Germaine Coulee Fire

Saturday night we had a large storm track north of Miles City with a lot of lightning. On Sunday they had us do a recon flight in the Jordan area. 2TJ responded to a fire just outside of Jordan, MT but after doing a size up they had us continue the recon flight. Just as we were about to had back to Miles City we got sent to a fire north of Jordan near the Charles M. Russell NWR. 2TJ dropped the IA load on the fire and began doing bucket drops. The rest of the crew and I drove H201, the helitender, and set up a helispot at an old schoolhouse. When 2TJ came in to refuel Nate and I flew in and Kristy began working H201 closer to the fire. The fire was mostly in grass and was pretty well out by the time I got there except for an area burning below the rim of the ridge in grass and timber. We spent the rest of the shift lining and mopping up that area with the help of a county engine, two BLM engines and two USFWS engines. We camped on the fire and at about 0200, despite the weather forecaster's assurances, a storm started rolling in. At first it was just lightning and a light sprinkle, but by 0300 it was heavy rain and 40mph winds. Most folks bailed and hopped in the vehicles but I was determined to ride it out in the tent. The wind was so powerful and the tent was so crappy that I ended up sprawled out on the tent floor with my hands and feet in the four corners trying to keep the damn thing from rolling away. The rain was blowing in horizontally and instead of keeping the rain out, the tent walls just acted like a mister, turning every rain drop into a fine spray that soaked me and all my gear. By 0400 the storm had passed. I ended up better off than most of the crew with only a few puddles in the tent instead of an inch or more of standing water and broken tent poles. No one got any sleep that night and the next morning was like a scene from a zombie flick with lots of groaning and stumbling around. The only upside to the whole thing was that the rain pretty well put the fire out and there was plenty of time for napping. The Lewistown District BLM popped a fire near the Musselshell river that afternoon and the CMR ended up ordering a Type 2 team for a fire they got the same day. That evening we turned the fire over the county fire warden and returned to Miles City.

Pump Fire

This past Wednesday we flew out to a smoke report in the Moon Creek area west of Miles City. We found a sixteen acre fire on private land with several county engines and a dozer on it. We landed and began suppressing hot spots around the fire edge. I was sawing through a thick patch of juniper when we heard a dozer coming up behind us, pushing line through the areas that we had just worked. Communication and coordination isn't always the best when working with county resources and we had no idea they were pushing line around the whole fire. Having just been made redundant, we sat down and had lunch while we waited to see what needed to be done. When the CAT was done the only real hot spot left was in a drainage with a lot of dead and down woody debris and needle cast, so we spent the rest of the day mopping that area up. We usually don't stay overnight on private land fires and the duty officer pulled us off sometime around 2200h.

Shorty Fire

Two days after I got back from my days off we flew a recon over the Ashland ranger district of the Custer NF and quickly picked up a smoke. 2TJ dropped Matt and myself off and continued the recon. I IC'd the fire and we got an engine from Fort Howes headed that way. Matt and I had it lined by the time the engine showed up but they helped us improve the line and mop it up. The fire only ended up being about half an acre but there wasn't a pressing need for us elsewhere so the duty officer had us sit on the fire for the next two days mopping up and monitoring. And sleeping. And playing cards. All this was fine with me since it had me getting overtime and hazard pay on my days off. All in all a fun little fire and some good practice being IC.

Back in Montana

Made it back to Montana. Took a rather scenic route too. Instead of heading north out of West Yellowstone and hitting the interstate at Bozeman we drove through the park and spent the night at the Indian Creek campground. It was about 2200h when we got there and just about all the campsites were full. We ended up staying in a pull-through RV site. Ever wonder why they have so many problems with bears in the park? When we woke up we found soda bottles and fast food trash in the fire ring and pet food scattered all over the ground. Some people just don't get it. The next 3-4 hours of driving were some of the prettiest in the country. After exiting the park at Silver Gate we took the Beartooth Highway through the Beartooths and headed north at Red Lodge. That drive is just amazing. It never gets old. The picture on the left is of the Snake River at Twin Falls, Idaho and the one near the bottom is near Beartooth pass at about 12,000 ft. I've been dying to do a little off trail exploration for a couple weeks up on the Beartooth plateau since I was up there last summer. Hundreds of pristine alpine lakes and not many people.

A Break in the Boredom

I actually got to do something today! The East Creek fire is a small fire burning in a wilderness area about 15 miles away from the Ely helibase. Two smokejumpers jumped the fire our first day in Ely but the USFS officials decided to manage it as a wildfire use fire and just monitor it. The first couple of days the fire didn't really do much and stayed at about a half acre. However today we got some 30-40 mph winds that pushed the fire to somewhere near 30 acres. This afternoon our helicopter did a recon flight to see what the fire was doing and see what its potential was and I got to tag along. It was nice to get out of the helibase for a while and find out what smoke smells like again. The fire had made a run to the top of the ridge and spotted a couple hundred yards down the other side. The fire behavior was fairly moderate and it looked like it wasn't going to grow very much so they decided to keep letting it do its thing. I'm glad to see managers using wildfire use as a fire management tactic. I hope to see a lot more fire use in the near future as part of the changing face of wildland fire management.

Back to Sitting

We must have gotten some bad info or something because there are definitely not 20 fires on the Ely district. When we showed up a couple days ago they gave us a briefing then sent us up to helibase to stage. And we've been here since! Atleast they are giving us 12 hour days. I can keep myself busy so I really don't mind just sitting around, but I would like to get on another fire before we go home. It looks like we'll finish our 14 day assignment (we're on day 9) but I doubt we'll get extended to 21 days. They brought on a call-when-needed helicopter back home so they'll probably want us back.

Check out these neat pictures from the California wildfires

Dispatched to Ely, Nevada

One week into the detail and so far things are going pretty well. Nate messed up his ankle this morning during PT so he headed back to Miles City today along with another crewmember who had to take care of some stuff. So now we are down to five. This evening we got dispatched to a fire 100 miles south of Ely, Nevada. I drove the helitender down while the helicopter flew ahead. The helicopter and crew stopped for the night in Ely and we met them there at 2200h. We're getting briefed tomorrow but it sounds like they've got 20 fires on the district and 5 of them are still unstaffed. There are smokejumper and hotshot crew rigs in the parking lot and we know that there is atleast one more helicopter working in this area. This could turn into quite a party.

Rocky Mountain Fire

Well, we just got off of the Rocky Mountain fire Southeast of Battle Mountain, NV. We spent three days on the fire and got demobilized today. We showed up Monday afternoon and spent the rest of the day setting up a helibase and supporting the helicopter's bucket work. The next two days we were out on the line cold trailing the fire edge and suppressing hot spots. I got some good hours and had fun doing it. I think the fire ended up being about 380 acres in pinyon pine/juniper and sagebrush. We are now being staged at the Battle Mountain airport, which means a hotel room and a shower tonight. Tomorrow we've got a red-flag warning and July 4th, so who knows what'll happen.