Needles Lookout Fire Caused by Burning Ember
(via Porterville Recorder)
The fire that burned down the 74-year-old Needles Fire Lookout Tower was caused by an ember that escaped from the tower's chimney, according to a Tulare County Fire Department incident report released Friday.
According to the report, the female tower attendant, a U.S. Forest Service employee, had a fire going in the wood-burning fireplace when an ember escaped from the chimney and landed on the tower's wood-shingle roof, catching the roof on fire. The tower occupant tried unsuccessfully to use a fire extinguisher to extinguish the flames, TCFD reports.
Denise Alonzo, spokesperson for the Sequoia National Forest and the Giant Sequoia National Monument, was unable to confirm TCFD's report because she said she had not spoken to the tower attendant since the incident occurred.
"I have not seen the person who was working at the lookout," Alonzo said.
Alonzo did not want to release the name of the woman who was manning the tower when the fire broke out. The woman was able to get out of the tower safely before it was consumed by the blaze.
Built in 1937-38 by the Civilian Conservation Corps, Needles Lookout, which was situated atop one of the Needles' pinnacles at 8,245 feet elevation, was located on the Western Divide Ranger District in the Sequoia National Forest. The tower did not have a fire-retardant roof, Alonzo said.
Four other fires were started by the tower's burning debris that rolled down from the rock on which it was built, Alonzo said. Those fires are each less than an acre in size, she said.
"We've got crews out there now. We're working on getting those suppressed," Alonzo said. "It's going to take us a while to put them out, but we are working on that."
Alonzo said it will take firefighters some time to extinguish the four fires because the terrain where they are burning is steep and rocky. She added that the tower, which was completely destroyed, was still smoldering and dropping debris as of 2 p.m. Friday.
A USFS helicopter dropped several buckets of water on the roof of the tower when it was ablaze, but the extinguishment efforts were unsuccessful.
"This is certainly a loss to the district and the Forest Service," Alonzo said.
District Ranger Priscilla Summers on Thursday said the district lost a "historic landmark," but Alonzo said the loss goes beyond that.
"[The tower] was important to visitors as well as the communication that it provided between the front country and the back country," Alonzo said.
The tower served as a USFS employee's office and home for the summer months. The employee was responsible for detecting fires and relaying radio messages to a dispatcher, who then sent firefighters and support equipment to extinguish the reported fire.
The tower overlooked much of the Golden Trout Wilderness — where the Lion Fire is currently burning — and several other sites, including Mt. Whitney and the Kern River Drainage.
"I know that a substantial portion of the Golden Trout Wilderness cannot be seen from the other lookouts," Alonzo said.
Thirty USFS personnel responded to the fires. TCFD assisted with an additional crew of firefighters.
When asked if Needles Lookout will be replaced, Alonzo said it was too soon to say one way or another.
"It's really too soon for us to speculate on what we're going to be doing in the future," Alonzo said.
