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Just got back from Elko. Watched N699RH (Rainer Heli) and a bunch of other helis and fixed wings making runs on the Basco fire near Elko between my meetings and training classes. Pretty neat hardware. Saw the Winters fire off in the distance from I-80 on my way home today. That one is burning about 10 miles north of the mine. Hasn't caused us any problems yet, but another one of our mines to the east of the fire had to shut down due to pulling smoke into the ventialtion system.
Back at work today. Little bit of smoke for some reason. Stay tuned, I'm about to head up into the hills behind the mine site and try to get some photos of [announcer voice] The largest fire in The United States [/anouncer voice].
Last night at dinner we were talking about this. We all agreed he should have said it to a MT-based firefighter who then should have cold cocked his ass.Quote:
Originally Posted by SherpaStyle
That person would be world famous, and acquitted. :FIREdevil
And never would have had to buy a drink for themself again for the rest of their lives.Quote:
Originally Posted by RootSkier
got a call today:
the OLF thing is still not dead. Still working on it up there.
Still hope.
Wow, impressive fire behavior today in W. Montana (Gash Creek fire). We hiked up to the upper part of Division Charlie and staged (you know, general EMT line slug stuff). The morning was calm and they expected mild winds, 5 - 7 mph. Well around 3pm, the wind started raging. They then issued a red flag warning and we started getting pretty sustained gusts out of the west at 40 mph. A massive bowl of timber, prob. 500 acres ripped off and capped out the column. The winds were squirrely and erie. Huge plumes were dumping out of the bowl to the north of us, looking much closer than they were. We had a slopover up on the ridge and it looks like it might break into a new drainage. If it does that, its gonna open a huge chapter on this fire.
Low RH: 12
Just back from the shasta trinity, last day off was july 12. Three days down and right back to the same fire. Tied in one part of the fire in 14 days, about 6 miles of indirect burnt mostly in the wilderness.
The season is gonna be a long one, stay safe. Don't know all the details but Eldorado got split and a couple guys got burnt, nothing life threatning but just keep yours heads up.
Finally got some pics from the winters fire which was burning by the mine I work at a few weeks ago. Don't know the final numbers but it was 200k+ acres I think.
Most pictures courtesy the BLM.
Setting a Backfire
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/a...0&d=1154972666
Blow up on July 30 or 31
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/a...1&d=1154972675
Heli dunkin' the bucket. (This guy hit the release on the bucket by accident later, lost his gear on the bottom of the lake)
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/a...2&d=1154972680
Snorkelin'
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/a...3&d=1154972687
One of my companies dozers lended a hand ripping some line.
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/a...4&d=1154972693
more pics............................
The line (I like this pic a lot for some reason, looks really cool!)
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/a...5&d=1154972752
Camp
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/a...6&d=1154972764
Snorkel again.
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/a...7&d=1154972769
Flames
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/a...8&d=1154972779
Distance Shot
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/a...9&d=1154972784
If anyone's interested, I can post some more showing the Wild Horses and stuff hanging around the un-burned islands in the fire area.
sweet, I like when there's a kmax and a skycrane.
that must have been some superdooper high-priority sagebrush. :fmicon:
Heh, just ask the local Nevada ranchers that have the grazing allotments. Actually, no need to ask - they'll be in your face, except for the ones that are busy screaming to their congressional reps.Quote:
Originally Posted by YetiMan
#2 priority for a while. We actually had 4 helis I think, we had one of the MAFFS or whatever black hawks too.Quote:
Originally Posted by YetiMan
As far as high priority sage brush goes, yeah, but it was probably because the sagebrush surrounded some high priority tax revenue sources (mines and ranches). ;)
I made the cert for an ogden ast. foreman.
I'm driving to the OLF tonight to meet with fire staff, hopefully friday.
I'm not giving up.
Dispatch rots, I'm going to find my way out.
