SAFENET

• ⋅ Annual Statistics
• ⋅ FOIA
• ⋅ Accessibility
• ⋅ Privacy Statement
• ⋅ Disclaimer

SAFENET

Wildland Fire Safety & Health Reporting Network

SAFENET Event Information

Create Agency Response

SAFENET ID:

20171010-0001

Event Start Date:

10/10/2017 1439

Event Stop Date:

 

Incident Name:

Atlas Peak Fire

Fire Number:

 

State:

California

Jurisdiction:

State

Local Unit:

LNU (Vacaville Fire Protection District - CA-VVF)

Incident Type:

Wildland

Incident Activity:

Line

Stage of Incident:

Initial Attack

Position Title:

 

Task:

Structure Protection 

Management Level:

N/A

Resources Involved:

Crew and Type I Engine (CA-VVF E-264) 

Contributing Factors

Contributing Factors:

Human Factors, Other

Human Factors:

Performance, Situational Awareness  

Other Factors:

Lack of NWCG and CICCS qualifications for personnel 

Narrative

Describe in detail what happened including the concern or potential issue, the environment (weather, terrain, fire behavior, etc), and the resulting health issue.

Personnel from a Northern California Fire Protection District were assigned to Structure Protection on the Atlas Peak Incident in the Green Valley area of Napa and Solano counties. An engine was assigned to perform Structure Protection and as a result of parking the unit approximately 8-10 feet from a barn, the vehicle sustained moderate flame and heat impingement damage to the driver side of the vehicle. Damage includes cracked driver side windshield and gasket melted, driver side, side window cracked and gasket melted, paint bubbling, emergency lighting melted, marker lights melted, all pump panel gauges and controls melted and unreadable and 1.75" hose melted in the crosslay bed. Structure Protection of the barn appears to have been performed with a 0.75" hard booster line with no WUI Structure Protection lines deployed. It should be noted it does not appear the engine was backed in to perform structure protection which may have played a factor in deciding to leave the vehicle in place and not moving. This was compounded by the fact that many, if not all four (4) crew members do not have any NWCG and/or CICCS Wildland Firefighter Qualifications or Certifications for the positions they held on the Type I Engine for this assignment. It is unknown at this time if the vehicle was removed from the incident and/or if it has even been reported to the Atlas Peak Incident Commander or Safety Officer for the Division assigned. In addition to the lack of Qualifications and Certifications, it is believed this is a result of a lack of situational awareness in the WUI by utilizing a 0.75" booster line for the fire conditions presented.

Immediate Action Taken

Reporting Individual : please describe actions you took to correct or mitigate the unsafe/unhealthful event.

It has been stressed on several occasions to management, the personnel within Northern California Fire Protection District are lacking the requisite training and qualifications for Wildland Firefighting, Strike Team and Task Force assignments for all levels (positions) on Type I, Type III, Type V and Water Tender assignments. The Northern California Fire Protection District is a Volunteer Fire District with two (2) full time suppression personnel. Training seems to be a low priority and is evidenced by the Volunteer Battalion Chief/Training Officer who is almost always absent from training, has geared a lot of training to web based and is lacking the qualifications/certifications himself for the position he is currently assigned. This was a "fortunate" event in the sense nobody was seriously injured or killed and only vehicle damage was incurred.

Return to Top