Broad Mouth fire

Thursday afternoon the Broad Mouth/ Broad Canyon Fire (its been called both) started in Plymouth behind Nucor. I was at work for 12 hours. I got off at 6pm. Had to run Kennedy to the mouth of Weber Canyon to meet Elysha so she could spend two nights with Grandma at East Canyon. Chris was sweet enough to meet me at work with Kennedy and her bags all packed. Just before I dropped her off Chris called and told me it sounded like we were going to the fire. I made record time back to Willard, hurried and changed my clothes and we were off. 

It was so hard to get pictures of how absolutely MASSIVE this fire is.

It is spread over soooooo much land. At this time its over 10,000 acres.

 The view headed into the fire. Gets you all excited. They had a VLAT with a guide plane doing drops and a SEAT as well.

 We met up with command and were assigned to Bravo division. Our job was to reinforce the dozer/grader line around the fire and make sure it was solid. On a fire this huge and this early into it youre not ever going to have enough water or resources to 'put it out' with water. You made a solid line around the exterior of the fire and work the line to make sure it holds. Then let the interior burn. Once youve got it solid you can start working your way further in. 

They had graders and dozers running lines around the fire as much as possible. It creates a big fire break but you still can lose it so easily over the line with one wind shift. We started on the eastern side kind of towards the middle and north flank. Taylor was with Chris and I was with Todd. We put two trucks in a row and started containing the edge of the fire.

 We had a VLAT (massive air tanker) fly over and do a drop right over us. I wish I was able to get a picture but I was busy working! You can see the retardant drop painted it all red.

 We started working towards the south. The fire goes over several of the mountain/hill ranges and into valleys we cant even see from where we are.

 In the distance on the left side of the picture you can see the VLAT and SEAT makign a drop

 After we had the line secure we met with our division leader and were assigned to go to another section and do some work.

 On the way there we found a structure on fire. I know it seems weird to see it on fire and we are not putting it out yet and taking pictures.. BUT.. The heat was soooo intense and we are in Wildland gear not structure (it was probably even too hot for structure gear to get too close) and we only had two brush trucks. Thats not even enough water to think about stopping it. So we called in more resources and waited til the heat dropped just enough we could get in and do a 360 and exposure protection.

 The building on fire is a mobile home. The camper trailer on the left was a loss as well. However we were able to save the connex building, the outhouse, the pump house and shed right next to it. We had propane tanks explode on the trailer and had other ones ready to explode in the back

 We had to move our trucks even further because the heat was melting things. I know it seems like a long time but it was only a few minutes. We got our resources en route and went to try and save what we could on the end.

 Chris and I doing structure protection on the large shop. Brush truck hose lines are a LOT smaller and less pressure than what you run on an engine. We were cooling the building as much as possible.

 After the structures got put out and things calmed down we were headed out. It was midnight and we all  had to work at 6am the next morning.

This is the view of the fire above Nucor in sections

 We met with our division leader and said hey we need to bump out we have to work. He said well actually the IC has a special task he needs you 4 to do. Is there anyway you can stay 2 more hours. We said sure we can do that but we all need to be home by 4am. They said no problem and we went over to meet with the IC for our new assignment on the south end of the fire.

Dad was with us at this time. He had been in Ogden but found someone to cover his shift. So the 5 of us met for our assignment. They told us we needed to do a back burn on about 3 miles of land. The whole idea with a back burn is to create a solid fire line (by burning the available fuels) so when the fire hits it there is nothing for it to burn and it stops. You light it so the fire moves towards the active fire going on. It creates a dead stop for it basically. We had a grader assisting us. Chris and Todd were the burners and dad was the fill in burner. Taylor and I were fire control in the brush truck. 

The grader makes a line in the dirt up a canyon. Then on the edge of the dirt in the fuels you have one burner further into the fuels that goes ahead and then the closer burner walks along the edge. So the inside burner lays a line and then the second burner makes sure the edge of the road burns towards the other line. 

Dad was driving the first brush truck. His job was a safety and way out for the burners. If something happens they could abandon and jump into his truck.

Dusty was behind him and had the same purpose. Keep the burners in eye sight and make a safe escape. You got to think we are walking up a canyon lighting one side on fire and hoping we dont have a wind shift that starts the other side on fire!

Then Taylor and I hung towards the back and our job was to make sure the fire didnt jump the grader line. Then we had the property owners behind us in a side by side just double checking.

Chris lighting the fire

 Todd and Chris.

There were a few times we had to stop because of wind changes and directions.

 It was HOT

 Two of the landowners

 This is after being up over 24 hours. We were supposed to be done around 2ish.. and it was only going to be 2-3 miles.. Well at 4 we said hey we really need to go.. and they said nope sorry. The burns not done and you guys are a tied in resource and we dont have anyone to replace you (theyd tried) plus we need this team to finish the burn.  So we all had to call work and tell them we werent allowed to leave lol! 

 Fire creates its own winds and weather. Usually a new fire will pull towards and existing fire because of the winds it creates. You can see here two fires coming together.

 We burned over 5 miles.

We had to come to a stopping point and wait for the grader to get a ways ahead of us and build a fire stop. He basically digs a big fat thick break so our fire burns to it and stops. That way we pinch off ours and hopefully when the big fire hits our burn spot the whole thing stops spreading. 

We were tired. Exhausted. Dirty. Swollen eyed. I asked Taylor to take a picture of Chris and I. While he was trying to the two dads jumped in to photo bomb us. As you can tell they're drinking Rockstars and out of control!

 It looks so pretty in the morning!

We finished that burn after the sun had came up the next morning and were released after just over 12 hours on the fire. We went home to crash for a few hours!
I know it seems like I take a lot of pictures on fires and I do. Its so pretty and its memories we want to have. Plus Im an amazing multi tasker. A lot of times its camera in one hand and a hose line or tool in the other. So dont think we're just letting the fire go or whatever while Im taking picutres. Half are blurry because Im walking and clicking at the same time ha! Plus when its really hairy I cant take pictures so a lot of them are the after the flames are gone ones!