2025 Wildland Fire RT-130

Nebraska Forest Service Author

02/11/2025 Added

247 Plays

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The RT-130 Wildland Fire Safety Training Annual Refresher is meant to help firefighters stay focused on safety, decision-making, and risk reduction while working on wildfires. It reinforces safe practices and helps prevent accidents. This training is required for certain positions to stay qualified, for anyone with fireline duties, and for those assigned to the fireline for non-firefighting tasks.

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[00:00:00.000]Justin Nicholas: Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the 2025 Nebraska Forest Service RT-130 virtual version. My name is Justin Nicholas. I'm a fire management specialist with the Nebraska Forest Service out of the north central area.
[00:00:14.000]A couple of my coworkers will introduce themselves later in the presentation. Just to remind everybody, if you complete this online training, you'll still need to get a sheltered appointment and make sure that you have agency approval that this meets your requirements for the annual training.
[00:00:36.000]Moving on.
[00:00:41.000]So this is the agenda for the year.
[00:00:43.000]We're going to talk about
[00:00:44.000]the annual Nebraska seat report.
[00:00:46.000]Some of the fires that happened around the state of notable mention.
[00:00:51.000]We'll cover the national summary of lessons learned and we'll go into the 2025 early outlook for the spring and early summer fire season.
[00:01:00.000]And the big topic for the season is the UTV ATV safety.
[00:01:05.000]And then again, just make sure that if you complete this training, you'll still need to get with one of us or someone that has a
[00:01:13.000]practice shelter so that we can get that logged in your training file.
[00:01:21.000]So for the year 2024, we completed 84 total sorties for a total of 89, just under 90 hours of flight time.
[00:01:33.000]Seat was on contract for 116 days and for the second time in the history of the program,
[00:01:40.000]we had no proficiency test.
[00:01:42.000]No proficiency flights conducted due to activity.
[00:01:47.000]So I would say it was a little bit above average year, at least for the seat.
[00:01:51.000]We stayed busy for the full 116 days, but certainly not a record breaking season by any means.
[00:01:59.000]So started out, brought it on in the standard July timeframe and pretty much went straight to work and stayed consistent throughout the season.
[00:02:11.000]A few of the larger fires you can see at the bottom of the screen were fires that we included additional aircraft from South Dakota and Colorado to help assist with.
[00:02:25.000]And we also provided a significant amount of support for Wyoming.
[00:02:31.000]They had a pretty busy season on their eastern side, so we helped support some of the larger fires there.
[00:02:40.000]Eric?
[00:02:45.000]All right.
[00:02:46.000]My name is Eric Mall.
[00:02:47.000]I'm a fire management specialist with the Nebraska Forest Service out of the southwest portion.
[00:02:52.000]And I'm going to kind of talk about one of the significant fires that we had the first part of February or the first of the year.
[00:03:03.000]This is the Betty's Way fire.
[00:03:05.000]It was in North Platte, Nebraska, Lincoln County.
[00:03:09.000]The fire started on the 26th of February, and the cause was a brush mower.
[00:03:17.000]They burnt 71,000 acres that day within the first 24 hours.
[00:03:23.000]Had multiple departments.
[00:03:26.000]We activated the Type 3 incident management team in the state.
[00:03:31.000]We originally got the wildland incident response assistance team on the ground first before the Type 3 team.
[00:03:38.000]The Y-RAT team.
[00:03:41.000]We utilized the National Guard hand crew and helicopters, state resources, local VFDs, and the state resources and local VFDs were also part of their established strike teams that were in the state.
[00:03:56.000]And then we had a lot of local emergency managers.
[00:04:00.000]That incident lasted about three days.
[00:04:04.000]Had multiple challenges.
[00:04:06.000]We lost quite a few structures.
[00:04:07.000]So that was kind of the start of 2024's fire season.
[00:04:14.000]Next slide.
[00:04:18.000]Jacob Pittman, fire management specialist, Nebraska Forest Service.
[00:04:24.000]I'm based out of the Panhandle.
[00:04:26.000]I'm going to be talking about the shift fire.
[00:04:29.000]It was about 20 miles southwest of Alliance.
[00:04:32.000]It was in Box Butte, Morrill County.
[00:04:35.000]Started June 19th.
[00:04:36.000]The cause was either from power line or somebody driving down the road.
[00:04:48.000]They weren't for sure.
[00:04:50.000]Total acres were 6,576.
[00:04:55.000]We had the local EMs there, local VFDs, YRAT, aerial resources, aerial applicators in the Lapp, Colorado.
[00:05:05.000]The aerial applicator was doing pretty good.
[00:05:08.000]He was down from the south part of Nebraska.
[00:05:13.000]The Lapp came from Grand Junction, Colorado.
[00:05:25.000]All right.
[00:05:26.000]And then to kind of, well, I would say maybe sum up a little bit or closer to the end of 2024.
[00:05:34.000]Everybody remembers we kind of had a large wind event come through middle of December on the 19th that ignited multiple fires across northeast Nebraska and central Nebraska.
[00:05:48.000]One of the notable fires there was the Round Valley Road fire.
[00:05:52.000]Started in Custer County, just east northeast of Broken Bow.
[00:05:57.000]Started in the early afternoon hours of the 19th.
[00:06:03.000]And was, forward progress was roughly stopped around 8:00 p.m. the same night.
[00:06:10.000]Burned 2,800 acres.
[00:06:12.000]It was primarily grass, some timber stringers, some drainages.
[00:06:16.000]There was three buildings destroyed.
[00:06:18.000]Thankfully they were all abandoned old homestead that was in the path of the fire.
[00:06:25.000]Two primary residents were threatened.
[00:06:28.000]One, the fire did burn through the property.
[00:06:32.000]But thankfully didn't damage any of the primary structures or outbuildings.
[00:06:38.000]It consumed a lot of post piles and some other debris that was scattered across the property.
[00:06:44.000]But none of the primary structures were damaged.
[00:06:48.000]The second one was a small modular home in a detached garage that was threatened.
[00:06:57.000]But firefighters and departments did a really good job of keeping the fire away
[00:07:01.000]from that structure there.
[00:07:04.000]The cause of the Round Valley Road fire was proposed to be vehicle exhaust
[00:07:10.000]off of Round Valley Road.
[00:07:13.000]And unfortunately, we did see one fatality.
[00:07:16.000]It was a private landowner on an ATV that lost his life on that particular incident.
[00:07:24.000]What he was doing particularly is still somewhat sort of unknown.
[00:07:30.000]The thought is that he was out helping neighbors try to get cattle out of the path of the fire.
[00:07:37.000]But no real certainty as to what he was doing, exactly where he was at there.
[00:07:44.000]So local VFDs, mutual aids were ordered, emergency managers were on site
[00:07:50.000]helping with incident command support.
[00:07:55.000]Y-RAT team, as Eric had mentioned, on Betty's Way,
[00:07:59.000]the wildfire assistance team was also utilized.
[00:08:03.000]Due to high winds, time of day and all that stuff,
[00:08:06.000]time of year aircraft was not available.
[00:08:10.000]So unfortunately didn't have that.
[00:08:12.000]I will kind of go back to the high wind event that happened,
[00:08:16.000]and I think there's a little conversation that could be had there.
[00:08:19.000]I know that there's a lot of conversation going around
[00:08:23.000]because of the conditions and specifically the winds
[00:08:26.000]that were forecasted for that timeframe.
