May 23. Snow? Yup snow. 10 inches at Negrito NM. Rain over a lot of the South West. You can see the mountains in AZ from base camp with fresh snow. In this picture thanks to Alex Scott.

May 23. Why does it always rain on me? A decision was made to be the only crew to spike out on the fire. After the excitement on the 22nd it rained on us hard and never stopped. The fire got soaked out and so did we. Most of the crew set up tents, a few dug down with their tools thinking they would move the wet soil away from the tent floor. In the morning they had water beds. Personally I slept in my seat in the buggies. Needless to say many of us didn't sleep to well.

Photo by Ian Morgan

May 22. Mop-up? The Frye Mesa fire was initially a controlled burn that got out of control. After we lost on the 21st it grew from about 250 acres to well over a 1000. Today we split ground and started cold trailing the edge of the fire and moping up heat. In part of our ground the fire had burned into a drainage with thicker brush. As weather got hotter and drier smoke started to pick up. Our progress had been slow due to the amount of work we found. Around noon a couple of us noticed smoke picking up in the drainage. Our Foreman Jeff scouted it out and ordered both squads to a acre fire that was growing fast. The squad I was assigned to reach the flame front first. Some how we managed to anchor and catch the fire before air support could get off the ground. If we had been a few minutes later it would have had tons more potential to get big. Also air attack and Mormon Lake IHC helped Ian catch another fire not far away from the first. Good lesson in not getting complacent on mop-up days. What is seemingly routine can get exciting in a instant.

Image by Ian Morgan

May 21. Dirty Hotshots. Picture taken my Ian Morgan - CB17 after the day was over.

May 21. Holding the road. After we lost the burn the overhead went looking for a plan B. While that was happening we moved a trailer and protected some fencing that was now going to get burned otherwise. Image taken by Ian Morgan.

May 21. Lost it! Photo taken by Ian Morgan - Brian Hendricks "Jimmy" driving through flames next to the road.

About 120ft from our planned end of the burnout a spot fire got out. Apparently Blue Ridges couldn't catch it because grew to quickly and was deep into the green and hard to reach fast. I didn't see it for myself since we had rounded a bend in the road. We RTO'd (reverse tool order) to the black behind us that had already cooled off from the burnout operations. Then we walked back through the ash to the buggies.

Back to square one. Great day so far! Camera problems aside.

May 21. Lighters. Erin and Big Matt up front with the torch.

Last picture with my Canon S70. The lens got jamed possibly by dust getting blown into the lens during the 30 mph gusts. Couldn't fix it and didn't bring my backup S60. After working at a camera store in college I've found that sand or dirt in a lens is the end to a point and shoot digital camera. All pictures after this are barrowed from my kind fellow hotshots.

May 21. Holding line. Eating some smoke with our shrouds down.

May 21. Burnout. During the wind shifts we tried to move out of the thick smoke. Then quickly back into position to look for spot fires in the green side of the road. Our saws are spaced out on both ends of the crew. Behind Gila is Blue Ridge and PV. Twice during the burn my saw partner Brian and I ran to the front to help drop some large Juniper trees on the line. Killer on my knees. We also caught several small spots after wind gusts. One was caused by a burning rabbit running into the green.

May 21. Better picture of the advancing flames.

May 21. Pushing the road. Things are starting to heat on the hill (photo center). The winds pushed over the line about 50% of the time. Gila advanced in front of the fire against good odds of losing the burn out. We had escape routes and safety zones in place. The burn was lost and the fire continued to advance.

Edited Oct 3, 2008 - I deleted a comment because of poor word choice. I edited this post because it read as slander to other IHC's which isn't how I truly feel. Sorry, thanks for bringing it to my attention.

May 21. Burnout prep. Gila IHC moved our buggies into cold black and away from the fast advancing fire. While this was going on our superintendent Dewey was scouting out the fires movement and potential tactics. Before our arrival two other IHC crews put in a Heli-spot in high winds. Helicopters don't fly in high winds. The wind picked up again sending Dewey back to us and the fire began pushing towards the road. At this time the IHC crews started prepping the road for a burnout. (edited Oct 3, 2008)

May 21. Frye Mesa. We got dispatched to Arizona on the Coronado NF. We left early and arrived just in time for some good fire behavior. Weather is fairly hot and dry but the real power behind the fire was wind. Gusts over 30 mph with shifting directions created a challenge.

May 19. The not so finished product. We reached our totem pole goals for the day. Lots of work is still ahead. We plan on glueing the cracks created by the lighting strike. Then ringing the top of the tree to pull it together. Hopefully lasting for a long time. After that Erin is to design the lettering and master plan the art work. Finally a safety chained saw, some chisels and paint should finish the deal. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

May 19. Close up of the power head and jig in action.

May 19. Jeff and Dove cut the standing log using safety first. Developing a technique that cut the log quickly and easily.

