Nevada – Three firefighters were returning from a wildland fire inspection when the fire truck overturned Sunday evening. It only involved their vehicle, and two of the crew on board died. The third firefighter was injured and was airlifted to a hospital in Reno.
The fire engine was carrying Bureau of Land Management (BLM) firefighters that were looking for lightning-sparked wildfires in the Denio Area, according to Las Vegas Now. The accident happened near the Nevada-Oregon state line, to Winnemucca on state Route 140. The firefighter that survived the crash was flown to Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno.
BLM spokesman Stephen Clutter said on Monday that the names of the victims will be made public once family members are notified. He added that the injured firefighter was in stable condition after being airlifted, according to the Daily Mail.
“Our hearts are heavy, but our focus, our thoughts, our or prayers are with the families of these extraordinary brave people who served to protect the people of Nevada and the public lands of that belong to all of us,” said Clutter regarding the tragedy
Nevada’s wildfire and mountaintop cameras as part of the BLM firefighting equipment
Nevada is part of the states of the West that are vulnerable to wildland fires. A Climate Central study says fires in the West had increased in frequency since the 1970s and the overall season is now 105 days longer than it has been, according to Las Vegas Sun.
Climate Central is a nonprofit organization, and it based its research from U.S. Forest Service records and climate-change models. The factors that are contributing to the fires are the rising temperatures, the increasingly parched landscapes and changes to the snowpack.
On July 8, 2016, a Hot Pot wildland fire started in northern Nevada at a pace of 10,000 acres per hour and the newest addition to the BLM firefighting arsenal was used to control the flames.
The Bureau of Land Management and the University of Nevada have joined forces to improve the response system to wildfires using cameras.
The new camera system can spot mountaintop fires and save money on resources, and they are being used since July 2, Juba Net reports.
Before the cameras, to detect and monitor fires fire managers would send planes, which takes time and resources but now, with the fire cameras, it is possible to respond to this events faster, efficiently and more efficiently.
According to Juba Net, the recording devices can live-broadcast cameras on remote mountain peaks in central and northeastern Nevada using the University’s private high-speed internet system capable of transmitting climate, environmental and seismic data. The live streaming is high-definition.
State Fire Management, Paul Petersen, said that the cameras are strategically sited to provide a landscape overview, and he added that all cameras are equipped with on-demand time-lapse functions that make it possible to playback throughout different time periods. He added that this allowed fire managers a real-time picture of what is happening from both weather and fire behavior point.
Source: The Daily Mail