May 30. First burning hot saw work for this year. Cut up a snag that Dove dropped. Fun stuff.

May 30. During the mop-up stage the next day we got another spot fire. Most likely a small pine needle fire that was missed the day before. It got to about an acre in the grass before Gila and the engines from Reserve caught it.

May 29. Holding line. The column grew during the day. Some of the best fire behavior we've seen this year.

May 29. Another shot of the road. After things died down we got called on the radio to assist more spot fires. A gust of wind approx. 20-30 miles an hour sent the fire into the tree crowns. Nuking about an acre of our PT course and sending embers into the green. Ignitions stopped and we attacked, successfully, 26 spot fires. Busy end to the day but very typical of a controlled burn.

May 29. Lighting off the road. This is when things got interesting. The four line holders including Ian (on an ATV) and me caught three spot fires. The wind was pushing towards the green for at least an hour. We had over a 1/4 mile to cover between the four of us and one engine.

May 29. Jesse holding line in the smoke. We eat a lot of smoke today. You can see Dove's scout in the background. My truck and the rest of out vehicles are masked by smoke.

May 29. Everyday is a learning experience.

May 29. More pictures of the lighters. The guys in the smoke are armed with hoses in case the buildings get embers.

May 29. Negrito Rx. Burning behind the Foreman's quarters.

May 29. Negrito Rx. Lighting boss Brian leading the fire show. The point of burning Negrito, according to the burn plan, is to reduce the risk to the buildings around the base. This is done by reducing fuels. Two years ago the Bear fire almost reached the base. The scares from the powerful crown fire are visible a few miles from the base near the Snow Lake area. During the fire Negrito was evacuated and the Gila IHC's personal vehicles and belongings could have been lost.

Big Matt. Lighting off a strip of Negrito pine duff. The base has been burned twice in recent history. Once a Helitack Foreman set off a 12,000 fire with a bic lighter that was not planned. Another time in the 90's some pile burns around the base hit the grass and was caught just before the barracks.

May 29. Negrito Rx. Graham dropping fire. All the Gila IHC rookies got to learn about lighting techniques.

May 29. Negrito RX. The word of the day was over-head. The majority of fires I've been on this year have been RX fires that got out of hand. Since the fire world is certainly paranoid all the leadership up to the forest ranger came to watch the fire show. I feel our decision to burn was a way of saying that controlled fires are ok during the fire season as long as you have the skill and knowledge to do so. Many see what has been happening on other RX fires as a lack of oversight and experience. Some hotshot crews are even turning down RX fires because they are afraid of letting them get away. Not Gila, we RX burned our base...

May 29. Negrito RX. The full burn is 225 acres. Including all the ground up to our barracks and around all the support buildings. We had three engines and our 19 person hand crew. The burn plan called for 10 people so we had plenty of support. This picture shows the holders... Basically the saw teams. I'm finding it rare that a sawyer gets their hands on a drip torch. They need us to be ready for spot fires and snags that become a hazard.

May 29. Negrito RX. This picture if of the test burn we did before lighting off the Negrito fire base. Most crews are sitting at home doing project work. Little is going on in the fire world and especially in the South West US.