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.
No comments:
Post a Comment