07/03/2007
Life of a hotshot
Well i have been working for 2 months now. Every thing about the crew (Midnight Suns) was a rude awakening for me. It is my first year on a hotshot crew and because of that I get called rookie all the time. The training that i was doing was not nearly the right stuff to train me for the PT test. But none the less it deffinitely helped out quite a bit. Next year I will do a lot better on all the parts. My 1.5 mile run was 8:48, Sit-ups in a 60 seconds: 69, Pull-ups: 14, Push-ups: 75. All in all i was probably somewhere in the middle around average. I was hoping to come out being one of the best in shape rookies of the year. On the run is the only one i excelled in. But even that i was hoping for better.
So any way training was hard to an extent. All the crews do 2 weeks of PT 2 times a day. That actually was fairly simple for me. Being that I was able to run better then most on the crew. I need to work on my push-ups and sit-ups. Some of the guys can do 100+ sit-ups non stop....not me YET.
After the 2 a days we got on a fire right away. The crew was sent down to MN to the Boundary Waters Wilderness Area. That fire was not all that spectatular....to tell you the truth the majority of the job is not all the great. it kind of really really really sucks. But that is looking at the bad side of things and that is just not me. Any way the fire was in a beautiful area but there was no flames on our division. I will have to explain it to most of you but it is not always fihgting flames. Only aobut 5-10 % of hotshoting is beating flames. The fire was dyign down in MN so then Canada asked us to come up to help with there side of the fire...since most of there fire crews were not even working yet that early in the season. CA was a little more enjoyable then the States side of the fire.
First off we got to take a boat from the US side to the Canadian side of the fire. That was a first for me on a fire. That was pretty cool...and then we setup camp right next to this cabin and right on a lake. We had fresh food the whole time we were there. And I mean the Canadians gave us way more then the AK crews our used to. We had eggs, bacon, suasage, milk, cereal for breakfast. Snadwiches, PBJs and snacks for lunch, and steaks, chicken, rice, spaghetti, brats, and more for dinner. So that was a pretty sweet gig.
That fire was pretty tame as well. Our task was to tie into anotherr crews line aobut 10 miles south of us. So we cut saw line in for the next 7 or so days. That was a lot of fun for me beause at the time I was on the saw. But towards the end of that fire i was taken off the saw and became a digger. I knew it was to good to be true. Oh well. After leaving that fire we got put up in a hotel in Minneapolis/St. Paul area. I was able to see Erin, which was very nice.
Then flown back to AK to wait for the fires to start poppin. The fires never started again until a week or so later. We got flown from base to Fort Yukon, which is way north, and got put on a 125 acre fire. The smokejumpers all ready put a line around it by the time we got there so it was another mop show. We gridded for the next few days and then got sent back to base again. At this time in the season we are just shy of 200 hours of overtime hours.
We finall get a good fire about 2 weeks ago. But furst before that we are sent to the AK/CA border to fight a little 180 acre fire...which is dead also. So we are flown into that fire for two days, before they realize that they do not even need us there and are asked to come back the the state and fight a fire down near Anckorage. So we pack our shit up and drive to Anckorage. It takes about 10 hours to get there but since we have rigs from base all ready they just said keep them and drive otherwise we would of flown.
As soon as wee get to this fire we are thrown right in front of burning structures and what not. Our crew is split into 4 groups and told to do structure protection for about 100 cabins. As soon as we start we hear cabins blowing up and torching up. It was a pretty amazing thing to be that close to burning sturctures and turn and do nothing except try to save the structures closest to the fire. I mean this fire was moving. We had to do some burn outs near cabins to protect them and also do a saw line around them. That day is the 5% i was talking about. It was why i do the job. The rest of the time on the fire was not so much fun except for when to cabins that we did save all got together and threw us cookout, just for our crew...which was a pretty good feeling.
So after the fire we are now sitting around 300 OTS. The season is looking on the up and up.
