural sites treating noxious weed infestations and installing interpretive signs.

---------------------------------------------

CFN - California Fire News 2013

No comments:

How fires get their names

Every year in California thousands of wildfires start throughout the state. In most cases, the dispatch center sending the initial resources to a wildland fire will designate a name for the fire, but the first on scene engine or fire official can also name the incident. Fires are usually named for the area in which they start – a geographical location, local landmark, street, lake, mountain, peak, etc. Quickly naming the fire provides responding fire resources with an additional locater, and allows fire officials to track and prioritize incidents by name. For example during the Southern California Fire Siege of 2003, the largest wildland fire in California history, the Cedar Fire in San Diego County, was named after the Cedar Creek Falls area where it started. The destructive Old Fire, which burned during the same time period in San Bernardino County, was named after the road along which it started - Old Waterman Canyon Road.

CAL FIRE is the largest fire department in California and the second largest fire department in the United States. CDF - CAL FIRE Firefighters answer the call more than 300,000 times a year. CAL FIRE Firefighters make up the fire department for 30 of our 58 counties in California and more than 100 local communities. We serve as the incident command during many of California’s most serious disasters. CAL FIRE Firefighters respond to many various types and forms of calls ranging from structural fires, to auto accidents, to earthquakes, to floods, to the spilling of hazardous materials, to every conceivable disaster; CAL FIRE answer's the calls. CAL FIRE is the largest fire department in California and the second largest fire department in the United States . CAL FIRE firefighters protect 33 million acres of State Responsibility Area (SRA). We have over 4,000 members within CAL FIRE and CAL FIRE is associated with the California Professional Firefighters (CPF) and the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF).

CFN - CALIFORNIA FIRE NEWS - CAL FIRE NEWS

Saturday, September 7, 2013