Fuel Treatment Effectiveness
Date: 30 Nov 2010
Friend-Darnell Wildfire
Fuel Treatment Effectiveness
Location Information
Region: 5
District:
Feather River
Forest: Plumas
Brush Creek
Unit 37
Wildfire Information (consistent with 5100-29)
Fire Number: PNF# 675
Fire Name: Friend-Darnell
Date of Fire Start mm/dd/yr: 7/28/2008
Final Fire Size (acres): 3879
Date When Fire Entered Treatment: 7/28/2008, 16:00 hours
Treated Area Burned (acres): 4.8 acres
Date Fire Contained: 7/30/2008
Fuel Treatment Information and Background:
The Brush Creek project was completed to create a Defensible Fuel Profile Zone (DFPZ),
part of a shaded fuel break network completed across the Feather River Ranger District
as part of the Herger-Feinstein Quincy Library Group project. This project was planned
as part of the Brush Creek Environmental Assessment.
Brush Creek unit 37 was treated by completing an understory prescribed burn in the
spring of 2005 to reduce surface fuels. This treatment reduced surface and ladder fuels to
make an effective DFPZ. Treatments in other units included mechanical thinning,
mastication and pile burning operations.
Treatment Type and Acres
FACTS subunit ID
0511034120037001000
Brush Creek Unit 37
Treatment Prescription,
date completed
and total acres
Underburn,
March 2005 - 28 acres
Acres overlap with
Friend-Darnell Fire
4.8 acres
Narrative of Fire Interaction with Fuel Treatment
During the June 22, 2008 Lightning Siege of Northern California, the Plumas
National Forest was impacted by a dry lightning storm that produced
approximately 44 uncontrolled wildfires, including the Canyon Complex on
the Feather River RD, and Mt. Hough RD. While suppression efforts made
good progress on the fires that were closest to residential communities, the
fires that were unstaffed in remote locations burned down into the Middle
Fork of the Feather River.
Friend-Darnell Fire, Region 5, Plumas National Forest
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Fuel Treatment Effectiveness
Figure 1. Overview of Friend-Darnell Fire and Brush Creek Defensible Fuel
Profile Zone and adjacent communities.
Friend-Darnell Fire, Region 5, Plumas National Forest
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Fuel Treatment Effectiveness
Narrative of Fire Interaction with Fuel Treatment (continued)
The Incident Management Team which was charged with handling the
Canyon Complex had their hands full. To the north the Scotch fire which had
initially started during the lightning event had backed down in the Middle
Fork and spotted across the river and made a run towards the active burning
South-Frey Fire on the east side of the Middle Fork. There was one very large
fire burning in the Middle Fork of the Feather River.
It had been roughly five weeks since the initial start of the Canyon Complex.
Back logged resource orders had been filled and there were several base
camps on the Feather River Ranger District set up with enough fire
equipment and resources to manage a Type I incident. A change in the
weather broke up the stable atmospheric conditions the Canyon Complex had
experienced since the start of the lightning event. The smoke that filled the
canyon lifted and blew south towards the valley. With the smoke out of the
Middle Fork, air resources were finally able to get in the air and see what the
entire fire was doing.
On July 28, 2008 air resources reported a small fire in the canyon bottom
across the river and the active burning South/Frey/Scotch fire. This new fire,
named the Friend-Darnell Fire, made an uphill run towards the communities
of Berry Creek, Brush Creek and Mountain House (Figure 1). The Butte
County Sheriff’s Department, Cal Fire, and the Forest Service made the
decision to evacuate the town of Berry Creek and surrounding areas due to
the projected spread and direction of the fire. The population of the town of
Berry Creek and surrounding areas includes approximately 3000 full time
residents. It is also home to a Summer Youth Camp which can house up to 500
youth at a time.
The direction of the fire required suppression action along Bald Rock Road
and the Brush Creek DFPZ. The copious amounts of staged fire equipment
and fire resources allowed suppression efforts to catch the fire along Bean
Creek road to the north east and into the Middle Fork, along Enumclaw road
to the west until the tie in at Bald Rock road. Suppression efforts surprised
everyone by catching the fire just prior to the Brush Creek DFPZ.
