Applied Science
The Figueroa Remote Automated Weather Station sits at 3,200 feet on a grassy knob in the mountains above Santa Barbara. The small unit is bristling with antennas, sensors, solar panels, and various weather measuring devices, making it appear like a stationary and earthly version of a Mars rover. Quietly collecting and transmitting critical weather data, such as wind speed and direction, relative humidity, fuel moisture, and air temperature, the Figueroa unit and other nearby RAWS stations became invaluable on the 2007 Zaca Fire, feeding data to new, powerful fire spread projection models as the fire spread across the Los Padres National Forest, and the San Rafael and Dick Smith Wilderness Areas.
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The Zaca Fire eventually burned nearly a quarter of a million acres, becoming the second largest fire in modern California history. For such a large fire, it was remarkable that no serious injuries were sustained, and there was only minimal damage to structures. Successful management of the Zaca should be directly attributed to the tremendous hardwork and determination of the fire crews, but it is also owed in large part to the willingness of fire managers to recognize the constraints of the terrain and the fuels and to use patience, planning, and the best science available in laying out an opportunistic and effective strategy.
On the Zaca, fire behavior modelers worked closely with incident management teams to provide information critical for accurate long-term planning on a large, complex fire. In turn, fire managers provided feedback on how results and model outputs could be adjusted to better fit with their concerns and needs. The result was a real-time integration of science and practice.
The Santa Ynez Valley above Santa Barbara is home to world-class wineries, multi-million dollar celebrity homes, and sprawling ranches. All were threatened on the Fourth of July when a fire was ignited by ranch hands repairing a water pipe in a steep and rugged canyon. Sparks from a metal grinder ignited a fire in the parched vegetation, and the fire quickly began running up the ridge above the canyon.
Santa Barbara County fire crews arrived on the incident within minutes and were able to build containment lines on the bottom edge of the fire, but the fire was already moving into difficult terrain on the steep hillsides of Zaca Ridge. By the next day, the fire had moved onto the Los Padres National Forest and the Forest Service went into unified command with California state fire officials and Santa Barbara County Fire. The incident commanders quickly began a planning process for containing and suppressing the fire.
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Within days, the fire moved into the San Rafael Wilderness, a rugged area with steep canyons and ridges, dense and highly flammable fuels, and little access. However, that did not take the pressure off fire crews. In southern California, development is never far away, and the San Rafael is ringed by a number of small communities and ranches, many only separated by a single ridge from the potential advance of the fire. In addition, given the fuels and the lack of natural barriers, the fire also had the potential to eventually threaten Santa Barbara and the urban coastal area (and ultimately did). From the beginning the firefighters and managers knew they were dealing with both a wildland urban interface fire and a wilderness fire in an extremely dense and dry fuel environment. Complexity was the name of the game.
"The forest is 68% roadless and Mother Nature is in control. We understand wind and topo-driven fires, but fuel-driven is a different beast," says James Smith, a division chief on the Los Padres National Forest. "This is one of those fires you aren't just going to go in and put out. There is no reason to put firefighters in harm's way.
Given the complexity, the Boise National Incident Management Organization team was brought in to manage the fire. NIMO teams are new, and they were created to fight fires using some different approaches than are traditionally employed. Focusing on Appropriated Management Response, cost-effectiveness, and risk-based decision-making, the teams are expected to develop a new model for fighting and managing large, long-duration fires.
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