August has been an absolute whirlwind so far.
I kicked my month off with a quick four-day trip to the White Mountains of eastern Arizona to work on two separate but physically close wildfires (the Indian Creek and the Bronco) on both the San Carlos Apache Tribal Lands and the Fort Apache (White Mountain) Tribal Lands.
It was a pretty quick four days, but it was still a nice experience!
This was my second assignment with Southwest Area Incident Management Team 4 this summer (the first being the Dragon Bravo), and I’m really enjoying working with them.
I’m working to get signed off as a Complex-level Public Information Officer (PIO), and Team 4’s lead PIOs have been really great about trusting me in leadership-level roles and delegating me the responsibility needed to pursue my higher qualifications.
(If you’re new here, here’s a little bit of information about what I do on wildfires, and a bit of information about where I’m at in my career.)
Plus, everyone else I’ve worked with on Team 4’s Command and General Staff has been great as well.
I’m a little bummed that the team’s lead PIOs couldn’t make it out, but Jen — who is also a Complex PIO trainee — was there ready and waiting when I arrived, which was awesome. Mostly cause she’s awesome.
I spent my four days working with a few virtual resources to handle a lot of the web and online work. A lot of the work I do on wildfires is computer-based (news releases, social media, documentation, writing daily updates, staffing phone lines, etc.), so I spend a good amount of time working in an office trailer and sitting in front of a screen.
I did really like our camp location, though! It’s always nice when I get to work in a cooler climate. Because the Indian Creek and Bronco fires were pretty remote, we had multiple spike camps set up for resources assigned to the fire, which meant the camp I was working out of (our Incident Command Post, the main camp) wasn’t too full.
I was also treated to some awesome sunsets.
And a cool glimpse of a wolf spider hanging out in the dust outside the food tent.
After the absolute mess that was the Dragon Bravo caterer (Latitudes, I’ll absolutely name-and-shame) it was a treat to have decent fire camp food for the first time in a long time.
I was also able to use a Ford Expedition, which was much roomier to camp in than the Hyundai Tucson I used on the last fire.
I got a bit more ink in my task book which brings me that much closer to getting signed off as a PIOC.
I’m a bit bummed I didn’t get to stay for longer than my four days, but I’m already looking forward to my next assignment with Team 4.
Anyway, nothing too long over here today — just a few fire camp photos and a bit of an explanation as to what I’ve been up to lately!
