A TYPE ONE INTERAGENCY HOTSHOT CREW

Hug a Hotshot, You'll never go back to trees.

The crew, in no particular order, consists of the following individuals:

Jack Sevelson
Dave Ross
Pete Duncan
Mike Sherman
Fred Brewster
Ryan Bower
Craig Underwood
Johnny (SPOON) Byrnes
Kevin Lynch
Brian Pimmentel
Jermey Kroaker
Krs Evans
Eric Atherton
What the hell's that newguys name?
Brett Loomis
Colbey Jackson
Sundara Powell
Andy Achter
Jermey Pedrosa
Steve Tolen

So as of the end of August, we are pushing 600 hours of OT... Not a hell of a lot of days off, but highly preferable to endless days at ridge. That's the current project, for all of you old guys.

News Flash: Due to BB leaving for helislack at Pismo, I am now 2nd Sawyer. Do I get more pay? No. I just get even more crap to carry and an anchor to boot.

Don't know about HotShots? Read this story. It's about Helena, who with PINK helmets can't possibly be the 'best on the planet'... But who am I to say? (SUBURBANS? Christ on a crutch...) 75 gallon buckets? Try 5,000 in an Erickson Skycrane belly bucket. Rest of it's pretty much true tho.

Jack's cell rings-> The Tahoe has an escaped control burn, are we available?

Hell yes.

Go get ready, we may get a dispach. *wink wink*

1700 hours, dispached to the 'Rock' fire, Tahoe National Forest.

1830 hours, Crew 13 arrives. Sicced on Division 'A', Fire out the catline and hold.

1830 hours 10 May 2K1 ~> 1000 hours 11 May 2K1, firing the line, Linda's puttin' the monkey to it, a little more burn action than we expected, trees torching everywhere, ember wash snowing over the line into the green. Half the crew is on spot patrol, one found, Sherman, Colby, and Loomis (I beleve) got it. Almost lost it tho.

About 2200 hours-> Burn show continues, nothing much more exciting. We spread out along the line to hold.

0200 hours, burn completed, warming fires lit.

Although I cannot say I remember falling asleep or waking up, I do remember to my suprise seeing the moon jump an inch or so across the sky. Add more wood to the fire, repeat.

We (Eric and I) had an 'indian' warming fire. BB had a friggin bonfire and had to sit about 8 feet from it. Cource it would die, so he'd have to go stomping around in the woods gathering more firewood.

0430 hours. BB's mad because he can't sleep. Too cold. Stomping around in the woods beating the bejeasus out of trees with his falling ax. The rest of us can't sleep either.

0545 hours. Rise and shine Hotshots, time to hump a shitload of hose allover the place to build a hoselay and start mopup. My feet, knees and back are kinda starting to hurt, where's my hoss motrins?

About 20,000 friggin feet of hose, fittings and laterals later, hoselay's in. Pump started, mop-up begins.

1000 hours, 11 May 2K1, drop everything, back to the Mod's were outta here. Back to fire camp, then off to a campground, nap-time for the little Hotshots.

1400 hours, up and at'em, on the clock for slop.

The convict's feed us roast beast, smashed taters, corn I think, and some other stuff. Too tired to really remember.

1600 hours (ish) back to the campground, lites out.

0500 hours 12 May 2K1 Plumas Getup. (no, not Loomis, Plumas.) 0515 hours, on the road to camp for slop and briefing.

Lunch crew gets lunches. Yay, Cryopac roast might be beast. Put that shit in your pack, carry it around in 100+ temps for 6 to 8 hours, eat it, and try not to get sick. Yeah right. rest was pretty good tho. 2 5.5 oz's of unsweetened grapefruit, a snickers, orange, hogie roll, and some other stuff. SlimShady gets gatoraide, water, ice. several gatoraides pounded on the spot. Other stuff happens, I was not really paying attention.

0615 hours. Off to the line, mopup 100 feet in. Pump's busted till about 1100, Dave changes the plug, and wonder of wonders, it fires right up. I guess the CDF pump monkeys couldn't figure that out.

Awesome pressure, even with the Growlersburgh yard monkey's (convict crew) firing off inch KK's at the end of the lay.

