Friday, May 24, 2013
In my Reds and Blues
 |
| Official Wildfire Fighter Uniform |
The last couple of days I have worn my reds and blues. We don't normally wear them around base since they're made of fancy fire-retardant material and we don't want to wear them out, but this is the outfit I wear whenever I'm called out to a fire or doing other special training activities.
That doesn't mean I've been to fires in the last couple of days... a real fire for me is yet to come.
But Wednesday after work we met the local volunteer fire department up at the airport for a training exercise. It involved setting up portable water tanks for the fire trucks to fill and from which we pumped foam onto on imaginary fire in the blackberry bushes along the side of the runway. My job was to get the pump running and man the artificial water source, and all went well. Meanwhile the fire department guys helped with spraying the bushes, transporting the water, and setting up sprinklers to "protect" a building from the "impending flames". It was fun!
Yesterday we did our own fairly similar training exercise at our base along with our CFFs (contract fire fighters who are called in as needed). I ended that exercise soaking wet because the hose filling our portable tank from the municipal water main at some point started gushing out like a fountain, drowning the pump. I had to try to wrestle it back into the tank and find a way to make it stay put while I got the pump going again... which I did not all that successfully hence the wetness. Luckily it was a sunny day and again I had a lot of fun.
As of an hour and a half ago, I am on minimum standby for the weekend. This means that between 8:30am and 10:30pm today and Monday, and between 10am and 10pm Saturday and Sunday, I could get a call telling me I need to be at base and ready to hop in a truck or helicopter (in my reds and blues) within 20 minutes. It takes me about 13mins to pedal hard from my house up the hill to the base, so I have a little leeway for getting my things together and getting changed once I get there. I will not be able to stray far or to do any activity that leaves me away from my phone (like say going swimming), as I must be ready to respond. I think I may be doing a lot of at home yoga classes and arts and crafts this summer..
Saturday, May 18, 2013
First Week
Alright, here's a quick recap of my first week as a firefighter. No, it did not involve any actual firefighting. In fact, it was sort of a week of stalling on the real training since we are still short a crew member and for most of the week only 4 out of the eventual 8 people who will be based there were around: Steve (a crew leader), Lindsay (the only crew member with experience working at this base), Neil (who transferred here from the Kootenays this year after a year or two on hiatus), and me (the rookie).
Monday was a day of paperwork, acquiring gear, and general orientation to the fire base. And learning how to inspect the truck.
 |
| Lunch/meeting room |
The Initial Attack (IA) Truck is inspected daily to make sure everything is in its place and working properly in the event that we are called to drive to a fire. Even if the truck hasn't moved and there's no sign of a leak, we still check the oil, transmission fluid, and levels of all the other various truck liquids. We look in all the compartments to make sure our gear is still there.
 |
| The IA Truck |
Gear. We have a lot of it. Here is a sample of items from the long list that I was issued:
- 2 red Nomex fire retardant shirts
- 2 pairs blue Nomex fire retardant pants
- 1 yellow Nomex neck gaiter
- 1 old school fireline pack
- 1 radio with 2 battery packs
- 1 handheld GPS
- pelters (ear protection) and a face guard to attach to my hard hat
- 1 small blue duffle
- 1 large red duffle
- 1 sleeping bag
- 1 thermarest
- 1 single person tent
etc.
I have yet to actually take a picture in my "blues and reds" as we're only supposed to wear them when we're actually going to a fire.
 |
| Gear Shed |
Tuesday after I completed the morning truck inspection, I received a briefing (one of many) on the operation of the ride-on lawn mower. I then spent a couple of fun hours cruising around mowing the helipads in the sunshine. Using the weed eater afterward was less fun. What else happened Tuesday? It's been such a long week I can hardly remember.
 |
| Freshly mowed |
Wednesday morning we piled into the truck to drive to the grocery store, where we were each given a budget of $30 to acquire some "fire line food". I picked up a couple cans of salmon, some chilli, granola bars, fruit bars, nuts, crackers, and chocolate almonds (I hope they don't melt into a horribly delicious mess) and came in at about 50 cents under budget.
When we returned to base, Josh (who will likely be my crew leader) and Mitch (who is a crew leader at the Powell River base) returned from crew leader bootcamp in Kamloops. Apparently crew leader bootcamp involves some wild scenario simulations and possibly also some burpees (like regular bootcamp), but I don't think nearly as many.
Lindsay and I then took on the task of going through our collection of Mark III (large, 60lb) pumps. My job was to set up and try to start each one, partly as a learning exercise for me and partly because the pumps need to be run and inspected regularly. One of the 5 pumps I tried to start started easily. The other 4 did not. At all. I learned a lot about pump troubleshooting while also developing my hand callouses and blisters by spending up to half an hour adjusting settings and yanking on a pull cord for each one. The first didn't start due to air in the fuel line. The second was also a struggle. The third was no trouble at all. The fourth... I think it was an improperly installed spark plug. The fifth needed a tweak to its carburetor. I learned a lot but still have some trepidation about trying to start them up, so I guess I will have to practice more...
