Element 11 2017

Friday after work Todd and I headed out for our shifts at Element 11. It was held at the Stargazer Ranch again this year.

 The view from our camp

 We cooked smoked pork chops, bbq chicken and regular smoked chicken for everyone for dinner

 We had our briefings and headed down for the first burn. This is a map of the streets and burn areas.

 This was our first adventure down there this year.

 We put our trucks in position and went to do a walk through before the first burn at 11:11

 This was the first burn. A phoenix. Everything but the heart is made out of wood. All the feathers were wood also

 This was the second burn for the night. The chains were even made of wood! Super impressive

 Fire crews have to wear green glowsticks. Their 'rangers' wear red glow sticks. It helps us stand out when we are doing official things.

 The piano thats the next nights burn

 This was my favorite! He changed colors and moved and walked!

 There was a MadMax themed camp. They all had these little dirtbikes decked out and with lights they drove around

 Trica, Todd and I

 They let me push the fire button!

 Then it was time to burn

 We buy little blue lights and stick them on our hats. That mixed with the green glow stick makes it super easy in a crowd of lights to find who youre working with.

 They burned the Phoenix first

 I sat out with window of the truck watching the fall out seeing where it was going and watching wind directions and taking weather

 Then they burned the heart and had color changing smoke stuff in it.

 Our burns went good and we went to bed about 2am. That next morning I had to work an ambulance shift from 0600-1200 so I was up bright and early! It gave me a chance to see the rest of the ethigies in the light. This is the 'temple' which is the final burn. The ENTIRE thing is puzzle pieced together. Not one drop of glue, no nails, no staples and you can walk on it!

 The fish car. It lit up and drove around at night.

 Not one single transport all weekend! Hardly any medical issues either! I was shocked.

 This is what was left inside the Phoenix after it burned

 It was SO HOT. Ridiculously hot. After my ambulance shift I came back to the trailer, showered and took a nap. Except dads ac wasnt working well. It was 97 degrees inside and over 110 outside. Todd and I were flat out MELTING. We said enough and went for a drive in the truck just to have cold ac.

 We were making a loop around the area when a fire came in about 40 miles from where we were. Thankfully we took our fire clothes with us. We got on scene and realized it was about 1 mile into Idaho. We notified them and waited on scene until they arrived just in case the winds kept shifting like it was.

 On the way back in the middle of no where we found a pile of puppies in the middle of the road. One had a collar on and they appeared to be in good shape. We put them in the truck and took them to the closest house. Thankfully they were theirs and had just slipped out of the fence.

 A big rainstorm came through right after and we had 3 rainbows at once!!

 We made it back just in time to hurry and eat what was left and make briefing

 We headed down to do the walk through again and prepare for the burn

 Their fire dancers were going again

 Whats left of the piano

Boat car 

 and the final burn

 We made it to bed about 3am that night. We slept with the back door of toybox open. We were sleeping in the bunk beds back there. It stayed so much cooler. Plus it was a pretty good morning view!

 We packed up everything. Made one more run down to the EMS staging area to get everything and then headed out with all the trailers and supplies.