Friday I worked til 2pm. Chris and I were both completely exhausted and sore from the week we had prior. Our bodies hurt so we decided to go get a massage. We met right after I got off work. It was so nice I was finally able to walk again. Not even 30 minutes after we get home from that we get paged to a freeway fire in Willard. Chris and I were the second ones on scene and got the north end of the fire knocked down. As soon as we litterly put out the last flame (not even into mop up) they told us the car that started it was on fire a few hundred yards from us. We went over and put out the engine compartment and gas tank. Thankfully it wasnt fully engulfed and we got it out in time. We were just finishing up that when we looked to the south and said "oh shit"
There was a MASSIVE black cloud forming in the air about the county line. Chris and Todd responded to the freeway fire as Fire Wardens. The state FMO came across the radio and told them to respond to the one in Pleasant View for an agency assist. I was already in the truck with Chris and Taylor jumped in with Todd. We headed across the county line. The fire was ROARING when we got there. We were about the 3rd units on scene. Chris and I were tasked with containing the entire south west end of the fire. We had one other brush truck with us. It was go time. We jumped out and knocked the hell out of that fire. We were able to get a pretty good stop on it. We had quite a large area to get stopped. After our first tank of water we popped a tire in the truck so as we were going to fill with water we changed a tire too. Once we finally got most the flames out on the west side we had a S.E.A.T come in that was actually assigned to the Rocky Ridge fire in Willard. A S.E.A.T is a single engine aircraft tanker.
Its hard to see but there are actually 3 planes circling the fire
Chris and I were ground contact for the drops. It gave us a second to clear the fire area and I took a picture or two while we were waiting for the plane to make its two drops
We had a few little flare ups on the edges but the plane was coming in to make a fire line long the edge.
We parked in the black and waited. The black is the safest place during a wildland fire. Its hot and sucks but the fuels have already been burned
The fire moved through HOT and FAST. Those thin branches you see are remnants of sage brush
Watching the S.E.A.T.
and here they come!
Then it was time to go work the fire line. They did two drops for us and then went over and did a drop for Todd (who was running the structure side) and helped save a house.
We kept working the fire line working two chains in making sure we had no more flare ups and the hot spots were extinguished around the edges. We went through a lot of water! This is a picture of just HALF of our end. Not even where it got into the houses or the other side of the hill.
After a few hours we finally got our edges contained and as cool as we could make them. We also were released from the fire. Chris got a little excited putting out flames with his combi...
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