Lifer for Fire

The fire world is where I belong, being a wildland fire fighter for going on eight seasons now, it is safe to say that I am addicted to fire. I have done everything from being on a short hand crew to running a Type-4 engine along with my most previous position as a crewboss for a helitack crew out of John Day, Oregon. The Canyon Creek Complex Fire took place on my home unit during the 2015 fire season, I was a part of the massive force that fought this fire. It was a warm morning at the airbase the first big blow up took place, the Rh's where low and there was a slight breeze pushing from the south west which is very typical. The fire that caused the first blow that lead to the creation of the Canyon Creek Complex, was actually two fires that eventually burned together, there was personnel on both fires. When the wind finally decided to make its presence known, it caused a chain reaction of disaster, with the dry fuel conditions and heavy fuels that where available the wind moved the flames like a wave on the ocean. My crew was dispatched as a triage module at 1:00 pm, the fire was moving so fast that when I finally revived the crew’s orders, the original house to start on had been burned over within ten minutes. The dense fuels around homes made for difficult triage, the wind was then howling and pushing the head straight towards John Day, the fire was about two miles from the main street of John Day when it decided to die down and evening changed the fires attitude. That evening I pushed a dozer miles in the dark, but due to mine shaft hazards we pulled off around 1:00 am. That was just the beginning, but i will never forget the day the sky turned black over the town.
        
The images below are photos taken on my iPhone, picture on the left is the time the crew was dispatched for triage and the picture on the right is once I pulled off the line.