[00:08:28.000]The National Weather Service was considering issuing
[00:08:32.000]red flag warnings prior to the wind event,
[00:08:40.000]but given time of year, fuels being dormant,
[00:08:44.000]there's no real criteria that matches that time of year.
[00:08:50.000]And so moving forward, they're pushing the message
[00:08:54.000]of maybe critical fire weather days.
[00:08:57.000]I'm not sure what conversations were had out across the state
[00:09:01.000]and in departments during that timeframe,
[00:09:04.000]but I know after the fact, there's been several conversations
[00:09:09.000]that have been brought up about the benefit of issuing
[00:09:13.000]critical fire weather warnings and specifically red flags
[00:09:17.000]outside of a typical fire weather scenario.
[00:09:20.000]So things to think about in regards to that fire.
[00:09:26.000]Okay, moving forward, a lot of what we do with the refresher
[00:09:37.000]is we pull a lot from the Lessons Learned website,
[00:09:41.000]and these are case studies that will possibly help people
[00:09:48.000]to look at what happened on those incidents
[00:09:51.000]so that we can help better protect our firefighters
[00:09:55.000]while we're out there.
[00:09:57.000]And so basically what we're going to do now
[00:10:00.000]is we're going to go through what happened nationally
[00:10:03.000]on all the incidents that were reported throughout the nation.
[00:10:08.000]Next slide.
[00:10:11.000]All right, so last year in 2024, we had 11 fatalities.
[00:10:16.000]Six of those were medical, three from aviation
[00:10:19.000]that we'll get into here a little later, one hit by tree,
[00:10:24.000]one driving incident that resulted in a fatality with a UTV.
[00:10:31.000]Next slide.
[00:10:33.000]All right, so this is what we've had as far as accidents
[00:10:37.000]and incidents within the United States.
[00:10:40.000]So last year, with heavy equipment incidents,
[00:10:44.000]we had eight total, four rollovers, two equipment fires,
[00:10:49.000]one fire ignition, and one close call.
[00:10:53.000]And then burn injuries, we had 10 that were reported,
[00:10:58.000]four drip torches, four ash pit, one direct flame,
[00:11:02.000]and one fuel ignition.
[00:11:04.000]And we'll get into that one here a little later.
[00:11:09.000]Next.
[00:11:12.000]We had 13 entrapment incidents, seven initial attack,
[00:11:16.000]three extended attack, and three during prescribed fire incidents.
[00:11:22.000]A lot of times the reason why the initial attacks are so much higher
[00:11:26.000]for entrapment incidents is because we're not taking the time
[00:11:30.000]to actually properly size up the fire.
[00:11:34.000]A lot of it is windshield size up because we're constantly going,
[00:11:39.000]and sometimes that can limit people's situational awareness.
[00:11:44.000]The thing with three extended attack, that typically happens
[00:11:48.000]because of complacency.
[00:11:51.000]And then prescribed fire incidents with those three,
[00:11:54.000]a lot of times there's a misconception that there's a difference
[00:11:58.000]between wildfire and prescribed fire.
[00:12:01.000]The common denominator in that one is the word fire.
[00:12:04.000]And it doesn't matter whether it's a prescribed fire or a wildfire,
[00:12:09.000]it will still get you.
[00:12:12.000]And then we had 16 related incidents with driving, nine rollovers, four crashes,
[00:12:20.000]and three broken wheel studs.
[00:12:24.000]That has been kind of they're starting to see an uptick in the federal side
[00:12:29.000]with the broken wheel studs.
[00:12:32.000]When we do our monthly or weekly truck checks,
[00:12:35.000]we should also be checking our wheel studs and a $2 paint pen.
[00:12:44.000]If you just take and draw reference lines on the wheel studs
[00:12:49.000]and the rim itself, you can see whether those have started to back off.
[00:12:54.000]So just make sure that when you're checking your trucks out,
[00:12:59.000]just make sure that you're looking through your --
[00:13:03.000]or checking the wheel studs.
[00:13:05.000]Just don't kick the tires.
[00:13:08.000]Next slide.
[00:13:10.000]And then we had 24 hit-by-tree incidents,
[00:13:14.000]10 during felling operations, and 14 during non-felling operations.
[00:13:18.000]I guess the question that I want to know from everybody,
[00:13:24.000]and this might be a discussion for you all while you're doing this,
[00:13:29.000]is what would we consider a hazard tree?
[00:13:32.000]Are they snags, are they fire-weakened trees, or green trees?
[00:13:36.000]In '23, we had a significant amount of people struck by green trees,
[00:13:45.000]falling over for absolutely no reason.
[00:13:47.000]Or branches breaking off.
[00:13:50.000]So we need to consider all trees as hazard trees.
[00:13:55.000]Next.
[00:14:01.000]Yeah, absolutely.
[00:14:03.000]And to kind of tie a lot of these incidents together,
[00:14:08.000]whether they were fatalities or near misses,
[00:14:12.000]one of the key components of the RT-130 every year is
[00:14:16.000]risk management, right, and situational awareness
[00:14:19.000]and how do we do those things in the fire environment, right?
[00:14:25.000]And so this might be a good opportunity, a good time,
[00:14:29.000]if you guys are doing this virtual training in a group
[00:14:32.000]or even individually, maybe replay it for a group of,
[00:14:38.000]you know, firefighters on your department and whatnot,
[00:14:41.000]but you have the ability to pause the video or at least
[00:14:45.000]maybe visit each one of these components individually
[00:14:49.000]and have a conversation in-house about how we mitigate risk.
[00:14:54.000]So the first one is obviously page one in the IRPG, right,
[00:14:58.000]risk management process.
[00:15:01.000]Make sure that we're going over those on a regular basis
[00:15:05.000]and tying in those things and the lessons learned
[00:15:10.000]as to what hazards existed.
[00:15:14.000]You know, how we assess those, how we prioritize them,
[00:15:19.000]and how we put mitigation in place to avoid, you know,
[00:15:25.000]somebody getting hurt or hopefully not, you know, killed.
[00:15:29.000]So page one in the IRPG risk management process
[00:15:34.000]is a good one to visit.
[00:15:37.000]The next one would be the common denominator
[00:15:40.000]on tragedy fires list.
[00:15:43.000]So you want to get it on page five in your IRPG.
[00:15:46.000]Remember, we're not killing people in new ways.
[00:15:51.000]We're failing to read the environment
[00:15:54.000]and take into account what those things are out there
[00:15:58.000]that cause us harm.
[00:16:00.000]And that's these five things that have been dug out
[00:16:04.000]over multiple years and multiple incidents
[00:16:07.000]that keep showing up every time there's a fatality.
[00:16:10.000]So making sure that we're discussing
[00:16:12.000]these and that we're keeping good situational awareness
[00:16:18.000]when things are at high pace, but also too
[00:16:22.000]when things kind of slow down and we transition into mop up
[00:16:26.000]and sort of the slower times in fire.
[00:16:29.000]Fatigue starts to take effect and we start to think about
[00:16:34.000]what we're going to do when we get back to the station
[00:16:36.000]and those types of things.
[00:16:38.000]But we really need to fight that urge,
[00:16:41.000]need to stay engaged until we are back at the station
[00:16:46.000]and we're cleaning up equipment and stuff.
