Year Fire Type Number of Fires Ac
1997 Wildfire (≥5 ac) 40 3,477 Prescribed (RXB) 17 3,226 Impact Area 27 2,831 Total 84 9,534 1998 Wildfire (≥5 ac) 23 2,768 RXB 10 4,029 Impact Area 14 1,873 Total 47 8,670 1999 Wildfire (≥5 ac) 27 3,049 RXB 19 4,140 Impact Area 23 3,259 Total 69 10,448 2000 Wildfire (≥5 ac) 5 355 RXB 15 3,521 Impact Area 10 836 Total 30 4,712 2001 Wildfire (≥5 ac) 6 519 RXB 14 4,682 Impact Area 21 1,563 Total 41 6,764
Year Fire Type Number of Fires Ac 2002 Wildfire (≥5 ac) 11 3,575 RXB 4 1,380 Impact Area 5 979 Total 25 5,934 2003 Wildfire (≥5 ac) 21 2,717 RXB 13 2,260 Impact Area 17 12,007 Total 51 16,984 2004 Wildfire (≥5 ac) 4 3,475 RXB 12 1,173 Impact Area 23 3,515 Total 39 8,163 2005 Wildfire (≥5 ac) 31 8381 RXB 9 3066 Impact Area 21 4910 Total 61 16,357 2006 Wildfire (≥5 ac) 18 3702 RXB 5 2074 Impact Area 7 2292 Total 30 8,068 2007 Wildfire (≥5 ac) 39 18,634 RXB 5 794 Impact Area 6 2,498 Total 50 21,926 2008 Wildfire (≥5 ac) 25 12,600 RXB 5 1,052 Total 30 13,652 2009 Wildfire/WFI 81 10,554 RXB 4 2,325 Total 85 12,879 2010 Wildfire/WFI 118 9,284 RXB 8 1,487 Total 126 10,771
Sources for fire history data at Camp Pendleton: 1997-1999 (MCB Camp Pendleton 2002), 2000 (Tierra Data Systems 2001a), 2001 (Tierra Data Systems 2002), 2002 (Tierra Data Systems 2003a), 2003 (Tierra Data Systems 2004), 2004 (Tierra Data Systems 2005), 2005 (ITS 2006), 2006 (ITS 2007), 2007 (ITS 2007), 2008 (Apex Consulting 2009a), 2009 (Apex Consulting 2010a), and 2010 (Goodman pers. comm. 2011).
Camp Pendleton’s Fire Department and the Base Fire Ecologist are actively engaged in regional planning and partnering to the mutual benefit of the Base and local, regional, and national agencies. In addition to providing personnel and equipment to assist in emergency wildfires throughout the region, fire department staff regularly provides professional expertise in fire management planning and in personnel training. The following examples highlight some of the ways in which the Camp Pendleton Fire Department has contributed to or is involved in local, regional, and national partnering efforts:
• Federal Wildland Fire Policy Review Working Group and the National Wildfire Coordinating Group. Camp Pendleton’s Fire Chief acts as the DoD representative to the Federal Wildland Fire Policy Review Working Group and the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, which were established to develop and implement fire management policy for use on all federal lands.
• Wildland Fire Suppression Training Support. Camp Pendleton’s Fire Department annually hosts two weeks of wildland fire suppression training for USFS personnel and all other regional cooperating agencies.
• Wildland Fire Suppression Mutual Aid Agreements. Camp Pendleton’s Fire Department provides personnel and equipment, as available, as part of mutual aid agreements with local, regional and national with members, as part of Interagency Incident Management Teams. Camp Pendleton’s Fire Chief was an Incident Commander in the Los Alamos, New Mexico fire (Cerro Grande Incident) during May and June 2000.
• Camp Pendleton’s Fire Management Plan. Camp Pendleton’s Fire Management Plan was developed in cooperation with the USFWS and is being viewed by several DoD installations and National Forests as a potential regional model.
• Naval Weapons Station Fire Management Plan. Camp Pendleton’s Fire Department assisted Naval Weapons Station, Seal Beach Annex personnel (and their contractors) in development of a Fire Management Plan that is complementary to Camp Pendleton’s new Fire Management Plan and strategy.
