SHF Incidents 7/2

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End of Assignment (Kinda)

Well I finished my assignment in the Umpqua!  Was a lot of hours and not a lot of free time.  Living out of a hotel room sucks so it was nice to have long busy days working.  Going out of state to a Forest Service station outside of CA was interesting.  Weird not having the CalFire folks around and you can tell funding is much more limited in Region 6.  Roseburg was a cute town, the folks I worked with and met were absolutely awesome with the forest service.  Great bunch of people they got working there.

I had to cut my full 14 day assignment short because of a big fire that broke out in my home forest, the Six Rivers National Forest.  I heard about from Oregon, and before I knew it, they wanted me home.  The fire is still going good and hopefully not getting too deep into the Trinities...nasty, steep terrain to be fighting fires out there! I hope everyone stays safe out there.  

My trip to Roseburg ended, I finished my 2 weeks with 185 total hours of work!  Also managed to get in a little over 23 miles of running while I was there, all of it at night in the dark.  Was fun and a different experience.  Hope to do some more night runs!

Our fire updates can be seen here:

Ruth Fire

Looks like their getting a good handle on the fire, the rain the other day really helped slow its spread.

On Friday I ended up leaving Roseburg in a hurry around 1600 and got home at 2130 (5 1/2 hours, was jammin) and ended up playing in our expanded for a hour and a half throwing some supply orders in ROSS.  Than Sat and Sun I played IA dispatcher for our forest, not too much involved in the fire, since the Type 2 Team  had got on scene and was managing the fire.  It still stayed very busy.  

Sunday I timed out.  With the forest service, for safety reasons, they have a 2:1 rule.  Work so many hours, required to get half that number in sleep.  14 hours of work, supposed to get at least 7 hours before returning to work.  Same goes for days, except the increments are different.  I reached my 14 days of continuous work so I had to take 2 days of R&R, PAID!!  So I'm on mandatory, paid, days off at the moment.  

Not much rest today though.  Unpacked finally!  Cleaned out my fridge and studio.  Went through the 8-9 boxes of stuff that was waiting for me when I got home (I did quite a bit of online shopping while in Roseburg).  Getting ready to go for a long run (only 6 miles to work and back) and than bottle my Porter which should of been bottled a week ago.  More time should clarify and smooth it out nicely.  

We got a IA dispatcher from Utah who is filling my spot while I'm on days off.  Our expanded is packed with around 7-8 people working feverishly to keep our fire needs met.  It was fun training an incoming dispatcher for my first time.  Showing them how we do things and our local SOPs....hope she's still alive when I check things out today.  If we didn't have a fire going, my mandatory days off would have coincided nicely with my usual days off, and would have had 5 days off (woulda been so outta here into the hills), but with the fire going I'll be called back in to work my normal days off (more OT!!!).  With this slow season I'll take all I can get! 

Look forward to getting back into my normal routine though.  Got lots of stuff I'm dying to do soon: kayak, more running, biking.....hopefully I'll find somebody to enjoy all those cool things with!  Gonna be fun either way!! 

All I need now is some food in the fridge and some good times!  Got a few things on Craigslist I'm getting rid of, cleaning house with some other stuff.  Life is good!

Hope everyone out there is well, keeping the smiles going, and having an awesome time!

Sorry for the lack of pictures, being cooped up inside all day I really didnt get a chance and there wasnt much  at night to snag.  Here's a pic of an airtanker dropping a load onto a small fire that started just off of I-5 when I was in Oregon, pretty good shot! 

Will have some others of our fire here later on...take care 8)

On Assignment

My 1st assignments have happened finally and so off I've been! My 1st assignment sent me over to the Klamath National Forest for some lightning fires. This was going back home for me and I got to see the family and even stay at home. YAY!! When I go I work in whats called expanded dispatch. We have computers and when the incident commander requests resources (like engines, handcrews, overhead) we use the computer to find people either in the forest or anywhere in the country and they travel to the fire to do their specific job. These jobs range from dispatch stuff, engine crews, handcrews, time recorders, safety people, etc.

Yreka Dispatch and everything that handles fires are some squared-away group. When I showed up everything was in order and transitioning into work-mode was easy and seamless. The group working was made of retired folks as well as regular employees, and totalled about 5-6 people in expanded. Usually one handles orders for overhead, one for crews, one for crews, and one for supplies. The aircraft desk usually handles aircraft orders.