[00:16:50.000]The next thing is LCES, right?
[00:16:54.000]Lookouts, Communications, Escape Routes, and Safety Zones.
[00:16:57.000]I always ask this question when I'm teaching a class,
[00:17:00.000]"What is LCES?"
[00:17:04.000]The answer is it's the minimum level of risk management
[00:17:08.000]that we need to have in place before we engage.
[00:17:11.000]Lookouts, Communications, Escape Routes, and Safety Zones
[00:17:13.000]are what makes up LCES.
[00:17:15.000]That's not what it is.
[00:17:17.000]Make sure that you account for these four key elements
[00:17:22.000]before you engage or your resources engage in fire suppression.
[00:17:31.000]The 18 watch-out situations.
[00:17:34.000]We know that one or multiple ones of these are going to exist
[00:17:38.000]every time we step foot on the fire line.
[00:17:41.000]The differences of whether we recognize that they're there or not.
[00:17:46.000]These are things that happen.
[00:17:48.000]We know that they happen.
[00:17:50.000]We should expect them to be present.
[00:17:53.000]But the key there is when we have two or three
[00:17:58.000]and then we start to multiply those four, five, six, seven of them
[00:18:03.000]and start to show up, that might be a good time to take a tactical pause,
[00:18:07.000]reevaluate your tactics, your strategies,
[00:18:10.000]making sure that you're accounting for the risk management.
[00:18:15.000]You have LCES in place and it's still adequate, right?
[00:18:19.000]And those types of things.
[00:18:21.000]And then finally, the 10 standard fire orders.
[00:18:25.000]Ask yourself, what's the difference between the 10 standard orders
[00:18:28.000]and the 18 watch out situations?
[00:18:31.000]18 watch out situations will always exist in some form out there.
[00:18:35.000]The 10 standard fire orders are how we engage fire
[00:18:38.000]and we never break these rules.
[00:18:39.000]Again, just as a reminder, pause the video and look at these elements
[00:18:47.000]in the IRPG, remember where to find them, get familiar with them,
[00:18:52.000]and maybe use this as a training time with your department
[00:18:59.000]or with your group to have a deeper discussion
[00:19:02.000]about how we put these things in place.
[00:19:08.000]The ultimate goal is to build that essay, build that essay
[00:19:13.000]when we first arrive on scene, take a minute, size up the fire,
[00:19:18.000]understand what we have out there that can cause us harm,
[00:19:23.000]what are some of the challenges, right?
[00:19:26.000]Is it topography that's a challenge?
[00:19:28.000]Is it the fire behavior?
[00:19:30.000]Maybe there's weather components.
[00:19:32.000]But you don't know unless you're doing a proper size-up
[00:19:37.000]and getting and building that situational awareness.
[00:19:40.000]And remember that that's also a process, right?
[00:19:43.000]As the fire transitions or moves into another burn period
[00:19:49.000]or from morning or into a later afternoon,
[00:19:51.000]it's that critical burn period that we need to be a little bit more
[00:19:56.000]heightened aware potentially about, you know,
[00:19:59.000]is the weather getting hotter and drier?
[00:20:01.000]Is the wind picking up?
[00:20:02.000]Is it going to change direction?
[00:20:04.000]Is there any significant weather factors that are going
[00:20:06.000]to be moving into the fire area?
[00:20:09.000]So just remember, this happens at the individual level,
[00:20:14.000]but it also happens, you know, at the department
[00:20:17.000]or the group level.
[00:20:18.000]Every resource out there on the fire needs
[00:20:20.000]to have situational awareness.
[00:20:22.000]So if you see hazards out there, if you see things
[00:20:25.000]that are changing, concerns, make sure that you're
[00:20:29.000]communicating that, you're conveying that,
[00:20:31.000]you're pushing things up the chain and down the chain
[00:20:35.000]as well.
[00:20:37.000]We're all responsible for ourselves and the firefighters
[00:20:41.000]next to us.
[00:20:42.000]So make sure that we're accounting for our situational
[00:20:45.000]awareness in these scenarios.
[00:20:49.000]All right, and finally, trigger points.
[00:20:53.000]If you haven't had a conversation about trigger points,
[00:20:56.000]if you haven't had experience with utilizing trigger points,
[00:20:59.000]again, this is a good opportunity to maybe have
[00:21:02.000]that conversation.
[00:21:04.000]Lots of things can be used.
[00:21:06.000]It can be time of day.
[00:21:07.000]It can be a point at the fire if we're not progressing
[00:21:11.000]down the fire line in a timely manner and being efficient.
[00:21:15.000]Maybe we need to take a tactical pause.
[00:21:17.000]If we recognize the wind is changing or shifting,
[00:21:20.000]that might be a good time to take a tactical pause.
[00:21:24.000]So make sure that you're utilizing trigger points
[00:21:27.000]and that you're having conversations with your folks
[00:21:29.000]about if you see a transition, if topography starts
[00:21:33.000]to be a challenge and you can't navigate it,
[00:21:37.000]that might be a good opportunity to take a tactical pause
[00:21:40.000]and reevaluate the situation you're getting into.
[00:21:43.000]So these are, like I said, big key elements of the RT-130
[00:21:48.000]that you're going to hear every year because it's important.
[00:21:53.000]That's what keeps us out of trouble out there.
[00:22:02.000]Okay, so moving into what happened nationally.
[00:22:07.000]This one resulted--this was a burn, burn injuries that happened
[00:22:12.000]on a prescribed fire incident.
[00:22:15.000]And the one thing that they wanted to highlight in here was people were
[00:22:19.000]receiving second-degree burns on their elbows due to their yellows
[00:22:26.000]or their nomic shirts not having double elbow pads.
[00:22:31.000]There are some vendors that do provide these,
[00:22:35.000]but not all vendors provide them.
[00:22:37.000]The main thing to focus on here is make sure that we're wearing
[00:22:40.000]our adequate PPE.
[00:22:43.000]You know, in 2022, we had some burn injuries across the state
[00:22:47.000]during our second most destructive wildfire season in Nebraska's history,
[00:22:53.000]and that was because they were not utilizing the proper PPE
[00:22:57.000]or they weren't utilizing their PPE at all.
[00:23:00.000]So just remember that, you know,
[00:23:03.000]if you're wearing cotton clothing underneath your yellows,
[00:23:08.000]that will help provide a thermal barrier a little bit,
[00:23:12.000]especially kind of long-sleeve cotton shirts.
[00:23:15.000]But, you know, in the summertime, we don't really want to wear that.
[00:23:19.000]But just remember to utilize your proper PPE.
[00:23:23.000]Make sure that it isn't towards the end of its life.
[00:23:26.000]If it is towards the end of its 10-year life cycle,
[00:23:29.000]it might be very beneficial to start looking and replacing that gear.
[00:23:36.000]So what they're finding out, it's been going on for a few years now,
[00:23:49.000]with the caps on the steel chainsaws, it's a double click.
[00:23:53.000]Make sure that it's tight and secured.
[00:23:58.000]This one, Sawyer suffered burns after refueling the saw.
[00:24:02.000]It appears the quarter turn tool-less fuel cap was not fully aligned.
[00:24:09.000]Seated and sealed when he flipped the saw, carry over his shoulder,
[00:24:13.000]fuel poured out of the tank and was ignited by open flame.
[00:24:17.000]When refueling, inspect for leaks before going back and forth.
