Smaller Team Understudying to Manage Langille Fire
Incident: Langille Wildfire
Released: 8/7/2009
A team led by Incident Commander Carl Seielstad assumes management of the Langille fire Saturday, after several days understudying the group which prepared a long term implementation plan for the fire. Seielstad, who is skilled at implementing long term management plans, will work closely with District Fire Management Officer Tom Griffith.
They will monitor and plan to contain the fire in areas where firefighters can work safely. More resources will join the Langille fire when their work can be safe and effective. The Langille fire did not grow Thursday. No new fires appeared locally.
Helpers assist local firefighting from the Cowlitz Valley and from around the country. Nationally, no one wildland fire organization has enough people to safely conduct operations and provide incident support. More than 100 large fires are burning across the United States Friday, even though firefighters contain 95% of wildfires in their first few days.
The Northern Rockies team travels Saturday to the Golden Stair fire near Prospect, Oregon. In Randle, five White Pass High School sixteen-year-olds are employed as camp crew. This week they built yurts as outdoor office facilities.
Both a local campground and the Lewis County Fire Department have offered showers to firefighters. Randle restaurants have stepped up to serve meals, saving the expense of paying a national-level caterer.
Firefighters spend up to fourteen days on a dispatch. The Payson hotshots and Prescott helitack came here from Arizona. Three contracted crews of red-carded firefighters have come from Oregon. Cooperation makes the difference when organizations work together to benefit the land and community.
