Fire Danger: Moderate to Low

I am trying to be like Smokey!

Well fire season is coming to a close, and although I am enjoying myself it will be nice to slow down for a bit. The last time I filled you in I was at a fire house in Camdenton. Well in that week I went on some very big wildfires... including a couple night fires. My most memorable night was spent fighting a small wildfire below a ridge. The fire itself was pretty intense but the craziest thing was watching the arsonists lighting off the ridge above us. Within an hour I watched a fire grow from 2 acres to 75. There were so many fires and not enough people to fight them all. Instead we just saved all the structures and let the land burn. Also, I got to watch people cut down burning snags... I could have joined in but resisted... it was probably for the best ;) It was a week full of long days and early mornings, but talking with grateful homeowners made it worthwhile. Oh and in case anyone is dying to know... yes I did slide down the fire pole!

Night Fire

The last two weeks I have been in Potosi, MO. We spent a couple days doing trail work, but mostly were there to do prescribed burns with the National Forest Service. I went on some pretty big burns, the largest being a 3, 125 acre burn. We had beautiful weather and I got to watch all of the trees grow from buds to leaves and the flowers pop up. It didn't rain at all and the fire danger got higher and higher. Our last burn didn't have favorable wind conditions and that led the the biggest spot fire I had ever seen... over 200 acres. We started that day at 6:30 am and didn't get back to our housing until 12:45 am. Talk about a long exciting day, I will be honest though... I was really glad to finally have a day off this Sunday.

This was a big prescribed burn

Also in Potosi I met someone I aspire to be like... his name was Rob. He owns a farm with a vineyard complete with a wine grotto (cave but grotto sounds cooler). He also makes his own Maple syrup, he built his own log cabin and cut and milled all the lumber for it, and he goes on long canoe trips with no food and lives off the land. I love some of the people I meet in this program.

Last Saturday I did some case management training and am now a certified case manager in Missouri. This means that I can work with families after disasters to put their lives back in order. I don't know how much of that I will be doing but it seems like a really worthwhile endeavor.

Tomorrow I leave for a SEMA (State Emergency Management Agency) in Branson MO. It will be a four day conference and I am one of three people being sent by Americorps St.Louis. I will let you know more about it when I come back.

Enjoy the nice weather