First Fire

I would say we had about 3 hours of down time until we were awakened. I was already awake and quite frankly did not sleep very well in the sleeping bag under the stars. The sleeping area was filled with other fire crews and I even saw some inmates I knew from Jamestown. I guess there were 15 other crews from various camps throughout the state. Our crew is from the southern most part of the state.

I have heard the “legendary” stories about the food served on fires and it has always been good. Well, these stories are very true. The entire staging area is very impressive complete with a mobile kitchen. It was an actual buffet featuring a variety of hot foods, cold food, and fresh fruit. The food was great and I enjoyed all of it. The best part about this was anything you could fit in your pockets, you could take out with you. My pockets were filled with oranges and bananas.

As we ate breakfast, I listened to the fire Captain briefing us regarding the fire. It has been contained and it burned 400 acres. Even though it had been contained and essentially extinguished there were a few hot spots. The crews were on mop-up duty to ensure the hot spots don’t spread. The briefing mentioned that the terrain was steep so to be very careful. There wasn’t a great deal of urgency in the briefing and the Captains wanted the hot spots extinguished so they could move out. We finished our breakfast and it was time to go to work. There were 8 cases of bottled water and 8 cases of Gatorade being loaded onto the bus along with several bags of ice. The key is to remain hydrated during the day and we certainly seemed to have enough liquids. Also, our sack lunches were delivered which contained all sorts of food. There certainly was no shortage of food!

We boarded the bus and had a very short ride to our entry point. The Captain once again briefed us and she told us we would hike up to the top and work our way down looking for hot spots. We disembarked the bus and grabbed our tools and the Captain led us on a hike to the entry point. The terrain was steep and we followed a dirt road for about 3 miles. As we walked, I could see the remnants of the fire. The landside was blacked out and smelled of fire. I noticed a very sad sight which was a horse that had been burnt and was lying on its side dead. I was witnessing the wrath of a fire for the first time. We continued to walk and the hiking is not exactly easy. Wit 45 pounds on your back, it is certainly challenging. We made our way to the entry point after 45 minutes of hiking. At this point there were several bladder bags which contain 5 gallons of water and attach to your back. These are used to douse hot spots along the way. Each bag weighs about 40 pounds. The Captain summoned three crew members and yes, I was one of them. She had us carry the bags up the very steep terrain. I put the pack on over my backpack and essentially I was carrying about 80% of my body weight on my back. I was the oldest and lightest crew member to carry this pack.

This is where the “fun” started – not really. The entry point was straight up over the rocks at a 75 degree angle. The earlier briefing mentioned steep terrain and they were not joking. I had to go very slow with the additional weight on my back. Safety comes first and it was not a race to the top. My friend was kind enough to relieve me of the bladder bag as he took it after I was about half way up the incline. Prior to this, I witnessed an aerial water drop from a helicopter. The Captain noticed a hot spot which was too big for the bladder bags to extinguish. She radioed the helicopter and sure enough the chopper dropped the water about 20 feet from me. It took the chopper three tries and on the third try, the hot spot was extinguished. I’m not sure how much water is contained in this bucket but when it hit there was a mighty splash and many bubbles were thrown into the air. I have never seen anything like this before and it was quite interesting.

My friend made his way up the incline and had his fill (pun – ha ha) of the water bag so I took it from him the rest of the way. I made it up to the top where the Captain was standing and I couldn’t wait to take it off. Thankfully, she gave us a 40-minute lunch break which we all needed. All around us were hot spots which most would burn themselves out. There were a few we needed to address and we would extinguish them.

We took care of the hot spots after lunch and I used all of the water in the bladder bag much to my delight. We then hiked around looking for other hot spots and the Captain noticed a downed tree which was smoldering and needed to be cut. The chainsaw went to work while we dug a ?burrow? around the perimeter so nothing would roll into the unburned area. The tree was cut into 6 sections and the middle section or core of the tree was smoking. The fire was inside the tree working its way out and now that it was cut the tree would only smolder and not catch fire. This, too, was interesting to witness and apparently as one of the sections was cut, a squirrel was in the wrong place at the wrong time because the chainsaw seemed to cut it into two sections, poor squirrel.

We scouted around for a few hot spots and cut some line around the burn section. We were making our way down the steep slope which was rocky. I looked down and realized one false move and it was all over. Slow and steady would be the safe way to go. We were ahead of schedule and the Captain had us take another break midway through the afternoon. The break was over and we needed to roll up the hose line which was on the steep hillside. I slowly made my way down utilizing the “butterfly” technique to roll the hose around my arms. They were rolled up and we made our descent down the dirt road.

The hike down the road was harder than the walk up the road. The crew was very quiet and the breathing was heavy. I started to sweat after a few feet and the sweat was pouring off me as we walked. I was carrying one of the fire hoses along with my tool and was amazed how hard the hike down was. We seemed to inch our way toward the bus and finally after a 12 hour day we arrived and I was drenched in sweat. Everyone on the crew including the Captain was drenched. My feet were hurting and I could feel the blisters on my heels. Strangely, only my feet hurt and I have to believe it was the boots which are not the most comfortable. If it wasn’t for my feet hurting, I would have felt fine. This was a very interesting day and everyone told me Fire Camp is hard work. This is very true and at one point during the hike down the steep cliff, my friend and I were talking about transferring to the kitchen. It is certainly safer in the kitchen, but we decided to give it a few months.

My first fire deployment was over and it was a very labor intensive day! The hike itself was the toughest part of the day and carrying the extra 40 pounds was a challenge. At 9:00 pm everyone laid down and I was asleep in three minutes. There is something said for hard work and it does make for great sleeping.