1200 hours. I find convict sport fallin' action in my zone. Eric and I check it out, 6 to 8 4" pines chopped, 1 12 - 14" hacked most of the way, hung in a few other trees. We decide to tell the overhead, because Monkey action isn't real cool, especially when there's work to be done. Pete comes to have a look, reports it to Jack so we don't get the heat. BB brings over his saw and dropps 'that shitty lookin' piece of crap'.

1500 hours. That zone done, mopped about 150 feet in, I move down the line near Linda and the convicts to get max linear progression. Pressure's great, then all the sudden I can piss faster. I look around... What the hell? Are we changing hose and someone shut off the lay to do it? Am I running on gravity feed for the moment? No..... Eyes right to SlimShady, 3/4 inch straight streaming a stump hole. Maybe he's got a hotspot I think. I give him a minute, nope... He's fuckin' playin with it. 'You have a nozzle for that thing?" I yell over. He looks at me. "Something that uses a bit less friggin water??" Glimmer of recognition... He turns off the hose, I have rockstar pressure again. Nothing happenes over there for about 5 - 10 minutes... Yes I'm watching, but out of the corner of my eye, don't want to give the guy a complex or something. He comes over with that 'lemme ask you something' look. "Let me see that" he says. I show him the hose... he says "ok", goes back to his zone. I had nothing more exciting than the end of some toy hose in my hand, a 3/4 inch ball shut off, and a 1/4 inch nozzle. I still don't get what was so exciting about that. Anyway...

1700 hours. I've got about 250' mopped in my zone, tied in with Andy, Linda, Tolen, and getting close to Eric who has shifted zones also. The call comes down, pull hose, time to bail. We yard in everyone's lateral ('cept for Colby who's about 500' out...) and head back to the Mod.

1800 hours. AAR (yup, you federales will recognise that... we also use 'snivel gear' and 'cadre'.) and back to camp for slop.

1900 hours (ish) Chicken cordon blu (yeah right) and some other stuff. I eat alot of salad. Sometimes convict food scares me.

1945 ish- ready to go sack.... Jack: "Anyone want to hang and get a shower?" unknown: "What... With all the convicts?" Eyes shift to the shower... there's a shitload of convicts over there... Dave: "Yup, you drop the soap in there, your feet would never fuckin' touch the ground again!" Loomis: "awwwww DAVE! I did NOT need that vision.... aw christ I'm gonna be warped..." Dave: "Look! He's walkin' on water... Wait... what the..." Everyone laughs...

2000 hours bedtime for the Hotshots

0500 hours 13 May 2K1, Plumas, getup.

0515 on the road.

0615 All fed, I'm cut loose to come back for school tomorrow. The rest of the crew is on the way to the line for another day of mop-up.

Thus ends the story of the 'Rock' fire, a 400 acre escaped control burn.

Lunchtime- Hotshots are dispached to 2 fires over on Chandler road, A Mod hero's save a house, B Mod Hero's save a teepee. Both fires lit from sparks from thte train, both held to 1/10th of an acre.

1730 hours, Dispach asks Jack to give them a call. Allthe vetrans know the scoop, We're going somewhere.

Go to the intersection of Hwy's 80 and 395, for the Peavine II fire. That's in the heart of Reno, Nv, Kids. Sure enuf, if you go tyo Reno and look west, you'll see the burn. 270 acres of desert sage.... Nuked.

We work a 32 hour shift- That's all nite and into the next morning for all of you '8 hours is enuf' folks.

Slim Shady seems to have shaped up quite a bit, but into his place has stepped thte newest newguy, Finch (or something). (Shaking head... what a soup sandwich.) Anyway, we get to the fire, and Finch hopps out of the carrier all yellowed up, fireshirt buttoned all the way up to the top, shades and a green baseball cap. Loomis sees him, almost looses it, and tells him something to the effect of 'Get that fucking thing off your head.' I go unbutton his top button... Finch freaks, whining about how mean we are to the newguys. Anyway, it slides, but he hasn't won the hearts and minds of any of the HotShots.

