Slow Start

The start of the 2017 wildfire season started slow. And in fact it almost didn't happen. June was exceptionally dry. Up in the local woods it looked like late September early October. The soil was powdery dry. There was several inches of dust. Then we had a storm came through and dropped over an inch of rain. That really delayed the fire season by a considerable margin.

The rain and also a change in the weather pattern really kept a major fire season from happening. As for the weather change, it was really subtle. What happened is the pattern shifted from a SW flow to a NW flow. Yes it was still warm but the major difference is no thunderstorms. That would have been a big trigger for fire starts. That never materialized, hence few fires. 

Then a few fires started to pop up. First was the Weigh Station fire. It was wind driven across interstate 84, closing it for a while.Then was the Rail fire in Malhuer County.

We weren't dispatched to the first fire and so we were hoping to go on the Rail. It seemed like everyone was going but us. In the mean time my crew was getting hungry and had to leave and go back home to work.

So now I was scrambling to find a crew. In the mean time still no dispatch.

Then after a ten to twelve days one of the local contractors called me and asked if I could run one of his engines to relieve his crew for their R&R. So since I had no dispatch I went. Thanks to Fireworks for a couple nights of work.

The above pictures is from the Rail fire, while it was calm.

So myself along with two crew members were off to the Rail fire. We headed to Unity Oregon. After we arrived at camp we checked in and prepared for our first shift. Night Shift. Stay tuned