Fire Assignment

Just a quick post about the Carlton Complex (south zone) where I have been living for the last week and a half. Someday I will work on the backlog of news/activities and pictures that have been building up.

On the last day of our vacation to visit Uncle John and Aunt Nancy in Idaho, we noticed a lot of smoke in the valley where they live. I looked up the national fire activity on the internet, and saw that there were lots of fairly large fires burning in Oregon and Washington. We were seeing smoke from four lightning                    

The Chief of the Forest Service came
and visited the fire. We got lots of
compliments on our work.

fires near Chelan Washington called the "Carlton Complex". A complex is a group of fires being managed as a single incident. It was a total of 47,000 acres. We got home two days later, and I got notification from the Team Commander that we would probably be activated to assist with this complex of fires. By Saturday afternoon I had my orders, and after frantically unpacking the fifth wheel, making final preparations for Kim's possible dispatch with her truck, and checking my own fire bag, it was off to the airport in Reno Sunday morning. I flew Alaska airlines to Seattle, rented a car and drove to Chelan. By 6:00 that evening my team was being briefed on our assignment.

The camp was located in a beautiful park, right on the Columbia River.
There was activity nearly 24 hours a day during the first several
days of the fire. 

Here our Incident Meteorologist (from the National Weather
Service) gives us the prediction for the next day. We gave
him the nick name "Rain-man". He was excellent.

Our camp coffee bar. Not like the old days when I first started!

One of our Division Supervisors (the young lady in the center)
briefs some of her fire line personnel prior to heading out to the
line.

By that time, the 47,000 acre group of 4 fires had grown to almost 250,000 acres, and destroyed more than 300 homes. It grew by more than 100,000 acres in one day! At some point it was gobbling up territory at the rate of an acre (about a football field) each second. It had grown to the largest fire in Washington State history, and would be managed by four teams (including ours). Luck was with us (and the local communities) because the weather changed radically in our favor. The wind abated, and reversed direction blowing the fire back into itself in many places. Clouds rolled in, and the temperatures dropped from over 100, down into the 50's. Humidity increased, and it actually rained on the fire in some places.

"Rain-man" and our Fire Behavior analyst
(right) launch a balloon to take atmospheric
measurements to aid in weather predictions.

Our firefighters took advantage of the opportunity, and made significant progress over the period of cool moist weather. After a week, fire season was back with 100 degrees plus, and single digit relative humidity. But it was too late for the fire, and we managed to gain containment. Currently we are mopping up, downsizing (sending folks to other fires where they are needed) and getting ready to hand over what's left to another team.

My Partner Safety Officer takes a short nap. The long hours
really take a toll after a while.

We had a great safety record. Only two lost time injuries, both heat related. One of those was in camp! The other was scary however. A firefighter went down with heat stress symptoms that were thought to be life threatening. We had to evacuate him from the line via helicopter and fly him to the hospital in Wenatchee.

In the end, we ran the safety statistics and if a "typical" industrial operation of 100 employees had the same great safety record, they would only have one accident every 11 years. That is impressive considering that we work in one of the most hazardous work environments around. The bottom line is that I helped keep over 700 people involved in the effort safe to go home to their families, and fight another day. That feels pretty good.

This was a golf course that burned over. everything
 except the fairways and greens was burned.

Looking across the canyon at some country where the crews were
working. You can see the smoke near the ridge line. That is the top
of the fire, the crews started down in the bottom of the canyon
and cut line for four or five straight days. A truly heroic effort.

Cisco corporation sent us an emergency communications truck.
They set up in camp and provided internet connectivity to aid our planning efforts, AND
firefighter moral. Best of all...no charge!

Saturday I head for home. A short drive to Seattle to rest overnight, then a freedom bird back to Reno and home. Because of the weather, this was not a real challenging assignment. However, I did have some cobwebs and dust to blow off, and it was a great "first of the season" assignment to get tuned up for the next one.

That's All!