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.

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

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