United We Stand

Brainerd Area Amateur Radio Club  
helps with communications at
 fire south of Brainerd May 31, 2002

Fueled by dry air and high winds, a wildfire raced through Barrows Friday afternoon, ravaging more than 700 acres, including at least five structures, yet it left no one hurt.

More than 200 firefighters from at least a dozen departments battled the fast-moving blaze that jumped Highway 371, forced residents to evacuate 125 homes and caused several roadways to be closed and traffic to be diverted for several hours. Clouds of thick black smoke could be seen for miles. The acrid smell of the blaze could be detected throughout Brainerd.

More than a dozen agencies and departments responded.  Aircraft, including three CL-215 water scooping planes, three air tankers and at least four helicopters led the charge. At least 13,000 gallons of water, mixed with 192 gallons of fire retardant foam, and 21,000 gallons of fire retardant slurry were dumped on the wildfire.

Fire story and photo from the May 31, 2002 Brainerd Daily Dispatch Newspaper.

Hams Report for Duty at the Fire:  About 2130Z May 31, 2002 Peggy from the Brainerd Red Cross called and asked that the Brainerd Radio Club be activated to provide communications in support of the wild fire that was raging south of Brainerd. Shirley KCØDCW called me on the radio to see where I was.

I was on my way back from Little Falls and was 5 minutes from home.

As soon as I arrived home we activated an emergency net on the 147.03 repeater and started calling hams in the Brainerd area. Shirley handled the phone traffic as I handled the radio traffic.

The following hams responded to calls on the radio or the phone:

Pete NØBLX and Vickie KCØDCA were assigned the fire control command center at the North Central speedway, Russ KCØHAQ, and Ken KAØJSW were assigned the EOC at the court house, Jim WAØAXB was assigned the LEC, Fritz WØKO was assigned the Salvation Army headquarters and Skee KCØDCY, John WØJGY, and Jim KCØANQ went to the Red Cross office. Jim KCØANQ stayed at the Red Cross office and provided the link between them and net control while John WØJGY and Skee KCØDCY were dispatched to pick up food and deliver to the command center.

By 2257Z food and water were on the way. Pete reported from the command center that Porta Potties were needed there also. They seemed more difficult to find as none of the providers had after hour phone numbers. Denny NØHWQ was on his was to the cities and turned back north on business 371 from the bypass and reported seeing several Porta-potties on the south side of the raceway building but these were fenced in and not available to the fire fighters. A Pepsi truck was sent to the command center with water and drinks that some how never showed up. Steve WØTNT and Chris KCØNGK checked into the net about 0010Z June 1 and were assigned to accompany a Coca Cola truck with water and drinks to the command center that did make it through.

Jon KBØMNM checked in after work and was sent to Peqout Lakes for more sandwiches for the fire fighters.

Also checking into the net but not needed at this time was Alan KBØUUL, Gene KØTIW, Bob KGØZK, Roger KBØUUN, and Alan AAØAS. These operators were placed on standby and asked to continue to monitor in the event that they were needed. George KCØBH came down from Crooked Lake and provided communications at the State Hospital.

The Red Cross provided food and water for the fire fighters and also made arrangements for over night lodging at the state hospital and the Salvation Army acted as a gathering point for displaced residents of the burn area.

There was health and welfare traffic and a lot of communication traffic handled on the net.

I want to thank everyone for their support of this effort and their willingness to respond on a moments notice. Everyone did a great job and proved once again the value of Amateur Radio and the Brainerd Radio club in providing emergency communications. The calling tree worked well as did the Red Cross communications Annex.

Once again THANKS to everyone that responded and were available on standby.

The net was secured about 0031Z June 1, 2002   Al WØRC, net control