Written better than I have the time, ambition, and talent to do myself. Strong work.

That is all.

Fires are fun when they’re out of control and there’s a lot going on. I get a real kick out of scouting an active fire, working to gain situational awareness and come up with an effective strategy. Once the fir […]

It’s been awhile since I posted anything, even longer since I posted regularly. Recently, my wife met someone from another local Hotshot Crew who knows who I am and was asking when I’d write again. I thought I h […]

Holy shit, I’m damn near 40. Still on a crew. Still a squad boss. Still hanging in there; just a little more sore than I remember being a few years ago. Today I ran with my squad for five or six miles at high […]

It is 1230 in the morning and I’ve been sleeping in the woods, poorly. I’m doing a division assignment on a type 3 fire as a qualified taskforce leader and can’t stop thinking about tomorrow’s shift. Tomorrow’s […]

Our seasonal firefighters are coming back to work on 17 April. Soon, very soon. The expectation on my crew is that everyone show up on day one in good enough physical condition to do the job. We don’t always all […]

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 […]

Hotshot crews provide everything a crew member needs except for boots. As of last year, the Forest Service provides a boot stipend for firefighters to buy boots, but since size and preference are so diverse, it […]

We never really know what to expect when we roll up to a fire, but over the years I’ve learned that reality will almost always be less exciting than my imagination. I’ve learned that taking the time to create a […]

We spent most of our last roll in Wyoming, on the Cliff Creek Fire, just South of Jackson. We were spiked out the whole time, in two different camps. Spiking out means you are not getting meals and supplies at […]

This off-season has been intense. I managed to find myself a front desk gig again to avoid layoff. The agreement was that I would be available to help out with prescribed fires, but there weren’t many […]

Today is our fourth shift on the Phillips Creek Fire, in Oregon, on the Umatilla national forest and private land. Things are going well on our division, using a combination of dozer line and hand line to bring […]

I’m currently on a flight from Fairbanks to Seattle. Next stop is San Fransisco, where I parked my Forest Service Jeep. My plan is to drive as far as Bakersfield, CA tonight and then get home the next day. It […]

This morning I showed up for briefing at 0600 and, as expected, my name was on the demob list. My scheduled time for demob was 0800, but I figured I’d get a headstart with some possible vehicle issues so I stopped […]

Today was my official first day on the Saddle Fire. It may also turn out to be my last day on the fire. I got out to the line today, was assigned a dozer and operator, and got geared up to go scout the line for […]

I’m on my first real fire of the 2015 fire season. There were a few small local fires early in the Spring, but they were only type four and type five single-shift low-intensity fires. The crew did a few prescribed […]

Years ago I read something that still sticks with me: “It’ll be ok in the end my dearies. If it’s not ok it’s not the end.”

It will all be ok.

That is all.

This was supposed to be my last pay period until March, 2015 or so.  I typically get laid off for four or five months in the winter because I’m a firefighter, pretty low level, and there are not many fires this […]

We got our first real cold spell this week.  Saturday morning I woke up to a balmy 30 degrees to go in and work some overtime, checking our prescribed fires from the week before.  It warmed up to about 60, and […]