Monday, August 13, 2007
R&R. Went to Show Low AZ for a night. Turned out to be a middle age biker town. Made it fun by going to the go cart track. I'm in Silver City right now using the free internet at a cafe. Negrito's internet has been down since we got back. So I had to drive 135 miles to use the internet. That’s dedication (I also had to go to Wal-Mart).
Mop-up. The 7th and 8th consisted of lots of mop-up with hose lines. More than half the crew has come down with "the sickness". Just a nasty cold. I was spared. I think do to all the colds I got working at the ski resort this winter. Worked out well for me since I got to cut as first saw both days.
Travel. All the other crews are flying home for R&R and flying back to Idaho. Dewey our Sup convinced SWICC to let us drive home which will give us a couple extra days to get over "the sickness". On the way home we stopped for a night in Vegas (no drinking allowed since the driving idea was to get healthy). Made 110$ out of 20$ and called it night before I spent all my winnings. Steve (1) Casino (0).
Travel. All the other crews are flying home for R&R and flying back to Idaho. Dewey our Sup convinced SWICC to let us drive home which will give us a couple extra days to get over "the sickness". On the way home we stopped for a night in Vegas (no drinking allowed since the driving idea was to get healthy). Made 110$ out of 20$ and called it night before I spent all my winnings. Steve (1) Casino (0).
Monday, August 06, 2007
Snagging. Long day for the saw team (5 saws). Our mission is to clear the line of dangerous snags. Snags are dead trees typically burning or burned out with little holding them up. Winds will knock these trees over and can hurt someone putting hand line in. Ian and I got to cut over 40 snags today. Didn't get to many pictures since we kept a fast pace. Three other hotshot crews were behind us putting in saw line, hand line and hose line. It felt like we were diffusing mines at some points since there were so many snags. You have to decide which one to take first and then keep a close eye on all the one ready to come down around you. We heard and saw about as many fall on their own as we cut down. Probably the best day I've had yet this summer! Got to cut a couple tree the size of the saw bar 26 inches. No double cuts yet…
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Horton Fire. We've been moved to another fire that’s part of the East Zone Complex. Two shot crews have been working for days on this one and the fire blew up on them the day before and they lost their line. One of the crew is Logan IHC that an Americorps NCCC buddy is on (Aaron). Aaron, Erin (who is on Gila with me) and myself are the only three Americorps to go onto hotshoting from last year in Denver. We used hose again today to mop-up the colder edge of the fire. At camp we got to hangout with Aaron and catch up a little bit.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
The big blow up. Another strong smoke inversion today. When it cleared the fire was extremely active. Ending the day around 26,000+ acres burned. We couldn't safely go into the drainage so we ended up with another much needed easy day. Great pictures today. First smoke column I've seen that big and close. All the work we've done isn't for nothing. Red Ridge didn't turn into a column and our line from yesterday held. However this fire is far from controlled. Its projected control date is now Sept.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Mop-up. We spent the 30th moping up the drainage with the assistance of Mark 3 water pumps hosed from the drainage creek. Great thing to have as long as the vintage 60's pumps keep running.
Dollar Ridge. Across from Red Ridge is Dollar Ridge where our mission today is to put line around the fires there. Type 2 crews have been hard at work finishing of what we started on Red Ridge so the over head felt comfortable moving on. We worked with a type 2 crew from Massachusetts putting the line in. (didn't know they did wildfire stuff there). I was out front on the saw cutting timber and brush for the hand line.
Dollar Ridge. Across from Red Ridge is Dollar Ridge where our mission today is to put line around the fires there. Type 2 crews have been hard at work finishing of what we started on Red Ridge so the over head felt comfortable moving on. We worked with a type 2 crew from Massachusetts putting the line in. (didn't know they did wildfire stuff there). I was out front on the saw cutting timber and brush for the hand line.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Smoke inversion. Due to the smoke being held in the canyon we couldn't see what fire activity was headed our way. The decision was made to wait out the inversion and see if this fire or adjacent fires blows up from forecasted low RH's and 20-30 mph winds. Being in the drainage would be dangerous if the fire blew up. Due to all the unburned fuel in between spot fires. The winds never came and the fire stayed fairly subdued. We got an easy day today.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Drainage. More of the same today. Plenty of spot fires to go around. Safety zones are far and few between so we have extra lookouts placed on the ridge tops. More crews are arriving due to the divisions pleas for more resources. The window for catching this fire is closing. All the moisture is drying up and record temps and red flag warnings are in store for tomorrow.
Friday, July 27, 2007
The Drainage. Today we moved to the Red Ridge drainage. Our goal it to hold Red Ridge since it is the only fire in the area not actively burning hundreds of acres. Light rains have been our saving grace. Gila IHC is running 4 saws everyday due to the heavy dead and downed trees and slash. Which is great news since that means I get to cut everyday as fourth saw. My legs aren't used to the added saw weight but its been fun cutting. My saw partner is Ian. He's got 6 years experience hotshoting and he's the assistant squad one boss.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Red Ridge Fire. We've arrived on the Red Ridge fire, which is a part of the East Zone Complex. When a large number of fires get in a small geographical area they get named a complex. This complex is a type 1 incident, which means it is the largest and most complex type of fire. So far two hotshot crews are on scene including us. The fire size is approximately 800 acres but no one has GPS'ed the fires edge. Most all fires in the mountains of Idaho burn "dirty". In this case it mean a fire makes a crown run up a slope burning everything for a relatively small area. That initial burn will send embers up to a 1/4 mile or more starting hundreds of small spot fires. Today we started put line around these small fires. A daunting task that is seemingly never ending.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Monday, July 09, 2007
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.
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.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Friday, July 06, 2007
301 Fire. 180 acres. Everyone was saying that this was the 13th anniversary of the South Canyon Fire. I haven't looked into it yet to see if they are right. Anyways, a bunch of structure were threatened but none got burned. We put in line and did mop-up. I had a radio today and got to single resource a spot fire for a little while. Also had an engine working for me until an Incident Commander-5 from the crew took over.
In the evening a fire started on the the hill across from South Canyon. Strange. Very glad not to be going to that one.
In the evening a fire started on the the hill across from South Canyon. Strange. Very glad not to be going to that one.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
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