Fire officials say that a team of 20 Delaware wildland firefighters who have spent almost two weeks battling the Stuart Creek 2 Fire – an 85,000-acre blaze burning near North Pole, Alaska – are tentatively scheduled to return to the First State by Monday, July 22.

According to the latest update from the Eastern Area Coordination Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin: “As of now, all eight crews (from the Eastern U.S.) will be flying out of Fairbanks on two jets on Sunday, July 21.  Tentative departure times are 1030/1130.  Arrival times in Harrisburg, PA will be approximately 2300 and 2400 EDT.  All crews/crew members will be going to the Harrisburg Mobilization Center for the night.  Due to the late arrival time, no one will be traveling home that night.  Transportation home should be scheduled for the morning of July 22.”

The Delaware team will report back to Blackbird State Forest, 502 Blackbird Forest Road, Smyrna, DE 19977, (302) 653-6505. Estimated time of arrival could be sometime around noon.

Thanks to the Delaware crew’s hard work  – as well as the support of hundreds of other personnel assigned to the Stuart Creek 2 Fire – conditions in Alaska have steadily improved over the past two weeks. Once assigned to a top-level “Type I Incident Management Team” due to the logistics and complexity of the blaze, the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center has taken over management of the incident in the past 24 hours and now reports that the fire is over 57 percent contained. Firefighters are now focused on constructing and holding the existing containment lines, looking out for sporadic spot fires and conducting “mop-up” operations.

According to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, the National Preparedness Level – an index of wildfire severity nationwide – remains at 3 on a 5-point scale.

For more information, contact Henry Poole, Delaware Forest Service, 302-698-4548 or henry.poole@delaware.gov.

July 9, 2013: Update on the crew of 20 Delaware wildland firefighters in Alaska

The crew of 20 firefighters from Delaware are now part of over 730 personnel assigned to the Stuart Creek 2 Fire – a wildfire located about 25 miles east of the town of North Pole, Alaska which has grown to 82,274 acres and is now 15 percent contained.

According to the Eastern Area Coordination Center daily report:

“The crew is still in staging at the “Tirebase” spike camp. The crew from Delaware will join up with a crew from Maryland and possibly move to a new spike camp. The crews will focus on structure protection at the north end of the fire. Morale is high. Daytime temperatures have been in the seventies with nighttime temperatures in the fifties. Precipitation is forecasted for this evening with wind gusts at eighteen to twenty miles per hour.”

Photo of a Delaware crew member from the Fairbanks Daily “News-Miner” website.

Please credit photo to: Sam Harrel/News-Miner

Caption: Stuart Creek 2 Fire

Firefighter Jon Stave, of Newark, Del., pulls the rain fly over his tent as crews from Monangahela National Forest, W. Va., set up camp Monday evening, July 8, 2013, at the Pleasant Valley ball fields.

Regarding the cause of the fire, the Anchorage Daily News reported today:

“While residents praised the firefighters, some had harsher words for the U.S. Army, which started the blaze on June 25 during an artillery exercise.

Kent Slaughter, the Alaska Fire Service manager for the Bureau of Land Management, said the BLM had advised the Army not to conduct training that day. The fire, Slaughter added, may lead BLM to re-evaluate how the agency authorizes the Army to conduct live-fire training.

Alexander said community attitudes toward the Army were mixed, with some residents angry, and others who felt that the exercises were a forgivable mishap.”

Contact: John Petersen, Delaware Forest Service, 302-233-8180 (cell)

A crew of 20 wildland firefighters under the direction of the Delaware Forest Service that departed on Friday, July 5 from Blackbird State Forest in Smyrna has joined over 680 personnel working on the 65,000-acre Stuart Creek 2 fire, located 25 miles east of North Pole, Alaska. The blaze is only 5 percent contained and burning through a mix of hardwoods and black spruce. The crew is assigned to a “remote spike camp” and tasked with preparing their own meals from “fresh food boxes” issued by fire officials. Delaware’s firefighters are also making the adjustment to the long hours of daylight typical to an Alaskan summer. Their first operational day on the fire was scheduled to be Monday, July 8.

