The year was 2005. We were on the "School Fire". We were on night shift. It was a good night.
It was Aug 11th and after several nights of night shift we had, this one was our best. We supported a burnout. Our job was to patrol the line and keep the fire from crossing it. In this case the line was a forestry road. We patrolled a couple miles of road.
We start night shift as usual with a briefing at the camp in Pamoroy, Wa. We were camped at the fair grounds. After our briefing we gather our supplies and then head out to the line. We met for a line briefing. By the time it was done it was dark. We were given our specific assignment and off we went.
As we were getting closer we could see a glow on the horizon. When we got up to the line the whole right side of the road was a glow of red and orange flames. It as awesome!
It was an event full night. In fact it was our best and most active night. We were patrolling the line with three other engines. Back and forth we would go watching to make sure the line wasn't compromised. Our first event was we heard one of the engine bosses call over the radio "Strike team leader Prince" he answered "Prince, go ahead." " I have the barbecue heating up ready to cook burritos." Now if I tried to do this I would have been sent home, off of the fire. You just don't call up your overhead and broadcast you have a full kitchen on board. Not where the whole command post can hear it. So long story short we all, including the strike team leader had this guy cook our burritos. I must admit they did taste better.
Then things slowed down.The fire did it's job and then it died down. About 2:00 am to 3:00 am things are really slow and dark. We were still patrolling looking for any spot fires across the line. We would pass the other engines and from time to time we would stop and chat trying to stay awake. This one time we passed by, there was one type 4 engine [that is an engine that can carry up to 750 gallons of water] his head lights were out. However he was still moving. It seemed strange to drive in the dark without lights on.
As we moved closer we could see they did have lights on. They were all three people inside driving by their head lamps. It was the "Bobble head incident". As we crept closer we could see the lights bouncing all over the cab of their truck. We pulled alongside them to find out that they were just trying to stay awake. they were entertaining themselves. Bouncing around like a bunch of bobble heads.
In our patrol during the night we saw a glow way off in the distance. We saw it several times, and we even talked about it. Should we go check it out? Was it a spot fire? We, ok so it was me, I decided it must be a distant part of the fire glowing. My crew wasn't to sure. But the fire was so large we could see glows all over the place. So we decided to move on.....Then about 4:00 in the morning we ended getting a call from our strike team to go look at a possible spot fire. Guess which one? Yep....
So we drove down a narrow road to as close as we could to the fire. Sure enough the glow we had been watching most of the night wasn't a distant glow on the other side of the fire. It was a spot fire. It was about an acre in size. We set up a hose lay and started to work the spot fire. In time the other engined came in and pumped us water. In time we had members of the other engines as well as a few hot shots helping put it out.
Before we new it it was light out. Our fire was dead cold. But then we did some grid work to make sure there wasn't any more. Sure enough we found another. This time it was a half mile across the fire line. My crew mate and I grabbed a bladder bag and a chain saw. A bladder bag is a bag that holds up to five gallons of water. We made it to the spot and it was only about a six square feet area. We finished our night by putting it out.
At the end of our shift we had a debriefing and we all agreed it was a very good and fast night. If you have to do night shift and can't catch a dew winks here and there, this is the kind of nights you want to have. Fast and fun.
Stay tuned for another Wildfire Diaries. Also I wil soon have a review of our metal detector finds.
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