May 19. Huge saw. The Stihl 088 has no insecurities. Tons of power with a specialized chain designed for "ripping" or milling. Typically used on downed trees. Its a heavy saw and even more so with the milling jig setup.

May 19. Prep. Jesse and I pealed the bark off the tree using a trails tool that is designed for this purpose.

May 19. Totem Pole. Today we used a Stihl 088 to cut a totem pole into a tree that got hit by lighting last winter. The idea is to have it say GILA IHC and incorporate a Zia. Its positioned at the entrance to the bunk houses and work center.

May 14 - Solano Fire. We sat on the fire until today and traveled back to Negrito short again of a 14 day roll. No fires are going in Region 3. And we are last on the list to go out of R-3 since we hit SO-CAL early on.

Saw an elusive Gila monster. Our name sake. Didn't get a good picture. They are extremely rare to see in the wild and was the first sighting for everyone on the crew. Their saliva has so much bacteria that a bite can be fatal.

Burg. Getting some shade from the desert sun.

Fuels. Everything in this part of AZ sticks, pricks or stings. We spent time every night pulling cactus out of our legs and arms. Our second night we slept near a spider nest. Had palm size critters climbing in and around or sleeping bags all night.

May 11 - Day two Solano Fire. Big Matt getting ready for some cutting action. After a day of hot grass fire we moved to a division on the main fire. The main fire has stopped moving and we spent the day cutting saw line and cold trailing the black edge of the fire perimeter.

Solano Fire - May 10. State and BIA land in Southern AZ. 3000 acres. We got dispatched on Saturday. When we arrived from our travel we spotted smokes away from the main fire. Air attack confirmed that they are indeed new starts so we IA'd two small fires. Adding up to 67 acres. They were set by a distressed and dehydrated UDA. He surrendered to our Superintendent Dewey. Who announced the apprehension on the radio. Got a good laugh.

One of our beloved crew members Money - Travis left for a permanent job on Blue Ridge Hotshots. To fill his spot on the saw team I moved from diggers and paired up with Brian for the rest of the season. This pictures is of Brian replacing a missing nut.

Negrito frisbe golf. These are the players. The rules and the course are not typical of frisbe golf. We all put on our Sundays best to play.

R&R. What we thought was food poisoning turned out to be a stomach bug. More guys got sick over the weekend. I still made out healthy. Did some typical R&R stuff Bonn fires, Frisbee golf and Uncle Bills Bar.

Got dumped by my girlfriend. Typical wildfire relationship ending. Girlfriends just don't stick around all summer. Just another sacrifice for a job that I enjoy.

R&R. Due to our crews food poisoning and a forecast of dry lighting on the Gila NF we got sent home. Luckily we got two R&R days yet didn't finish a full 14 day tour.

Heli spot. Not to many hotshots are fans of flying. Even if it means a long hike we choose hiking over a ride. No choice today we flew out of a tight spot on a ridge. The heli spot pushed the limits of what pilots allow and this particular one got turned down by all the other pilots. Also a bumpy ride.

Circled up. We slung our overnight gear out and got ready for a hairy flight out.

Bob. Always smiles even in So Cal.

Money. Last dispatch for one of my friends and Gila IHC vetern. Travis took a permanent GS5 position on Blue Ridge IHC.

Dove. Long day as saw boss.

Falling sun. The saws didn't stop till the last light is gone.

Rock face. Nothing like climibing a rock face with 45 pounds and a saw. There is a reason I've never gotten into rock climibing.

Progressive line. When the brush gets thick and high sometimes cut progressivly. That means a series of saws working next to each other creating room for the swamp.

Brush. A good example of what we had to cut through following the fires edge.

View from spike camp.

Spiked out. We had some bad food during our spike that got half the crew sick. Signs of food poising probably from our lunches sandwiches. Alex pictured here got hit first. Beware of Porta Pit Catering...

Spike out. We stayed on the hill for two nights. Long days in some tough country. The saws ran non stop till dark. The sawyers spent a fair amount of time sharpening rocked saws and the swampers grew tired from moving 12ft brush. Good early season warm up. As for fire behavior we saw little smoke and the fire was completly out after the first day. The reason they often will keep us on longer in Cali is often political. The fire "Team" that has been assigned to fight the fire can't give the fire back to the local district untill the district is confident enough that the fire is out. This can take a few days for the districts confidence to be built up. Also in Cali they like to have line completly around a fire even if it isn't moving.

So Cal. More of the fires edge.

May 2nd. Apache Fire - 700 acres. We got flown into the fire via a 205 chopper. The fires edge sat along a ridge and the Pacific Coast Trail. The country is steep and mostly cats claw and other brush 6 to 12 feet high. I was running a saw as one of the 4 saw teams.

May 1st. Dispatched to Southern California's San Bernardino N.F. Spent two days traveling staying over night in Globe AZ.