Fires in California can always be found at http://www.inciweb.org/state/5/

I was there for 5 days, travelled back to Fortuna, got home at night, reported to work (regular day) the next morning and by noon was off to another assignment.

The next place I went, and still am here, was in the Plumas National Forest. I was staying in Quincy. The fire was called the BAR fire and was in the Feather River Canyon. Beautiful country out here. Quincy's hotels have much to be desired and the room I've been in is, to put it nicely, is 'intersting'. Really interesting! The fire is slowly wrapping up and we've started the demobilization of lots of resources.

The awesome part about going on assignment is, of course, the overtime. Assignments mean 12 hour days and I've worked 6 of my days off which is all OT! WOOT! Hopefully 4-wheel transportation is not far away! Not sure how much longer I'll be here, my guess is couple more days until almost all resources are released. The computer program we use is called ROSS, Resource Ordering and Status System. Anyone in the Forest Service is in this system, complete with their qualifications and TONS of other information. The program is really expansive and makes ordering resources for small or large fires easy and makes it easy to track all the different resources coming into a fire.

Semi-anxious to get home and have at least a few days off, its been awhile since I've had a day off now, couple of weeks now. Well gotta get back to work and hope anyone who sees this is doing well and staying happy. Love ya all!

Another Day

So here's the weather that I read every day on my on-days, over the radio

This is for today June3, 2010

".DISCUSSION...
A WARM FRONT WILL PRODUCE LIGHT RAIN ACROSS THE DISTRICT THIS
AFTERNOON AND EVENING. GUSTY SOUTH WINDS WILL DEVELOP OVER
NORTHERN PORTIONS TONIGHT AHEAD OF AN APPROACHING COLD FRONT. THE
COLD FRONT WILL BRING WETTING RAINS TONIGHT AND FRIDAY
MORNING. DRIER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED SATURDAY.

CAZ201-040130-
NORTH COAST STRIP...FROM OREGON BORDER TO ROCKPORT CONSISTING OF
COASTAL SECTIONS OF DEL NORTE...HUMBOLDT...AND A SMALL PORTION OF
MENDOCINO COUNTY. INCLUDES PORTIONS OF CA NPS AND REDWOOD PARKS.-
231 AM PDT THU JUN 3 2010

.TODAY...
SKY/WEATHER.........ISOLATED SHOWERS IN THE MORNING. PATCHY FOG
AND DRIZZLE IN THE MORNING. RAIN IN THE
AFTERNOON.
MAX TEMPERATURE.....58-66 AT THE COAST...63-71 INLAND.
24 HR TREND......LITTLE CHANGE.
MIN HUMIDITY........84-94 PERCENT AT THE COAST...63-73 PERCENT
INLAND.
24 HR TREND......LITTLE CHANGE.
20-FOOT WINDS.......
VALLEYS/LWR SLOPES...LIGHT WINDS 2 TO 5 MPH...BECOMING SOUTH 5
TO 10 MPH...WITH GUSTS UP TO 20 MPH IN THE
AFTERNOON.
RIDGES/UPR SLOPES....VARIABLE WINDS 3 TO 7 MPH...BECOMING SOUTH 8 TO
13 MPH...WITH GUSTS UP TO 24 MPH IN THE
AFTERNOON.
LAL.................1.
CWR(>.10)...........90 PERCENT.

.TONIGHT...
SKY/WEATHER.........RAIN.
MIN TEMPERATURE.....50-59.
24 HR TREND......LITTLE CHANGE.
MAX HUMIDITY........92-100 PERCENT.
24 HR TREND......LITTLE CHANGE.
20-FOOT WINDS.......
VALLEYS/LWR SLOPES...SOUTH WINDS 10 TO 15 MPH...WITH GUSTS UP TO
30 MPH.
RIDGES/UPR SLOPES....SOUTH WINDS 10 TO 18 MPH...WITH GUSTS UP TO
32 MPH.
LAL.................1.
CWR(>.10)...........90 PERCENT.

