News Release

National Park Service Releases Interagency Review of 2018 Carr Fire

The Carr Fire on July 23, 2018 as viewed over Whiskeytown Lake.

NPS/R HALL

News Release Date: April 16, 2019

Contact: Tina Boehle, 208.387.5875

Contact: Matt Switzer, 530.242.3454

Today, the National Park Service released the findings of an after action review (AAR) of the Carr Fire. The review took place in November 2018 with interagency partners affected by the Carr Fire, which ignited on July 23, 2018. Over the course of five weeks, the Carr Fire burned 229,651 acres in and around Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, Redding, CA and caused over 1.6 billion dollars in damages. Investigators determined that a mechanical failure of a privately owned travel trailer caused the fire.

The AAR focused on specific topic areas to identify operational and procedural successes or the possible need for further improvements and refinements during the fire response as well as to provide recommendations as appropriate. The review focused on interagency cooperation, interagency management, incident administration and finance, and post-fire response. William Kaage, chief for the National Park Service Division of Fire and Aviation, delegated these areas of focus to provide a framework for discussion between interagency partners. The nineteen recommendations that resulted from the AAR will become action items for the NPS, with possible involvement from interagency partners, to further strengthen practices moving forward. This work will commence in spring 2019.

“We’re thankful that we had the opportunity to sit down with our partners and go over what happened, why it happened, how we can sustain strengths, and how we can improve working with our partners to better support our community. This will help us as we continue to recover from the Carr Fire and hopefully also help others across the country as incidents of this complexity are becoming more common,” stated Whiskeytown National Recreation Area Superintendent Josh Hoines. Key representatives in the one-day review included federal and state partners: the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and National Park Service (NPS).

The Carr Fire After Action Review (AAR) may be found on the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center website.