So we're up on the fire, and about 9 pm, 'ol finch pipes up... 'Isn't it time for a little Whatchout #18?' (Sleeping on the fireline) What the fuck? we all ask ourselves... Um... NO! we tell him. What a joke...

So about 2.30 am after gridding since we got there the boss decided it's time to ball up for awhile, so we find a likely spot, all dig 'craftmatic adjustable ditches', and prepare for a little crewrest. various parts of me are falling asleep, so I keep waking up with a dead leg or arm and rolling over. Gee the lights of Reno shure do look nice at nite...About I have no idea what time- still dark, the wind is really pissing me off, so I get out my hootie and wrap it around myself. It's a noisy bastard to deploy, and everyone around me hears it. Monkey action later, everyone deploys. 'Ol Finch is having the hardest time, poor bastard must be cold or something. About every 10 minutes he's rolling over and fighting w/ the hootie, which the wind is trying to take. Noisy as hell, I can barely sleep. Thank god he didn't wake up Pete, else we would have been gridding again. (Note- when the boss falls asleep, leave him alone. You'll probably have to go back to work when he wakes up.) So finally (it's getting light) 'Getup Plumas' is called. Poor Finch- must ahve froze his ass off, as he's shrouded and gloved up, shaking when he comes out from under the hootie.

So we grid some more, get back to the Mods, cruiz for breakfast, and come home.

Golf clap and no rest for the HotShots, we get to hike Soda tomorrow. I wonder who's gonna flop.

27 may 2K1 Hotshots don't get to hike soda, we get to go to the Warrior fire out by pyramid lake in Nevada. Standard desert fire, gone in 24 hours.
Lassen 'Shots were there, and my friend Donny was pretty proud of the new tv and vcr set-up they had in the mods... 'Tell me your not playing spank on that thing all the time' I said... 'training films, dude, they're training films' he says. Ya right, that's why the female was riding in the 'Supe truck...
Both mods got flashed in a drive by the first day, but only the drivers got to see. sigh.
Hotshot reunion, Us, Lassen, Del Rosa, Boise, Diamond Mountain, Black Mountain, and Silver State were all there.
SLim Shady's really shaping up, I almost trust the guy now. Eric thinks he looks like freddy kruger.
Finch still isn't gonna make it we think.
Eric found a live horny toad, Pete was gonna keep him, but we thought we were going to Susanville thismorning so he let the little guy go.
First helo ride for the newbies, all get to bring a case to the softball game Sunday night. Finch and Sherman owe another for making the news.
Back on the forest for NO days off 29 May 2K1.
Over 80 hours overtime so far.
Other than that, no excitement, I took a bunch of pics, I'll scan them when I finish the roll and get 'em back.

Picture descriptions, from left to right:
1. Brian gasses the saw, in preporation to drop a hogmo madrone so we can extinguish the smoke in it.
2. Face cut. You can see a burl I carried out just under the first branch split.
3. Back cut's done, run away...
4. Croaker's got a dead bug in his ear... That thing might suck it out. Sendara deploys the shroud...
5. Whole shitload of Bladimusses (also 'piss pump', 'bladder bag') for our mop-up pleasure.
6. EA prepares to hump the Hogsaw up Soda.
7. Me, deployed with bladimi, prepared to hunt smokes.
8. Hotshot bane, poison oak. This shit seems to be everywhere.... sigh.
9. Plumas walks into the Pyramid fire.
10. Pyramid fire makes a downhill run toward the lake and various campers.
11. Pyramid fire, as first seen.
12. Where do hotshots sleep? Wherever they can. Only overhead uses cots tho, the rest of us dirt auger.

Have a few stories, pics, or comments? Send 'em. (alpine13(at)yahoo(dot)com will get you here) As far as I know, this is the only Plumas site, I'll be happy to share what you have with the rest of the guys.

Interagency Hotshot Crews are those programs with agency sponsorship that have been recommended by their respective Geographic Area Coordinating Group for inclusion into the National Interagency Mobilization Guide. These crews meet the minimum standards in the Interagency Hotshot Crew Operations Guide and have no restrictions on the location or type of assignment, including all-risk assignments such as hurricane or other disaster response, search and rescue missions or others.

© 1996~>2K2

ALPINE GRAVITY RESEARCH