Jeff's Burn

Memo: Saturday, 3/22/25
Regarding: Jeff Roderick’s Burn at 300 Thomas Road, Farmington, MO 63640






The SFM-PBA successfully completed the organization's fourth successful burn today!

 

The burn site was prepared beginning in late February, with final preparations completed the day before and morning of the burn.  Preparations included:

  1. Blowing out all fire lines.

  2. Cutting snags.

  3. Scattering and burning piles of cut trees.

  4. Flagging the site including labeling ignition, ending and reference points per the burn plan.

  5. Staging of equipment including 5-back pack sprayers, 6-drip torches

  6. 1-chain saw, 6-4 gallon buckets of water, 1-40 gallon UTV sprayer.

  7. Fueling and testing all equipment.


SFM-PBA burn team: Cody, Byron, Ted, Dennis, Travis, Russell, Shannon, Christine, John, Traci, Jeff.
Guests: Sue Roderick and Allison Bowman East
MDC trainer: Jan Dellamano PHC Retired

9:00 am A safety and pre-burn planning meeting was conducted by Jeff.  Teams and roles were assigned:

Green Team

  • Cody - drip torch

  • Byron - drip torch

  • Jan - drip torch, trainer, mentor, oversight

  • Ted - East side defense

  • Allison - East side defense

  • Dennis - North side defense


Pink Team

  • Russell - drip torch

  • Travis - drip torch

  • Jeff - burn boss, drip torch

  • Christine - West side defense

  • Shannon - West side defense

  • Traci - West and North side defense


Sue - cabin site defense, luncheon hostess

John - UTV sprayer operator, shuttle and equipment and material delivery


9:20 am  Jan Dellamano gave a class, including:
Best Practices related to safety, tools and equipment, ignition sequence, fire breaks, burn plan, fire behavior, wind behavior, potential hazards and other related topics and concerns.


10:30 am  Ignition began at the Northwest corner of the burn site with Green Team lighting to the east and Pink Team lighting to the west.  Dennis laid down a wet line via a 400 foot hose connected to a hose bib at the cabin site as the fire moved at an even pace towards the North. Jeff and Jan moved towards the center of the burn unit to light isolated glade areas. Several standing snags were observed and monitored - one was cut by Green Team due to its proximity to the burn line. The fire moved quickly through some grassy areas on the glades and slowed on downhill slopes towards the road/East firebreak. Both Green and Pink torch bearers moved to light isolated interior areas where fire was not carrying. As the Pink Team completed lighting on the West side and proceeded down the slope towards the North East ending point, wind shifts and gusts became a challenge. Halfway down the slope Russell detected a small spot over. Russell, Jan, and Traci controlled the situation with rakes and Travis sprayed the area to secure the fire line.


2:00 pm  Pink and Green torch bearers met at the North East of the burn unit, completing the fire ring, with all live fire in or approaching the center of the burn site. Jeff, Russell, Shannon and Jan reversed from the ending point towards the original ignition point, conducting mop up procedures including moving burning materials towards the interior, pushing down burning snags, extinguishing piles, while Cody, Byron and Ted did the same on the East side.

3:00 pm  Both teams gradually returned to the cabin site for lunch.

3:45 pm  Jan Dellamano continued the training session with a focus on fire weather forecasting, mop up, and the importance of site monitoring.

5:30 pm  Russell, Jan, John, Jeff continued mop up and monitoring.

9:30, 11:30, 1:30 am  Jeff monitoring

5:00 am  Jeff monitored the site and observed that the only smoke was from logs on the ground within the blackened area.


Notes:

  • My special thanks to Julie Norris for her guidance, throughout the process of founding and developing the SFM-PBA, to her expertise, professionalism and encouragement.

  • I am very appreciative for the actions of Jan Dellamano from every aspect of his training, mentoring, oversight and mostly for his leadership by example of what it is to be a burn boss.

  • For the many hours of labor preparing the sight for my burn I am forever grateful to Julie, Jan, and Cody for repeatedly touring the site to identify potential hazards and to mitigate those hazards.

  • My special thanks and gratitude to the prep team including Buddy, Travis, Jan, and Cody.

  • I’m forever grateful to Russell, for his first-one-in, last-one-out presence on burn day and day before, and his reassurance and encouragement.

  • To the members and founders of SFM-PBA I’m very proud to know and work along with you to improve habitats on our properties and the St. Francois Mountain region.


 



Location: 300 Thomas Rd, Farmington, MO 63640, USA

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