.FRIDAY...
SKY/WEATHER.........RAIN IN THE MORNING...THEN SHOWERS LIKELY IN
THE AFTERNOON.
MAX TEMPERATURE.....56-64 AT THE COAST...62-70 INLAND.
MIN HUMIDITY........90-100 PERCENT AT THE COAST...65-75 PERCENT
INLAND.
20-FOOT WINDS.......
VALLEYS/LWR SLOPES...SOUTH WINDS 8 TO 13 MPH...WITH GUSTS UP TO
27 MPH.
RIDGES/UPR SLOPES....SOUTH WINDS 11 TO 16 MPH...WITH GUSTS UP TO
30 MPH.
LAL.................1.
CWR(>.10)...........90 PERCENT." I read that type of forecast for 2 other zones as well, making several zones together (since a few of the zones share the same weather).

So its been in the low 60s lately, raining alot still. But the 60 degree weather is so much more temperate than Yreka's freezing weather. And it stays this way year-round. Summer 65-75, winter 55-65. 20 degree difference whereas Yreka could go from 110 down to 10.

GO LAKERS!! waitin on game 1 tonight.

Only been on 6 days total but love the job so far. Right up my alley without the law enforcement side of things. Life seems so much more laid back already. So nice to get out of the law enforcement side of life. Dealing with fires only is more up my alley and reflects from back when I was a firefighter. I'm already picking things up quickly and really enjoy how things work. We dispatched several people to fires in Alaska almost exclusively from the computer. Orders come in from North-Ops (i Redding), we pull a query for our forest, and a list of names pops up as to who is qualified for that position.

It feels like electronically dispatching. We filled orders for a radio operator, strategic site manager, equipment recorder, helicopter crew-member, and 2 others. Made some people happy so early in the fire season. So within an hour of receiving th eorder, we had plane trips set up for them leaving the next day to Alaska; pretty cool!

Last night the family I live with invited me over for dinner; they smoked a turkey outside all day and we had that, mashed potatoes, corn, and a salad. Very awesome of them!! Rearranged my apartment. Been sipping off a my growler (have to get a pic up today of the Growler).

Did some work outside, goofed around, rdy to go back to work morrow. Laterz all

Fortuna May 2010

So here we go. Off on a new adventure; new place, new job, new everything. As you may or may not know, I was working part-time as a dispatcher for my police department. Part-time sucks; good check one week, small pay check the next. With no sign of a full-time position opening up anytime soon, I had begun looking for full-time work. Out of the blue, a position was listed on the Forest Service site for a full-time Fire Dispatcher (the exact thing my wife does) in Fortuna, CA. I decided to apply and felt that I was highly qualified with my past fire-fighting experience. One day while working I got a call to see whether I was still interested in the job. I stated 'yes' and a few hours later a call came in stating I had been accepted for the position.

The wife and I had talked extensively prior to this about all of the ramifications: how would our kids do if I took this job, how would we do, etc. Well the job is a big pay raise from my police dispatching job, with full benefits and retirement (plus my 5 years of army service would count toward this retirement.) The big bonus I saw was that it got me out of the law enforcement field where I was quickly getting burnt out having to deal with all the dumb-asses that are typical of the law enforcement field. Needless to say, I accepted the job.

Now this would be a 'returning home' for me since immediately after high school I went to Humboldt State University where I failed miserably after one year, more interested in 'out-of-school' activities rather than school. But I always felt that Humboldt County was home; it fit my mind-set and lifestyle, as well as being close to the coast which always has been close to my heart.

Fortuna is about 10 miles from the coast, inland, right along the Eel River. It is about 10 miles south of Eureka right along Hwy 101. The population is about 10,000 and little bigger than Yreka. The first thing I had to do was find a place to live since upon accepting the job, I was set to start within a months time. So I set forth for a few days to look for places to live. Being a homeowner for the past 20 years, I've been out of the rental scene for quite some time. I had no idea that the rental market was so depressed in this area. After 2 days I had nothing, Craigslist posting had started and I was getting depressed.

Within hours of leaving Fortuna back home I got a call of a cute-sounding place. It would be an attached studio apartment to a families' house, just outside of Fortuna. The family was real picky about who was going to live next to them as they had a 10 year old daughter (as well as 2 sons already out of the house). After talking extensively with them, I agreed to take the place, sight unseen.

Now I really began shitting bricks. I would be moving out here without my family, all alone and I was really getting scared. As my son put it "why would you want to move, you got it made here, part-time job, everything you want, lots of time to do whatever". He didn't see behind the scenes in that we weren't getting anywhere. This job, even with separate locations, would get us ahead.

