Sorry gang...

 

I've got to keep this short and say I'm fighting a local fire near my home. It started in the Hazard drainage and now is heading north threatening Elk Lake Road homes. I've got to be back on the fire line at 7am. I'll report more by tomorrow night.

Thanks for the updates moparmom ( one of these days I need to get your name haha).

 

Prayers are with you guys.   fire can cause huge devastation in our eyes.   We had a fire back 10 years ago in a remote area of the San De Cristo mountain range that burned up a ton of land.  Number of people came close to loosing their homes.  I gotta say though, 10 years later the area that was burned up now is full of life and new growth.  Hands down one of the prettier places to be.  

 

 

Anyways Hope everyone stays safe.   

 

Nick

As ever your heart is as big as the outdoors. We will keep ya'll in our thoughts and prayers out here.

Another long day of work driving the 4,000 gallon tender, filling fold-a-tanks, setting up sprinklers, laying out hoses you name it.

 

(Pictures of the fold-a-tank, crew, my crewman is David in the orange hard hat...)

 

I'm now been doing the the roll of crew boss for our crew. Fire Chief has been busy doing evacuation duties and dealing with other administration duties in base camp for our crew. So I'm spend a part of my day training a few newbies in the crew. Quite the task taking care of the all the things that need to be done. Like MoparMom had said I'm up early and out the door. Then get home at 9pm typically and hitting the rack exhausted. Not much you can do about thing other than delegate task to crew members and spread the work loads.

At least the trucks are right side up. You must be doing something right.

I see all the fire news on TV...  Of course they play it all up...  but very scary things happening.  Thoughts & prayers for you & your crew & everyone on the fire lines.   

We are forecast for a wind event today. Not a good thing.

Wild land firefighting is under appreciated. Three fire fighters died this month in WA and others have been hurt.

Being burned to death is a rough way to go. I believe they were 20, 25, and 31 years old.

I believe my my son in law is helping fight a fire in Washington or Oregon. Scares the wits outta me!

I feel really bad for all these potential "oil filters" not fulfilling their life.

I took some time to get to the top of the canyon on the south side to get an action picture...

 

I was offered the weekend off. I'm going to stick it out with the Chief make sure we make through this last blow up.

 

This is all shot at Smoky Boulder Road...

Slow start today nothing much happening on the north side. Really cool morning...

glad to see you are getting a bit of a break.

From what I understand from the Division Supervisor today is the last day for our Fire Dept. After that if Salmon River Rural FD is needed the USFS with page us out from that point on. From USFS they consider Elk Lake Subdivision safe for the time being. 

How far away is the fire from your place, Mike? Is it traveling toward you?

How far away is the fire from your place, Mike? Is it traveling toward you?

Currently its runs south towards New Meadows. At end of shift today we will be packing out all truck and equipment. It will be nice to have a bit of down time. ;-) Its been nice to have some WiFi time to on the scene. I'm ready to go home.

Thanks for the update Son!  Passed the word to the locals who are asking about you.  Jag, the mountains are still beautiful & a river is running through it......we're just pretty smoky, but we're still safe & sound.  We've been very blessed by God & He has His arms around us.  Love Rosalie, Mopar's Mom

God's blessings and love to you both as well.

Glad it's moving south, it would be so sad to loose the beauty of the area you are in.

glad to hear things are going good for you two.  

cool right on! 

All equipment has been put back in station and the site is cleared. We are now all back home! Yeah! My first beer in awhile...