A topic to have discussions of why fires are named the way they are. In addition to past Fire names…
So I have a question about the incident name. If my memory serves me right the Panther fire 2008 was a fatality fire. I thought we couldn’t use that name again?
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NIFC recommends not using a name of such an incident.
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Yes, there was a Panther Fire fatality in Region 5 in 2008.
https://www.wildfirelessons.net/HigherLogic/System/DownloadDocumentFile.ashx?DocumentFileKey=2c5c3a22-39cf-467d-a884-1f6fac757035&forceDialog=0
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Command Centers don’t usually have a list of fatal fires when they name them.
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Suggested but seldom done because fire names are usually based on geographic locations. I can think of 10 fires called cedar. There were at least 2 fires called creek last year.
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There are a Ridiculous number of “highway”, “hill”, “Creek” and “River” incidents that never get big enough to be noticed.
We had a fire at “Jackass Flats”…they called it the “flat” fire. A goldend opportunity missed to be the Jackass IC
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In 94’ our team was on our way to the Chicken on the Payette. The Deputy IC (DIC) took some flack over that. Fortunately we were diverted to the Blackwell in mid flight and the SA team got the Chicken.
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Then there was the green Ranger II who was the Cherry IC
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I think a lot of people who have worked on the ENF have been to at least one Gerle fire.
Harmless enough to not get squelched as a name, and totally appropriate, but still funny.
Maybe in today’s environment would no longer be allowed?
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I will always remember the phone call from my IC, early on the morning of April 1, 2000. He told me we were going to the Mendo to the “Cabbage Patch” fire. I told him that although I may have been born at night, but it wasn’t last night, and on April Fools day he was not going to get me to believe that the Mendo, which around Lake Pillsbury (that didn’t sit well either) should be under snow, would have a fire requiring a Type 1 team - especially being the Cabbage Patch Fire. It’s not until he started swearing (uncharacteristic for him) that I began to believe him. Yea, we were there, not for long since the snow was thinking about flying, but we were there. So, naming a fire can also have some unintended consequences (as can an April 1 deployment). It may be an area on the Mendo, but I was not the only C&GS he had problems trying to convince that he was serious and it wasn’t a joke.
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I went to the Pansie fire in 2019. It was in Pansie Gulch. No one wanted to be the IC for that one.
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In 1997 we had the Beaver Incident on the ENF.
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Fish and wildlife in Fresno and Merced counties every once in a while tries to get a madmax theme going if they get consecutive fires. I remember ironbar, wez, madmax, and I think they named one thunderdome.
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Being from a municipal department we had an operational procedure that stated we would institute ICS on every multi-company incident, even if only declaring who was IC. One night I was woken up by the dispatchers around 0200 for a “outbuilding fire” at Standard Park. On arrival, knowing at 2am only the field was working (no admin at that hour!) I heard one of my company officers arrive on-scene, provide a size up and 360, and promptly name himself the “Porta-Potty IC.” There was a lot of dead air time as the dispatchers took time to compose themselves and repeat it.
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A certain BC on the BDF named his fires for southern states
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Ha! I remember Daryl…
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CA-BDF-Poop Out IC on Poop Out Mountain
CA-LAC-Brush IC
Some good ones
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Been up Poop Out a time or two back in the early 70’s on the San Gorgonio When I first started there was a N%^&*% Jim Ridge on that District on the Forest Recreation map. Went to a fire on the Cajon back then on Gobbler’s Knob.
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