2006 Fire Season Roll Call

[ill-advised strategy]

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.

[Meadow Skipper]

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

[Meadow Skipper]

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.

[zion zig zag]

RIP Spencer Koyle. Condolences to the family.

[MT]

Are you one of the "Stepping Up" BB guys? I've got that book - didn't realize there were firefighters involved.

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.

[Meadow Skipper]

... I'm still working for the FS, and spending most of my time trying to figure out the best place to put a hootch.

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.

[MT]

You sir, speak the truth.

[13]

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.

[RootSkier]

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.

[~mikey b]

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

[ill-advised strategy]

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 ) checked on my engb task book and get that thing punched off before next springs hiring season. I hope I'll get my chance.

[~mikey b]

good luck and have fun mang

[P_McPoser]

Just hope you don't end up here!

[ill-advised strategy]

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

[Yeti]

RIP Spencer Koyle. Condolences to the family.

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.

[~mikey b]

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..........

[snowave]

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...

http://www.inciweb.org/incident/508

[zion zig zag]

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.

[ill-advised strategy]

... 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.

[SherpaStyle]

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.

[~mikey b]

did y'all read this?

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/...s_Militia.html

Thursday, September 14, 2006 · Last updated 2:53 p.m. PT

Forest Service fire militia threatened by outsourcing, groups say

By CHRISTOPHER SMITH
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

BOISE, Idaho -- A Bush administration study on whether some jobs in the U.S. Forest Service could be done better by private contractors compromises the agency's in-house firefighting force, say groups representing federal employees.

Administration officials dispute the claim. But the question of whether "competitive sourcing" studies - which determine whether nongovernment activities should be kept in-house or turned over to private firms - undermine the "fire militia" has caught the attention of Congress.

The Government Accountability Office earlier this year began a study, still under way, after a bipartisan group of senators asked if the outsourcing competition studies give enough consideration to the Forest Service's long-term ability to manage wildfires.

While Congress has prohibited the Forest Service and the Interior Department from studying outsourcing of federal jobs that are dedicated to fire suppression and management full time, there's no similar protection for staffers in other jobs who are cross-trained in fire duties, say union officials, wildland firefighter associations and watchdog groups.

"If you outsource Clark Kent, what are you going to do when you need Superman?" said Mark Davis, a Forest Service chemist in Madison, Wis., who's a member of the Forest Service Council, an arm of the union representing federal employees. "They are making outsourcing decisions based on a program that gives no consideration to the fire qualifications of the employees."

Some employees of federal land management agencies are summoned to fire duty from their regular jobs, such as wildlife biologists, payroll clerks and maintenance workers, when full-time and seasonal firefighters are in short supply. That happened this year, when the fire militia was activated in late July as the number and size of fires overwhelmed existing resources.

Currently, almost all of the national and regional fire management teams directing suppression efforts on wildfires are made up of Forest Service and Interior Department employees who have been temporarily assigned from their "day jobs" to work fire duty.

Forest Service officials say the studies of potential public-private job competitions recognize fire suppression and management is "mission critical" to the agency.

"Fire resources are not going to be hurt by competitive sourcing or any other studies being done," said Forest Service spokesman Joe Walsh in Washington, D.C.

If fire support is identified as part of a particular job, that requirement would be included in any proposal seeking outside contractors to do the work cheaper and more efficiently, said Jacqueline Myers, the Forest Service's competitive sourcing director.

Fire duty is a minor component of most Forest Service employee's job performance, with less than 5 percent of their time actually dedicated to supporting the suppression mission, she said.

"It's a myth those folks are out on fire lines all the time," Myers told The Associated Press. "If we have more fires, we hire more temps and contractors. We don't send everyday Forest Service employees out to do that stuff."

Employees who leave their usual jobs and join fire teams are specially trained and certified to work in a firefighting environment. But the number of regular employees who are getting that special fire certification is dropping because of fewer incentives being offered by the agencies, said Casey Judd, head of the Idaho-based Federal Wildland Fire Service Association.

"They've failed to address recruitment and retention of the fire militia even though the Forest Service has relied on it for years," said Judd. "Rather than strengthening it, they now want to go out and hire private firefighters for three times the rate federal folks cost."

Myers said the agency is proceeding with the best interests of the forest resource and taxpayers in mind, but acknowledges the studies stir passionate responses among employees.

"A very small percentage of jobs examined have ever gone external because the federal work force is doing a good job," she said. "But I work for the public and it's my responsibility to make sure I am spending their money well."

An insult to FS fire militia. They think they can just go out and hire a new temp or a contractor to replace someone with 1o years of fire experience on a moment's notice during a big season like this? Bullshit.

[ill-advised strategy]

back in the cube.

2 more weeks. Nobody is answering my calls at the OLF. grr.

oh well, now I'm running again, I've had some time on the saw and working an engine, had a good gear check, and I have the mindset back. Next season things will be different and better.

[char]

Season isn't over yet, going to SoCal....

[ill-advised strategy]

Season isn't over yet, going to SoCal....

couldn't hear you, too many twinky wrappers opening

[zion zig zag]

BwahhH!!