Meeting reivews actions at the East Fork Fire

Members of the public and representatives from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation held an after action review of the response to the East Fork Fire at the Chinook Fire Station Tuesday night, to find out what improvements can be made when they respond to future wildfires.

The review was organized by Blaine and Hill County Commissioners, their respective fire wardens and the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. Area fire fighters, officials from the two counties and landowners attended.

The East Fork Fire began Aug. 27 on Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation and torched nearly 22,0000 acres in Blaine and Hill counties.

Manchester Volunteer Fire Deparmtent Chief Leonard Lundby, vice chief of the Montana State Fire Chiefs Association moderated the meeting. He said at the start of the meeting that while everyone would be able to have their say, the meeting was not meant to be a debate.

"I didn't drive 104 miles to listen to you argue and swear," Lundby said.

Chinook Volunteer Fire Department Chief and Blaine County Fire Warden Kraig Hanson said that he thinks in future responses there should be more of a unified command between the two counties and Rocky Boy.

Hanson said he didn't know how such a command structure could be created, but he, Theron Oats of Rocky Boy Forestry Fire Management who was initially Incident Commander of the fire and Bear Paw Volunteer Fire Department Chief Josh Bebee should have been together during the fire.

More collaboration could be tougher, especially between reservation and nonreservation communities, Hanson said. He added that he has fought fires alongside fire fighters from the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation who have their own rules and while they can fight fires pretty efficiently with one another, neither entity can ever communicate with each other's Incident commanders.

Don Pyrah of DNRC who had been Incident Commander from Sept. 8 on the East Fork Fire, said that, in the future, the reservation and both counties should consider having their Emergency Operations Centers in one place.

Some people suggested contacting other counties sooner for mutual aid.

Lundby said firefighting entities helping through a mutual aid agreement often have to travel long distances.

Counties, he said, should call early and call often.

Bebee said he wishes that he would have called and requested that Blaine County fire fighters come sooner.

Don Pyrah said Rocky Boy, Hill and Blaine counties each had their own Emergency Operations Centers,

He said if the reservation and two counties could have had their EOCs located in one location it would have made communications easier.

In Cascade County, Lundby said, there is a trailer they take to the site of a large challenging event. Blaine and Hill counties might want to look into doing something similar with DNRC in the future.

Lundby said communities should enlarge the circle of communities they seek mutual aid from.

Pyrah said after the East Fork Fire, he wants to forge a better relationship with Rocky Boy.

Lundby said in a major event, relationships are everything

"That small relationship when you don't have it looks small today, but on a big fire, it really, really gets magnified," he said.

The people at the meeting also talked about misinformation being spread through Facebook.

"We struggled with that initially and we were kind of chasing our tail around in a circle a bit, but it is amazing how many people believe what they read on Facebook," he said.

Hanson said social media helped when EOC started posting information on the Blaine and Hill County Health Department Facebook pages, but before that, the use of Facebook helped spread misperceptions.

People were calling 80- and 90 year-old women because of posts on Facebook about the fire and telling them they needed to get their houses cleaned out because the fire was close by when in reality it was 35 miles away, he said.

The counties should work to keep in touch with local media, Lundby said, because they can help put out accurate information.

Lack of communication at times was also a problem at times.

Cathy Gregoire, a dispatcher with the Bear Paw Volunteer Fire Department, said some people did not feel they needed to communicate over the radios. She suggested volunteers and ranchers battling the fire, check in more often.

During six days sitting, she said that she heard mothers and wives terrified because they had not heard from their sons and husbands in days.

Gregoire said at one point a volunteer in his 80s had gone missing.

"Just a simple get on the radio and say 'Hey, this is John Smith and I am fine,'" Lundby said.

Volunteers should radio in and offer a report, notifying the dispatcher of their condition, actions that are being taken and what they need, he said.

Hanson said people should stop freelancing or operating on their own.

Pyrah said freelancing can sometimes be taking the initiative in response to changing conditions. Instead, he said, people should not operate without a plan.

Initiative is not all bad, he said, as long as it is tried into a larger plan and a person has the chance to take advantage of opportunities as they arise.

Chinook Mayor Ken Hanson and Blaine County Commissioner Frank DePriest each proposed additional cell phone towers that could help improve communications, which is limited in the Bear Paws.

Every year reports are issued that show that when a firefighter or member of the public dies in a fire, better communications both interpersonal and over the radio is usually found to be the factor that could have changed things, Havre Fire Chief Mel Paulsen said.

"We've got to stop, we've got to have communication, we've got to have some accountability and then a plan and then we can go to work," he said.

Despite saying some areas could be improved, attendees said during the meeting that they were happy with the response to the fire.