June 26. Another picture as we zoomed by the burnout.

June 26. Big Springs Fire. On the 25th we staged in Ruidoso. When we arrived on the Big Springs fire several hotshot crews had already been working for several days. They were in the middle of a burnout and Gila was the odd man out. My squad staged in our trucks for spot fires off a road while the other squad IA's some 20 spot fires that had just started. This picture is from the buggy as we patrolled the line.

June 24. Mop-up on the Diablo Fire. Ended up 80 acres. Found out today in the news that a guy got eaten by a mountain lion in Silver City a mile from were we had been snagging the road to the Gila Cliff Dwellings. First reported kill in NM 37 years.

June 23 Diablo Fire. In route to the fire we got a mention on a local Ruidoso radio station. Something about Gila Hotshots going to protect homes. On the way our buggy broke down with about a mile to get to the fire. The serpentine belt stripped off and cut the wire to the fan clutch. The buggy kept over heating but Brian our squad leader was able to limp into the fire by coasting down the mountain with the engine off. This picture is a long expose of our mop-up that went till around midnight.

June 22. Jesse working with the diggers. I think he's trying to trade his Pulaski for my saw. Not going to happen.

June 22. Dropping slurry.

June 22. Another slop over. Picked up by air tankers we moved in and finished it off. Some of the drops were so low to the ground that they tore brush out with the slurry. I wouldn't want to be anywhere near that.

June 22. Close up of our Charlie Brown Christmas cactus of coffee mugs.

June 22. Hotshots love their coffee. Morning cowboy coffee made on my camp stove.

June 21. Alex ran the squad as a fire fighter 1 trainee. Rich is burning out with a fuse while the holding crew stomps out the grass and swats it out with branches. A much faster technique then putting in hand line.

June 21. Bonnie Fire. Located on BLM land near the Lincoln some 27000 acres burned. Today we burned out some line and a road to stop a slop over from the day before. I took this picture as we hiked in.

June 20. Andy and Brian showing off some elk sheads they found shortly before we few out.

June 20. Long exposure of the bone piles burning up in the dim light. I had to buy a new camera to replace the one I broke recently. I'm still getting used to it. The pictures don't seem as sharp and the high lights tend to blow out more then my old Canon's did.

June 20. In the morning we eat MRE's and moped up the fire 100%. When we few out no heat was left in the ground.

June 19. Peak Fire. Totaled 1.5 acres and was started by lighting. The whole crew was brought in so that the fire could be buttoned up in a day. More cost effective for the forest to do it that way and it leaves us available for other fires. We worked into the night to open up the hot spots and bone pile heavy fuels.

June 19. Peak Fire. Initial Attack. After being release from Dipping Springs we headed to a heli spot to be flown into the Peak fire. Located in the Lincon Wilderness area. The pilot was great and flew us around the fire so we could get a good look before hiking in.

June 18. Bubba getting ready to fly out at the end of the day.

June 18. Steep and nasty country. One of our sawyers Jesse twisted his ankle fairly bad and choose to be flown off the hill to see a physician. I watched it happen... I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often considering the weight we carry and the terrain we work in. He was back to work the next day and carrying a saw again after just a few days. I think I fell today at least a dozen times myself.

June 18. Nothing like taking in the view from a mountain top that you didn't have to climb to. Feels like cheating a bit but the view is the same.

June 18. Dewey goofing around as we wait for the rest of the crew to fly in.

June 18. Heli ride. One last edge of the fire remained. Our line from the 17th didn't need to be burned so we few the crew to a mountain top to mop up the last of the Dripping Springs fire.

June 17. In town getting dinner at a museum set up as fire our base camp. Nice sun set from the parking lot.

June 17. The column we saw on the 15th pushed the fire to 2000 acres. In case the fire continued to push we put in line on the White Sands missile range. Not my favorite practice. Last year on the Range 9 fire at Fort Hachucha we had unexploded ordinance going off during a burnout... This picture is during lunch when all the crews working that line had coolers full of iced water brought out on ATV's. I think the temps hit 103.

June 16. Let the mop-up show begin.

June 15. After the completion of our burn the fire picked up on the back side of the mountain range giving us a nice show. The biggest column we've seen yet this season.

June 15. Ended the burn by meeting Silver City IHC's who brought fire to us.

June 15. The property owners home that we protected with the burnout. You can see a Forest Service engine doing structure protection.

June 15. Lots of line holding in my future. Saw teams don't often get to burn. They need us for spot fires. Notice how we space out on the line and look into the green.

June 15. The Burnout continues... Notice the homes in the back ground. Nice olympic size pools!

June 15. And the Burnout begins. Smokey Bear IHC is burning out in the opposite direction as Gila IHC. Fairly fast paced burnout since the fuel is light (grass).

June 15. Keeping our heads up for increased fire behavior. Its time to start burning the line!

June 15. View of the fire in the early morning just before the burn out. Minimal activity but the temps hit 105 degrees mid day with single digit RH's. What looks calm now will not be soon.

June 15. We worked with Smokey Bear Hotshots. So far one of the best hotshot crews I've worked with. This pictures is of the diggers tying in with Smokey Bear IHC.

June 15. Dripping Spring Fire. Burnout operations. With homes at risk our goal was to stop the fire early even if we had to burn off private property. With the owners permission we put line in around the property tied into a road then lit off.This picture is of the diggers working towards the end of the fire line.

June 14. Dripping Springs Fire. After our snagging project we headed back to Negrito for our days off. About 7pm we got dispatched to a fire in Las Cruses NM. We spent the night driving and arrived around midnight and bedded down. Rarely do crews travel all night. The reason we did is the risk to private homes boarding the BLM land that was burning. This picture is of the fire in the morning.

June 13. Snag falling. After being released from the Kneeling Nun fire we got some project work near Silver City on the road that leads to the Gila Cliff Dwellings. Fun project work. All we had to do was drop big dead trees that could hit the road if they fell.

June 12. Kneeling Nun Fire. We stayed on the Kneeling Nun for three days. The fire was pretty much under control when we arrived. We put in a small chunk of hot line and mopped up for a few days. Finally worked with an Americorps NCCC fire crew. Unfortunately they aren't the Colorado crew I was on. The Americorps crew was based out of Cali. Erin and I talked to them about being a hotshot a little and tried to recruit one of them that our over head noticed as a potential hotshot.

June 10. Kneeling Nun Fire. Well we've been sitting around Negrito and working for the last week. Matter of fact all the hotshots in the region have been around their respective bases. Today we left for an 88 acre fire outside of Silver City, NM. This fire came just in time to keep the crew moral from slipping. This picture is of me and Rich in the buggies on route to the fire.

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.