Rain this am but then just overcast for the rest of the day, a bit warmer at 11C. Drained and cleaned the hot tub, now waiting for it too heat up. Organized some pictures for viewing on here at a later date.
Here is the next couple of chapters of "Fire In The Euchiniko"
Here is the next couple of chapters of "Fire In The Euchiniko"
Chapter 5
A |
S I walked back to camp I pondered over the whole situation. One thing I knew was that we had to make contact with Vanderhoof and we had to have the fire assessed from the air. I felt that it was probably in excess of 300 acres, but with no vantage points it was impossible to tell. In any event during the day it had certainly increased in size and was now much more fire than 14 men could handle in this type of terrain.
When I got back, the tents were up, supper was cooking over an open fire and Alec, good old Alec was just stringing up the copper radio antennae. As that was being completed, I told Moses to have the men eat quickly and as they finished to take them over to where the opposing stream banks were close together and were like a miniature “canyon with three foot banks.
I wanted a dam constructed and it had to be ready before we went to bed. I then hooked the antennae on to the radio, hooked up the batteries and flipped the switch. I thumbed the mike and called, “XLT27, XLT27, Vanderhoof; this is Niko fire portable, over.” On the second try the very welcome voice of our Dispatcher, Corny, replied, “Niko Portable, this is XLT27, read you 5 square, go ahead.” What a relief! The radios in those days were temperamental and often contact was poor at best.
I replied, “XLT27 – Niko portable, Hi Corny take this down please,” pause, then,” tell Georgio I need some one to recce the fire first thing in the morning, it blew up this afternoon and we don’t have any idea of size. Over.”
“Niko portable – Vanderhoof, got that, Georgio is phoning right now, 0800 OK?”
“Vanderhoof – Niko portable, that’s OK, any earlier and the smoke would still be covering everything.”
“Roger Niko portable, what else can we help with and are you OK for the night?”
“ Vanderhoof – Niko, yep we’re all OK, we’re building a dam to increase our water supply and if we have to we’ll all have an all night bath.”
“Roger, Roger, XLT27 standing by.”
“ We’re shutting down at this end Vanderhoof, will be on at 0630.”
“Roger, Niko, goodnight.”
I shut the radio down, strolled over to see how the little dam was coming, saw that they didn’t need any help from me, so went over to the campfire and helped myself to a plate of stew and powdered potatoes and a cup of coffee. With my back against a log I sat down on the ground and quickly ate. As soon as I was finished, I gathered two men from the dam detail and together we set up the Wajax pump. We then strung out 200 feet of firehose back towards the fire, connected a 3-way valve and added two hundred feet more hose to each arm of the “Y”. As soon as the “hose lay” was completed, we fired up the pump and spent the next hour thoroughly soaking a large semicircle around the camp area. I checked the dam site again, we now had a three-foot deep reservoir about eight feet across and extending back upstream another twenty feet before the terrain widened and the water shallowed. The crew had even managed to build a small spillway that would ease the strain on the dam.
I gathered everyone together and told them that if the fire “blew up” in the night, we would restart the pump and wet the area down some more. If it appeared that we were not going to be able to hold the fire, we would al, get in the water upstream from the dam and wait it out. I said, “Choose a partner, look after each other and stay together!” It was now after 9 PM and everyone was told to get some sleep. No one argued!
Chapter 6
| T |
he night passed without incident. From the snores coming from the tents, at least some of the men slept well. I was awake every couple of hours and twice I got up and walked up to the top of the bank. The fire didn’t appear to be much closer but the night sky was glowing red from the flames in the pines and there was an audible roar in the distance. I checked the dam both times and on my second visit the first trickle was passing over the spillway.
I was sleeping lightly when I heard the first sound of Alec starting the campfire and putting water on to boil for coffee. It was just after four am . I got up, pulled on my boots and as I was debating about waking Moses, he came out of his tent. I said, “We better go check it, we should be able to get pretty close.” Moses just nodded and we left along the route of the day before.
As we walked we could smell the smoke that was lying close to the ground as a result of the night air and a slight breeze that was in our faces. We had gone less than a mile when we started coming on small spot fires and shortly after what appeared to be the edge of the main fire. It was burning fairly quietly, but here and there where there were accumulations of deadfall, flames were visible.
I said, “ OK, it’s almost a half mile closer and that was without wind.” Moses only reply was a quiet grunt. Then after a moment he said, “Camp not safe, maybe we should head out.”
I replied, “Well let’s head back to camp, we’ll have breakfast and decide.”
When we got back to camp, Alec had a breakfast of coffee, bacon, oatmeal and powdered milk all ready. About half the crew were up and moving about. We roused those that were still sleeping and those of us who were already up ate our breakfast, soon followed by the others. It was just after 5:30 am .
As I ate, I weighed the few options that were open to us. We had an hour before we would have any communications and the patrol plane wouldn’t be there for 2 ½ hours. According to my map there was a lake about 12 miles away down in the Euchiniko valley. It had a fishing lodge at the west end. With heavy packs moving through pine forest and spruce in the valley, the lake was a four to six hour hike. The fire was relatively quiet and could be expected to remain that way until about noon .
I knew that the fire was beyond our capability and there was no hope for adequate manpower or heavy machinery for several days.
I gave the order to dismantle the camp and to start getting our packs ready. The radio we would leave until last. Except for what we would need during the day all the food would be left behind. The fuel mixture for the pump we dumped out. But now in place of the food we had 600 pounds of hose.
I turned the radio on about six am and a few minutes later, I heard, “Niko Fire portable, this is XLT27 Vanderhoof. Are you on?” It was Corny, coming on early.
I grabbed the mike and called back, “Yes Vanderhoof, Niko portable here.”
“Niko - Vanderhoof, I’ve got a weather report. Can you copy?”
“Go ahead with your report, Vanderhoof.”
Corny came back with, “ Winds light from the west this morning, switching to NW 15 by mid morning and in early afternoon increasing to 25 from the west. Clear and dry, no chance of rain. Relative humidity for this afternoon expected to be 18 – 20% over the region. Over.”
“Vanderhoof – Niko, got that. Please advise Georgio that we are packed and will be heading down to Tsacha Lake
“Roger that, Niko. Georgio just arrived and heard that. I’ll put him on. Over.”
“Georgio here Niko. The forecast is not good, if you want you can abandon everything, I would like you out of there ASAP.” “Over.”
I responded with, “ Roger that Vanderhoof, we’ll start with the equipment, will at least get it lower into the valley. Perhaps when the patrol plane arrives and checks the fire we will set up the radio and get a situation report.”
“Roger that.” He replied. “ But now you should get moving.”
“Roger, Vanderhoof, Niko Fire off the air.”
By the time this exchange was concluded, most everything was packed. We dismantled the radio and after shifting a couple of items, packed the radio, batteries and antennae all into one pack. Earlier I had told Moses that I would take the Wajax and now I added four rolls of hose.
When everything was ready, I gathered everyone together, told them what the plan was and that we would walk single file and that every hour we would take one five minute break. I decided we would start out on the east side of the draw we had camped in and follow it for a couple of hours to an open spot that showed on the aerial photo. From that spot we would strike out on a compass bearing that would take us on a line 10 degrees east of north. According to my calculations we should hit right on the end of the lake.
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