Fire #1

Fire Numero Uno - 10 Days on Hearst 20

My first real wildfire fighting experience has now come and gone in the form of 10 days in a dense mossy bush, accompanied by my crew and the bugs.

As I mentioned in my previous posts, the weather has been crazy and I was bound to get a fire soon. After working 8 consecutive days, our crew was flown out to a 219 hectare fire in the Hearst district: Hearst 20. It was Friday, May 28th and I was ridiculously excited and definitely nervous. I had been waiting for this for over a month and I couldn't wait to get there. Everything couldn't happen fast enough: packing the truck, driving to the airport, loading the helicopter. Everything.

At first the fire was very unpredictable, so we camped at the Staging Area a short chopper ride from the main burn. In the morning we flew in to lay hose at a problem area and got flown back out in the evening. After our second night the fire had calmed a bit, so we were moved to a line camp right next to a dead part of the burn. This meant our hose line was only a short walk away from our camp. By this time there were multiple crew on the fire, so the normally deserted bush was invaded by over ten camp sites, a ton of firefighters and hundreds of lengths of hose. In the background you heard the dull roar of the pumps, the hand-held radio communications and the rythmic chopping sound of the two helicopters' blades as they moved equipment and crews to more remote parts of the fire. We spent the remainder of the fire patrolling our hose line and other parts of the fire, looking for hot spots and putting them out.

Overall I learned a hell of a lot, realized I love this job and can't wait for my next fire!! Here's some figures, followed by some details:

219 - hectares of burnt and burning bush
10 - days in the bush
9 - days I ate bacon for breakfast
9 - helicopter rides
uncountable - number of granola bars, steaks and packages of beef jerky I consumed

Thursday, May 27th - Red Alert - Glen was made Incident Commander of a large fire that started on Tuesday as a 15 hectare fire, but had blown up to a 175 hectare fire by Thursday evening. As he was our crew leader, our crew was to join the forces already on site. We were on red alert at the airport, but we didn't get to leave today becase the fire got out of control and all crews were pulled off the fire temporarily.Tomorrow we would be out there for sure, so Glen told us to double check our bags that night. Our preparation consisted of beer and a bunch of rounds at Thib's tavern - we would probably be gone for awhile, so a good night out was in order.

Day 1 - Friday, May 28th  - Around 1:30pm we left for the fire. The first glimpse of the large columns of smoke on the horizon made me forget any fear I had and as we flew over the burn I couldn't take my eyes off the partially burned, partially smoking forest. Once I got to the staging area I was surprised to see Jordan Pyette there - a guy I went to high school with on Manitoulin. He's on the Timmins fire crew. Six crews were already there, including Matt and Erik's crew from Cochrane and crews from Chapleau, Hearst and the visiting BC team. By now the fire was at 219 hectares, but we had to set up camp so we wouldn't get to the line till tomorrow.

Day 2 Saturday, May 29th- 7:00am wake up to heavy dew and the other two Cochrane crews packing up. After a bunch of bacon, scrambled eggs and a granola bar we got flown to the line of the Cochrane crews had started. The fire had jumped ahead of them, so we had to move some of their hose backwards and start laying it around the new fire perimeter. By this time the fire had calmed quite a bit, so we saw a few flames, but mainly everything was just smokey. Carrying the hose pack wasn't nearly as hard as I thought, even though the bush was pretty dense and the moss was super thick. Deep water-filled sink holes hid amongst the moss and under logs and threatened to not only soak you, but trip you up too. Once our hose line was laid and we had completed a return pass we started going 50 ft into the burn to put out hot spots. Stan, my crew boss let me nozzle for awhile. I got right into it and soon I was covered in mud from the backsplash, but those hot spots got killed! The pressure gets pretty hard to handle, especially when you're close to the pump. I definitely lost control of the hose at one point lol.
It rained all night, but the waterproofer I had sprayed all over my tent worked perfectly and I woke up dry and super rested. Even my feet felt fine, despite how sure

Day 3 - Sunday, May 30th - The fire was under control now, so we were all ordered to pack up camp and move to line camps (right by the burn). Moving all the crews and then setting up camp there took all day. The ground on the line was so mossy and wet that we ended up carrying all our gear 800 ft to a slightly higher, flatter piece of ground. At first it seemed like a lot of work, but it was totally worth it to be dry, especially because it looked like we would be there for awhile. I learned how to cut poles for the kitchen tent, dig a toilet hole and build a makeshift outhouse. We were lucky and had acquired an old toilet seat from a deserted outhouse near the staging area, so it really wasn't that rough at all.

Day 4 - Monday, May 31st- 6am starts now. This morning everyone was talking about the thunderstorm that raged all night, but I slept through it all lol. I woke up to one crack, but the rain pelting my tent put me right back to sleep lol. Many more crews had arrived now - another from Timmins and one from Haliburton, as well as a bunch of "Type 2" contractor crews. They are mainly hired for mop-up, so that the inital attack crews from the MNR can be freed to attack new fires. Our crew wouldn't be leaving though, because our crew leader was the inicident commander. By now I had fully adjusted to the early morning routine, followed be a briefing with Glen and hours of patrolling the burn for hot spots. I found a few on my own! We also caught some spruce beetles in coital engagement and basically walked right into a partridge. If Stan had had his throwing knives on him we would have probably had it for dinner, but alas, they were back at camp.

Days 5-8 -Tuesday, June 1st - Friday June 4th - An AGA scan (thermal scan taken via helicopter) revealed a few smokes, so Tuesday's job was to find the GPS coordinates and put them out. Our crew was flipped out to a previously untouched end of the fire to investigate some spot fires that had burned a half hour walk away from the main burn. Getting to these "bubbles" was brutal as the bush consisted of thick, springy Alders on boggy ground. We couldn't find any hot spots and eventually met up with the Haliburton crew working toward us. A thunderstorm was building and by the time it broke over us we were starting to worry that we would be stuck there, as the chopper wouldn't be able to make it to us. A couple hours later we were finally picked up, but that was enough to make me a little nervous. While I waited in the moss, I realized how much I had talked about Alex today and came to the conclusion that I was missing him more than usual. Thinking about him and wondering what he was experiencing made me forget that I was potentially stuck in a thunderstorm. It's been almost a month since I'd heard his voice!
The rest of the days were pretty similar. Essentially a long string of patrols through the bush, broken up by random duties such as cutting a new helipad. By now I am definitely super dirty...I'm starting to cringe when I put my Nomex shirt on lol. I would always cook dinner, and this quickly earned me the nickname "Martha Stewart". Stan even wrote it on the chinstrap of my hardhat!

Day 9 - Saturday, June 5th - Another AGA scan today. It didn't turn up anymore smokes, so we had to start demobilizing the fire. This basically means clean up and pack, so we spent the day rolling hose, dismanteling pump set-ups and taking an inventory of all the axes, shovels and other equipment. There is a TON of equipment on this fire and I am cringing at the thought of it all coming back to the Cochrane base to be recycled (serviced). It was decided that a few crews would be pulled out and the remainder of the fire would be watched by the main initial attack crew and a couple Type 2 crews. Last night on the fire!!

Day 10 - Sunday, June 6th -We packed up our camp today and finished pulling the rest of the gear out of the bush today. We spent basically the whole day thinking of what all to do once we got home. A shower and a cold beer are definitely on the agenda!