Ochoco Complex

I had the pleasure of working two seasons on the hand crew for the Ochoco National Forest. My most memorable fire was the beginning of the Ochoco Complex 2014 that was started by lightning. I started on the Fox fire where the fire was moving pretty slow the first day. But then the weather, terrain, fuels, and lack of resources started to work against us. I was putting scratch line around a spot fire that was located just out of a drainage. Between the three of us that were on this spot, one was calling in bucket drops, the other was running the chainsaw and I was swamping and digging a scratch line. We managed to get a scratch line around the large spot fire. My crew member and I went to help out with other spots. But in the end the Fox fire along with the other fires in the complex blew up by the evening. The dry fuels, high winds and low humidity contributed to the high activity of the fire.

Fox Fire 2014, Taken by Jennifer Abernathy

Fox Fire 2014, Taken by Jennifer Abernathy

Fox Fire 2014, Take by Jennifer Abernathy

Losing the fire definitely didn’t feel good at the end of the day when we just had to sit back and watch it cross over the lines we put in. But there was definitely a feeling of power and calmness watching the fire go from tree to tree. It makes you remember just how small you are.