• Santa Ana Mountains Fire Alliance and the San Diego County Fire Safe Council. Camp Pendleton’s Fire Department is a member of the Santa Ana Mountains Fire Alliance and the San Diego County Fire Safe Council.
• San Diego County Fire Service Working Groups. Camp Pendleton’s Fire Department personnel are active around San Diego County in several fire service working groups to help ensure the availability of, and ready access to, up-to-date information on fire incidents and fire-related land management issues on Base. • Regional Fuels Management and Fire Resource Allocation Planning. Camp
Pendleton’s Fire Department is working with the Cleveland National Forest and Orange County Fire Authority on fire management issues that integrate both fuels management and fire resource allocation planning.
• Fire Department Local Mutual Aid Memorandum of Understanding. Camp Pendleton’s Fire Department has established an MOU with all fire agencies in San Diego County, the Orange County Fire Authority, the California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection, USFS, SONGS, Caltrans, and California Highway Patrol, for providing mutual aid, when requested.
• Fire Management Equipment Field Testing and Evaluation. Camp Pendleton lands have been instrumental in the testing and development of the utility and applicability of Type-1 Helicopters (large Heli-tankers) as an initial attack resource on wildfires. The first Type-1 initial attack Helicopters were stationed and tested for three years at Camp Pendleton. Ultimately, results of this research led to the placement of initial attack Type-1 helicopters throughout southern California. Also Camp Pendleton’s Fire Department, in conjunction with the program sponsor, California’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, hosted and coordinated
research and development of the “Operation Fire Stop II” project. This joint effort was designed and initiated to test and evaluate new, 21st century wildfire fighting equipment.
PRE-SUPPRESSION
Natural conditions that lead to high fire frequencies on Base cannot be eliminated. Therefore, pre-suppression measures are an essential mission support component of the Fire Management Program. Pre-fire measures include the implementation of the Fire Danger Rating System, scientifically determined from the fire behavior triangle (fuels, weather and topography), maintenance of defensible space, firebreaks (FBXs) and access roads, and qualified application of the MCB Camp Pendleton prescription fire burn plans (RXBs).
The Fire Danger Rating System consists of a color-coded notification system that indicates the fire danger level and programmatic instructions that identify restrictions on activities with fire-generating potential (Table 4-13). Fire danger ratings are established daily from a combination of weather data, fuel moisture, fuel load, Base activity level, and fire fighting resource availability (ratings may be further adjusted within a given locality for the added protection of the natural resources present). Fire hazard conditions are monitored throughout the day by the Base’s Fire Department, in cooperation with Environmental Security Fire Management, Range Control, and through intermittent range inspections. The 2005 Annual Fire Frequency and Mapping Report (ITS 2006) shows that ignitions were most frequent during the dry summer months and the relatively infrequent during periods of extreme fire danger, when the FDR imposes the most stringent restrictions on use of heat or flame producing devices. The threat of wildland Fire Ignition is directly related to the type of military training conducted at any given moment, the threat of Catastrophic Wildfire is linked to the ignition plus natural resource conditions (Goodman pers. comm. 2011).
An essential component of fire prevention on Base is fuels management. The management of fuels can help prevent, as well as assist in, the control of fires that do start. Pre- suppression fuels management involves the maintenance of defensible space, firebreaks and fuel breaks to limit or slow the spread of fire. The Base has established an extensive current network of 76 firebreaks and 22 fuelbreaks, totaling nearly 1,636 ac over approximately 187 linear miles. Firebreak locations and requirements are periodically reviewed and are eliminated from the network if considered unnecessary by the Camp Pendleton Fire Department. The LMB monitors the firebreak system closely and makes recommendations to the fire department concerning firebreak compliance and status. Reference the 2010 Annual Report: Mission Driven Wildland Fire Mapping Project (MCBCP 2011b) which was composed and approved by AC/S Environmental Security Fire Management in support of the Camp Pendleton Fire Department (CPFD) compliance. By 2005, 24 firebreaks had been taken out of the original firebreak network and restored with native vegetation. All requirements for new firebreaks are reviewed through the NEPA process before they can be constructed on Base.