Things have been a little slow on the fire front, at least the part where I get to make money. The rest of the West seems to be burning down around us. They just didn't see fit to call out the company that I work for.
First, let me say that the most hazardous part of the job for me personally, is going to sleep while driving all over to get to little podunk places that mostly no one other than locals have ever heard of. In the middle of the night mostly. The worst thing that you can hear is, " You can't miss it". Perhaps I am unusually talented in that area, because it seems all too easy for me to actually do that. At least I will worry that I will indeed do it for several hours driving on strange roads with headlights that are much too dim to be able to see all the things that one needs to see.
My last and first trip this year was to a little place called Cold Springs, Nevada. It consists of a sometimes open, combination store, restaurant,Motel, RV park. All in one building. If you punch it in to a GPS it directs you to a spot that is at least 125 miles away.
My truck is a 3800 gallon Kenworth water tender. It is a good truck, only 18 years old, and it runs like a scalded cat, tracks good on the little roads. However the headlights are somewhat dim or perhaps its my eyes that are dim. Its tough to see unless it is really dark. The area that I went to fits that description to a tee. Its called the "Loneliest road in Nevada". Nevada has the worst road signs and the smallest mile markers of anywhere I have ever been. I checked coming back home in the daylight and I still couldn't read them at highway speeds. So the entire trip was a guessing game. I brought my GPS with me, but handily forgot the power cord so the battery went dead before I left the main hwy. If not for my cell phone and its map application, I might still be looking for smoke.
I have a "kit" that I keep ready in the shop. All I need to do is add in my personal bag and I am ready to go. Tent, Cot, a little ammo can that holds a stove, coffee, aspirin, and so on. Of course we never get a call during the middle of the day. ( If called after hours, the BLM only has to pay half of a day.) This one came in at 4 pm. I tossed all my stuff in the truck and headed to Winnemucca Nv. where the truck is headquartered. Provisioned it and headed towards my job site. I finally arrive at my first turn in Battle Mountain at 10:30 at night, and remembered that I didn't bring my sleeping bag. There are no sleeping bags available at that time of night in Battle Mtn. The only thing open was a "Dollar Store". The only thing close to what I needed was some comforters and some "Micro Fleece" blankets. ( I think that is code for blanket fuzz.) I bought two fleece, a pillow, and the comforter. All were quite reasonable. Most likely because the objects were so bright and flashy that no other store could sell them, only the desperate. Mine was large pink flowers. Luckily it was dark when I used them.
I arrived at 12:30 AM and finally managed to put my tent up, and turn in to get some sleep. Up at 5:45 AM and check in at the IC. I was assigned to provide water for the Heli tac unit. They had two light Heli's and one medium consisting of a Huey H model. Each had a 100 foot circle that we needed to keep wet to keep the dust down. There were two of us assigned, so our only problem was to get enough water to accomplish that. The BLM had found a rancher that allowed them to dig a couple of ponds and divert a spring creek (Probably the very one that the area was named after) into them so that we could fill our trucks out of them. Mud holes really. Once we got the water situation solved it was pretty easy. A heli would lift off and we would water the circle that they had been using.
The fire was back up in the Mountains quite a distance away. I never even saw smoke from the fire the whole time I was there. The Heli crews were providing support for the hotshot crews that were posted out on the fire lines. They would ferry the 21 person crews in to the fire lines and then provide them with support in the way of supplies and food. Occasionally hot food. In three and half days I worked 47 hours.
The way that this works is that they send in a crew to begin to set things up. Then the contractors arrive as well as the hot shot crews, that do the ground grunt work. As the fire either progresses more and more people and crews arrive. When they can get a fire line around the actual fire to the point that it is "contained" then the crews that are not needed are released to either go home or to other fires. At that point another group will do what ever rehabilitation that is needed.
