Wildfire news

I know with the coming cooler weather here on the west coast it's hard to believe that fire season is so close. However it isn't that far away.

As a matter of fact there are fires burning right now. If you want to keep track of what is going on you can see the national fire report. This link shows fires 100 acres and larger.

Here's the link: http://www.nifc.gov/nicc/sitreprt.pdf

We call this the sit report.

Also here is another more detailed report on fires: http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/

Also I will post updates and as always I will give the inside scoop on  whatever fire we are on. When we go out.

Have a great day and enjoy the cool rain while it lasts.

Rt-130 Fire Refresher

OK Here it is. I was finally able to get the pictures off of my phone. Sorry it took so long.

Fire Class

Reviewing the drought forecasts

We discussed what is currently going on and also what the national forecast is for the next six months or so. It looks like it could be a five month fire season. But then again it is the weather. It could change. However be prepared for the worst.

We spent a lot of time reviewing what we can learn from this tragedy. As with all fatalities there are mistakes made. This disaster was no exception. 

We study these for a reason. It is good to learn from others mistakes. It teaches us how to avoid making the same mistakes, as well as avoiding new ones.

Some of the mistakes that led to the 19 who died shouldn't have happened. That being said there were a lot of unanswered questions. The only one who may have the answers was the only survivor of the hot shot crew.

He was a lookout for the rest of the crew. He did his job and when it was time for him to leave his post he did. He did not abandon his mates but for safety reasons he left.

To explain this we all go out to our fire with what we call "Trigger Points". What these are is a predetermined point when we leave our assignment. As an example we would have a trigger point of "when we cant keep up with the spot fires", then it is time to pull out. There are many more according to the circumstances dictated by the fire vs what we expect to happen, or what is predicted to happen.

This is why the lookout left his post. His trigger point was reached and he had to go. It saved his life. the fire went over the spot he was stationed at.

But as we learned there was private communication between him and his crew. This is normal. However they are now frowning on that because of what happened. At any rate this lone survivor is now suffering with PTSD. He also pleaded the fifth amendment when asked to tell what he knew about what happened.

We have what are called "Fire Orders" and "Watch Out Situations". The Fire Orders you don't break those rules. Not negotiable. The Watch Out Situations have some flexibility. They are what they say they are, a watch out situation. Kind of like a red flag. Some of these are: weather getting hotter and dryer, in country not seen in daylight, no communication with crew or supervisors. There are 18 of these. There are 10 fire orders. Some of these are: Know what the fire is doing at all times, Post Lookouts, Give clear instruction, etc.

Upon our review of this case we saw numerous Orders violated. We discussed this at length and bounced ideas off each other. It is sobering to look back at what happened and wonder what we would have done in the same situation. Would we do the same thing? 

That is why we review and have our refresher each year. It keeps us in tune with what we need to be aware of out there on the fire lines. 

Lunch Line

Getting Photos for red cards

After lunch we finished our discussion of the Yarnel fire. Then we watch a video on how and where to deploy our shelter if we are caught in a burnover.  One of the last things we do in class is practice our shelter deployment. Below is us practicing.

 We are timed at this as in the event we have to deploy time is of essence. We need to do it quickly.

                                                                    Ready, Set, Go!

After we get in the shelters our instructor checks to see if we have properly sealed ourselves in. It is important to have a good seal so we don't let any of the gasses in.We also don't want any embers blowing in.

Then we fold up the shelters and get them ready for the next participants. Its not as easy as it looks. It has to be folded up a certain way for it to work. The yellow handle you see in the pictures have to be out. You place your hand on each. there are two of them one says left hand and the other says right hand.

Then to finish the day we have the pack test. It is an ardous test. Wee have to go three miles in 45 minutes or less.....With 45 pounds on our backs. Sound easy? The catch you can't run. And on this day the wind was brutal. A mile an a half of our walk was into the wind. 

Getting packs on

Ready

Go!

Into the wind

                                     Don't believe me about the wind just listen to the link below.

Happy to say we all passed. My personal time was 42:17. 

So for one more year we are ready to go to work. 

Fire Refresher?

Just to let you all know I took pictures of our refresher with my phone and I wanted to post them with my blog report, but I am having a hard time transferring it over. So.......when I get it fixed i will, as promised show you what we do every preseason to get ready to fight fire.

Fire season begins today

How can fire season start today? After all it is raining cats and dogs here in the northwest.

But today is the start of our season. It was our annual fire refresher. Rt-130 class.
I will soon post the highlights from it as well as some interesting pictures of what we do in a refresher class. Plus I will share my pack test score with you.

Chow! 😄

5 Mile fire

After the desert we went home for a short spell and then we were dispatched to the 5 Mile fire. It was next to the Imnaha river. In fact they were worried about the town of Imnaha. 

