Piute as we drive in from Lake Isabella.
Firring out a corner to have clean burn (black line) along a holding road.
Monitoring the firing operation.
Crew cutting "Hot Line" on a piece that slopped over a road.
Evening shot if the Piute Fire. A prelude to the next day's blow-up.
The Blow up. Three separate Divisions lost their corners. An unexpected wind shift cause the fire to spot across containment lines as well as threaten those trying to put in handline as the fire shifted towards them with the wind. This caused our crew to abandon a piece of in-direct line (handline in the green ahead of the main fire) due to the lack of Safety Zones and the smoke column from the 3 Divisions laying over us.
The next day the crew was able to re-insert and complete the in-direct handline. Below is a shot across canyon of that in-direct handline.
The crew hikes into their work area to cut some direct handline with Squad Boss Tim Kraling in the lead.
Tree torching is common but poses problems as they send embers across the line that could start spot fires below the crew.
Lookout posted watching the fire behavior, weather and looking for spot fires that may threaten the crew.
A spot fire takes off from a torching tree. A small squad is called back to deal with it as the crew continues with the handline progression.
The small squad works with a Kaman K-Max helicopter to cool off the spot fire edge as the squad cut handline around it.
The crew has finished their tour and is waiting for their ride out of the spike camp.
Kern County Fire Helitack crew 408 gives the crew their pre-flight safety briefing.
Loading the crew up on Kern County helicopter 408. 
Enjoying the flight out and thinking about going home for a couple of days. 
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