Lessons Learned from the Erskine Fire (Lake Isabella CA) - in Kern County based on info from the Internet
my map of fire stations in Kern County - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1onXeAxZCJHgD5wBv95zI_gf54Dc&usp=sharing I am pretty sure that all Kern County Fire Department fire stations are staffed by 3 people 24/7/365. They work 24 hours on - 48 hours off. There are no paid on call nor volunteer firefighters. Each Kern County FD station has a Type 1 or Type 2 structural pumper; plus a type 4 brush fire truck (maybe with a 300 gallon tank of water). [As of 2015 the Kern County FD has 45 type 4 engines, 15 type 3 engines, 15 type 2 X engines, and 36 type 1 engines (per 2015 County Fire Plan).] All areas have been preplanned. They have maps showing what size fire trucks can fit on which roads - and the maps show the locations of water supplies. Apparently each neighborhood does have hydrants or water tanks of various sizes (maybe an average 5,000 gallon water tank). Kern County FD first response / first alarm to the Erskine Fire (travel times apply to cars - not sure if fire trucks would be appreciably different) Eng 72 + Patrol 72 from Lake Isabella Station - 13 minutes 8.3 miles to Kern Valley Hospital Eng 336 from Glenville - type 3 engine apparently - 66 minutes 34 miles to Kern Valley Hosp Eng 371 - from South Lake Station - 5 minutes 3.4 miles to Kern Valley Hospital Eng 376 and Patrol 76 from Kernville Station - 30 minutes 18.4 miles to Kern Valley Hospital Patrol 78 from Caliente Station via Havilah - 57 minutes - 34.1 miles to Kern Valley Hosp Watertender 11 from Keene - 72 minutes 62 miles via Edison BC4 BC7 Crew 10 Crew 11 Dozer 3 Dozer 5 Copter 407 Safety 3 First alarm from the Sequoia National Forest might have been - 13 E 5 - ? 3115 - ? BC42 BE1 - ? hand crew COB 5 + COB 6 - ? hand crews DIV 4 Dozer 3130 - ???? Eng 43 from Kernville - 30 minutes 16.3 miles to Kern Valley Hosp Eng 45 from Havilah Sta - 27 minutes 16.6 miles to Kern Valley Hosp Eng 46 from Democrat Sta - 38 minutes - 23.1 miles 25 to Kern Valley Hosp Patrol 49 - ???? SCRIP 1 WT 3191 - ???? maybe a large helo (Type 1) maybe a medium helo from Kernville maybe 2 airtankers from somewhere --------------------------- further data points 42 miles from Kern Valley Hosp to Kern Co FD Sta 73 in InyoKern 21 minutes - 18.4 miles from Kern Valley Hosp to South Fork BLM Fire Sta at Canebake 20 minutes - 13.4 miles from Wofford Heights fire engine shed to Kern Valley Hosp 34 minutes 20.4 miles from Alta Sierra to Kern Valley Hosp - maybe there is USFS Eng and County Ty 6 engine there 6.5 miles as the crow flies from Kernville Helibase to Kern Valley Hosp 14 miles as the crow flies from Rte 178 helo (?Copter 407) to Kern Valley Hosp 34 miles as the crow flies from Peppermint Helibase in Tulare County to Kern Valley Hosp (2012 Kern River Valley Fire Plan requested to upgrade the Kernville Helo from Type 2 to Type 1 - unknown if that was done) maybe 50 miles from Sequoia NF French Mdws E47 to kern Valley Hosp =========================== note - USFS engines have crews of 5 people - their stations probably have bunkrooms where people can sleep overnight if they choose to do so note - hand crews have 10 to 20 people each note - helicopters have crews of 5 to 10 people IIRC - they also can drop water ============================== My only thoughts are - we dont know how many reserve rigs are in the area we dont know if any off duty County FD staff carry pagers we dont know if any units have Class A foam we dont know if the helos fly loaded with water we dont know if any of the units have portable pumps to get water out of tanks, cisterns, swimming pools, etc in theory, it Kern County Fd has 3 people in each station, they could take 3 rigs to every fire call - 1 person per vehicle in theory, if USFS staffs their patrols with 1 person, and their engines with 5 people, they could convert all 6 people to three engines with 2 people each or 6 engines with 1 person each A 20 person hand crew could be converted to twenty one man engines -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "massfire" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/massfire. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
