Time for some needed recovery.

The crew is home for 2 days of R&R. We will go available for national response on our days off starting Friday June 27th. We anticipate that we will get an order by Friday for somewhere in Northern California with all the lightning fires currently going and expected dry lightning storms on the way. The crew cut some serious line in extreme heat, steepness and exposure to Poison Oak during this assignment. The brush was at times 15 to 20 ft tall. Some handline was cut to hold future firing operations and needed to be 40ft wide. For many crews including us, the Indians Fire put our abilities to test as the first large fire of the season. Many crews endured injuries (mostly heat and Poison Oak) and some new folks decided this was not the job for them. Below are some shots of the fire and crew at work:

Squad Boss Jamie Miller briefs the crew for today's assignment and weather forecast as part of her task in completing her Crew Boss task book.

Driving into the Indians Fire.

The brush was so tall and thick (Even in the burn), we had to cut tunnels (P-line) to move ahead of other hotshot crews to fine the fires edge and start cutting line. This procedure is know as "Leap Frog". As one crew ties into another crews handline, they take a leap ahead of that crew to start a new piece of handline.

Each day the fire seem to blow-up at the heat of the day.

Crew off loading from flying in to helibase after spiking out.

The crew brushing a road as a back up line in case the handline put in (40 ft) for the firing operation does not hold.