For us it was a short fire. We were there three days before being sent to a fire in Washington State. We did do some mop up and patrol. There's not much to say about this fire. They thought it was about dead, and that is why we were reassigned. But the second day after we left the fire blew up. 

So because we didn't see much action I will just share with you the photos of what we saw.

Enjoy!

 

Imnaha River

MRE's cooking lunch

Mop up along the river

Imnaha River

Burning snag

Upcoming!

Just to let you all know we are entering the busy season. And we are planning out our schedule. Here is what is coming up:

Maybe you remember our reality show [Treasure Hunters] we were working on? We have been doing extensive research and we think we have found some good spots to explore, that could yield some really good finds. We are in the planning stages of planning a week in the field filming.

If we do, and fortune favors the foolish we will have lots of film and good finds to share with you.Ill keep you posted. Our plans is for sometime in April. When we have dates I will post it and let you all know. If all goes well it will be followed by the editing process. Then we hope to FINALLY! have our show.

Here is a taste of what we are going to do:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA0e0RWhx40&list=UUapZnnIO0if2ipPzeKNI2EA

Keep checking back for more. Also If you know anyone who may like my blog, please pass the word. See Ya soon!

Start a fire in the dark with a fire piston

I told you I have been really busy.

I just finished uploading a video on Youtube.

Some time ago we went out on a small backpack trip. We went late and set up camp in the dark. When it was time to start the fire I used a fire piston and the video shows what happened. There was no editing. You see it as it happened.

Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pI6r_WhzWU

Danger in the desert

What led to the dehydration on the Stemler Fire?

First of all I want to say I am not going to mention names. But I am also not going to sugar coat it either.

As I said before there was several people who were severely dehydrated on this complex of fires. In some cases it was so serious that they had to life flight a couple of guys out.  We didn't hear if it was heat stroke or what. But it was very serious.

I don't know what the experience of our Task Force leader or our Division Supervisor. However the dehydration on our division of the fire not only could have been prevented, but it should have. 

I would like to explain some of the differences  between engine crews and hand crews. We all have the same training. But the hand crews are better equipped for long treks onto the fire line and beyond then us engine people are. They have the gear to pack a lot of water. On most engines we are only required to have the basics as far as packs go. In fact most engine crews don't even have a backpack style pack. All we are required to have is a shelter and our hand tool, a radio for the boss and one crew mate. Our packs have a pair of holders for water but two is all you can fit in them.

These first three pictures show my guys and the  small packs we use.

This last guy has a line pack. You can see the difference in size and what you could carry.

Back to our overhead. They sent us engine crews out two or more miles to work the fire. There were a half dozen or so engine crews scattered about on the division we were assigned. That is fine we don't mind that. But due to the extreme heat water was disappearing very fast. A few crews radioed to the Task Force leader and asked if  they could return to their engines to re supply their water rations. He told them no!

That was a big mistake. As time passed we were all hot and thirsty. My crew and I did fine as I had a line pack backpack. I carried at least two gallons worth of Gatorade and water. Believe me we drank it all. We did this each day. That was besides what my crew took with them.

A day or so later the Task Force leader approached us and started drilling us with questions about our fitness training and why we were out of shape. As you can imagine most of the guys didn't take that to well as we all could out work and out hike him. He gave us some of the worst assignments. All the while not letting us go back for water. And it came back to haunt him. 

It was on his watch that late one afternoon we had that dreaded call over the radio. It was one of the engine guys overheating and becoming dehydrated. He ended up ok. If you do t know how it turned out, check the post "Dehydration and Life flight" on this blog.

At the end of the day we always do what we call an AAR, or after action review. We review what our plan of action was for the day. Did it work or did we have to make changes along the way. What went wrong and what could we do next time. As you can imagine it was quite the discussion. We all had lots to say. But what rang through the loudest was the Division Supervisor. He turned to the Task Force leader and chewed his butt out. Now mind you there was 30-40 people all standing hearing this. He asked why he didn't have water dropped off on several parts of the fire. Especially with the heat and the repeated warnings to keep the people hydrated.

We were dismissed and sent back to camp for the night. But the Task Force leader was held behind. When we left we could see he was getting a butt chewing, as he should have. Someone could have died. He came back to camp with his tail between his legs. He treated us all better after that.

One thing I have learned is watch your own back. If you do t you may get it burned, or dehydrated.

What lessons do you learn from this? Post your,comments below.

Rest assured we will all be wiser the next time this situation arises.

Coming soon

Just wanted to give you all an update. First of all I am sorry it has taken me a while to get the post about what went wrong to lead to people being dehydrated, and in some cases having to be life flighted out. I hope to get this out today.



There are good reasons for why I am late and behind on this blog. Some crazy things have been going on in my personal life. I hope soon to be able to explain what has been going on.



That being said there are some exciting things going on. As things develop I will post things to keep you all in the loop.



Have a Great day! See you soon.