My Continuing Adventures as a Forest Fire Fighter

Found a couple of photos of me and the forest fire fighting crew I was with on the Toboggan fire in 2003 up in Idaho. Had a great time. Dirty, gritty, hot, sweaty work for two weeks worth. We actually had an impromptu ax throwing contest (two of them) during one of our breaks within the fire's perimeter. The team consisted of two persons. My team took 2nd place out of 5 teams. The guy with the big goatee and headband in the picture, if you can find him in the first photo below, his team took 1st place. All in good fun.

Looks like this year's fires are gaining a foothold with 1.8 million acres already burned to date (June 29, 2005)compared to the 10-year average to date of 1.3 million. Last year was approximately 800,000 acres burned to date which was a mild year. This year is anything goes with the increasingly hotter summer temperatures and reduced moisture exacerbated with the above normal Winter 04 and Spring 05 precipitation encouraging rapid growth of grasses and shrubs only to be dried out this summer next to dead plants from 3 to 5 years worth of drought. Not a good combination. While your at it, you can check out my main forest fire fighting site, Smoky Mike. I'll be ready to go once the National Prepardness Level gets to a "4" or "5" with 5 being the worst in terms of needed resources that are in extreme short supply, including fire fighting personnel. I've been conditioning myself for the past 3 weeks in preparation should I decide to go.



Click on picture to expand.
Click again to expand once more.
I'm the 2nd person standing from the left.


Click on picture to expand.
I'm the 3rd person standing from the right.


Be careful out there in the forests during this fire season out west.