OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT.
I got home Friday night from the 4632 acre Range fire near Ely, NV. Fires there generally run through the first burning period (daylight hours mostly) and then settle down and burn out while the crews go around them and make sure there are no hot spots that can take off the next day and continue to burn. Sometimes, however, they continue to run day after day.
They generally order in a small type 3 team to handle them, primarily to make sure that there is a plan and oversight and that all of the people have a place to sleep and something to eat. They did that this time too but the team decided they needed additional help after the second day so I got the call.
It was a fast fire. The crews caught it the first day I was there and mopped it up the next day. It also rained on the fire the first night I was there. It rained hard from about 11:30 p.m. until after 4:30 a.m. the next morning, AND I do mean hard. The rain on my tent kept waking me up about every hour and it was hard to go back to sleep wondering how long the tent was going to keep me dry. The rain also made the mop-up process a lot faster.
I spent most of the next day getting supplies ready and loaded onto a truck to send back to the fire cache in Boise, ID. Shortly after that truck started for Boise I headed for home. I got home about 5:30 p.m. that evening.
I LOVED THE CALL, LOVED THE JOB, MET A LOT OF NEW PEOPLE THAT I HAVE NEVER WORKED WITH BEFORE, SAW A LOT OF TERRIBLY DRY COUNTRY AND ENDED WITH THE HOPE THAT I WOULD GET ANOTHER CALL TO SERVE WITH THIS GROUP OF PEOPLE. TIME WILL TELL.
FINAL RESULT---ANOTHER 3.5 DAYS OF MY LIFE SPENT FIGHTING WILDLAND FIRES!!!
Sunday, July 8, 2012
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