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.

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.

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.

Northern California

Both Salt Lake 1 and Salt Lake 2 just finished 5 days on the Corn Creek Fire with Edward Arriola as our Division Supervisor Trainee on division B (Bravo). After a couple of days of securing the fireline, mopup, and a bit of monitoring, the fire was declared contained last night and turned back over to the local district for management. All of the new firefighters got a good introduction to desert firefighting with steep, rocky, sandy terrain, rH in the single digits, classic fire camp food, and sleeping next to power generators in camp.

We were both able to put a bunch of miles on the new 4-wheelers scouting old logging roads, moving water to the crews, and escorting BAER (Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation) team members.

Last night we all received resource orders to Operations Northern California. Apparently there are a number of new starts and an incident management team is being assembled to manage resources and suppress the fires. After demobing last night, we are all on the road. Salt Lake 2 will be stopping in Magna to make some personnel arrangements before heading west towards Reno, while Salt Lake 1 has chosen a route through Las Vegas and then north on CA-5.

Engine 301 and 302 have been enroute since yesterday. Both crews anticipate arriving sometime on monday.

go to: http://calfire.blogspot.com/ for more information on the fires in california