[00:24:22.000]I was on this fire when this injury happened.
[00:24:27.000]He refueled it, didn't get the cap tight all the way.
[00:24:34.000]It was misaligned just a little bit.
[00:24:36.000]Flipped it over to carry it back to where he was working,
[00:24:40.000]stepped over a log, ended up catching that on fire
[00:24:44.000]and then catching himself on fire along with the saw.
[00:24:48.000]And then there was another burn of a crew member that went to go pat him out
[00:24:56.000]from being on fire, didn't have gloved hands and had burns to his hands.
[00:25:02.000]So that goes back to what Eric just said,
[00:25:04.000]make sure you're wearing the proper PPE at all times.
[00:25:09.000]They were in an area that was essentially mop up at that time.
[00:25:15.000]They were taking down trees that were hazardous in the area
[00:25:20.000]for when they had to come back through and rehab the lines.
[00:25:25.000]They were just making everything safer, but due to being rushed
[00:25:31.000]or just not thinking things all the way through led to the incidents.
[00:25:45.000]One of the other things that we had, we had multiple heavy equipment accidents.
[00:25:50.000]And the main thing with this one on this fire,
[00:25:54.000]this is one of the incidents that happened nationally,
[00:25:57.000]is have a game plan on how you're going to get those equipment operators out.
[00:26:03.000]How are you going to extract those equipment operators out of that equipment?
[00:26:08.000]These things are basically tanks, especially the fire dozers.
[00:26:13.000]They have a full wraparound cage that goes around the cab.
[00:26:20.000]And it's just graded slats of iron.
[00:26:23.000]And basically where the equipment operator sees is out of a box about that big out of the front window.
[00:26:31.000]When these things turn over, I mean, what are you carrying on your Type 6s or Type 4s or whatever you use for fire suppression?
[00:26:41.000]What are you carrying on there should you have one of these?
[00:26:45.000]Here in Nebraska, we utilize a lot of the farmers with the disks to put in disk lines.
[00:26:52.000]We use maintainers or road graders and then also certain dozers.
[00:26:59.000]They aren't the fire dozers.
[00:27:01.000]They don't have the wraparound cage that goes around the cab,
[00:27:06.000]but they also have quick releases to be able to get those windows out of there so that they can extract themselves.
[00:27:15.000]But with these fire dozers, that cage prohibits those windows from coming out.
[00:27:21.000]And so how are you going to extract that if that happens on your line?
[00:27:26.000]So I kind of want you to focus on what game plan you're going to have with that.
[00:27:34.000]I guess this one also going kind of talking about our topic of discussion, ATV and UTV safety.
[00:27:50.000]This happened on a fire that these two individuals were giving a quick two-minute instruction on how to operate the UTV.
[00:28:03.000]It was basically this is how you go forward, this is how you go backwards, this is how you stop.
[00:28:08.000]Any questions? No? All right, get in there and start going to work.
[00:28:14.000]A few short minutes after that happened, they lost control of the UTV.
[00:28:19.000]Ended up wrecking the UTV and they were not wearing their seatbelts.
[00:28:24.000]They did not have DOT approved headwear for that.
[00:28:29.000]And they had the UTV had a little bit more speed than what they were used to.
[00:28:34.000]So if you're utilizing UTVs on your department, make sure that everybody is trained on how to operate these.
[00:28:41.000]Better train them so that they're not getting in too much trouble.
[00:28:48.000]Make sure that they're not getting in two-minute training session on how to go forwards, backwards, and stop.
[00:28:54.000]Make sure that they're utilizing the safety equipment in there, the safety harnesses, the seat belts, that they have DOT-approved headwear.
[00:29:06.000]And that if it is equipped with doors or nets, that those are to keep your hands and legs inside the vehicle at all times.
[00:29:14.000]Make sure that you're utilizing those.
[00:29:17.000]Kind of going back to our situational awareness, make sure that you're looking up, down, and around before you start tearing off in these things.
[00:29:26.000]And the other thing is make sure that everybody kind of knows what's going on, so we're looking up, down, and around before we commit to getting into an area that we can't get out of.
[00:29:41.000]All right, so rolling into some of the aviation fatalities and accidents that we saw this past year.
[00:29:59.000]Starting in June 21st, New Mexico, there was a seat accident.
[00:30:05.000]This particular incident happened not actually during fire operations,
[00:30:10.000]but in Route 2 pre-position.
[00:30:14.000]So seats, heavy air tankers, scoopers, all of those types of aircrafts are contracted aircraft.
[00:30:22.000]They're not agency-owned, and so they're all home-based across the country.
[00:30:28.000]And at the beginning of fire season, as orders come in for their needs,
[00:30:33.000]then they pre-position them all across the west and even into the southern areas.
[00:30:39.000]And so they have to get from home base to where their pre-position point of operation is going to be.
[00:30:49.000]And then unfortunately, in this particular incidence, this individual ran into some weather.
[00:30:56.000]And ultimately what caused the accident was he impacted terrain due to a falling ceiling with the weather.
[00:31:06.000]Extremely experienced pilot.
[00:31:08.000]As you can see, logged over 14,000 hours of flight time.
[00:31:13.000]All for all intents and purposes, this is one of the guys that you would expect to not get into some trouble.
[00:31:22.000]But unfortunately, he did.
[00:31:24.000]Some of the factors or suspected factors were that there was a sort of an overwhelming sense of urgency to get to where he was going.
[00:31:34.000]And so he may have made.
[00:31:37.000]Some judgment calls that he may have not otherwise made.
[00:31:43.000]So pressure us on the ground, firefighters on the ground to to extinguish the fire to, you know, protect structures to mitigate the incident.
[00:31:55.000]We have those overwhelming pressures and outside influences that can get us into trouble if we don't sit down and really evaluate the situation.
[00:32:06.000]And in this particular case, some, you know, some that knew him said that this particular individual should have known better that he should have not let those outside influences pressure his decision making.
[00:32:21.000]And unfortunately, took off anyway, ended up flying into some weather.
[00:32:28.000]And as the ceiling and the cloud layers descended, these the all these aircraft are what they call vehicles.
[00:32:35.000]They call VFR visual flight rule. So they have to have visual confirmation of the ground at all times.
[00:32:42.000]And when they can't do that, they're not supposed to fly.
[00:32:48.000]So he just unfortunately found himself in a in a situation that.
[00:32:54.000]He was unable to get out of and ultimately impacted high terrain and it cost him his life, so.
[00:33:02.000]Just, you know, kind of goes back to that decision making process.
[00:33:04.000]And we may be a little bit slower getting there.
[00:33:08.000]We may have to be delayed just slightly, but if it means everybody going home safe at the end of the day, then that that's what the right decision is going to be.
[00:33:21.000]The next one, again, another unfortunate fatality, July 10th over the horse Gulch fire in Idaho and 802 fire boss, which is the scooper version of the 802 air tractor.
[00:33:33.000]Was in a flight of three aircraft.
[00:33:36.000]This particular individual was number two. So, fire bosses tend to fly in flights, multiple, multiple aircraft and flying together.
[00:33:47.690]She had already completed one successful scooping mission.
[00:33:50.970]She was on the second scooping mission of the day in efforts to suppress the fire.
[00:33:58.030]And so she was flying behind the lead aircraft.
