I've been called out on a forest fire. We have a lightning strike fire close to home and will be gone off an on but I'll try to keep everyone up to date.

Be safe!

have fun!

Be very safe!!!!

Break out the pulaski and get to cuttin' that line!

Stay very safe!

I returned home from the the Electronic Site Fire. Small 10 acre lightning fire. Spent the whole time shuttling water up the mountain for the USFS crews. I had a blast driving that 1984 Kenworth Water Tender! My buddy and myself are assigned to the tender as drivers now. We managed all the tight twisty roads up Cold Springs Mountain. Days start early in the morning and end late at night. Well just as the Electronic Site Fire was going in to mop up, the Rough Fire and Lightning Creek Fire Started, both lightning strike fires. So I'm on stand by for driving the tender again. I've got a bunch of pictures to post up on this thread later on when my Buddy Kelly emails them to me from his phone. But as for the Rough Fire it started last night at about 10-11pm last night. It was in a cliff side of the Salmon River valley. By Morning it blew up and now the last acre number I heard was about 200-300 acres roughly.So like I said I'm on stand by and I'll be leaving most likely again... But I'm enjoying sleeping in my bed and getting to sleep in for now... I'm one tired puppy...

I return home from the the Electronic Site Fire. Small 10 acre lightning fire. Spent the whole time shuttling water up the mountain for the USFS crews. I had a blast driving that 1984 Kenworth Water Tender! My buddy and myself are assigned to the tender as drivers now. We managed all the tight twisty roads up Cold Springs Mountain. Days start early in the morning and end late at night. Well just as the the Electronic Site Fire was going into mop up the Rough Fire and Lightning Creek Fire Started both lightning strike fires. So I'm on stand by for driving the tender again. I've got a bunch of picture to post up on this thread later on when my Buddy Kelly emails them to me from his phone. But as for the Rough Fire it started last night and about 10-11pm last night its was in a cliff side of the Salmon River valley. By Morning it blew up and now the last acre number I heard was about 200-300 acres roughly.

So like I said I'm on stand by and I'll be leaving most likely again... But I'm enjoying sleeping in my bed and getting to sleep in for now... I'm one tired puppy...

As I read, seeing you say 10 acres I was taken aback initially. Wondering as I looked at your 1st post, why it would take 2 days to mop up a 10 acre fire. But as we can read, theres more to the story! Sounds like a good time! I can vouche for ya. I know how those calls can be when going to a fire and spending alot of time fighting it. Obviously, I never fought wildfires, but structure fires can be just as drawn out... I remember spending approx. 8-12 hours on a fire nonstop.

So, from one firefighter to another, thanks for serving!

Cause we both know, its a service we chose to volunteer for and make that sacrifice, for free.

Strange but true. The lightning strike hit exactly in the middle of a wind blow patch of trees that were half blown over and up-rooted so one day was spent with sawyers running around dropping snags and building line around it. Then the second crew came in late that evening. So the second day they started pumping water on it and sectioning off the plot and digging up hot spots. They are still up there baby-sitting yet for one more day. We pulled out as soon as we got dumped so we could get repairs done and get ready for the next wave of action. Rough fire is going to be exactly that rough.

Update...I just the phone call from the Chief telling me we are going out today sometime just not sure when as of yet. But we are on the list to go for sure. I guess right now USFS is still organizing, planing, and laying out camp and such so things are a bit up in the air as of yet. But I've called Kelly and got him packing and restocking as well.I'll remember now to pack my cameras. :banghead:

glad yer doin good mike!

Only got a a little time this morning...

waky waky at 0-dark:30

This is what I have been on for a few shifts.

- - - Updated - - -

This is what it looked like from my front porch 5 days ago.

Even though I'm a long ways from these fires I still wanna say thank you Mike

Same here. Thanks and be safe.

Look at the time I'm posting this (1:17am) I just rolled into home and done now. Whew! I've now worked Electronic Site fire and Rough Fire, the Electronic Site fire was called in as completed the Rough Fire is in mop up stags and 100% contained.I'll post more in the morning... I'm tired!

glad yer back mike!

(Yawn...Rubbing eyes...)I'm home. After 4 days of fire fighting long hours I'm certainly happy to be home for a period of time. As for today we are forecast for more thunderstorms with little wetting rain. Here we go again.Here is a couple of more pictures from Kelly's Cellphone of the Electronic Site Fire

Ehhh! So lets see, 4 days of fire fightin', how many man hours you put in?Are you a combi-paid volunteer, paid per call, hourly, etc?Now, divide that by how many hours you volunteered, and then account for any personal expenses. :ahhh:Looks like you had fun moppin' up!

Are you a combi-paid volunteer, paid per call, hourly, etc?

Not quote sure which method this year as of yet...

Looks like you had fun moppin' up!

Actually mopping up 2 fires now. Funny... I thought I was going to have the day off and my Fire Chief called me to drive the tender again. So I packed up this morning and hauled back out to the fire line again. I know I'll be free tomorrow. The big 4,000 gallon tender isn't requested and only need the smaller 1,200 tender so my buddy Kelly and Chad are going to run tomorrow and I ge the day off. So here I'm posting again at midnight...