So a week before my job was to start, I packed everything I thought I needed into our one car, and headed to Fortuna with the wife. I had my bike which would be my sole transportation while over there. After a beautiful, nut terribly long, 5 hour drive, we pulled up to my new home. I couldn't have dreamed of a more suitable place to live. The family that owns the property is very 'earthy' (o.k. kinda hippy-like) and the studio is gorgeous. It sits on about 3 acres, was built in the 70s, has huge windows everywhere, a deck around the whole place, and everywhere you look are Redwoods and other trees (see the pics I posted).

The place is so perfect. My wife was wonderful help getting the place cleaned up (our idea of clean is definitely different than other peoples), took me grocery shopping, and got me set up. Than she left. 8( all alone, all by myself. What the hell am I going to do. Well, a big plus to this place is all utilities are included in the low price. As well as cable and the internet. I had a week before my job started to explore, time the bike ride to work, etc. So day 2 I set out. Now getting to work takes about 10-15 mins on my bike and is a breeze, all downhill. Getting back is one mother fucking hell ride ending in a craptastic hill sure to humble any bike rider.

Look out Trail Machines! After doing this hill for every day after work (even walking my bike as it stand now) you'll be running after me on any future hills we encounter! There is a bus stop at the bottom of my hill and the wonderful thing is the local transit goes EVERYWHERE throughout Humboldt Count, as well as over to Redding and up to Del Norte County; all with easy bike racks on the front. What more could I ask for?

OK big pluses about living over here: the Eel River Brewery is right around the corner from my job. "Be Natural, Drink Naked" is their motto. First US brewery to be certified organic. The brewery where they mass-produce their beer is just down the road in Scotia but in Fortuna they have a cute pub where they make specialty bathes and serve the most awesome food I've ever had. I had their beer-steamed sausage made with local-made sausage and steamed in their own beer. Mouth-watering bliss! This will be a regular hangout for me. I've already been there twice to have a beer and get a 6 pack to restock the fridge. Friendly atmosphere makes me feel like home.

I am home. Away from the red-neck mind-set of Yreka and back to where my true mind-set and heart belongs. Back to a much more laid back vibe, back to 'my neck of the woods'. Today I went into town to get some more cereal and tea. After shopping I went to the brewery to enjoy 2 tall glasses of their own stout, 9.5% alcohol. Perfect conditions for my bike ride home. I didn't even attempt the hill this time, I walked my bike up, got home, stripped off all of my clothes, and laid out in my birthday suit on the grass in the sun, with nothing but Redwoods surrounding me. !!!! Heaven!

Yes, my family is a long ways away; visits probably won't happen for at least 6 months or more, but somehow I am at peace. PEACE! This is for the future of me and the family. Everyone will survive and get through it. My job is no cake-walk and will be hard with long hours and more than the scheduled 4-on, 3-off schedule I have now, especially once fire season kicks off here. I'll be working the 6 Rivers Forest area dispatching all of the local fire stations, law enforcement officers (LEOS), as well as ordering from all over the US for resources. None of that bothers me, I know I am perfect for this job and will perform exceptionally as I always do. I am a confident person. The biggest bother of this whole thing is leaving the family behind. I worry most about my 15 year old daughter who I cherish dearly. I hope she does ok and lifts herself through this. My exceptional son will do fine and continue his 4.0 and be off on his own shortly. I really miss my dog and hopes she does ok without me.

So here I am in the middle of Humboldt County with nothing but a bike for transportation. There are a couple people in the area I've known from the past: send me a note, let me know where you are, would love to see a familiar face amidst the isolation I feel now. I'll start feeling much better once work kicks in (this Sunday) and I can focus on work. did I mention: no more graveyards!!! Feds work days and this will be a welcome respite from the past spastic schedule of graveyards and days.

I am scared, nervous, excited: every emotion rolled into one. I love the vibe over here and it really suits me so much more than Yreka. Really going to love it over here just wish I could share it. OK kinda sharing it in this blog and that alone makes me feel better. Home is where the heart is and my heart has always been over here. Be nice to see my transformation back to who I feel I really am vs who Yreka had been turning me into. Hugs and kisses to everyone, especially my family. Hang tough and we'll keep Skyping all the time to keep close an din touch. I'm staying strong and I expect no less from you.

Thanks for hanging through such a long blog. Will continue to post new stuff. Peace out!