[00:34:02.830]If you look to the picture there on the left, it kind of gives you a depiction of her flight path coming from left of the screen.
[00:34:11.570]She enters the picture, does a large loop.
[00:34:15.550]This is how these aircraft keep separation in the air and control airspeed and those types of things.
[00:34:21.370]And so she was essentially maneuvering to descend into the higher terrain to get down to the waterway to scoop.
[00:34:29.190]And it's a little unclear.
[00:34:32.130]All of the investigative reports have not yet been released.
[00:34:37.870]But primary reports say that she had either flown into the vortices or the vortex,
[00:34:45.070]so the lead aircraft, which is essentially rough air and the wings lose lift and she impacted the water.
[00:34:52.730]Or the second assumption is that while scooping operations were underway, she may have hit something in the water.
[00:35:01.290]So it's not uncommon.
[00:35:03.050]These aircraft don't have to have a lot of, you know, they don't have to have deep water to scoop.
[00:35:07.830]But as we all know, there's tendencies for loose logs and other debris to be floating, you know,
[00:35:14.590]floating in the water.
[00:35:15.350]And sometimes it's hard to see those things.
[00:35:18.250]So unfortunately, the aircraft was essentially in contact with the shore when it came to rest.
[00:35:27.530]It did separate both floats from the aircraft.
[00:35:31.210]The impact did.
[00:35:33.630]And so unfortunately, she was still found in her seat belt, in her seat restraints, and presumably
[00:35:44.110]drowned.
[00:35:44.930]The impact was probably not what killed her, but instead she drowned.
[00:35:49.930]So extremely unfortunate event.
[00:35:52.670]Again, another very skilled pilot.
[00:35:55.190]This was her first year flying in the United States or on U.S. fires.
[00:36:00.850]She had flown fire assignments in other countries.
[00:36:05.870]But unfortunately, another fatality.
[00:36:09.730]The third one.
[00:36:13.730]It happened July 25th, so not that many days after the last one.
[00:36:19.290]This one was in John Day, Oregon, or originated out of John Day, Oregon.
[00:36:26.170]And kind of same scenario.
[00:36:29.370]It was on one fire, then was reordered for a new start.
[00:36:34.970]So they were initial attacking a new fire.
[00:36:37.630]And again, all reports have not been fully released.
[00:36:43.590]At this time yet.
[00:36:44.430]But he took a flight path that was somewhat questioned.
[00:36:52.150]And ended up impacting terrain.
[00:36:57.170]Most likely due to low visibility, whether it was smoke or weather.
[00:37:02.170]So again, another extremely unfortunate event.
[00:37:07.530]But these things are becoming more and more common.
[00:37:13.450]Unfortunately.
[00:37:14.010]So use an aircraft.
[00:37:16.250]Excellent tool to have at our disposal.
[00:37:20.190]But don't base your actions on getting them in a timely fashion.
[00:37:27.630]They're subject to their own mechanical scenarios.
[00:37:30.450]Weather can keep them on the ground.
[00:37:33.150]Visibility, wind limits, and those types of things.
[00:37:38.270]And so those flight crews are accounting for their own safety.
[00:37:43.310]And when they say it's unfortunately unsafe for us to take off or to be able to help support the fire,
[00:37:50.570]I know it's kind of a disheartening feeling sometimes, but a serious matter to take into consideration
[00:37:58.730]so we're not putting people in undue harm.
[00:38:00.810]And finally, we kind of at least end on somewhat of a good note.
[00:38:07.370]And that is a helicopter crash.
[00:38:13.170]I think this was the only rotor wing incident of the year that I was aware of,
[00:38:19.610]at least at the time that we put this together.
[00:38:21.650]And while the aircraft was under a dipping operation,
[00:38:29.450]so he was working with a bucket and experienced a mechanical issue while dipping
[00:38:37.670]and ended up ditching or crashing into the water
[00:38:43.030]way, the pilot was able to get out of the wreckage
[00:38:47.830]and swim to the nearest shoreline where he actually
[00:38:52.850]hiked out to a staging area or to a rendezvous point
[00:38:57.770]with a hotshot crew that was working in the area and that witnessed the crash.
[00:39:01.430]So, again, not a lot of details.
[00:39:05.090]Helicopters have tons of moving parts.
[00:39:08.610]It could have been a weather event. It could have been a direct mechanical
[00:39:12.890]issue with the aircraft that caused the accident.
[00:39:15.630]But fortunately for this one, the pilot was able
[00:39:20.930]to get out of it alive, swim to shore,
[00:39:24.550]and had kind of a crazy story to tell when he got back
[00:39:29.090]home. So, all in all, ended on a good note for this
[00:39:33.050]one. So, again, just a reminder that these
[00:39:36.050]types of resources have their limitations as well, and
[00:39:40.530]we don't want to
[00:39:42.750]be planning our whole strategy and tactics around
[00:39:48.610]aircraft because things happen all the time and we can
[00:39:51.930]lose them at any time.
[00:39:54.610]And this one, I guess I could hit this really quick
[00:40:00.510]before I turn it over to Jake, but this is just a
[00:40:02.550]reminder, you know, there's two types of firefighters
[00:40:05.370]out there, and those are the humble ones, the ones
[00:40:08.050]that are taking the time to, you know, be a student
[00:40:11.170]of fire and learn and
[00:40:12.610]admit what they don't know and admit where their
[00:40:17.110]skill sets are and are not, and there's the other
[00:40:19.850]ones that sometimes tend to be overconfident,
[00:40:23.850]practicing at a level that they might not have a
[00:40:29.170]lot of experience at, and those are the ones that
[00:40:31.590]usually get bit, and that goes true for all of us.
[00:40:34.530]So just a reminder to slow down, keep your head
[00:40:40.170]on your shoulders, and be paying attention to
[00:40:42.470]what's going on out there.
[00:40:44.410]Jake?
[00:40:47.430]We're going to go into the predictions and
[00:40:57.090]outlooks, climate predictions and outlook links.
[00:40:59.990]You can copy those links, or you can go and check
[00:41:05.130]on them.
[00:41:05.530]They are constantly changing, so that's why we
[00:41:08.010]kind of have the link on there.
[00:41:09.310]We've got the drought monitor link.
[00:41:12.330]You've got the RMA predictive services, fire
[00:41:15.910]danger for USGS, and then the National Interagency
[00:41:21.310]Coordination Center outlooks.
[00:41:23.330]Kind of what it's been looking like the past year.
[00:41:31.270]All right, so this one is January 7th.
[00:41:37.430]It has been updated since, but you can see that
[00:41:42.190]out in the panhandle, we got some D3, D4 extreme drought
[00:41:50.930]going on from pretty much all of the state,
[00:41:55.290]except for a little portion down in the southwest corner
[00:42:01.070]there you can see.
[00:42:02.270]It doesn't have much drought, but the rest of the state
[00:42:06.010]is in pretty good drought, and it looks like it's
[00:42:09.190]going to be continuing.
[00:42:12.050]Just another one showing just the state of Nebraska.
[00:42:18.750]Doesn't look like it's going to be a very favorable year
[00:42:24.810]if we don't start getting some moisture.
[00:42:26.350]Next slide.
[00:42:29.910]All right.
[00:42:30.730]This one, seasonal drought outlook,
[00:42:34.010]that's valid for January 1st through March 31st.
[00:42:37.370]You can see that for the majority of Nebraska,
[00:42:41.910]the drought persists.
