Well, this one was a doozy.
I just wrapped up a 14-day fire assignment on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park for the Dragon Bravo Fire.
I’ll start by saying- I’m not going to talk too much about the fire itself. The facts are out there, and you can get incident information from official incident sources. I am not an official incident source. This fire is a pretty high-profile one. It’s still going on, and it’ll be a while before it’s fully contained. The aftermath of it will leave a deep impact. The Dragon Bravo is already a political storm, an investigation into its handling is almost certain, and everyone seems to have an opinion one way or another about it.
If you’re looking for hot takes, spicy analyses or armchair quarterbacking, you’re not going to find any of it here. I’m a Public Information Officer (PIO) on an Incident Management Team (IMT). I don’t work for National Park Service (NPS), I’m not — nor have I ever been — a wildland firefighter, and I have no training or experience when it comes to wildfire operational decisions.
What I can share, however, is a bit about how I spent my past two weeks.
The North Rim is a pretty special place to a lot of people. I’m one of them. I’ve written about it a few times before, because I tend to make my way up there every so often to camp and volunteer with the Northern Arizona Returned Peace Corps Volunteers.
We adopted a stretch of Grand Canyon Highway (state Route 67) through the Arizona Department of Transportation, and pick trash off the side of the road twice a year.
RELATED POST:
ANOTHER GRAND CANYON POST: CAMPING AT THE NORTH RIM
During one of the last morning briefings I attended on this fire, Jen — who’s training to be a Complex-level PIO (in the same way that I am) — gave a speech about how we’re all entitled to tell our stories, but about how important it is to share the context behind our thoughts and opinions.
That resonated with me. I sometimes struggle when I write about my experiences at work, because I don’t want anyone to ever think I’m writing from a place of authority or official capacity. Because I’m not. I’m just a girl who loves her job and loves writing about her life. And my job is a part of my life — a huge part of my life. And every time I click the button to add the “my views are mine alone and don’t represent the U.S. government etc. etc.” disclaimer at the bottom of every post (which, for the record, is true), and every time I find myself trying to refer to my agency in a way that won’t cause my posts to pop up at the top of a Google Alert for my agency’s higher-ups, I find myself re-reading agency ethics policies and even the First Amendment. Juggling my role as a public servant and my rights as a private citizen can be tricky sometimes.
But, here we are.
I first got the order to the Dragon Bravo with my Type 3 IMT. Both my Type 3 IMT and a complex-level IMT (CIMT) had been ordered at the same time, with the thought that my Type 3 IMT would mobilize a bit faster than the CIMT, which was absolutely the case.
I arrived up at the North Rim about five hours after I got my order, and set up shop at the Kaibab Lodge with the rest of my team.
My PIO3 trainee and I immediately got to doing the things we typically do on a fire — establishing our workspaces, contacting the local unit’s public affairs officers, creating our products, etc.
We drove into the park and were greeted by the bison herd before taking a short drive past the entrance booth.
We didn’t drive all the way down to the lodge that evening, but in retrospect, I wish we did.
The first 48 hours with the Type 3 team were a blur.
One highlight, though, was being able to see my fiancé Ryan, who’d been working on the fire with his Hotshot crew for a full week before I arrived with my Type 3 team.
We only overlapped for a few days. I got to see him for a few minutes every morning after briefing, and then again for a few minutes at the end of every day. I had dinner with him and his crew once, which was really great because as of right now, I’m not sure when I’m going to see him next since our days off don’t align much this time of year.
After about 48 hours of working with my Type 3 team, Southwest Area Incident Management Team 4 (SWIMT4), a Complex Incident Management Team, came in to relieve us of incident command.
Because I have an open PIOC task book, the CIMT PIOs let me stick around to continue working on the fire under their team.
The difference between a Type 3 IMT and a Complex IMT always blows my mind.
As the CIMT began to set up camp, we moved from working on the front porch of the Kaibab Lodge to the full fire camp set-up, which is an independent facility set-up that includes office trailers and yurts, a catering truck and dining area, showers, portable toilets, sink trucks, etc.