Here is the Gash Fire and fire camp in the Bitterroot National Forest, just west of Victor, MT last week. Burning some sweet ski terrain = awesome.
http://static.flickr.com/65/208298334_a93886f871_o.jpg
And the smoke helps with the sunsets.
http://static.flickr.com/83/208298362_1552075504_o.jpg
Hundreds of lightning strikes last night...should be interesting to see what flares up in the next couple of days. Oh, and now the wind is picking up and gusting hard.
Whoa, that gave me like a total flashback to 2000.Quote:
Originally Posted by RootSkier
Whoa! So did that.Quote:
Originally Posted by RootSkier
good luck man - keep pushing - you'll find something betterQuote:
Originally Posted by YetiMan
http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html
Things spooled up quickly. Watch each other's backs.
A military battalion's been assigned to the Tripod Complex in WA. Those can be pretty interesting assignments for the civilian cadre (MCADs, STLMs, BNML):Quote:
Originally Posted by 13
http://www.inciweb.org/incident/news/article/341/1481/
And there's a planeload of Ozzies and Kiwis running around the states. They're fun guys:
http://www.inciweb.org/incident/news/article/341/1553/
Actually they pretty much suck.Quote:
Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper
Once again, the hue and cry about shortages of firefighters kicks in, and the military is called while firefighters within 200 miles sit on their assess waiting for an assignment. Gotta love the politics in fire.
I suppose it depends - I went out twice with the military and it was pretty good duty both times. For a big fire, that is - nothing's better than IA.Quote:
Originally Posted by grrrr
It's not that they aren't being asked for, it that they aren't being let go. All politics is local.Quote:
Originally Posted by grrrr
midnight.
structures threatened.
Boss yelling at me like I'm a foolish child.
I stand up for my honor, my intelligence, my professional abilities:
"I'm a 29 year old adult man. I managed a business and ran a crew before I came here. Don't treat me like I'm a fool."
The proverbial shit hits the fan, I get the super hardcore pissy-fit shit-storm.
I'm saying that if I need to walk out the door (it's 10 feet from my fat ass now) I will somehow pay my bills and continue to survive with or without this embarrassing clusterfuck of a job.
Sheesh. I can't believe I ever thought that dispatch would be a mellow way to make some $$ and stay home w/kids. Not the case. It's the worst kind of mind-fuck in here every day.
I will be out of here soon. If it's straight from here to wino-dumpstertown or if it's off into another fire job, either way I'm going to be glad to be gone.
I'm so mad at myself for being whipped, for not putting my foot down and telling my GF fuck-it, I'm a firefighter and if you can't live with it then so be it.
damn. Nightmares in here. Mental illness. the worms eating into people's brains. Paranoia: channel 5 is going to fuck us, the houses are going to burn and we're going to get fucked in court, we didn't get the #'s right and the audit is going to fuck us...the FMO's are going to fuck us when they hear about it all. Brains boiling, estrogen pumping...tantrums being thrown. It's a whole new bad trip every time I walk in that door.
I learned something when I was a young kid, that you can't take life for granted, and as I've gone through my life I've put it on the line a lot, motorcycles, skiing, all of it. My life could end tomorrow, and I'm sick over spending these precious days of my short life in this shitbox.
Every time you talk to dispatch you should know that they're living with all of this I'm saying. It's like this everywhere, it's the nature of the job and the archetype of the people who do it...it's rowdy, stupid, it's fucked up, it's just all wrong. Most maddening of all is that it doesn't have to be this way. There are solutions to the problem, there are clear headed people who can get this done without making it insane, the people and the methods are being blown off because the gov't, as a whole, works so poorly and supports such a deeply entrenched group of drama queens with no ability to think outside their own limited horizons.
