Oh and the rest of the report from the Six Rivers Lightning Complex last month:
We ended up staying a total of 14 days, going out everyday for 12 hour shifts, which gets hectic because it never leaves much time in the evening to get reset. I ended up getting kinda sick on day 10 and stayed at basecamp for the day, but was fine the rest of the time, just a simple cold that came and went. The neighborhood we were working in actually got repopulated around day 7, so we spent the last week helping residents get settled back in, and filling water tanks since their water lines from the main well were burned up. Typically, we would have been sent home way before people come back to a previously evacuated zone, so it was actually a unique opportunity to meet people and hear their stories about the fire and life in general. Lots of cool dogs too! Multiple residents invited us back on our personal travels to hang, drink some beers, and show us the best spots on the river for fishing.
Other parts of the fire were much more active during our time there, but we were never reassigned to a different division, so we just did a lot of patrol and PR work. With the lack of actual "firefighting" going on, coupled with the 12 hour shifts, it made the days drag on. But the crew was in good spirits, and we got along great with the other engines. We were part of a task force comprised of multiple counties, so it was our first time meeting most of our team, but we all had a blast together.
It was good to get back home though, as I had already been working for a week straight leading up to the deployment. Took a couple extra days off to reset, got some waves for 4 days straight, and wife was stoked to have some company.
Wouldn't be surprised to have more deployments going into October once I'm back from vacation.
www.nbcnews.com
www.cbsnews.com