We actually had to move camp about a week into the incident, since the fire started moving toward where we’d been set up. We were instructed to pack everything up for a day while the team’s logistics function relocated everything up the road, further away from the fire’s planning area.
When I’m a PIO on a Type 3 IMT, I’m doing all the things at once — writing news releases, fielding public phone calls, updating social media, conducting media interviews, doing all of my own documentation, taking photos, etc.
Contrary to my work on Type 3 incidents, when I work with a CIMT, I have the luxury of focusing my efforts on one specific thing, and giving it my undivided attention. CIMT PIO shops can roll anywhere from 5 to 30 PIOs deep, depending on the nature of the incident.
On the Dragon Bravo, we had 21 PIOs at our fullest staffing.
We had two branches. The majority of our PIOs were physically located on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, staffing info boards and talking to 1,000 tourists per day about the cloud of smoke located across the canyon.
I was lucky enough to stay stationed at the North Rim. I served in the role of office branch manager, managing between one and three other PIOs who also did office-related tasks, like staffing phone lines and writing incident updates for the public. I also had the chance to help out with a few high-profile visits to fire camp (including the state governor) and work on some higher-level tasks and training opportunities.
In addition to the daily workload, I also experience the typical perks (and challenges) that come along with spending two weeks working in the remote wilderness of fire camp.
While my South Rim counterparts were lucky enough to spend their nights in hotels, I spent my nights snuggled up in the back of a Hyundai Tucson.
I spent my mornings brushing my teeth at a sink truck parked by our office trailers.
I spent my (every other, or every third, or every fourth) afternoon(s) showering in — you guessed it — yet another truck, parked by the catering truck.
I also spent meal breaks with the other PIOs. I struggled a bit with the caterer. Because we work 16-hour shifts on fire assignments and are often located hours away from modern conveniences like restaurants and grocery stores, a national caterer is ordered in to serve breakfasts, lunches and dinners for fire camp.
This caterer really struggled with the concept of “no meat, please,” and on more than one occasion, the other vegetarian PIOs and myself were served bowls of beans in lieu of the powdered eggs, biscuits and hash browns everyone else got.
It was a very confusing experience.
The meals did get slightly better a week in, when we were given veggie patties and tofu instead of… leftover room temperature unseasoned black beans.
A little later on during Team 4’s command of the incident, Jacob Lake Inn reopened. I love being able to support small, local businesses whenever I can while I’m working on a fire, so there was zero hesitation involved in my decision to treat myself to daily milkshakes and cookies.
Additionally, a few of the PIOs assigned to the Dragon Bravo Fire were from out of state, and had actually never seen the Grand Canyon before.
It was a nice reminder that I am so, so lucky to live in such an incredible part of the country.
Part of my job duties took them (and myself) out to the edge of the Grand Canyon in the Kaibab National Forest’s Saddle Mountain Wilderness area one morning.
Overall, it was a really challenging fire assignment for myriad reasons.
Full disclaimer: I’m definitely not working as hard as our firefighters are — the work our crews do is so difficult and admirable.
This was definitely the highest-profile wildfire I’ve ever worked on, a title previously held by both the Pipeline and Tunnel fires located on my home forest in my own community.
But, I learned a lot. I worked long hours, starting with a 6 a.m. briefing and ending with an 8 p.m. PIO report out. I honed existing skills, learned new skills, built new relationships and rose to meet new challenges.
It’s a mix of emotions, right? Because I love my job. I love being outdoors and camping, and I love writing and communicating with people. I love having a job that allows me to use my very niche skillset to serve the public and make a difference in my community.
The work itself is enjoyable. The people I work with are enjoyable. The circumstances under which I’m doing the work, however, are not.
I try not to feel guilty for allowing myself to enjoy the moments of levity that do happen while working endlessly long days on a seemingly-insurmountable natural disaster.
I’m grateful to SWIMT4 for allowing me the opportunity to continue working on the Dragon Bravo Fire alongside them, and even though my heart is still reeling from the loss of an iconic building that means so much to so many, I’m glad I got to play a role (albeit a very small one) in doing what I could to help this community start to move forward.
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.