[00:42:43.970]The precipitation maps,
[00:42:51.030]you can see that a lot of the northern part of Nebraska
[00:42:57.010]is negative 16 to negative 30 percent of moisture inches.
[00:43:06.370]You can see that it is not looking very good
[00:43:10.190]down here around McCook.
[00:43:11.770]Superior, Fall City,
[00:43:13.210]you can see that they have a little bit more moisture going on
[00:43:17.130]and anticipating some moisture down in that area.
[00:43:21.090]Not a lot, but some.
[00:43:24.430]You can see here January, February, March.
[00:43:32.050]We got equal chances to slightly below chances
[00:43:38.410]for our temperature.
[00:43:39.490]It's going to be,
[00:43:41.630]below normal to normal
[00:43:44.650]for this time frame.
[00:43:48.110]It's January, February, March.
[00:43:49.790]Those will be changing
[00:43:52.790]because these were issued in December.
[00:43:55.050]You can see March, April, May,
[00:44:00.530]it's all going to be equal,
[00:44:01.790]which means it's going to be about the same chances
[00:44:04.270]as we do on a normal year for temperature.
[00:44:07.390]It's looking about the same as normal.
[00:44:11.490]April, May, and June,
[00:44:16.630]it's looking the same thing.
[00:44:18.630]You can see that this orange,
[00:44:22.030]burnt orange kind of is kind of creeping up
[00:44:25.230]a little bit more than the previous slide
[00:44:27.250]for starting to get a little bit more
[00:44:29.670]above normal temperatures.
[00:44:31.770]Still pretty early to tell.
[00:44:35.050]And then you can see June,
[00:44:41.390]it's going to be about the same as normal.
[00:44:41.430]And then you can see June,
[00:44:41.470]it's going to be about the same as normal.
[00:44:41.470]And then you can see June,
[00:44:41.490]it's going to be about the same as normal.
[00:45:11.470]And then you can see April, May, and June are kind of the western half of the state is looking like it might, it's a little bit more favorable for some moisture. The rest of the state is kind of about normal.
[00:45:41.450]And then you can see June, July, and August, we are leaning a little bit more on the below, towards the below side of precipitation for June, July, and August.
[00:45:56.710]So it looks like it's going to be drying out a little bit more.
[00:46:01.530]Going on.
[00:46:03.030]El Nino, southern oscillation.
[00:46:12.150]And so, so you can, El Nino, La Nina are large scales, sea surface temperature patterns in the Pacific Ocean that have significant impact on North American weather patterns.
[00:46:26.150]Sea surface temperatures have remained steady.
[00:46:29.510]Neutral conditions persist.
[00:46:32.870]La Nina is cooler than normal temperatures is still expected.
[00:46:38.170]However, due to the slower than expected cooling.
[00:46:41.410]Chances have decreased over the next several months, shifting later into the spring.
[00:46:46.930]These impacts are more likely in the winter months.
[00:46:50.310]You can see over here, the blue line is the La Nina.
[00:46:57.990]The gray is neutral and the orange is El Nino.
[00:47:03.910]You can see that they're all kind of.
[00:47:07.370]We're coming up.
[00:47:11.390]The La Nina is starting to decrease while the El Nino is starting to increase.
[00:47:15.430]Neutrals are kind of, they're a little bit higher in the May, June, July, August, September.
[00:47:24.850]All right, next slide.
[00:47:29.650]So the 120-day significant fire potential outlook.
[00:47:34.770]There is a video with this if you want to listen to it.
[00:47:41.370]We'll go ahead and play it.
[00:47:42.650]Yeah, so we'll go ahead and play this.
[00:47:50.370]It's something that you can find on, if you guys are familiar or maybe you're not familiar with the Rocky Mountain Area Coordinating Group website,
[00:47:57.690]you can simply Google RMCG Dispatch Center or RMCG Coordination Center,
[00:48:04.730]and there's a whole host of information on there based.
[00:48:11.350]And if under the Predictive Services tab, you'll find this.
[00:48:14.830]This will be updated again in another 120 days.
[00:48:17.850]So as we move into the mid-spring, early summer months, they'll put out another video.
[00:48:25.490]So this is just kind of a summary of what Jake went through here coming from the meteorologist there at RMAC.
[00:48:34.110]Welcome to the Rocky Mountain Area's Seasonal Significant Podcast.
[00:48:41.330]Here's a quick look at the highlights of this month's outlook.
[00:48:54.190]The patch drifted back to warm and dry for December.
[00:48:57.310]La Nina continues to be slow to develop, shifting the development more towards spring.
[00:49:02.550]Normal large fire potential is expected overall through April.
[00:49:06.470]While fire potential remains normal, during wind events following a period of hot weather,
[00:49:11.310]dry conditions expect a brief increase in the fire potential.
[00:49:14.950]Starting out with the long-term drought conditions, conditions have not changed significantly
[00:49:21.170]across much of the Rocky Mountain area in the last month.
[00:49:24.250]However, the area has continued to be worse off than this time last year,
[00:49:28.730]with the exception being southwest Colorado and much of Nebraska and Kansas.
[00:49:33.990]The drought outlook over the next three months shows drought continue
[00:49:38.950]across much of the Rocky Mountain area through March.
[00:49:41.770]The drought is expected to improve over those next three months in northwest Wyoming.
[00:49:46.410]While southwest Colorado does not currently show drought development,
[00:49:50.130]much of the far corners could see drought development through March.
[00:49:54.550]The long-term precipitation trends since July show the northern half of the Rocky Mountain area
[00:50:00.530]is still below normal.
[00:50:01.850]Much of Colorado and into Kansas remains above normal due to more favorable storm tracks over that period.
[00:50:11.270]Recent trends in temperatures over the last 90 days saw temperatures continuing to be above normal.
[00:50:17.030]Much of the area was 3 to 8 degrees above normal for daily needs.
[00:50:21.110]This was a little warmer than September through October.
[00:50:24.730]Moving to the SPEI to take a look at not just how much rain went into the landscape,
[00:50:31.990]but also how much the wind, heat, and dryness has taken out,
[00:50:35.370]most of the area saw significant long-term moisture loss from the landscape.
[00:50:42.030]Eastern Colorado and much of Kansas were the only areas that saw normal conditions
[00:50:46.650]or some modest gains in moisture.
[00:50:49.150]Looking at just December, it was a dry month for much of the area.
[00:50:54.150]Much of South Dakota, eastern Nebraska, along with the west-facing slopes in Wyoming and Colorado,
[00:51:00.470]were above normal.
[00:51:01.710]However, southern Black Hills continued to be very dry, to cite much of South Dakota being wetter.
[00:51:08.050]The areas that were below normal,
[00:51:11.230]mostly saw less than a half inch, which is less than a tenth of normal moisture.
[00:51:15.450]December was a very warm month across the Rocky Mountain area, at least compared to normal.
[00:51:21.170]Mean temperatures were 5 to 10 degrees above normal.
[00:51:24.530]This was a significant change since last month, where November was mostly below normal.
[00:51:30.290]Looking at the state of the snowpack, Wyoming is still below normal,
[00:51:34.890]but continued to see slight improvements over the last month.
[00:51:37.970]Black Hills, as well, continued to see some improvement,
[00:51:41.210]and are now closer to the Wyoming basins.
