A normal day of work quickly shaped into the day we’ve all been waiting for…the reason why we joined this team in the first place…
Two days ago Sun Three (now “Crew Three” officially) was called to respond alongside Forest Service Engine 931 to a fire about thirty minutes outside Crown King, AZ.
Experience of a lifetime. Here she is in a nutshell. A tiny tiny nutshell
We were doing normal fuels reduction work up on one of our normal properties when the call came in at about 2:30pm. They weren’t absolutely sure our crew would be the one to respond at the time of the call but we raced down to the station to get ready anyways. Trucks were packed and gear was prepared. We waited for another thirty minutes then Engine 931 requested our AmeriCorps team! The fire titled “Twin Peaks Fire” was under way. Let’s do this!
I got to drive our truck up the mountain behind the forest service crew. Every bit of tiredness we all felt from working the previous seven hours quickly vanished. We were on our way to the real deal! We parked the trucks and assembled for our briefing. Engine 931 consisted of five really awesome Forest Service firefighters. Four goofy dudes led by one smokin’ hot gal lemme tell ya. She was not only gorgeous but wow could she run a crew. Kept those boys in line.
It was a 1.6 mile hike through the Arizona brush to get to this baby. Roughin’ it. And we had to hike three bladder bags in also, each weighing about forty pounds. So a 1.6 mile hike carrying a forty-five pound fire pack with a forty pound bladder bag on top – Eighty-five pounds! Should have used us to film the movie 300. Right.
By the time we get to the blaze it’s pushing 7pm. Light is fading fast…Darkness swells…Shadows grow…Evil lurks…The forest shivers with torment…and yet Frodo carries the One Ring closer to the fiery gloom of Mount Doom…
Ha. We cut line around this thing for awhile, following the sawyer who relentlessly slashed through brush, timber and flaming logs! It was extraordinary. The 931 crew was so fun and exciting to be around. They really helped us, supported us and taught us all so so much. We were rookies on the fire line but they made us feel like we were really contributing. We didn’t actually extinguish the fire during this initial attack at night – we suppressed most of the flames and contained the fire with a well cut fire line around the entire perimeter. The team got back to the house at about midnight. We met the crew at 7am in front of the saloon the next morning to go back and finish the job the next morning. So…another long hike back in then it was mop up time. “Mop up” means ensuring that everything is cool. Everything. All logs, brush and ground coals left inside the fire line must be cool to the touch for the fire to be deemed controlled.
Five hours later…a job well done.
Chriser
