Monday, May 26, 2008


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)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

helispots can be used other days, but when you burn with gusts to 60 mph crews end up cleaning your mess for days!

Anonymous said...

blue ridge put in a heli spot because div said, just incase crews like gila showed up and got injured so we could evacuate them out which almost happened

Anonymous said...

Get your facts straight before slamming other crews. We are all on the same mission here.

Steve said...

You make a good point about not "slamming" other crews. I'll change the post...

I also understand the need and use of heli spots for medical evacuation. I'm not sure if your implying that a Gila crew member almost got injured? That did not happen. I don't know about the other crews.

The commment: helispots can be used other days, but when you burn with gusts to 60 mph crews end up cleaning your mess for days!

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. The why I saw things go down that day lead me to believe the burnout didn't effect the fires movement. For good or for worse. It had no effect. Yes, heli spots can be used other days as long as winds are calm enough.