Hat Creek Complex

August 2nd marks the second fire call of the season for Salt Lake 2. The Hat Creek Complex was in the North Western part of the Lassen National Forest. There were three fires on the complex totaling over 11,000 acres. The first two days were spent securing and mopping up on the Brown fire. The 3rd day was a little more eventful with a burn operation that went underway on the Sugarloaf fire. Matt Burchett also came out and acted as the Strike Team Leader for our division while Riley Pilgram was our Firing Boss. The next day was spent mopping up everything we had burned. Sadly we were demobed the next morning as the fires were mostly contained. It was a long 14 hour drive home with a night in Elko on the way.

Trailer 1 and Redrock Fire

On July 17th, 2009, Salt Lake 1 and 2 got their first dispatch a full month and a half into the fire season! The Trailer 1 and Red Rock fires were believed to be started at 2:13 p.m. July 15 by a trailer being towed with a flat tire on U.S. 395 along the border of CA and NV. Both crews got 5 days out of the fires, with the fires totaling over 12,000 acres. The big news of the fire was an infection of Norovirus spreading across camp. Believed to be carried in the water, the virus infected 10 members from Crew 2 but Crew 1 managed to get out with no infections. After the crews got home, all personnel on the fires were quarantined for four days.

Coldwater Ranch Project 1

The entire Wildland Bureau just returned from a 3 day project work extravaganza at the Coldwater Ranch near Hyrum, Utah. The project consisted of cutting and piling old logging slash for burning this fall. We endured one night of rain and enjoyed our first 2009 Meier's catering experience.

2009 Annual Training

Another successful two week training period. Nearly all crewmembers made it through red card, saw class, urban interface, land navigation, radios, incident command system, and leadership classes. Only a few overuse injuries (nothing that can't be cured with a little or a lot of ibuprofin and some weekend couch time), no problems passing the state tests, and our red cards arrived in Magna friday afternoon.

So all Wildland Resources will be available nationally on monday morning, June 1st, at 0600. Looks like the "sit report" is slowly starting to come alive but we have an overnight project lined up for next week near Hardware Ranch.

Spring Rx Burn

See the photo album for photos from Justin Shaak and Shaun Mullins' spring prescribed burn spectacular in Wisconsin and Missouri.

Quadrennial Fire Review

See NIFC website for news and reports on the upcoming fire season. Here are the results of the quadrennial fire review
http://www.nifc.gov/QFR/index.htm

Sunday Fun Run

2009 Salt Lake 2 "Sunday Fun Run" series will commence this sunday at 0830 at Sugarhouse park. Call Edward or Rob with questions or for more details.

Full Time

Former Crew 1 Sawyer Jesse Carpenter starts his career as a full time structural firefighter today. Congratulations, Jesse. He is so fit he needed a doctor's note to come to work because his resting heart rate is so low.

Preseason Training

After a quick morning workout Nate realized he had torn the skin off his hands doing hanging ladder climbs. I had to tape his hands up so he could ride his bike for an hour later that day.

What are you doing to get ready for the season?

2009 Interviews

The Wildland Bureau is no longer accepting applications for the 2009 fire season. We had a record number of applicants this year and appreciate everyone's interest. We are looking forward to seeing the applicants at the qualifying run this weekend. Those individuals that pass the run will be invited to an interview next week.

At this time we do not know how many people we will need to hire. This number depends upon returning firefighters and several other factors.

We have ongoing training scheduled throughout the spring for various personnel. We anticipate starting preseason training for everyone sometime in the middle of May.

2009 Employment

UFA Wildland Bureau is now accepting applications for the 2009 wildland fire season. An application is available on the Unified Fire Authority website (http://www.unifiedfire.org/) under "opportunities."

The application will also be available soon on our wildland bureau site. We are currently experiencing technical difficulties posting it there.

Another Season Ends

Another successful wildland season has come to an end for the Unified Fire Wildland Resources. Both crews and engines ended the summer with a tour to the Umpqua National Forest located north of Medford, Oregon. All were assigned to the Rattle Fire, a problematic incident that had been burning since mid July. With help from our excellent choice of tactics and of course, Mother Nature the fire slowed and nearly all resources were released.

The crews and engines returned home with just enough time to rehab gear, have our end of the season party and send everyone on their way.

Due to the hard work by everyone involved, 2008 was a safe and successful season for the UFA Wildland Division.

Tioga Fire, Inyo National Forest, CA

Salt Lake 1 and 2 are off to California again. This time to the Inyo National Forest to help support their initial attack activities. We have spent the last two days on the Tioga fire, a 22 acre, human caused fire next to Mono Lake, about 100 miles south of Carson City, NV.

Salt Lake 1, after working a night shift motored off to the one tenth acre Log Cabin Fire just around the bend from the Tioga.

Both fires are nearly wrapped up

Devil Fire

Salt Lake 1 and 2 jetted off to the Devil fire northwest of the Great Salt Lake on sunday night. We arrived home last night after three days of desert fun at the Bureau of Land Management's Rosebud Field Station. The fire burned 1588 acres the afternoon before we arrived, but once we arrived the wind-driven pj and sage had cooled off significantly. We put in saw line around a portion, and Shaun Mullins, as Dozer Boss - Trainee, helped put dozer line around the rest of the burn.

For more info, click on the title of this post, or go to www.utahfireinfo.gov

Spring Lake Fire

Immediately after declaring the City Creek Canyon Fire "controlled" Salt Lake 2 was dispatched to a new start in Utah County. The Spring Lake Fire, started by powerlines, was burning actively just outside of the town of Payson, Utah. When we arrived, 15 mph winds were pushing the fire towards the town. Working until 2:00 am, we were able to burn out a portion of roads outside of the town and help ferry the fire up into the hills.

