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.