It has been several years since I worked for the National Park Service, but many of the days that I experienced in my temporary employment at the park are still quite vivid. It was about mid summer, when the resource order came to be a crew member on a hand crew. We had been on a few local fires, and been off-district throughout the state with an engine helping out on fires, but this would be my first hand crew assignment. It would turn out to be a typical blended agency crew, on a typical roll to a fire. But, it would be an eye opener to me. It would serve as the reason, the insight, an experience to why I still am employed as a wild land firefighter.
It was a Department of Interior crew, comprised of the Park Service, Fish and Wildlife, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Basically, there were a few folks from various agency's, together, mostly strangers, and formed a twenty person hand crew.
We all met at a fish and wildlife compound and circled as one, were quickly briefed by the crew boss, confirmed we were who we said we were and carried the right gear and documentation. Most of it was quick introductions and sizing folks up, trying to find the weak link early on. There would be 19 men, and one woman on this crew. It didn't take long before we returned back to our trucks and left northern California for the smoky mountains of Montana. That year, most of Western Montana was on fire, like many years of recent and distant past. We were heading to a complex fire, which meant, several fires in a general near bye radius management by one management team.
Myself, and Dave, a fellow Park Service employee, traveled in a Yukon that belonged to the Park Supt. The park was small to begin with and lacked a large pool of vehicles, and he generously offered his SUV, with of course, the understanding that any damage would probably result in a loss of job. Even with my limited background in fire, I knew, that more times then not, our travels would bring us to roads that would be difficult for ATV's to travel, let alone trucks. Nevertheless, we were to be traveling across central Oregon and Eastern Washington in style.
The longer I have been in fire, the more I have gained experience and assumed larger responsibilities and taking on more supervisory roles. Much of ones outlook changes when they are in charge, thinking of various safety and logistical concerns. It can be very challenging and often times in ways that are not taught or understood, but sparked with various angles and issues that create themselves, causing more stress and increased uncertainty with the job.
But, this time, I was just a crew member, just a guy with a tool, a ground pounder, on a need to know basis. Not a care in the world. Just trying to make some coin, stay healthy, and see some new land. At the time, I need not know where I was heading once the season ended, and at the time I did not care. I only had a couple years of fire experience, and much of that was with a fire department. All I was staring at was another 14 day fire assignment. It was not my first fire assignment, but my first with a crew. Most of my experience was with fire engines, various types in similar roles.
Much of the first several hours was met with anticipation where our assignment may lead us, what kind of work we may encounter, and hoping that we would see some active fire behavior. These images and thoughts came in and out of my mind as the road signs and small towns came in through the windshield, and quickly out through the back window. Most assignments are filled with a lot of window time, gazing in sight and thought, sleeping, rest stops, snack stops, stretching, wrong turns, and various conversations about anything and everything.
We ended up overnighting in some roadside hotel in tri-cities Washington. The night brought little sleep, and the morning came early, before the sunrise. Cheap coffee and a weak breakfast later we had the trucks pointed east, en route to Montana. The hours rolled by that morning and we began to enter the panhandle of Idaho. Along with Idaho came the hazy smoke that remained well into Montana. The inversions had set into the mountain ranges, rarely lifting for several days. Missoula was no different. We eventually made it to the base camp for the fire and check in for assignment. The nearby Mountain ridges were difficult to make out even during mid day. Normally, the heat of the day will lift smoke into the air and transport it elsewhere. But, much of Western Montana was inundated with an inversion that would plague much of this portion of the state for weeks.
