Wildland fire BS. & pics

any Other TW brush-apes out there? Where are you from, and what agency do you work for? Let’s see the hell-fire pics. What do you all do in the off season?

I’m Cole I work for the humboldt Toiyabe, I was on E-413 this year, it was my 7th year in fire, I’ve worked for Slide Mountain Hand Crew, and NDF. I love this job, and plan on retiring as a wildlander. I try to ski and go to school in the winter, end up doing a lot of staring at the wall.

 

I’m just gonna keep posting pics. Unemployment is boring.

 

I'm not a firefighter but on the mitigation side of things. I work for a non-profit and basically help educate private property owners and then connect them to the resources they need to reduce their wildfire risk. Hopefully I'll get some time with some local fire crews this next summer. With the lack of winter here in CO we could have a bad year.

 

Hopefully you guys have better luck with educating folks than cal-fire. What non-profit do you work for?

 

We are small. Function in a 5 county region. FireWise of SW CO is the name of it. Cal-fire has done some really cool stuff but California is really in a tough spot. There are flat out too many people and the WUI is only expanding. It is an unfortunate way to have good job security. How long you been working on a wildland crew?

 

This will be my 8th season. We made it over to Napa/Sonoma this fall. It’s sad That there was as much damage done. Proper defensible space really gives folks a chance.

 

Yup. Defensible space and retrofitting a home to resist embers. The stuff isn't rocket science but most people are motivated to do anything until it is too late. Luckily, things are moving quickly on the mitigation side of things to unify efforts around the country. It is a start at least.

 

Do you guys work with anybody that does fuels for you?

 

We don't do any of the actual work ourselves. We either write the prescription for the landowner or neighborhood to hire a private contractor or put them in touch with the Fire District if they can help. Basically, I end up doing a lot of writing and painting trees and the occasional handing out of money if the project is part of our cost-share program.

 

What is “cost-share”?

 

We get money from the state or feds through different risk reduction grants then distribute it to individual landowners to cover up to half the cost of hiring a contractor to do the work

 

I also work on the mitigation side. I manage a clearance company in LA County. We have contracts with both LA city and county as well as private clients. The amount of work done here every year is massive. Unfortunately a bunch of people decide to wait till the last minute. Watching news coverage on the fires this year in so cal and watching houses burn is tragic but seeing no defensible space angers me. I wouldn't put a $.10 tie on a $1000 suit, paying someone to do it if you can't do it yourself is a small price to pay.