Local forester helps battle massive blaze near Yosemite
On Aug. 17, when the first puffs of smoke began to plume from the heavily wooded wilderness area in the Stanislaus National Forest in Sonora, Calif., no one could have predicted those first bits of burnt tinder would result in one of the largest forest fires in U.S. history.
More than 2,500 miles away in Forbes State Forest, Mike DiRinaldo, a service forester with the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, certainly didn’t expect that those first wisps of gray in the middle of nowhere would send him on a 17-day firefighting expedition battling the fourth-largest fire in California history.
“Requests started going through the East, and they requested that I go,” DiRinaldo said. “I left Harrisburg on the 24th of August and returned on Sept. 10. I spent 14 days on the line.”
The “line” DiRinaldo refers to is the line of nearly 1,500 forestry and fire experts battling the Rim Fire in Stanislaus and Yosemite National Park, attempting to contain the massive blaze that has consumed 256,895 acres of prime national forest and park land and continues to burn.
The wildfire has consumed nearly 400 square miles, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and although it is now nearly contained, continues to occupy the attention of more than 1,000 firefighters and foresters still toiling at the site, monitoring fire lines and watching for hot spots and flareups.
And those fire lines, DiRinaldo said, are the key to containing such a massive blaze.
Fighting from a distance
Firefighters battling fires that cover thousands of acres of remote wilderness take a different approach than those who rush into burning buildings or attempt to salvage a residence or business from ruin.
DiRinaldo said that he never actually fought the fire raging in the California woods but worked at a distance, digging fire lines and actually burning areas of trees and brush the Rim Fire had been steadily closing in on since its ignition.
DiRinaldo said he was assigned to a division crew and went out daily for 16-hour shifts creating fire lines, removing brush from forest roads and improving dugouts created by bulldozers all in an attempt to halt the blaze’s growth.
“We did a lot of burning out and back burning to the main fire,” DiRinaldo said, noting that he most often worked miles from the actual forest fire. “We wanted to get a good solid black line. Our goal is to burn out the fuel to approach.”
Unlike residential fires and common blazes across the country, forest and brush fires are fueled by the trees and growth in a particular region. In this case, DiRinado said the most common trees fueling the blaze are oaks, pines and smaller brush. He said those fuel lines were severed by foresters creating the “dug out” fire lines and by destroying the fuel before the main fire’s arrival in certain areas by burning it in advance.
The U.S. Forest Service has classified the terrain as “extremely difficult” where the Rim Fire is burning.
Fire crews and forestry workers have implemented 141 miles of fire suppression line around the fire, including fire lines and trenches dug out to the east and Yosemite National Park.
Costs, cause and consumption
As of Sept. 18, the Rim Fire had cost more than $116 million to fight, caused 10 injuries and destroyed 112 buildings, including three businesses and 11 residences, according to U.S. Forest Service officials.
The Forest Service announced earlier this month that it had determined the fire was the result of an illegal fire set by a hunter, but officials have not divulged any additional information.
No arrests have been made, according to officials, and the suspect’s name is being withheld pending further investigation. The only legal hunting allowed at the time the fire started Aug. 17 was archery for bear and deer, according to the Associated Press.
Because of high fire danger across the region, the Forest Service had banned fires outside of developed camping areas more than a week before the fire started. But the cause is of little importance to those working on containment.
DiRinaldo said that with massive expanses of forest, like Yosemite and Stanislaus, officials sometimes let the fires “run their course” because of the difficult terrain and the possible natural fire suppressors in certain regions.
However, as the blaze bore down on more populated and traveled areas, crews moved into place to block the fire from advancing. Enter foresters like DiRinaldo.
A small piece of a big picture
DiRinaldo said that while he worked miles from the blaze along with hundreds of foresters, others acted as lookouts to maintain a constant eye on the fire, which can move rapidly and erratically at times.
He said that the team battling the actual primary blaze continued to work to suppress the main fire and air drops were maintained daily in an effort to slow the main body of fire down.
“It is a huge effort,” he said, noting that each forester is tasked with certain small goals and tasks that are integrated into an overall attack plan that is constructed to save lives and property and to ultimately extinguish the blaze.
DiRinaldo, who said he manages a few thousand acres in Forbes State Forest and also works to help private woodland owners with timber harvest and forest plans, said that all state foresters and fire inspectors receive mandatory training for fire suppression and firefighting.
DiRinaldo explained that he has volunteered for additional training that allows him to be deployed on forest fires such as the Rim Fire.
DiRinaldo said that the fire is the largest he worked on in his career in forestry.
“It was hard work,” DiRinaldo said.
“We put 16 hour shifts in, sometimes 18 hours, but when you get the right weather you want to keep at it. It made for long days. We were living out of tents, but it was worth it.
“There is a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction as we got our lines in and burned out. I felt like I didn’t leave a half-completed project.
“I feel like we got important work done,” DiRinaldo said.