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ARES After-Action Report:
Schoonover Fire

by Garry Hefty (KA9ODE), Mission Coordinator,
District 24, Douglas & Elbert Counties, May 21, 2002
  1. Date of activity: May 21 to May 25, 2002

  2. Description of activity Communication and EOC support for the Schoonover Fire

  3. Duration of activity
    94 hours

  4. Serving amateur radio groups participating
    • Colorado ARES District 24 (Douglas & Elbert Counties)

  5. Served agencies participating
    • Douglas County Sheriff's Office
    • Other Agencies:
      Each agency and other ARES groups had tasks to do in association with the Schoonover fire. Even though each group was not aware of the specifics of what the other groups were doing, each had a task to do, knew what to do, and accomplished their missions. Each group was aware of how to contact the others when coordination was necessary.

  6. Describe served agency participation
    The Douglas County Sheriff is the designated fire warden for unincorporated areas of the county. As such, the Douglas County Sheriff’s office and the county Emergency Manager have the primary responsibility for initial response to the Schoonover fire. They coordinated initial response to the fire including ordering of resources and evacuations.

  7. Number of amateurs participating: Eighteen

  8. List of amateurs participating
    • KA9ODE, Garry Hefty
    • W6AUN, Perry Lundquist
    • KB0VJY, Mike Martin
    • AB0NF, John Schneider
    • WD0JIM, Jim Hong
    • KB6IGN, Nancy Malm
    • KF6FK, Richard Malm
    • WB5OMP, Steve Foster
    • K0VKM, Thomas Lane
    • KA0WAS, Robert Clark
    • KB8DM, Karl Goebel
    • W3DKH, Ron Poinsett
    • N7ZFN, Larry Matney
    • AB0PG, Rex Sjstorm
    • W0RMJ, Ted Tsucalas
    • N0OJ, Ryan Dahlberg
    • N0VZ, Ken Anderson
    • KC0GER, Mark Hayworth

  9. Person-hours of amateur service: 237

  10. Describe the Goals of the Activity
    The goal was provide assistance in setup and operation of the Emergency Operations Center and to provide communications to the Incident Command Post.

  11. Did the Event Fulfill the Goals? Yes.

  12. What Went Well?
    The operators preformed in a professional manner and intergrated well with the county employees involved. A work schedule was developed within 24 hours of activation. All positions were filled using District members without the need for borrowing amateurs from bordering districts.

  13. Areas needing improvement
    We were prepared to staff positions with District members for an additional 70 hours. However, if the event had gone past that point we would not have been available to staff all positions with District members. Particularly difficult would have been staffing the EOC since our relationship with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office is that we will only have RACES members in the EOC. The question arises as to whether we would have been permitted to staff the EOC with RACES members from outside of District 24. This will be discussed with the Sheriff’s Office and the County Emergency Manager.

  14. Lessons learned
    During the first 36 hours of the event, some members put in 12 hours or more per shift at the Incident Command Post. This was partly due to a 1.5 hour drive time to the ICP. The plan was to use members for long shifts and not use them again for at least 24 hours. The long shifts may have been a hardship to some. Try and avoid shifts over 8 hours if possible.
    Additionally, communications with an HT using a rubber duck antenna did not work. Communications with an HT was only possible with a whip or collapsible antenna.

  15. Additional training needed
    When using members for extended shifts we need to inform them of the necessity for personal items and to pace themselves. They also need to be mentally prepared to handle extended shifts.

  16. General comments
    The Emergency Manager for Douglas County is an amateur radio operator and has the option of activating the District with a call on the normal frequency used by the District. The District has recently implemented a process that we call “FIRE WATCH”. This process includes monitor the calling frequency for the District during periods of Red Flag Warnings and obtaining member availability. Included in this process is an informal briefing of all Assistant Emergency Coordinators as to the status of weather and other events. On the day of this fire, we had commenced with this at noon. The fire was discovered late that afternoon. Therefore the AEC’s were prepared to activate the District. However, we did not have time to obtain member availability prior to activation by the County Emergency Manager.
    Also, the Sheriff’s Office has budget monies to include permanent reception of ATV and an ATV repeater. The County Emergency Manager felt that live video into the EOC would have been of benefit to County personnel who were coordinating resources because they would have had a better understanding of the magnitude of the situation.

  17. Ideas for Future Exercises
    None