Change of Plans

I can’t overstate how much the quality of a crew makes or breaks a fire. I love my crew, and even though this fire was out before we even arrived to it yesterday, I love how they made it fun and tolerable. It looks like we’re going to be here one more day, which is great, but I don’t know if we’ll be sleeping together as a crew again.

I’m writing this again in my Day One app, which I’m loving. Writing is writing. It doesn’t matter if I’m writing on my laptop or on my iPhone, writing requires thought and discipline, and as a writer, I have to be “on my game” at all times. It’s been a long day, and it’s late, and I’m tired, but I’m still writing. I have to.

We mopped up again today, but I like yesterday, where we actually found hotspots and took them out, we found nothing today. The fire is out. So by noon (our day started around 7:30), we took a break and sat down, ate, relaxed, goofed around, for a few hours. When we began to work again around 3, there was a call on the radio that there were reports of smoke up by the Bison Range near Dixon. We all listened intently as the helicopter flew over to the fire and reported back what it saw. It was 1 acre, about, but it had a chance to spread. Command asked for a ten person crew, and seeing we were the only ten person crew around, we were called out to fight it. Needless to say, we were excited. For many of the rookies, this would have been their first time hotlining a fire. They’ve mostly mopped up this year.

So we go down the mountain, all eager to go fight this fire, and on our way there, we were told another crew was on its way to fight it. We were called back. Naturally, we were all sad. We went to the gas station, bought some snacks, drove back to the fire, and spent the rest of our shift on our asses, goofing off and having fun.

And exciting news everyone, while I was writing this entry, our crew boss called us in and she told us that we are going to the fire tomorrow morning. That means we have to wake up earlier than everyone else, pack up, and be on our way by six AM.

That is my cue to bid you all adieu.