Under normal circumstances the initial attack response would have been
significantly smaller; an example of first alarm would have been two type
three engines, and one helicopter all arriving within the first half hour of
dispatch. The first alarm for the Friend-Darnell fire had two strike teams of
Friend-Darnell Fire, Region 5, Plumas National Forest
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Fuel Treatment Effectiveness
dozers, four strike teams of handcrews and ten strike teams of type three fire
engines all within ten minutes travel.
It is our professional opinion that if the direct attack strategy had not been
successful that the Brush Creek DFPZ was the final option in stopping the
forward spread of the Friend-Darnell Fire and is believed that we would have
had a 95 percent chance at success using the DFPZ and minimizing the threat
to life and property (see photos of the DFPZ below).
The Friend-Darnell fire reached unit 37 of the Brush Creek DFPZ. This unit
had been underburned in 2005. Although it had been three years since the
treatment, fire resources on scene were able to make an aggressive attack
along its slightly sloped knob and open understory. To the south of unit 37
lies private land that has residential improvements with tree and brush
clearings made by the owners. Untreated areas near unit 37 displayed active
crown fire in the brush and passive torching in timbered stands. Had unit 37
and the private lands not completed hazardous fuels treatments, a more
active fire behavior may have precluded direct suppression.
Conditions When Fire Entered Treatment
Date and Source of Observations: July 28, 2010, 15:10 hrs
Pike County Remote Automatic Weather Station (RAWS)
ERC (value and percentile):
available
Not
Windspeed and Direction: 10 mph from
SSW
Temperature: 80 F
RH: 16%
Fuel Model Inside Treated Area: 9
Fuel Model Outside Treated Area: 10
Flame Length Inside Treated Area: 0-4
Flame Length Outside Treatment: 5-10
Fuel Moistures
1 hr: not available
10 hr: 8 gm
Live Fuel Moisture: not available
Friend-Darnell Fire, Region 5, Plumas National Forest
100 hr: not
available
1000 hr: not
available
Measured or Estimated? 10hr were
calculated; others not available
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Fuel Treatment Effectiveness
Figure 2. Brush Creek Defensible Fuel Profile Zone unit 37 and overlap with
the Friend-Darnell Fire.
Friend-Darnell Fire, Region 5, Plumas National Forest
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Fuel Treatment Effectiveness
Photos
Brush Creek DFPZ – This area
was mechanically thinned and
then underburned. Had the
direct attack strategy not been
successful, the Brush Creek
DFPZ was the final option in
stopping the forward spread of
the Friend-Darnell Fire. It is
believed that there would have
been a 95 percent chance of
success using the DFPZ and
minimizing the threat to life and
property
Prescribed underburn of the
Brush Creek DFPZ – a drip
torch is being used to start strips
in this prescribed underburn.
Fuel reduction using this
methodology removes surface
and ladder fuels and creates a
fully effective DFPZ.
Brush Creek Unit 37 – This
photo illustrates the unit after a
single entry underburn. The
live lower limbs, leaves and
needles have been consumed
and a surface fire is less likely
to develop into a crown fire.
The treatment was useful in
reducing fire intensity in the
Friend-Darnell Fire and fire
suppression resources were able
to use the treatment unit to help
stop the fire.
Friend-Darnell Fire, Region 5, Plumas National Forest
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Fuel Treatment Effectiveness
Additional Documentation
Recommend Additional Documentation? No
Name and Title of Person Completing the Report
Narrative by:
John V Estes
District Fire Management Officer, Feather River Ranger District
Plumas National Forest
Jason Vermillion
Fuels Officer, Feather River Ranger District
Plumas National Forest
Colin Dillingham
Monitoring Team Leader
Herger-Feinstein Quincy Library Group Implementation Team
Deirdre Cherry
Fuels Officer, Feather River Ranger District
Plumas National Forest
Contact
Information
E-mail
Telephone
jestes@fs.fed.us
jvermillion@fs.fed.us
cdillingham@fs.fed.us
(530) 532-7430 (Estes)
(530) 532-7434 (Vermillion)
(530) 283-7881 (Dillingham)
Friend-Darnell Fire, Region 5, Plumas National Forest
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