Walkin' the Chiwaukum...

In mid-July I was dispatched to the Chiwaukum Creek incident (fire) in central Washington on the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forests (OWF). The fire had blown-up overnight driven by strong winds and was headed down canyon and the Wenatchee River towards the town of Leavenworth. “Safety Dude” (me) was flown I to join a large army of mobilizing forces. When I left home I had no idea how literal that would be (see below).            

Before I even left home I let my family & some friends know where I’d be headed and my “Uncle Bruce” (Bruce Newlin) emailed to say he’d pitched at Wenatchee in ’55 & ’56 (but, that there probably was no one around any longer that cared… I later found someone). When I checked in at the Incident Command Post I learned that other fires had recently been sparked and I would be flying up to Kelly Mountain to a “spike camp” near a helispot. Eight Smokejumpers (out of Redmond, OR) and an Initial Attack (IA) crew were fighting this fire. One of the bigger challenges was the 1800 vertical feet from the head-to-toe of the fire. 

Another was that light rain was forecasted. When I finally flew in (the next day due to winds & weather) I found that the Umatilla Type II IA Crew had experienced a rough night in the drizzle. They’d been flown up with line-gear only: no tents, bags, etc. They adapted, adjusted, and overcame the situation making some shelters out of limbs & branches from the tress cleared by the Jumpers when constructing the helispot (on the edge of a cliff above an alpine lake). Good job Umatilla!

           

When we flew off, due to a stronger and moister system, I found that my next assignment was going to be working with the Washington National Guard (NG). They had 100 of their wildland fire trained soldiers (from 1^st Squadron of 303^rd Cavalry) ready & willing to help. Most fire crews are 20-person: due to lack-of-experience a decision was made to have each NG crew 10-person, with an experienced Crew Supervisor, and each two crews a Strike Team Leader. The five Strike Teams had a Division Supervisor.

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To say the overhead was greatly experienced is a gross understatement: one of the Crew Sups retired from the Forest Service as a GS-15 (about as high as you can get before Senior Executive Service kicks-in) and the Division was from the Redding Smokejumpers (USDA Forest Service). Safety Dude was humbled. The NG had one day of on-the-ground training with their new fireline leaders before being deployed with typical assignments: gridding & mop-up, holding-the-line for firing operations. They did superb. It was interesting that the operational Division the NG worked under were A#1, and the Branch Director over many divisions was a very experienced fire-fellow by the name of George Custer.

           

One weird (what-are-the-chances) moment I had was an incident on Hwy. 2. As I was proceeding up canyon from ICP to assignment, a sheriff’s unit was proceeding down canyon from trying to locate an abusive resident at our request. At that time, and unknown to us, a crew on a different Branch of the fire, was building a contingency line high up on a 45-60 degree slope (way high up above Hwy.2). As they were bucking up a downed log, a round rolled into another that they’d already bucked and dislodged it: this 18" round rolled downhill gaining speed and at approximately 25-30 MPH crossed the road in front of me.

I jammed on my brakes, but it crashed into the front driver side wheel (bending-the-rim) and exploding it back into the rear panel of my pickup truck. No one was hurt and both vehicles were driven away (the S.O. unit needed to put on their spare tire): I’d had my hazard lights on, but the log round hadn’t seemed to have cared or noticed (geesh). Close call, a very close call for the Deputy & me.

            Tomorrow, I’m headed back for another safety assignment on the OWF...