Fire camp is pretty interesting. The fire crews are made up of young guys and gals that are very tough and very interesting. Tough beyond belief. There are "hot shot"crews made up from the various Indian tribes, Some of them are from various BLM and Forest Service's and a few that are inmates that have had the option of earning some "good time". They have it the toughest, because of the restrictions put on them. They can't smoke, chew and they always answer with a Sir, Or Ma'am. They stay to themselves. However to me the most interesting are the crews with the girls on them. Perhaps two sometimes only one girl, and she is just as filthy dirty as any of the guys. You know then that she isn't just a pretty face there for support. They work just as hard as any of the guy's, neither asking or giving any quarter. They may or may not lack the delicate grace of the local beauty queen, but they have what it takes to stand with you, come hell or high water. My choice any day.
Almost everything is contracted out. Water tenders, Helicopters, Cats, even the toilets and a guy to clean them. The kitchens are generally inmates cooking and serving the food. You have never seen more respectful behavior. They try their hardest to earn the privilege of working on the fires. I think I heard some one say that they got $3.00 a day. Every one that I saw beamed with pride if you complimented them or their work.
Unlike most Govt. job holders, most of these guy's and gals seem to be pretty competent, and professional. Of course there are some that are not, but on the whole the only idiots are a lot higher up than the line people.
For the water tender part of the fire work, it seems mostly to be that we are there on conjecture. If we are supporting fire crews, they will station a tender as close to a fire as is safe but handy. The objective is to refill the "Engines" that actually go out on the line either putting out spot fires, or refilling the "piss cans" that the crew wears on their back. A tender may sit there for 14 hours and not deliver any more than a couple of hundred gallons of water. One of our tenders that went out to a fire in June did not give any water to anyone the whole time he was at the fire.
Working with the Heli tac crew was pretty steady work. We could wet about three pads before we ran out of water. It took me 55 minutes to refill with water and get back. By that time the other tender would be out of water and be on his way to fill up. I liked that better than just trying to stay awake.
The fire was back in country that was so rough that they were sending in crews and dropping them off for 24 hours to dig the fire lines around the fires. We were sending them the supplies that they needed to accomplish that.
https://vimeo.com/136967817 password- owyheeflyer
This is one of the French "A Stars". The first load out was just a normal load on a short line. The second was to an area that was very dusty, so the loads were sent out on a long line. The video's were taken on my cell phone.
The camp was in a field that had dust about ankle deep. It was hot and sweaty. They placed Porta Potties at various distances around the field. I am not sure how many of you have ever had the "pleasure" of using one. Don't get me wrong, they can be a life saver, but just like sex, after it is over, one has time to think. If they are kept clean, there is little stink, depending on how hot it is, and how many people are using it. They are crowded and have a tendency to rock around on most fire camp ground. Not a good thing if they are pretty full. They are mostly (at least the ones that they get for fires) dark green, which is a color designed by nature to absorb sunlight to make things grow. The TP holder is on the left side, and a plastic trough or receptacle is on the right for guy's to stand up and urinate in. The best have an open weave plastic floor so that the "dribbles" don't soil your pants when you drop them.
I have spent a lot of time ( can't help myself, but to wonder at the workings of other peoples minds ) wondering about the rational of supplying toilet paper that you are guaranteed to stick your finger through if there is less than 3 layers of said paper. My belief is that it is thought to save money by buying the crap paper that no one else will. ( It is not my intention to be indelicate here, but to examine the foibles of the mind.) I am very picky about the TP that we buy. I prefer that my hand washing after the fact be more of a healthy habit than a necessity. On the whole I generally use about a three feet piece of TP at home, on the job you could be talking about 10 feet or more. Is the institutional stuff actually three times cheaper than something that works?
The next thing that drives me crazy is to just slap something together that has no thought to the lay out or the ergonomics of the thing. You know- work smart, and all that. It is my opinion that most of the population is right handed, and even if you are not Muslim you will still wipe your butt with your left hand. That action requires that you lean to the right and a bit forward to access the affected parts. This means that your nose is very close to that urinal that I mentioned earlier. If you flinch and pull back- skid marks! I wonder if there is any call for Porta Potty designers?
