What a weird fire season. It’s mid-August and I’m still finding my work life consumed with wildfire response!
I just wrapped up two back-to-back fires, the Scott Fire located here on my forest, and the Brady Fire, located south of my forest on the Tonto.
I got an order to the Scott Fire with the Northern Arizona Type 3 Incident Management Team. Originally, the forest I work on had planned to manage that fire for forest health, but wind speeds picked up and a bunch of little wildfires started emerging across the state, so the team switched to full suppression.
Once the fire was suppressed enough that I could demob (demobilize), I hopped on down to the Brady Fire, which had started creeping off of the state land it originated on, and onto the Tonto National Forest, and then into my forest’s territory.
A Type 1 team was ordered, and then…
…monsoonal rains finally came.
So, the Type 1 team turned around and left before it even started, and the Central West Zone Type 3 team came in to manage the Brady Fire. I was already in Payson, so I stuck around to help the Type 3 team for a few days before wrapping up work Sunday and coming back home to Flagstaff,
Seriously, what a weird, weird, WEIRD season.
But, I was able to have a few new experiences, work with some new folks, get some more ink in my task book and learn a few new things, which was cool!
SCOTT FIRE:
I was able to work as the lead PIO again, which is a role I’m becoming very comfortable doing at this point! (I’ve done it once on a Type 1 incident and a few times now on various Type 3 incidents.)
I was able to order in three PIOs to work under me, and together we set up some info boards and ran trap lines, organized and conducted a community meeting and had the opportunities to work on some training.
I was also able to order some new stuff for my PIO kit! I got a new laminator, which will really come in handy when creating evergreen products for our info boards and trap lines.
BRADY FIRE:
The coolest thing about the Brady Fire was getting to meet several new PIOs I haven’t worked with before.
I got to run trap lines with one of the fire prevention technicians every day, which was fun.
I also had the chance to do some media work on the local radio station down in Payson, and I was able to head out and spend a day shooting some operations on the fire line.
It was so rainy the last two days I spent on the Brady, though. I was super glad I snagged a laminator the week before — I got a ton of use out of it since all of our info boards got caught in downpours.
When things slowed down a bit, I had a chance to check out a cute little coffee shop called Common Grounds in Payson too! I didn’t mind ditching our Incident Command Post (ICP) — which was at the Mazatzal Casino — for a few hours in favor of a lavender and honey iced latte on a cute shaded patio next to a fountain.
I definitely had a ton of fun, even if both assignments were short and rainy.
Anyway, just a little snippet of what my August has looked like so far! As much as I love working on wildfires, I’m glad monsoons are here. I’m tired.
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