I returned his call and found that I was supposed to be in Las Vegas by four PM the next day. The fire was named the Carpenter 1, and it was threatening structures.
I got to Winnemucca by 8 PM, Got all my stuff in the truck and met the other guy who was taking an older water tender that had been sitting for two years. They had done all the inspections and wanted to get two trucks out and working. The plan was to drive to Tonopah and find a Motel for some sleep, then continue on in to Vegas the next morning.
The drive to Tonopah was miserable, strange road, dark as could be, not bright enough lights made it miserable in the extreme. We persevered, and finally found a Motel at 4AM. It of course was run by a family of Indian descent. What a place! The steps to the top floor were closed, due to holes in the concrete steps. The rug that is usually on the walkway was pulled up and there was just tar paper instead. The fixtures were all loose. The smoke alarm was hanging open, but I think it still had a battery in it. The shower head and valves were all loose in the shower stall. It was a bit disconcerting for a bit, but being an old Rail Roader I was used to such accommodations. I managed to sleep for about 5 hours, and we were on the road again.
It is not my intention to disparage the fella that I was teamed up with, but being an inveterate people watcher and closet cynic, I was interested in what he was going to be like to work with. He had owned a garbage business that covered a lot of the area that were were going through. He had sold it and I guess like me thought that a little side money would not be bad. My first inclination that things might not be as they should was when we started driving all over Las Vegas looking for a truck stop. After touring through the second housing development, I called a halt and drove to the nearest gas station that we had passed and got my fuel. Driving a Kenworth tanker truck in Vegas traffic is not one of my favorite things. You haven't seen "crazy" until you do. I am a much better welder than I am a truck driver. The greater the stress, the less likely that I am going to hit the gear that I was aiming for.
I find all this fire stuff to be intimidating, since it is a whole new world with rules that I know nothing about. I mostly muddle through by being willing to admit that I am new, and asking for help in my best "lost but cute puppy" manner. The worst is trying to find out where you are supposed to be, since some of them may include driving for 75 miles to find a duck pond that you are supposed to fill, back in some Canyon.
We checked in among the probably thousand people that were already there, and of course found that no one knew who had ordered us, and none had any idea of where we were to go. We first had to get our equipment checked. They found that the other truck had leaky wheel seals. He went off to a truck shop to see if he could get repaired. He never did get the repairs that he needed and was sent home after two more days, while I was assigned to a "Phos check batch plant". That is the red fire retardant. There were about 5 other water tenders assigned to the plant.
We were furnishing retardant to two "Erickson Sky Cranes".
We got our refills from a hydrant in a housing development at the bottom of the hill. Turn around time was about 55 minutes each. We worked 12 hour days. The BLM guy assigned to the plant would bring up a sack lunch each day, and generally brought a few extra, which worked out for me as I was sleeping at the site. There was enough food in each lunch to supply me with lunch, dinner and some P'nut butter and Jelly "crustables" for breakfast next morning. When its that hot you don't need much anyway.
The temps in Vegas were from 105 to 107 during the day and down to 102 at night. You can well understand why I would choose to stay in the hills where it was a bit cooler. Sometimes in the early morning it would get cool enough that covering up with a summer sleeping bag would feel pretty good. Not so in town however.
The terrain was quite interesting to me. Of course Vegas is situated in the middle of a old dry Lake bed, while the hills are Granite, and so rugged that the fire could only be fought by helio's with retardant. The crews had to wait until the fire came to them. Vegas is on one side of the fire, and over the Mountain was Pahrump. That was where the structures were threatened.
We had a couple of days where it was cool and rainy up on the Mountain. This slowed the fire considerably, and furnished Vegas with some flash flooding. Combined with some serious retardant drops, the weather allowed them to get the fire under control.
They began to "demobilize" as many crews as they could. I got one more day to assist two other tenders to fill a "duck pond" that this character had in front of his house. The fire crews used it to refill their containers and tankers when they were trying to keep the fires from the houses there. We put 27000 gallons of water back in it for him. He was quite a character! Boots, Bermuda Shorts and a pith helmet. I assume he was a "flim flam" man, from his speech patterns. I was grinning all the time he was talking to me or anyone else that came by.
The news media was all over the place trying to get " the story".
Flim Flam was in all his glory as he told the story of his "close escape". One set up is camera in front of my truck, but a blast from the air horn convinced him to relocate.
I spent a total of six days on the fire. Some of the days were busy as could be, others were spent sitting in the shade of the truck. I had one book on my kindle, but it didn't last all that long, and I was back to people watching again. Finally one of the guy's finished a "Longarm" novel. I read that in less than three hours. :-/
It was nice to get back home again, get a shower, and get in out of the sun.
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