According to a Monday update from the Eastern Area Coordination Center EACC, “The crew is still in staging at the “Tirebase” spike camp. Morale is high. Daytime temperatures have been in the seventies with nighttime temperatures in the fifties. Precipitation is forecasted for this afternoon and evening.”

Crews typically serve 14 days on the fire line before traveling home.

The National Preparedness Level is now at 3 on a 5-point scale.

The latest fire information on Stuart Creek 2: http://www.inciweb.org/incident/3468/

Delaware’s Eastern Area Inter-Agency Resource Representative (IARR) Crew Report:
DES#1: http://gacc.nifc.gov/eacc/logistics/crews/crews_files/iarr_report.pdf

National Incident Management Situation Report: http://www.nifc.gov/nicc/sitreprt.pdf

Selected photos from crew mobilization at Blackbird State Forest:

Contact information: Ashley Peebles, ashley.peebles@delaware.gov, 302-698-4551.

PolyTech High School in Woodside placed first among six Delaware high school FFA chapters that squared off at Brecknock County Park in Camden this week in the annual “Forestry Career Development Event (CDE),” a challenging test of tree identification skills, forestry tools and knowledge, and math-related abilities. Each team consisted of four students who answered both individual and team-based questions. Led by their instructor Susan Wujtewicz, PolyTech also fielded the event’s individual overall winner, Jacob Dickey. The event was held in cooperation with the Delaware Department of Agriculture Forest Service.

Schools represented this year were Middletown, Milford, PolyTech, Smyrna, Sussex Central, and Sussex Tech. Delaware Forest Service Trainer-Educator Ashley Peebles developed the curriculum and organized the event, which tested student knowledge in six separate skill areas: tree identification, equipment identification and troubleshooting, timber stand improvement, compass and pacing, board-foot volume estimation, and an individual written examination.

PolyTech High School will now go on to represent the First State against teams from all over the U.S. as part of the four-day National FFA Convention scheduled to begin on Wednesday, October 30 in Louisville, Kentucky.

According to the FFA , Career Development Events help students develop the abilities to think critically, communicate clearly, and perform effectively in a competitive job market.”

There are 24 CDEs, covering job skills in everything from communications to mechanics. Some events allow students to compete as individuals, while others allow them to compete in teams.

Here are photo highlights and captions from the individual schools that competed in the event.

UPDATE:
This event will take place at Kent County’s Brecknock Park – all other details are the same.
For directions: click here

“Forestry for the future” – Students to test forestry skills at Brecknock Park on June 25.

Contact: Ashley Peebles, 302-698-4551 ashley.peebles@delaware.gov

Who:     – Delaware school chapters of the Future Farmers of America (FFA) and teachers
– Delaware Forest Service trainer-educator Ashley Peebles and forestry staff

What:    FFA teams will square off against each other in the 2013 “Forestry CDE Event,” a challenging test of tree identification skills, forestry tools and knowledge, and math-related abilities. Each team consists of four students who must answer both individual and team-based questions. This is the event’s sixth consecutive year.

When:   Tuesday, June 25 at 10 a.m.

Where:  Kent County’s Brecknock Park, Rt. 13, Camden, DE  (just south of Rodney Village Shopping Center)

Background:

Delaware’s first-place team will represent the First State in the national CDE event against teams from all over the United States as part of the four-day National FFA Convention scheduled to begin on Wednesday, October 30 in Louisville, Kentucky.

At the 2012 Delaware Forestry CDE event, the Milford FFA team took first-place and went on to be recognized as a Silver Emblem chapter at the national event.

According to the National FFA website, “Career Development Events (CDEs) help students develop the abilities to think critically, communicate clearly, and perform effectively in a competitive job market.”

There are 24 CDEs, covering job skills in everything from communications to mechanics. Some events allow students to compete as individuals, while others allow them to compete in teams.

Last year’s national results: 2012 Forestry CDE Results

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