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.

May 23. Snow? Yup snow. 10 inches at Negrito NM. Rain over a lot of the South West. You can see the mountains in AZ from base camp with fresh snow. In this picture thanks to Alex Scott.

May 23. Why does it always rain on me? A decision was made to be the only crew to spike out on the fire. After the excitement on the 22nd it rained on us hard and never stopped. The fire got soaked out and so did we. Most of the crew set up tents, a few dug down with their tools thinking they would move the wet soil away from the tent floor. In the morning they had water beds. Personally I slept in my seat in the buggies. Needless to say many of us didn't sleep to well.

Photo by Ian Morgan

May 22. Mop-up? The Frye Mesa fire was initially a controlled burn that got out of control. After we lost on the 21st it grew from about 250 acres to well over a 1000. Today we split ground and started cold trailing the edge of the fire and moping up heat. In part of our ground the fire had burned into a drainage with thicker brush. As weather got hotter and drier smoke started to pick up. Our progress had been slow due to the amount of work we found. Around noon a couple of us noticed smoke picking up in the drainage. Our Foreman Jeff scouted it out and ordered both squads to a acre fire that was growing fast. The squad I was assigned to reach the flame front first. Some how we managed to anchor and catch the fire before air support could get off the ground. If we had been a few minutes later it would have had tons more potential to get big. Also air attack and Mormon Lake IHC helped Ian catch another fire not far away from the first. Good lesson in not getting complacent on mop-up days. What is seemingly routine can get exciting in a instant.

Image by Ian Morgan

May 21. Dirty Hotshots. Picture taken my Ian Morgan - CB17 after the day was over.

May 21. Holding the road. After we lost the burn the overhead went looking for a plan B. While that was happening we moved a trailer and protected some fencing that was now going to get burned otherwise. Image taken by Ian Morgan.

May 21. Lost it! Photo taken by Ian Morgan - Brian Hendricks "Jimmy" driving through flames next to the road.

About 120ft from our planned end of the burnout a spot fire got out. Apparently Blue Ridges couldn't catch it because grew to quickly and was deep into the green and hard to reach fast. I didn't see it for myself since we had rounded a bend in the road. We RTO'd (reverse tool order) to the black behind us that had already cooled off from the burnout operations. Then we walked back through the ash to the buggies.

Back to square one. Great day so far! Camera problems aside.

May 21. Lighters. Erin and Big Matt up front with the torch.

Last picture with my Canon S70. The lens got jamed possibly by dust getting blown into the lens during the 30 mph gusts. Couldn't fix it and didn't bring my backup S60. After working at a camera store in college I've found that sand or dirt in a lens is the end to a point and shoot digital camera. All pictures after this are barrowed from my kind fellow hotshots.

May 21. Holding line. Eating some smoke with our shrouds down.

May 21. Burnout. During the wind shifts we tried to move out of the thick smoke. Then quickly back into position to look for spot fires in the green side of the road. Our saws are spaced out on both ends of the crew. Behind Gila is Blue Ridge and PV. Twice during the burn my saw partner Brian and I ran to the front to help drop some large Juniper trees on the line. Killer on my knees. We also caught several small spots after wind gusts. One was caused by a burning rabbit running into the green.

May 21. Better picture of the advancing flames.

May 21. Pushing the road. Things are starting to heat on the hill (photo center). The winds pushed over the line about 50% of the time. Gila advanced in front of the fire against good odds of losing the burn out. We had escape routes and safety zones in place. The burn was lost and the fire continued to advance.

Edited Oct 3, 2008 - I deleted a comment because of poor word choice. I edited this post because it read as slander to other IHC's which isn't how I truly feel. Sorry, thanks for bringing it to my attention.