Attempt to get improved fire shelters falters

BOISE, Idaho — Crews who battle wildfires will have to wait at least another year before getting better fire shelters than those that failed to save 19 firefighters trapped by flames in Arizona four years ago, officials said this month.

The deaths pushed the U.S. Forest Service to speed up work to get an upgraded shelter in place this year, but the effort has been delayed a year after prototypes could not outperform the shelter developed in 2002.

It comes as firefighters are facing more destructive wildfires and the struggle to protect homes being built in or near remote areas.

“The reason there isn’t (a new shelter) is because there were no great options to choose from,” said Tony Petrilli, fire shelter project leader for the U.S. Forest Service at the Missoula Technology and Development Center in Montana.

Petrilli escaped serious injury or death by getting into a fire shelter as flames roared past on Colorado’s Storm King Mountain in 1994. His elation at surviving didn’t last long.

Within minutes, he was among the first to find the bodies of some of the 14 firefighters whose fire shelters didn’t save them. His radio message reporting the deaths rattled federal agencies and led to the development of the 2002 shelter.

The Forest Service wants to replace that shelter following the 2013 deaths in Arizona.

But the effort faces serious setbacks, and the agency says it won’t meet its December deadline to create an upgraded shelter for the 2018 fire season despite help from NASA, research universities and private companies.

After spending roughly $200,000 to $500,000 on the program, it’s possible the 2002 shelter will stay the standard, the Forest Service said.

“We’re not having a whole lot of success,” said Mark Ackerman, a former academic at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. He helped develop the 2002 shelter and is helping the government test new designs to replace it.

But several promising materials that showed up recently remain, and the extra year will allow time for testing, Petrilli said. Scientists need to create a shelter that can repel radiant heat, which is felt standing near flames, and convective heat, felt if you put a hand into the fire.

Today’s shelters reflect 95 percent of radiant heat, and firefighters have survived in them for an hour with brief exposure to direct flames. The challenge is making them last as fire burns around them.

The shelter Petrilli used in 1994 could last only seconds in direct flames. The current 4.5-pound shelter with an aluminum foil-woven silica outer shell can withstand direct flames and 2,000 degrees for about a minute.

The Forest Service says it could save lives if it can create a shelter of equal weight that can withstand those conditions longer.