Battle the Blaze

The White Draw fire started on June 29, 2012, near Highway 18 from a vehicle fire, and very dry conditions and strong winds caused it to spread quickly. Wildland fires are usually fought indirectly from the flank, rear, or overhead, with suppression tactics shaped by firefighter safety, weather predictions, landscape topography, and available personnel, equipment, and aircraft. By July 5, 2012, the fire had burned 9,000 acres, including 6,045 U.S. Forest Service acres, and suppression resources included 4 Hotshot crews, 6 twenty-person hand crews, 5 helicopters, 20 engines, 3 dozers, 7 water tenders, and 100 tactical and logistic support personnel, at a total suppression cost of $3.3 million. Burned Area Emergency Response addressed immediate post-fire emergencies to protect life, property, and natural and cultural resources, with White Draw treatments including 35 acres of weed treatments, 4 cultural or heritage site stabilizations, signage for flash floods, road treatments to handle post-fire hydrologic flows, and monitoring for hydrology, noxious weeds, heritage, and roads, for a total cost of $85,000. Wildland firefighters work for long periods in hazardous, extremely hot, smoky, dirty, and dusty conditions, performing physically demanding tasks such as digging line, carrying fire hose day after day, and hiking long distances in rough terrain, often with little sleep, while sometimes traveling anywhere in the U.S. for two-week assignments.

South Dakota · United States