In the afternoon, Mitch needed a ride up to the ferry and Josh was done for the day, so in order to maintain a complete fire crew at base I was assigned to drive up to Earl's Cove with Mitch and then to drive the Ranger back (not the massive IA truck). I spent a beautiful sunny afternoon going on a 2 hour drive up the coast and back.
Thursday was basically a repeat of Wednesday, with minor modifications. Instead of shopping for food in the morning, we picked up some supplies for the base at Canadian Tire. Instead of dealing with large pumps all morning, I worked on starting up the little guys which are far less troublesome (although we still haven't figured out quite what is wrong with the one that gave us trouble). In the afternoon, Josh needed to go to Powell River so once again I did the drive.
Friday was interesting because all of our officers and crew leaders were off doing other things so it was just Lindsay, Neil and I on base. We took the opportunity to do some "area familiarization" and "truck familiarization". We loaded all our fire gear into the IA truck and Neil drove us up the coast. We took the road into the hamlet of Egmont up by Earl's Cove. In order to incorporate some physical fitness training while exploring, we took the trail in to Skookumchuk Narrows. I had been wanting to go up there, but unfortunately the tide was not going the right way so it wasn't all that impressive at the time. On the hike out we took notice of the "Danger Trees" that had been flagged and that we might later be called on to help remove.
Then it was my turn to drive the big truck. And I got to do the stretch down a series of narrow forest service roads. Other than the fact that Ford 550s seem not to be designed with the 5'5", shoe size 6.5 driver in mind, I became accustomed to the truck pretty quickly. I didn't even smash the mirrors on any trees as a drove through the campground at Klein Lake. Well other than the little ones that were unavoidable. We had a somewhat soggy lunch overlooking the lake.
 |
| Lunch at the Lake |
We then drove back towards base with a few detours down other roads where we are likely to be called to fires. The end of the day was a whirlwind of garbage emptying, scrubbing, and vacuuming - friday afternoon base clean up.
Starting on Tuesday, we will finally have nearly a full complement of people on base. Josh will be back, and our new crew member, Eric, will be starting. Our leaders will be able to proceed with training activities like helicopter safety and hover exit training and other fun things. I expect that my days will become a little less relaxed but fun in new ways as the season gets rolling. I'm excited but a little scared of the day that we are called out to our first fire!
 |
| Base. |
Thursday, May 09, 2013
Wildfire Fighting update 2: Summer in Sechelt
Tuesday was another beautiful sunny day in Vancouver, so my good friend Deb (who is also conveniently unemployed at the moment) and I decided to go on a hike. We followed my new favourite North Shore route up towards Whyte Lake and on to West Knob. Of course we did a little Swiss Army style trail clearing along the way.
There on the sunny, mossy, piney bluff, looking North towards the Sunshine Coast, I got a phone call. It was a chap from the Coastal Fire Centre, calling to offer me a job fighting wildfires for the summer from the base in Sechelt. As it happens, this was my first choice of location. I will be starting work on Monday.
I'm rather excited about being based in Sechelt for the summer. Not only is it quite close to Vancouver (about 50km of biking broken by a 40 minute ferry ride), but it's also a prime summer destination. There are kayaking trips a-plenty in Sechelt Inlet, hiking in a number of nearby provincial parks, and some great cycling options too. Furthermore, the helicopter flights that take me to some of my fires will pass over a gorgeous coastline with lots of fjords and inlets and mountains and other pretty things. I may end up visiting some parts of the province that very few people have access to.
So far I know one person based in the same location. Sechelt is the home base of one of my instructors from boot camp. He was a good one: brimming with knowledge about trees and maps and fires. I'm not sure whether I will be on his Initial Attack team or another one, as I believe there are 2 or 3 that share the same base.
More news to come Monday after I pick up my reds and blues..
 |
| Who needs a chainsaw? |
There on the sunny, mossy, piney bluff, looking North towards the Sunshine Coast, I got a phone call. It was a chap from the Coastal Fire Centre, calling to offer me a job fighting wildfires for the summer from the base in Sechelt. As it happens, this was my first choice of location. I will be starting work on Monday.
 |
| Jumping in Whyte Lake |
I'm rather excited about being based in Sechelt for the summer. Not only is it quite close to Vancouver (about 50km of biking broken by a 40 minute ferry ride), but it's also a prime summer destination. There are kayaking trips a-plenty in Sechelt Inlet, hiking in a number of nearby provincial parks, and some great cycling options too. Furthermore, the helicopter flights that take me to some of my fires will pass over a gorgeous coastline with lots of fjords and inlets and mountains and other pretty things. I may end up visiting some parts of the province that very few people have access to.
