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| After many wimpy fire seasons in a row, 2003 is turning out to be pretty active |
| Things got off to a very early start with a 140 acre fire on March 24. The 13-20 mph winds were in alignment with the blowdown from a tornado in 2001 and away she went. Photo at left is just as the first suppression units arrived on scene and it had already jumped a town road. |
| On the right you can see me and another dozer as we start out on the left flank. The first 3 tractor plow units were assigned to the right flank of the fire. Thankfully this little stretch was the only area on my side where there was no salvage done of the downed timber. That really saved the day as it was really slow going through that stuff with our small dozers. Private large dozers were on the way, but it takes a while for them to get there. |
| At left is another photo from our air attack plane. Being that is was so early in the season, no air suppression resources were availaible. |
| Once we broke out of the unsalvaged area we utilized a road and an old logging trail, which you can see in the above photo, to gain ground on our side of the fire. At right is a photo taken by the tractor plow operator behind me as I scrapped off the logging road to create a break. Once we had the trail cleared we burned it out. By this time it was getting late in the day and fire behaviour had dropped way down and we shortly completed a line around the fire. |
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| Toward the end of a slow day, we had quite a bit of excitiment on a 4 acre fire. Some ATV'ers had sparked a fire starting in the middle of a 10 year old pine plantation. It crowned and ran right off the bat. Fortunatly we had units prepositioned w/in 5-6 miles of the start so we were able to jump on it quick. At left is the first person arriving on seen and what they could see as they turned on the trail into the plantation. |
| Right and below: Initial attack IC pulls up to fire & fire fighter lights drip torch to begin burning out along the right flank. |
| Right: An aerial view of the fire shortly after containment. We were able to hold a trail on most of the right side of the fire and used 3 plow units on the left side. Fortunatly the fire ran out of the plantation and into the hardwoods after it had run about 3 acres. Both of our SEATS were sent to the fire but we nearly had it contained before they got there. We also ordered a large dozer to help out in widening the breaks and help make them driveable. |
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| YEELLCH!! 40 some odd flippin big ass hay bales! Thank god I wasnt on this one! ...Took a week to get the burned hay stench out of the garage. If you cant figure out the picture to the right, its one of our dozer operators eating smoke as they spread out the bales to put them out. |
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| From a 600 acre fire in the south-central part of the state. Left: torching and spotting at the head of the fire. Right: Fresh tractor plow units prepare to start line construction as the fire jumps a highway. |
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| Nuttin' more fun than a grass fire runnin' through the junkyard! ...thankfully I missed this one. |
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| Nothing like getting a string of railroad fires first thing in the morning. We only have about 3 miles of active tracks left in my area and darn near the entire thing was lit off one day in a string of 20+ ignitions. At Left is the pilots perspective showing about 2/3 of the fires. Below is a photo taken as units begin to arrive. |
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| Left: A Division supervisor assesses the situation as SEAT flies overhead. |
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| Right: SEAT makes a drop on one of the fires. We utilized 2 SEATs and one helicopter on the fires. A few of the fires were difficult to deal with due to soft (marsh/swamp) soils. Fortunatly fire spread was minimal as there was nearly zero wind. Below: FLIPPIN TIE PILES! I wish somebody would make the RR company pick these up!! |
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| Right: OOPS! ...it wasnt me! No one was hurt and we tipped the dozer back up and no damage was done. Fortunatly it was an after the action accident. |
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| Right: First tractor-plow unit begins line construction on the left flank. Below: firefighter burning out behind plow units. |
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| Left: The black spot in the trail is another ignition. We found 3 outside the burn area (ATV cause) that fortunately had went out before spreading to the plantation or else we would have had a much bigger problem. |
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| Fall update: An active fire in late august! Not typical for this neck o the woods. We had an extremly long warm and dry spell this summer, even got into the moderate drought rating. A homeowner was mowing his lawn when somehow his riding mower caught the nearly cured grass behind his house on fire. |
| We sometimes get a few minor grass fires this time of year as things start to cure, but a fire torching and burning intensly under a hardwood canopy is extremely rare. Things were lined up just right with a good breeze running right up the hill into the oak/aspen timber stand and the spread rate barely slowed down once it hit the tree line. |
| Well, some idiot must have deleted the photos form this fire from the file manager...crap..oh well...use your imiganation!! |