After a few hours of sleep, we were right back at it, constructing direct handline up a ridgeline above the community. With the help of a fleet of heavy tankers and SEATs, we were able to make good progress.

As of monday afternoon, the fire is in a state that it can be turned back over from the Type 2 IMT to the local district.

To see some of the news coverage along with photos and video go to:
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=3928344

City Creek Canyon Fire

City Creek Canyon Fire

Salt Lake 2 is currently wrapping up operations on the 130 acre City Creek Canyon Fire.

ICT4(t) Riley Pilgrim states that "it was a tough battle for the first day, but we've been able to get hand line around the whole fire and we will probably be able to put it in patrol status soon."

Salt Lake 2 arrived at nightfall on the first night of the incident where we proceeded to construct handline in conjunction with 10 smoke jumpers up the left flank of the fire. We completed about half of it the first night, then finished the entire flank by 1230 the next morning. The fire has a large amount of dirty oak underburn and we've been busy putting out "political" smokes in the fire's interior.

Goslin and Wilkins Peak Fires

Salt Lake 2 spent half a day on a 250 acre fire just north of Dutch John, Utah on July 25th. We were dispatched on the evening of the 24th and drove to Dutch John that night. The fire was wind driven through grass, sage, and pinyon-juniper. A finger had made a run up to a ridge which wasn't engine accessible, so they needed a crew to work the finger and a few spots. The crew put in saw line and worked 2 helicopters in tandem to knock out the remaining heat. By 1400 thunderstorms had moved into the area and rain and lightning forced us back to our vehicles. We "ping-ponged" down the dirt road, turned slippery by the rain, back to the main highway 191.

Almost released, we were reassigned last night to the Welkins Peak Fire about 6 miles south of Rock Springs, Wyoming.

We spent about three hours putting in saw line around another wind driven sage and pj fire.

This morning we're finishing saw line around the fire which is estimated at about 35 acres and preparing for another round of afternoon lightning storms.

As soon as Steve Davis, FFT1 (t), finishes GPSing the fire perimeter, we'll have an accurate acreage.

Canyon Complex Round 2 - Night Operations

Salt Lake 2 has returned from our second tour on the Canyon Complex in Northern California. We arrived on July 6th and were shipped out to the Frey Fire, 2.5 hours south of Quincy, California on the Plumas National Forest. Our first shift lasted 24 hours as the team shifted us over to the night shift where we spent the entire 14 day deployment.

Due to typically highter relative humidity, cooler temperature, and more favorable winds, night operations consisted largely of burning out indirect fireline that was constructed during the day shift. We succeeded in first connecting the South Fire to the Frey Fire with a 2.5 mile burnout, then began working on connecting the Scotch Fire to the South/Frey Fire with a 6 mile burnout. The latter operation was being completed as we turned wheels back towards Salt Lake City.

Other experiences of note: poison oak, CA con crews, warming fires 101, daytime shade sleeping, the great hoselay / line dig operation abandonment, and more.

The crew will take the 22nd and 23rd off then go back available on the 24th at 0600. Hopefully having readjusted our bodies to sleeping at night and being awake during the day.

Canyon Complex - Cold Fire

Salt Lake 2 is on the road heading back to Salt Lake City for 2 days of R & R after a 14 day tour. We finished the tour on the Cold Fire, part of the Canyon Complex based in Quincy, California. Resources are stretched so thin, with over 60 large fires in California, that the team has kept us attached to the incident while we travel home and take days off. We will be returning to Northern California on July 5th.

Nate Siemers is finishing a whirlwind CRWB - trainee assignment. The crew constructed a few miles of handline and sawline, conducted burnout operations, directed bulldozers, engines, and installed hoselays.

Riley Pilgrim spent three days acting as a Dozer Boss then the rest of the tour as a Task Force Leader trainee.

Jefferson Halladay, a UFA paramedic, accompanied us on this assignment. He was the first paramedic on scene of two medical emergencies. The first, a dehydration / exhaustion emergency, the second a bulldozer rollover. Edward Arriola commanded the emergency scene while Jefferson and our EMTs provided medical care. Edward facilitated an emergency helicopter hoist extrication of the patient off of the side of the mountain. The patient was then flown to the nearest trauma center with a number of potentially serious injuries.

Norther Cal. Lime Complex

After our daring kitten rescue last week, engine 301 took several days off to recuperate. Within an hour of being back on shift we and 302 received resource orders to go to the Shasta Trinity National Forest in Northern California. Once we got coffee, we hit the road (first things first).

We saw several fires en route and traveled through some of the wind and lightning storms that started the ongoing California fires. Outside of Reno we were about blown off the road in a dust storm. It was a baptism by fire for some of the new CDL drivers.

We spent the night in a park in Susanville because there was some sort of music festival going on and there were no rooms available. We had one citizen try to talk us into sleeping at his house,use his showers, and eat his food and another citizen who dropped off a cup of coffee and a bag of donut holes in the morning. Other citizens treated us to their 3000 watt car stereo systems at midnight, thinking we would like to rock out. After that all was calm except for the sprinklers in the park which did cause for some entertainment. Watching people run around at midnight in their underwear trying not to get wet never gets old.

We arrived at the Lime complex ICP in Hayfork, Ca around 1100. We were assigned to one of the many, many fires in the surrounding area started by lightning. We spent our first day on fire for the season plumbing a fire with 4000-5000 feet of hose. We even let the Hot Shots spray some water. There are many more fires that need attention so I am sure we will be moving around frequently.

Primer rib with horseradish tonight.....oh and sleeping in the dirt next to the pig stalls at the fairgrounds.