KatieTheKat

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.  

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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!