:cussing: :cussing: :cussing: :cussing: :cussing: :cussing: :cussing: :cussing:
Okay, that sounds like one shitty shift. Here's hoping a little sleep helps with your mood, but you need to let that boss know that you expect a respectful and professional work environment. You don't need to put up with that shit.Quote:
Originally Posted by YetiMan
Hey, you got that right, so hang in there. Look, having some good minds sitting in IA dispatch is crucial to the folks in the field. Just offhand I can think of dozens of serious fuck-ups that were either a) caused by morons behind the console, or b) prevented by skookum dispatchers who kept it together when it could have gotten ugly.Quote:
Originally Posted by YetiMan
Do it for the firefighters, but let the boss know you need him to get - and stay - off your ass so that you can do the job. That needs straightening out because even if you get that other job, someone will come in behind you and the pounders in the field will still need good support from dispatch.
my $.02 - I get worked up when dispatch gets ragged, there's too much riding on it to have douchebags in the mix.
Uh oh, bad news. With the helicopter crash in Idaho, the rollovers and other vehicle accidents, burnovers, etc it's been a bad season for the pounders.
YetiMan, full-on condolances if Spencer Koyle was a compadre.
RIP Spencer Koyle. Condolences to the family.
Glad you picked a copy up. TC worked for the FS 7 years, and is now on the MSO city department. I'm still working for the FS, and spending most of my time trying to figure out the best place to put a hootch.Quote:
Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper
For me, the best place was usually on a south-facing bank above a fishing stream. You don't always get that option though, do you? Failing that, a camp in aspens or birch is better than in the conifers.Quote:
Originally Posted by MT
You sir, speak the truth.
Fuschia in NW/Intermountain Region = Red Flag Warning... That's the biggest one I've seen so far this summer.
http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html
Be safe, dudes.
Bitterroot Valley = the suck right now. Gash fire is blowin up and the smoke is so thick you can just barely make out the Bitterroots.
Tongass #5 going out this weekend.
I keep getting asked to go as Squaddie and EMT, but I just can't justify leaving my baby son for 2 1/2 weeks. It's killing me seeing all this action and all of our crews going South, especially with the shortage of Squad Bosses and Crew Bosses on our forest. I could have had 2-3 assignments this year.
sigh.....oh well, next year Daddy gets to go off-Forest.
good article in yesterday's sltrib on Spencer Koyle's funeral :(
http://extras.mnginteractive.com/liv...lug_0824~3.jpg
I'm going to an engine for the next 2 weeks.
hope it's sweet. I guess we'll see. Either way it's a start. You don't even know how stoked I'd be to get the last few boxes (have 3 left :nonono2: ) checked on my engb task book and get that thing punched off before next springs hiring season. I hope I'll get my chance.
good luck and have fun mang
Just hope you don't end up here! :)
having fun, doing good, life is good.
I'm seriously hoping this is the turn and I'm not in that office anymore.
Possibly going to detail in Cal, hard to say now but it may go.
-Yetimang
RIP. Just heard about this by reading backpages in this thread -- Spencer's brother stayed with us for a week in July. Condolences to the Koyles and all others in that position.Quote:
Originally Posted by flykdog
glad to hear things are looking up Yetiman
I've had to turn down a total of 6 squaddie assignments. Last time they tried guilt. "You are the only squad boss available on the Forest. I have a crew ready to send out when you are ready to go, otherwise, 19 other people may not get to go South." Gee, thanks. I'm already jonesing enough as it is..........
The "Pines" fire broke out across the street from my work 2 days ago.. all but out now, but we had to evacuate and I had to ditch my car for a day.. I got to do traffic control thanks to CHP being a no show... :nonono2:
http://www.inciweb.org/incident/508
yETIMAN, glad you are out of dispatch, cause I make fun of dispatchers ALOT, and I like you. I mean, I don't know if wildland dispatchers are different than city dept. dispatchers, but we all love to comment about how many twinkies they have in their mouth at once.
the answer is 3, 3 twinkies at any given time.Quote:
Originally Posted by flykdog
Glad things are looking up for you, yetiman!
The end is in sight. We just got back from the Heaven's Gate Complex on the Nez. It was cold and snowy and we did a bunch of rehab. It was awesome! Now I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for a probable dispatch to CA. At least I'll break 1000 hrs if we go...that's about the only positive spin I can put on going to SoCal. NorCal might not be too bad.