Idaho

So...joined a BLM Hotshot crew, I am on one of the most elite fire crews in the US, and I have already worked 450 Overtime hours this season which means I have worked something like 800 regular hours. So a total of 1250+ hours so far, and I am only halfway through. I have been on 5 fires so far this season. The Pergatoire Fire in Southern Colorado started the season off, followed by the Wallow Fire in Arizona, the largest fire in the US this year so far outside Texas and Alaska. After that we came back to Idaho and then went to Arizona a few days later going to the Monument Fire 5 miles from the Mexican Border in Arizona followed by the Copper Canyon Fire in Safford Arizona where it got to 122 degrees. And we just finished up the Indian fire in Idaho the first major fire in Idaho this season so far. Only 2 months left this season, probably only 3 more fires if I am on the fires for 2 weeks each, probably staying in Idaho, Utah or the Northwest (Washington or Oregon).

Utah

So I have been in Utah for about 3 weeks, it's hot sunny and full of desert. But apparently they have a lot of dry lightning storms here. I am going to be in classes for the next month or so, taking a lot of classes that will make me very eligible for Hotshot crews come next season. I have also been emailing and calling a lot of Hotshot Superintendents to see what my chances are for next year. And so far all have said that I have a really good chance at making it next year. I also may be detailing with the Cedar City Hotshots when fire season winds down here. Possibly getting to work fires outside of Utah and Arizona!

BLM Helitack!

I just got a job with the US Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management in St.George Utah on a Helitack crew, which is a crew that supports and is in charge of a helicopter in wildland fire situations. More updates about the job as I get them!

HotShot Applications

I have spent the last few weeks applying for nearly every USFS, USDOI Hotshot crew in the US. Which has taken a lot of time, today I got a call from the Lone Peak Conservation Center, where the Lone Peak Interagency Hotshots (R-4) are stationed, and set up an interview for January 7th, which is good, I am also waiting to hear from the two Hotshot crews I worked with in California, Mill Creek Interagency Hotshots (R-5), and Del Rosa Interagency Hotshots (R-5), hopefully I get a call from them soon. I also got two calls yesterday from USFWS fire crews in North Platte Nebraska, and I will be interviewing for those in January as well. So at least I know all my applications are going somewhere! I'm posting a video of the Del Rosa Hotshots from Youtube, hopefully it works.


Del Rosa Hotshots

Coming Home!

I am leaving tomorrow 10/12 for Seattle, hopping on the train and going back to Minneapolis. I leave at 4:40pm Pacific Time, and will get home sometime Wednesday Morning.

FFT1/ICT5

Today I put the final touches on my FFT1/ICT5 Taskbook for firefighting. FFT1 is Fire Fighter Type 1 or Advanced fire fighter, for those of you who don't know most of the people you may have seen cutting line and hiking into the recent Station Fire in Pasadena CA are FFT1 Hotshots. So this is a pretty big deal in my plan to be on a Hotshot crew next fire season, hopefully in CA. ICT5 is Incident Commander Type 5, which basically means I have the authority to command over as many as 20 people on a relatively small incident that is easily taken care of in 1 operational period (8-24 hrs). So I have authority, which is cool, not like I wasn't the voice of reason and intelligence where I am currently working, but now I just have to find a way to take S-131 Advanced Firefighting (a wildland fire class) hopefully before I leave WA, or maybe when I come back to MN. It is also pretty much official that I will be laid off the 2nd week of October and will probably be returning home to start applying for Hotshot positions for next fire season. If I get hired onto one (hopefully in CA) I may have to leave as early as the end of March 2010, for early season workouts and teambuilding and other stuff. But I will probably be able to get unemployment after leaving WA (something I have no idea how to do, but will figure out while trying to get a new position I will hopefully complain much less about in CA) as I apply to other positions around the Western US (California (Region 5 and 6) Idaho, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona). So that is the news for now, more updates once NWCG and the USFS validate my credentials, and such, oh and I am officially Faller B, but I have been falling C class trees since I am the only person at Ft. Lewis nearly qualified for it, and comfortable doing it. I felled a 45 inch 210 ft tall Douglas Fir on base that was 60% burned out at the base of the tree which was pretty cool. But take my work for it, it was dangerous, and pretty cool which is why I did it, well me and one of my co-workers held a felling ax for me which we didn't really need. It was pretty cool and made a huge crash when it hit the ground.

1 Month or so at My New Job

So I went out to Washington State the last week of May, to start a new job at Fort Lewis in Tacoma WA. So far the job has been alright, I had thought that this job would be mostly fire work, with some Timber Stand Management, and Timber Sale Preparation. I was a little wrong about that. So far I have spent about 1 week of time actually on fire, and the rest of the time walking through the woods painting blue lines on trees. Which is really boring. But tolerable, what I really can't stand is that some of the people I work with are idiots, my boss for example claims to have all these certifications I know it is impossible for him to have, based on what he says at fires. He claims to be an ICT4, Crew Boss, Burn Boss, Dozer Boss, Helitack Qualified, and a few other things that only really mean something to those who know wildland fire. But He claimed to have gotten all of these certifications in 2 years of work on fire. To get ICT4 status, you need 1000 hours or so of Fire Line time, which means Fire Line Construction and maintenance, which in my nearly 2 months here, I have 3 hours of actual Fire Line Time. So I think and my supervisors from CA think that he is full of it. He has no idea what he is talking about half the time. Also to get ICT4 you need to have commanded forces numbering 30+ people on a wildfire, not prescribed burn or anything like that, for a few hundred hours. We have 10 people working in the same position I am or under my boss, so that is impossible as well. But his incompetence is showing, he basically blamed all of us (people working at GS-0462 pay grade) for directly disobeying orders, and insubordination, for fighting fire in an area that he told us not to fight fire in, and that he did not know where we were on the fire. Except that he got a GPS point of where the Fire Line was located and where the vehicles were parked, and he printed maps for us after he came in, and brought us the maps, so we all know he is lying and trying to save his job.
But it seems wherever I go I have to deal with mass incompetence, and it is really not fun. But I like the fire part that is really fun.