Life of a hotshot
Well i have been working for 2 months now. Every thing about the crew (Midnight Suns) was a rude awakening for me. It is my first year on a hotshot crew and because of that I get called rookie all the time. The training that i was doing was not nearly the right stuff to train me for the PT test. But none the less it deffinitely helped out quite a bit. Next year I will do a lot better on all the parts. My 1.5 mile run was 8:48, Sit-ups in a 60 seconds: 69, Pull-ups: 14, Push-ups: 75. All in all i was probably somewhere in the middle around average. I was hoping to come out being one of the best in shape rookies of the year. On the run is the only one i excelled in. But even that i was hoping for better.
So any way training was hard to an extent. All the crews do 2 weeks of PT 2 times a day. That actually was fairly simple for me. Being that I was able to run better then most on the crew. I need to work on my push-ups and sit-ups. Some of the guys can do 100+ sit-ups non stop....not me YET.
After the 2 a days we got on a fire right away. The crew was sent down to MN to the Boundary Waters Wilderness Area. That fire was not all that spectatular....to tell you the truth the majority of the job is not all the great. it kind of really really really sucks. But that is looking at the bad side of things and that is just not me. Any way the fire was in a beautiful area but there was no flames on our division. I will have to explain it to most of you but it is not always fihgting flames. Only aobut 5-10 % of hotshoting is beating flames. The fire was dyign down in MN so then Canada asked us to come up to help with there side of the fire...since most of there fire crews were not even working yet that early in the season. CA was a little more enjoyable then the States side of the fire.
First off we got to take a boat from the US side to the Canadian side of the fire. That was a first for me on a fire. That was pretty cool...and then we setup camp right next to this cabin and right on a lake. We had fresh food the whole time we were there. And I mean the Canadians gave us way more then the AK crews our used to. We had eggs, bacon, suasage, milk, cereal for breakfast. Snadwiches, PBJs and snacks for lunch, and steaks, chicken, rice, spaghetti, brats, and more for dinner. So that was a pretty sweet gig.
That fire was pretty tame as well. Our task was to tie into anotherr crews line aobut 10 miles south of us. So we cut saw line in for the next 7 or so days. That was a lot of fun for me beause at the time I was on the saw. But towards the end of that fire i was taken off the saw and became a digger. I knew it was to good to be true. Oh well. After leaving that fire we got put up in a hotel in Minneapolis/St. Paul area. I was able to see Erin, which was very nice.
Then flown back to AK to wait for the fires to start poppin. The fires never started again until a week or so later. We got flown from base to Fort Yukon, which is way north, and got put on a 125 acre fire. The smokejumpers all ready put a line around it by the time we got there so it was another mop show. We gridded for the next few days and then got sent back to base again. At this time in the season we are just shy of 200 hours of overtime hours.
We finall get a good fire about 2 weeks ago. But furst before that we are sent to the AK/CA border to fight a little 180 acre fire...which is dead also. So we are flown into that fire for two days, before they realize that they do not even need us there and are asked to come back the the state and fight a fire down near Anckorage. So we pack our shit up and drive to Anckorage. It takes about 10 hours to get there but since we have rigs from base all ready they just said keep them and drive otherwise we would of flown.
As soon as wee get to this fire we are thrown right in front of burning structures and what not. Our crew is split into 4 groups and told to do structure protection for about 100 cabins. As soon as we start we hear cabins blowing up and torching up. It was a pretty amazing thing to be that close to burning sturctures and turn and do nothing except try to save the structures closest to the fire. I mean this fire was moving. We had to do some burn outs near cabins to protect them and also do a saw line around them. That day is the 5% i was talking about. It was why i do the job. The rest of the time on the fire was not so much fun except for when to cabins that we did save all got together and threw us cookout, just for our crew...which was a pretty good feeling.
So after the fire we are now sitting around 300 OTS. The season is looking on the up and up.
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