Email

Print

And so there are presently five major fires - and many smaller ones - presently burning in the Pine Ridge. We went to the fire frontline today with the Forestry Department. Jules Vasquez returned a short time ago.

Jules Vasquez Reporting:

This is the frontline of the forest fire in the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve - except this isn't nature's fire.

Jules Vasquez
"If you've ever heard the phrase, 'fighting fire with fire' , this is it as the Forestry Department is setting these huge fires so that this area doesn't become fuel for larger forest fires."

It is a huge and intensely hot fire but part of managing the blaze, this forestry department employee is the one literally fuelling it.

His job is to lead it right here to this creek - where it will naturally terminate - which is bad news for this snake as it swims to the other side for safety

If it doesn't seem to make sense - this fighting fire with fire - it does, Ruiz explains why:

Jules Vasquez
"What was the approach? What went into making that decision to burn it at that particular place?"

Domingo Ruiz - Forester, Mountain Pine Ridge
"Well there was an anchor point which was the creek. That was a safe point so, we just burnt it to the creek, because it is very dangerous to leave unburnt fuel behind, because you might be busy on the other end of the fire and this fire would just cross, so it's better to avoid - take out all the unburnt material- and then you can concentrate on one side of the fire."

Buy fuel he means the dry, unburnt forest - which is a hazard when there's fire all around.

And that's what we saw today from the vantage point of the area known as skyline it looks like the whole Pine Ridge is on fire, but this is what is known as the small basin - where the fire as big as it seems is not a great worry: no threat to property and the forest needs fire for natural regeneration. This is another vantage of those fires, big but not out of control and not anywhere they don't want it to be.

And to make sure the fire doesn't jump across to an area they are trying to protect, in the forest they don't use fire trucks - they use a bulldozer and a loader - these are what cut the fire trails - that terminate the fires.

Domingo Ruiz is in charge of managing multiple fires across the hundred thousand acre Pine Ridge Forest Reserve. The Forest Department has it sectioned off into 48 compartments and sub-compartments accessed by 398 miles of roads and trails.

He zips around those almost 400 miles of road that he knows like the back of his hand on an ATV - constantly monitoring the larger fires

Marcello Windsor - Deputy Chief Forest Officer
"As we regularly seen today, there are five different fires. Some of them actually joined, becoming larger fires, and some of these - we've actually had some scheduled prescribed burns to be carried out. Unfortunately, those prescribed burns did not happen when we had the right windows of opportunity, but they're happening now and the results so far, as we have actually analyzed, are very good."

The big fires come in 5 year cycles and so far 2011 is fairly fierce:

Wilbur Sabido - Chief Forest Officer
"It is one of the more severe ones since the past five years. If you recall, in 2006 we had a similar fire season where we had severe fires. In that particular area, if I recall correctly, over 50% of the Mountain Pine Ridge burnt. In this particular instance, we're estimating about 29,000 - 30, 000 acres - burnt already."

Jules Vasquez
"Which represents about what percentage?"

Wilbur Sabido
"Which represents about a third of the Mountain Pine Ride. While we may have fires that are occurring in the Mountain Pine Ridge that we may strategically choose not to intervene and try to control them - because we feel that because of the management objectives that we have for that particular area - the fire is best left to continue it's natural course. But at the same time, there are fires which we cannot control, but we try to suppress and contain. But then there are fires that we can attack directly, and because they are in critical and sensitive areas, we do prioritize and center our efforts, both human and machinery- wise, to try and contain those fires and put them out."

But some say they haven't been vigilant enough:

Jules Vasquez
"How do you respond to a criticism that in fact, you all haven't been doing interventions - enough underbrush burning - in the non- dry season, and that has led to a particularly ferocious fire season."

Marcello Windsor
"Well, it all depends on your point of view. As I said, we had scheduled prescribed burns to be carry out; we didn't carry them out on a timely basis, but this opportunity has availed itself."

But most folks think that where there is smoke - and that's everywhere in Pine Ridge - there's fire:

Marcello Windsor
"To people who perhaps don't know about fires or don't have this appreciation of fires, it might be a little frightening, I should say. and a visitor to the Mountain Pine Ridge, when they see smoke all over the place, you get frightened or something, and then - maybe that's the reason why this comment came by."

And while there are comments, Ruiz ays they have their priorities lined up:

Domingo Ruiz
"Well we have, I would say, about 80% control. I wouldn't say full control of the fires because it looked dormant for a while, but in the afternoon when the humidity really goes low and the temperatures rise, fire spreads from different areas. Then again, you have to prioritize all over because you might have one the north- end side and another one on the east. So you have to prioritize what to do next."

And join us again tomorrow night for part 2 of that story, when we'll look deeper in the forest fires of 2011 and ask the forest department what went wrong that made Blancaneux almost burn.