So far I know one person based in the same location. Sechelt is the home base of one of my instructors from boot camp. He was a good one: brimming with knowledge about trees and maps and fires. I'm not sure whether I will be on his Initial Attack team or another one, as I believe there are 2 or 3 that share the same base.
More news to come Monday after I pick up my reds and blues..
 |
| This is not me at all, but it will be.. |
Monday, May 06, 2013
Wildfire Fighting Bootcamp
It's time to revive the blog with tales from firefighter training.. and hopefully more tales of firefighting to come throughout the summer.
 |
| All smiles on Day 1.. little did I know what I was in for. |
I got back from bootcamp yesterday afternoon. Definitely one of the toughest things I've ever done - way more intense than I was expecting. A typical day looked something like this:
- Wake up around 5:30am (except for friday when we were awoken to banging on the door at 5am, telling us we needed to be outside, ready to go in 5 minutes)
- Get dressed in workout clothes
- Make sure to be outside at the designated meeting area before 6am, and hope that everyone else is on time too otherwise you'll all be doing burpees
- Spend an hour being pushed harder than you thought possible (eg. first day we did lunges continuously walking down the road for about 35mins in a row, followed by a series of pushups/V-situps with virtually no breaks in between)
- Go put on your clean coveralls and eat a hearty buffet breakfast (food was good!)
- Be at the classroom on time and with all your materials (to avoid those burpees!)
- Sit through several hours of classroom work, maybe with some practice exercises outside or else go out on a field day which would involve hours of intense physical labour (if on a field day, change again into your muddy coveralls, boots, and Personal Protective Equipment - eg. hard hat)
- Eventually have time to stop for lunch at some point
- More hours of class time/field work until about 6-7pm
- Dinner (yum)
- Often some sort of classes or planned activity until 8:00 or later
- A few minutes to relax/do your own thing before you collapse into bed
Repeat.
 |
| A sample schedule |
 |
| Final field day schedule |
On the first day, which included the initial fitness test, I drove out to chilliwack with deb, andre and ilan. We had some brunch and awesome pie at the chilliwack airport then went for a little hike/walk to teapot hill near cultus lake. They stayed to watch me complete the fitness test. It was a lot tougher than I thought it would be. Partway through, I was thoroughly convinced I wasn't going to be able to complete it in the 14.5min time limit and was resigning myself to the idea I'd probably be heading straight home and having to sort out a new plan for the summer. Somehow, however, I managed to complete it in 14mins and 10 seconds.
Now I am done and certified and I have submitted my preferences for a job placement and am hoping I will be offered something. I'm pretty confident, though it's not certain anything will come of this until I actually get an invitation to join a crew. That will likely happen on Wednesday, and my start date will probably be next Monday.
In the end, the preferences I put were as follows:
Crew Type: Initial Attack (this is a small team of 3 people that responds to an initial report of a fire, so I'll get more helicopter time and will mostly be dealing with smaller fires, but could still end up being deployed on larger ones from time to time too)
1st location preference: Sechelt
2nd location preference: Campbell River
3rd: Anywhere in the Coastal or Southeast BC fire regions
I think that based on my performance and what I've heard about available positions, chances are pretty good I'll end up in Sechelt or Campbell River, but there is still a perfectly good possibility I'll be either somewhere entirely different or not get a job at all.
Now that I'm back in Vancouver in beautiful sunny, summery weather, it almost feels like none of it even happened. My muscles were so sore most of the week that things like standing up, sitting down, walking, putting on shoes, etc. sometimes seemed almost impossible. Yet by the end of the week, my body had adapted and right now I just have some lingering scrapes and bruises, a little stiffness in the shoulder area, and tight hamstrings. On Tuesday, I was nearly ready to give up and call it quits! Wednesday, I was doing burpees in a dirty trench blinking through tears and just wishing I could stop to eat my lunch. Yesterday as we waited for our written test results, by 9am my classmates and I felt like it should be lunch time as we sat around lazing in the sun, playing frisbee and hackeysack for the first time in a week.
 |
| Strike Team Oscar with Team leader days - I got to lead for the final field day and that was fun! |
Although the people, instructors and classmates alike, were all fantastic, I can't say that I really enjoyed the experience overall, at least.. I didn't through most of the week. It was at camp that I started to understand the question people had been asking me leading up to it: "WHY would you want to be a wildfire fighter?" - before camp, my first thought was always "Why would I NOT want to be a wildfire fighter?" But if someone had asked me during camp, I don't know that I would have had any good answer to give. And yet... if I ask myself now whether I would do bootcamp again, it amazes me to realize that the answer is yes.
 |
| Sunset from kits beach after getting home |
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)