Hello!
I just wrapped up a 14-day wildfire assignment down on the Tonto.
If you’re new here, I work as a Public Information Officer (PIO) on wildfires during spring, summer (and sometimes fall) months, which means it’s my job to keep the public informed as to what’s going on with fire management and behavior, smoke impact, area closures, line operations and public evacuations — among other things.
While the fire originated on the north portion of the Tonto — the national forest just south of us — the management process (you can read more about that whole concept here) brought fire up onto the rim of my forest, so my boss said it was OK if I took a standard two-week assignment based in Payson to work on the fire.
The fire was managed by a Complex Incident Management Team (A CIMT, or a CIM Team), which meant there were a lot of people and a lot of moving parts.
(If you’re new to the world of incident management, you can read my post here explaining a little bit about the acronyms and terms I use, and what they mean.)
I arrived at camp and was put on trap line duty, which is one of my favorite things to do since I don’t get to do it often enough!
Usually, when I work on my Type 3 team, I’m busy behind a computer all day doing the higher-level planning and task delegation, so it’s always exciting when someone else gets to take over the mental work for a fire and I get to go out into communities to talk about fire ecology and forest management.
Over the first week of the fire, I rotated between venturing out with two other PIOs to update fire information boards at restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores and other public meeting places, and to give information to visitor centers and local businesses.
Our trap line route had us driving between Payson, Pine, Strawberry and Clints Well, which means we got to visit PIEbar almost daily for lunch empanadas, the Pine Creek Canyon Lavender Farm literally just to breathe the fragrant air and the Happy Jack Lodge to talk to recreationists.
We also got to see a few cool places along the way. I was able to show Linda one of my favorite places on my forest — the C.C. Cragin Reservoir — and drive along Rim Road.
We also had a chance to see some new places on the Tonto, like the Verde Glen area.
About halfway through my fire assignment, Ryan surprised me with a visit.
He had an appointment down in Phoenix, so he (and Ochi) took the long way home through Payson in order to stop by and take me out to lunch.
We went to one of our favorite restaurants in the Pine/ Strawberry area — Old County Inn — for a beet salad and a hot honey and burrata pizza.
It was a really nice break in my assignment! Ryan was up in Wyoming for a fire assignment when I left for this fire assignment (and I was on my river trip when he left for Wyoming) so we haven’t seen each other in a bit.
After the halfway point of my assignment, things started to change up a bit.
I was moved from trap line duty to field multimedia duty.
I was able to spend a few days out in the field with another PIO, Scott, to grab photos and video.
While we were out in the field, I had a chance to see the Dude Fire memorial,
It was a really somber experience.
I also had a chance to hike a few other trails, including Monument Peak Loop, and some shorter trails around Camp Geronimo.
And, I saw some snakes!
I also saw a lot of cattle… including these hilarious cows who decided one of our collapsible water tanks was an excellent drinking bowl.
Short of all the outdoors adventures, it was also really cool to meet some new PIOs.
Incidents rely on all kinds of land management and emergency response employees from all over the country, so oftentimes when you end up on a larger-scale assignment, you meet a ton of new people.
Some of the PIOs on this fire had traveled in from Colorado, Minnesota, Alaska and Indiana – just to name a few places.
While I’ve worked with a few of the PIOs assigned to this fire before, I also met a ton of new PIOs, which was an awesome experience.
Another unique thing about this incident was the food. While larger incidents typically come with catering trucks and pre-designated meals, we were given per diem and told to provide our own meals for the duration of our assignments.
While I did spend a lot of time and money eating at PIEbar, I was also able to check out a few restaurants in Payson during my assignment.
While I did spend most of my two-week assignment eating ready-made food from Safeway, it was cool to check out almost every single restaurant a few new places in Payson.
And… that’s about it!
My assignment wrapped up just in time to coincide with my weekend plans — which may or may not involve a visit from a few people I love and a quick trip down to Glendale for a sporting event of sorts.
Stay Firewise!
My views are mine alone and don’t represent those of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Forest Service or the United States government. All photos were taken by me and/or credited photographer unless otherwise noted, and are property of either myself or the USDA Forest Service. You can read more on my disclosure and privacy policy page.
