Alabaugh Fire. 9-12th. Over 10,000 acres. Our goal for day one was to burn out a extremely steep drainage (hands and knees). We put indirect line and had a hose lay to help hold the line. South Dakota was great about getting engines to us with water. Makes mop-up a real pleasure. At night we headed back to fire camp and slept in a park. On big fires they set up a large camp with food tents, showers and other amenities.

Day two. Gila's assignment is to burn out dozer line. At this point the fire was still getting hot and pushing in the afternoons. The dozer line was important to burn off because it was in light flashy fuels (grass). We covered a lot of ground and in the process got a one acre size spot fire. The dozer assigned to us quickly lined it.

Day three & four. Mop-up. The stories about injuries proved to be true. We ended up getting details about the burned over engine crew. Long story short. A sudden wind change trapped them while protecting a house. One of them didn't have a fire shelter. So they shared one. The young guy didn't get burned bad and the captain who didn't have a shelter with him is still in the hospital.