May 19th

16C and sunny!
Here is the next part of "It wasn't----"

I shouldered one of the back pumps, debated for a moment between a pulaski tool or a shovel then settled on the pulaski and headed back for the fire.

  I circled around the perimeter of the fire and while some spots were burning vigorously, the lack of wind was a benefit, although I did find the fire was somewhat bigger than I had earlier estimated, as there was a second separate fire approximately the same size as the first; I worked for about a half hour, not making any real progress but temporarily knocking down the larger flare-ups and slowing the spread. During a pause in the chainsaw activity I thought I could hear the D2 so I headed back out. Jerry had made fairly good progress, when I got out to the main road the cat was just a few hundred yards away.

  I turned back and started rolling the log chunks out of the way keeping at it until the ‘cat’ was right behind me.

  I motioned to Jules to stop and I climbed up on one of the tracks, “Most of these trees are too big for your machine.” I shouted. “But keep Jerry with you and you should be able to make some progress. Clear what he cuts first then go back and scrape your guard.” As I started to climb back down I yelled again, “Make sure everything is pushed away from the fire except any logs that have black on them, push them in.”

  This last direction was because operators without fire experience tended to push all the debris into the fire and when corrected would push everything away including wood that may contain live coals.

  I started off ahead of the ‘cat’ and when I caught up to Jerry I said, “Jerry there are actually two fires here, but I want to treat them as one, so I’m going ahead and ribbon out a trail for you to follow, make sure you are far enough ahead of your Dad so you’re not likely to get hit by anything he’s pushing.”

  Climbing over and under the mess of twisted and broken trees while creating a trail that had no kinks or jogs was slow hot work but it was imperative that as the fire spread outward that we left no fingers of windthrow which the fire could follow.

  It took about an hour to go around the perimeter and tie into my starting point. Just as I finished the first pickup truck load of four firefighters George ad picked up in town arrived. They were followed in a few minutes by the remaining six. One of the last passed on the unwelcome news that the last tank truck in town had been sent out of the district to another  fire.

  I gathered the men all together and explained that the only piece of machinery we had was a small ‘cat’ and the chain saw operators would be helping with cutting out a fire guard. Three of the rest would follow behind the ‘cat’ and ensure that mineral soil was exposed as the ‘cat’ progressed and knock down any hot spots, they would utilize a shovel, a pulaski and a back pump as their tools. Three of the remaining five I assigned to help each saw operator for the time being and the last two I sent to the furthest corner of the second fire as it appeared to be the hottest at the moment, they took two back pumps a pulaski and a shovel.

  All of the crew that had been sent out I knew from other fires and for the most part was confident in their ability. With such a small crew, I didn’t feel the need to appoint a foreman and I would carry out that function.