Burn Time

After all the pre-planning the burn started. And it was a beautiful controlled burn. The end result is that it further secured the line. The pictures don't do the terrain justice. It is fairly steep, and what you don't see is the steep canyon on the other side of the ridge.That is where the main fire is. That being said, that was the purpose for this burn. To provide a bit of a buffer in case the fire below made a run. This would give some space for falling embers to fall harmless.

Preparing another drip torch

The goal is for the fire to consume all ground fuels buy not to run up the trees.It doesn't always work out that way.

On this night things mostly as expected. The Willamette engine crew stayed out and did the double shift. They patrolled to make sure there wasn't any spot fires. They did catch one that crossed the line. The next morning the rest of us who went to camp the night before patrolled and checked to see that the spot fire was out. It was. The night crews did a good job. 

But the fire continued to move and in my next post I will show that you do still have to have your heads up. Things change fast as you will see.