Personally, I don’t think we need fire shelters. I think we should just be less aggressive if we cannot provide for safety first. That being said, I’ve never had to deploy. And my superintendent has over 25 years of experience and has never put me in a sticky situation in the 9 years I’ve been on the crew. And I’m on a hotshot crew, which I suspect gives us more latitude to turn down unsafe assignments.

Shelters aren’t that heavy, really. I just don’t intend to ever have to use one, so why pack it all over the country? Knock on wood…

That is all.