[00:51:43.890]The lack of precipitation has brought most of the Colorado down to around normal.
[00:51:49.850]La Nina and La Nina, or large-scale sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean,
[00:51:56.550]have a significant impact on North American weather patterns.
[00:51:59.830]Sea surface temperatures have remained steady over the last month,
[00:52:03.370]with neutral conditions persisting.
[00:52:05.550]La Nina, or cooler than normal temperatures, is still expected.
[00:52:11.190]Due to the slower-than-expected cooling,
[00:52:13.490]chances have decreased over the next several months of La Nina developing,
[00:52:17.910]shifting it later into the spring.
[00:52:19.930]The impacts from La Nina are more likely to be seen during winter months.
[00:52:25.510]As mentioned, the sea surface temperatures have been holding steady over the last month.
[00:52:32.070]As you can see from this animation, because of this slower-developing cool water,
[00:52:37.770]chances shifting more towards the spring that La Nina
[00:52:41.170]will develop. The shift could lessen some of the impacts,
[00:52:44.510]as the majority of the impacts from La Nina are seen in the winter months.
[00:52:49.370]Through March, the outlook is still favoring typical La Nina conditions.
[00:52:55.330]Drier and warmer-than-normal conditions are expected across the southern third of the
[00:53:00.870]Rocky Mountain area, while the northern third will be trending towards cooler and wetter.
[00:53:05.630]February through March sees the below-normal precipitation expand across
[00:53:11.150]much of the Rocky Mountain area. The above-normal temperatures will shift slightly to the southwest.
[00:53:16.030]March through May shows a better chance of below-normal precipitation for Colorado,
[00:53:22.750]but otherwise little change. Above-normal temperatures will likely expand further to
[00:53:29.610]the north and east in Colorado. Finally, for the significant wildland fire
[00:53:35.270]potential outlooks through area, the area will see normal potential. However, especially
[00:53:41.130]in windier periods during or following a hot-dry event could see a brief uptick in large fire
[00:53:47.770]potential. These events will become more likely towards March and April.
[00:53:51.670]Once again, in summary, the pattern shifted back towards warm and dry for December.
[00:53:57.810]La Nina continues to be slow to develop, shifting the development more towards the spring.
[00:54:03.250]Normal large fire potential is expected overall through April. While this potential remains normal,
[00:54:11.110]during wind events following very hot dry conditions, we could expect a brief increase
[00:54:16.710]in the fire potential. Thank you for watching this month's seasonal outlook. Feel free to share
[00:54:23.090]any of this information. There's also a PDF version available on the Arachnion Area's website,
[00:54:28.110]along with other presentations and graphics. Please reach out if you have any questions,
[00:54:32.810]need any additional weather support, or have any information to share.
[00:54:37.070]Until next month, stay safe out there.
[00:54:41.090]Thank you.
[00:55:11.070]I encourage you to get a little downtime to go explore that a little bit.
[00:55:15.950]It's a good resource that you can all get access to on your own for trainings
[00:55:23.970]or just simply keeping your own situational awareness up as to how conditions are transitioning.
[00:55:30.090]Okay, moving into our topic of discussion.
[00:55:38.510]We've seen a significant amount of questions.
[00:55:41.050]We've seen a significant amount of UTV, ATV accidents, not only in our state, but across the United States.
[00:55:49.950]And we're starting to see a lot more of those here in Nebraska,
[00:55:54.950]just because a lot more of the volunteer departments are starting to utilize UTVs.
[00:56:00.530]And a lot can go wrong with these.
[00:56:03.330]You know, not only just having accidents, you know, collisions or...
[00:56:11.030]rollovers, but also these things catching fire,
[00:56:14.690]especially a lot of the Kawasaki's, the Kawasaki mules,
[00:56:19.610]their fuel tank is typically under the bench seat.
[00:56:22.790]And one of the things that one of the departments at a earlier refresher that I had conducted said,
[00:56:32.250]if you have the Kawasaki's, make sure that you're checking the fuel lines
[00:56:37.010]because the rubber grommets that hold and seal the fuel,
[00:56:41.010]fuel lines and the fuel tank, after time, they typically wear out
[00:56:46.850]and you'll start to notice pooling of fuel either on the trailers
[00:56:51.030]or on the floors of their department.
[00:56:52.930]And, you know, given that there are some dangers to that
[00:57:00.930]because as you're going out there and we're dealing with fire,
[00:57:04.490]the fuel can ignite and just kind of follow you around.
[00:57:08.830]So, you know, if you're...
[00:57:10.990]If you're utilizing the UTVs and fire suppression,
[00:57:13.930]just making sure that you're keeping track
[00:57:16.850]and you're checking those fuel lines and rubber grommets.
[00:57:19.490]If you're utilizing these UTVs for transporting equipment
[00:57:23.810]such as drip torches, make sure...
[00:57:27.650]And drip mix, make sure that you're...
[00:57:31.670]When you store those drip torches in there,
[00:57:34.110]make sure that they're not upright
[00:57:35.850]and still have the wick lit.
[00:57:39.250]Make sure that everything's...
[00:57:40.970]Put out and that all of the caps and bleeders
[00:57:44.350]are closed on those.
[00:57:45.590]Make sure that the fuels are in metal containers
[00:57:48.750]so that it doesn't spark
[00:57:52.690]or doesn't burn through the plastic containers.
[00:57:56.370]But if we go into the next slide,
[00:57:59.130]we'll see that this is from the lessons learned
[00:58:04.090]from in 22 versus 23.
[00:58:08.430]22, there were...
[00:58:10.950]There were three incidents
[00:58:12.710]that were reported across the nation
[00:58:15.590]with UTV and ATV accidents.
[00:58:18.470]But in 23, it jumped 300% to 13 of those.
[00:58:24.490]Excuse me.
[00:58:25.710]And the reason that that is
[00:58:29.090]is because there's a lot more agencies
[00:58:31.310]and departments that are starting to utilize these ATVs.
[00:58:34.850]They're a little bit more versatile than the Type 6s
[00:58:38.670]because they can get into areas
[00:58:40.930]that they normally can't,
[00:58:41.870]that a Type 6 couldn't get into.
[00:58:44.590]And a lot of departments are starting to utilize these things
[00:58:48.390]for mop-up, transporting equipment and personnel.
[00:58:52.810]So they're very versatile and they're easy to get around.
[00:58:57.290]But the problem is, is we're not taking the time
[00:58:59.790]to kind of look at it from a safety perspective.
[00:59:03.130]So if we go to the next slide,
[00:59:06.290]we see that most,
[00:59:10.910]most of these accidents that we've had
[00:59:13.590]across the United States that were reported
[00:59:16.210]from 2011 to 2023,
[00:59:19.970]58% of those incidents happened
[00:59:24.770]during prescribed fire events.
[00:59:26.550]And we utilize the UTVs, the side-by-sides,
[00:59:31.970]the ATVs, the four-wheelers a lot during prescribed fire
[00:59:35.190]because we can move a lot of equipment
[00:59:37.930]and personnel across.
[00:59:40.890]And we kind of have a sense of complacency
[00:59:44.430]because it's a prescribed fire.
[00:59:45.910]21% of those were during initial attack,
[00:59:49.770]13% during extended attack, and 8% during trainings.
[00:59:54.310]And the main thing is we have to train on these.
[00:59:59.070]We have to prepare our people properly
[01:00:01.270]before we just give them the keys to them
[01:00:04.370]and tell them to go.
[01:00:05.330]So next slide.
[01:00:10.870]And because the thing to remember is
[01:00:13.030]just because you can doesn't mean you should.
[01:00:14.930]So these things are very fast,
[01:00:17.250]and you can get in a lot of trouble
[01:00:20.630]in a hurry with these things.
[01:00:22.010]The thing to remember with UTVs,
[01:00:24.930]especially the side-by-sides,
[01:00:27.210]is all the manufacturers,
[01:00:28.910]according to their recommendation,
[01:00:30.430]with the roll bars and the roll cages
[01:00:32.770]that are on these things,
[01:00:33.770]they're only meant to protect you
[01:00:37.950]from a 20-mile-an-hour tip-over,
[01:00:40.850]a 50- or 70-mile-per-hour rollover.
[01:00:44.390]Especially some of the departments in the state
[01:00:48.310]that have gotten those Polaris Special Forces UTVs
[01:00:53.630]from the fire shop,
[01:00:54.590]those things will go very fast.
[01:00:56.530]So make sure that we slow down,
[01:00:59.830]that we have our situational awareness,
[01:01:02.910]that we're utilizing the safety harnesses and seat belts,
[01:01:06.670]also that the doors are closed,
[01:01:08.950]that the nets are up.
[01:01:10.830]Make sure that the helmets are equipped with them.
[01:01:13.230]Keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times.
[01:01:16.630]And you are also required to utilize
[01:01:20.430]DOT-approved headgear.
[01:01:23.770]Our hard hats that we wear for wildfire
[01:01:29.010]and even some of the departments
[01:01:30.550]that use their structural helmets are not DOT-approved.
[01:01:34.350]So make sure that if you are utilizing these UTVs and ATVs
[01:01:40.810]that you are utilizing DOT-approved headwear for protection.
[01:01:44.870]Next slide.
[01:01:47.550]I just wanted to add one thing really quick to that too.
[01:01:55.150]And I think Eric did a great job
[01:01:58.090]of covering all those high points.
[01:01:59.410]The only thing I would add is that
[01:02:01.030]in conversation with some departments that do utilize them,
[01:02:05.250]once you put water tanks and skids
[01:02:07.770]or if you're hauling supplies up and down the line,
[01:02:10.790]you can change the center of gravity.
[01:02:14.430]And sometimes you can change that vertically and horizontally.
[01:02:19.390]So if you have something a little bit taller than average,
[01:02:24.130]you might have a higher center of gravity
[01:02:27.030]and your tipping points and stuff might change.
[01:02:29.990]So as to Eric's point,
[01:02:31.910]just be sure that you're using adequate speeds,
[01:02:34.670]appropriate speeds to what the use of the UTV is.
[01:02:40.770]All right.
[01:02:49.650]Last thing that we do is that we do every year is shelters.
[01:02:53.830]So this might be a good time to pause the video
[01:02:58.850]to discuss what we take inside the shelter with us.
[01:03:03.090]Typically, we're utilizing all of our PPE.
[01:03:07.870]That includes hard hat,
[01:03:10.750]greens and yellows,
[01:03:12.850]our NFPA-approved boots,
[01:03:17.870]our leather gloves,
[01:03:19.470]water for drinking,
[01:03:21.030]not pouring over ourselves
[01:03:23.270]because we could create steam inside the shelter,
[01:03:27.530]and also a radio,
[01:03:30.350]making sure that we have a means of communication
[01:03:33.230]with the outside world when we get inside there.
[01:03:35.710]So yeah, just making sure that we're taking everything that
[01:03:40.730]we need to.
[01:03:41.510]We're ditching our line gear.
[01:03:43.530]We're ditching everything else that we don't need to take
[01:03:46.950]with us in there that's going to create it to be a smaller
[01:03:50.070]confined space, and it already is.
[01:03:52.190]And the thing with the shelters is,
[01:03:54.790]as we teach in the red card class,
[01:03:57.350]these are not meant for direct flame impingement.
[01:04:01.110]If direct flame contacts the shelter,
[01:04:04.310]it breaks down the threading and the glues that hold together
[01:04:09.670]the layers.
[01:04:10.710]And it delaminates the fire shelter and the fire shelter begins to break
[01:04:16.010]down.
[01:04:16.350]These are just meant to provide cooler breathable air for the occupant
[01:04:20.510]inside and to prevent, to reflect radiant heat.
[01:04:24.490]So these are meant for radiant heat, not direct flame contact.
[01:04:28.310]One thing I want to add is when you're doing your shelters deployments to
[01:04:37.950]get your RT-130 completed,
[01:04:40.690]make sure to use practice shelters and not the original shelters that you
[01:04:46.450]carry on fires with.
[01:04:47.570]Yes, these things are a one and done, the actual shelters.
[01:04:53.350]So if you pop that red tab and open up that final bag and pull that $400
[01:04:58.910]fire shelter out, that is a $400 mistake that you just made.
[01:05:03.630]Very good point.
[01:05:09.430]Very good point.
[01:05:11.010]And with that, that brings us to the end of the refresher video.
[01:05:17.350]I would encourage every single individual or group that is utilizing this
[01:05:22.950]for their annual training.
[01:05:24.450]You know, we're just a little over an hour into the video here,
[01:05:30.650]but take the time to, you know, maybe discuss UTV safety in-house
[01:05:36.130]with your groups, especially if you utilize them, if you have them,
[01:05:40.650]take the time to maybe pick out a case study.
[01:05:44.590]You can find those on the, on the wildland fire lessons,
[01:05:47.870]learn center random there.
[01:05:50.630]A lot of those come with a interactive group discussion ideas and points
[01:05:56.030]and stuff. So, you know, I,
[01:05:57.690]I encourage everybody to seek out that that learning and that education
[01:06:01.890]that, you know,
[01:06:02.870]being a true student of fire and utilizing those resources to help drive
[01:06:10.630]some discussion specifically and, you know,
[01:06:15.090]in safety and capturing, you know,
[01:06:19.030]we push the use of AARs and different things like that,
[01:06:24.330]you know,
[01:06:25.270]dig out those things that went well and the things that might not have went so
[01:06:29.330]well and, and how you can improve on those,
[01:06:32.570]what things you can maybe do different the next time and whatnot. So yeah,
[01:06:37.630]don't, don't just watch it.
[01:06:40.610]Watch the video and check the boxes. I encourage everybody. And I,
[01:06:44.550]and I think all of us encourage everybody to,
[01:06:46.610]to dig out your IRPGs, go through them,
[01:06:52.090]hit those high points, maybe,
[01:06:54.730]maybe pick something out of there that you haven't looked at,
[01:06:59.110]looked into a whole lot and dig into it a little bit, discuss it.
[01:07:03.690]Yeah. So with that, unless you guys have anything else,
[01:07:09.790]I think we can,
[01:07:10.590]we can wrap this up. I appreciate everybody's time.
[01:07:13.090]Taking, taking this time to watch the refresher for the year.
[01:07:20.030]I don't have anything else.
[01:07:23.910]Thank you for watching and supporting your Nebraska horses.
[01:07:27.430]Yep. Thanks everybody.
[01:07:31.830]- Bye.
[01:07:32.670]Thank you.

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2025 Wildland Fire RT-130

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