My son is a Wildland Fire Fighter on a Hot Shot crew out west....he sent this pic yesterday, I thought it was pretty neat. They are staying busy, been in the field almost constantly.

Probably the hardest most dangerous job on the planet. Stay safe.

That looks like the Grand Canyon helitack ship.  





cheers,

He's a brave man.

Tough job....men and women of grit, determination and descipline, simply get it done!

1. Your son is a good man, tell him to be safe.

2. That's a sweet pic.

That job is hardcore but it must also be pretty exciting.

It was hotter than the seventh circle of hell yesterday.  I can't imagine being close to a fire wearing all that gear.

Those fire are way hard, I will stick to structure fires.

Great picture. Brings back memories to this old smoke eater...

Tell him thanks.. We love those guys out here!

That is def a dangerous gig....give him and anyone else that does it a lot of credit.

My dad was a smokejumper, two brothers did hot shot crews, one is a structure FF now.

One might think that but according to several sources it's not in the top ten. Police and firefighter isn't either.

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/efkk45kifl/americas-10-deadliest-jobs-2/

I did it for two years, 1980 and 1981 in California.
Based in Auburn, I went all over the state during fire season.

Biggest fire was one we chased into Mexico just east of San Diego (out by the South Bay Rod and Gun club).
Fought it for 5 days, when it got to Mexico we let it go.

Most awesome fire was out by the Jedediah Smith Redwoods state park.
A couple of dope growers got into a spat over water, one guy set the other guys trailer on fire.
In an area that hadn't burned in over 40 years.
When it was in the 90's and 100's during the day.
And the wind was gusting at 10-20 mph.

We cut hand line for the first two days until we could not cut through the duff on the forest floor (It was a couple feet deep in places).  
That was about the time they brought in the CDF and USFS dozers and started cutting serious fire line.
The hand tool people had to follow the dozers and trench the cut while us chainsaw operators went with the CDF / USFS guys and cut down redwoods and bucked up fallen trees.

On the third day of doing that the winds shifted and the fire went from the forest floor to the treetops.
Trees were going up like matchsticks, some of the treetops were exploding.
First crown fire I had ever seen.

We watched the USFS use a helicopter to drop fire bombs to set a backfire in a big valley in Napa.
Tall dry grass and some scrub brush.
The fire was burning down the hill slowly because of the wind.
At night when the wind died down the helo went in and dropped fire bombs a few miles in.
When the helo was done then we went in along the fire line we had cut during the day and set another backfire using drip torches.
By the time the drip torches got the fire going the helo fires and connected and had grew to the point where the fire started to create its own wind.
The wind sucked our backfire into it, there were mini-"tornadoes" going on inside of the fire.
We could feel the heat of that fire.
It lasted a couple of hours and it did kill that portion of the fire.

Brother in law was on Hot Shot crew for 4 years before getting put full time, your sons got to be one tuff mother fucker. Tell him to keep his socks dry and head on a swivel.

Thanks guys. Yep, he is no wimp, but he will be the first to tell you that as a rookie, the guys around him are truly tough men. He loves it.

Worked on a bunch of hand crews in AK, OR, MT and WA.  Was in damn good shape.  Filled a spot for a week with the Lolo shots and thought I was going to die from the physical stress and lack of sleep.  Much respect to your son.  Man, those were awesome times.  Regular pay, OT, and Hazard pay plus Alaska COLA add up when you don't have to pay for food or lodging.  Saw some of the most amazing country in the west (albeit on fire ) and even at 42, I'd do it again in a heartbeat.  Good, good times!

I have LOTS of respect for the woodland firefighters.I worked in the food service  at several fire camps (Big Timber and Bridger,Montana) and was a 'driver' at others.

Have to give it up to the CalFire Conservation Camps prisoner program too..

They get those guys out a put them to work.. Not only that they get quality training and a chance at an actual respectable job when they get out vs the very few options convicted felons have for work when they get out..  One of the problems why these guys keep with crime is the lack of reasonable paying jobs once they get out.. (I know most don't care about working or being good when they get out, but some do.. And finding work is hard)

One of my friends brothers did 10 years for a few car thefts and drug charges.. He got into the fire camps after a few years and by the time he got out had worked an ungodly amount of time on the fires lines when we had a few nasty fire seasons back to back. He loved every minute of it.

He got out about a year and a half ago and is in the process of going back to work for CalFire last time I talked to him..

I'm a big believer in once you have done your time and are released, you are square with the house. (Non violent / sexual crimes) Sense that's not how things go and it's pretty hard for those guys to get meaningful work I really think th CalFire camps are one of those few things that really seems to make sense..

I'm sure some of the fire guys here have worked with the prisoners, what as your experance?

This.  Stay safe.

My Assistant Chief has.  He has never said anything negative about them.   He isn't a big fan of some of the NA crews.  I don't know the first thing about wildland FF, but apparently there is a "tier system" in place where certain crews that are known to underperform get assigned to the less critical areas.

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

Leave it to a pilot to post that.

And number 3 isn't talking about airline pilots.

My son-in-law is a hot-shot. He's a trapper and construction worker during the off-season. He's tough as nails.

6 years on a shot crew. I have quite a bit of experience working with what we called "con" crews. To be honest, my experience with them was always great. They work, harder then most people in this country and get almost nothing for it (on the best days for me on a fire, working a 16 hour shift with all of it being overtime and getting H pay I could make about 550. Those guys made something around a couple dollars). They are there to learn a trade and get the hell out of those prisons. I know a couple people who work for state fire here in Az, my understanding is that they are all low flight risk criminals who have trustee status in the prisons they live in.

They typically get the shit work, such as cold digs, clearing roads and mop up. They do it well and don't complain. At fire camps they have there own cordoned off areas under guard. We aren't really supposed to speak to them. I once had to fill in for one of there squad bosses when he was injured badly on the division I was working on. (Overhead positions like that were state employees, not prisoners). So my crew supe volunteered me to fill I'm while they brought a replacement out. I worked about 12 hours with them, and when we had a slop over on our line led, them on a 2 mile hotline dig. They were extremely professional and easy to work with.

Cali has a reputation of utilizing the shit out of there con crews. They are cheap for the .gov to use and always available. In AZ they are under funded and aren't doing so well. My understanding is that the guys have a very high rate of success after leaving prison, and many regular crews are willing to hire them out of prison . Its a good setup IMO.

I'm not a fan of convict hand crews or convict camp crews.  At all.

Out of curiosity...why?

Cool Picture!

Good Luck to your son.

I carried a Red Card for ten years, but never deployed out of Florida. Tough going up and down those hills!

Tell him to stay safe and not risk his ass unnecessarily for homes. Also let him know we appreciate it.

I find it repugnant to be expected to work with prisoners that have little to no training led around by babysitters.  Prison camp, you get treated like a fucking prisoner, fuck that.  It's mostly a CAL FIRE thing, and I have issues with CAL FIRE's dangerous ineptness in general

We're having a real bad fire season this year in WA.  Lots of busy fire fighters.

Damn

Lol. Ineptess? Like being of the largest all risk departments in the world? Or a mission statement to keep 90% of fires 10acres or less? Or being a 24 hour resource? Or not having required days off? Or is it the fact we hurt/kill way less people than the fed agencies? Or is it because have inmates that compete with hotshots? Or maybe it's just because everyone talks shit about us and then jumps ship at the drop of a hat to come work for us if presented with the opportunity?

I understand that forest/land management agencies have different objectives than firefighters and have worked alongside many great feds. But don't pretend to be safer or more effective at actual firefighting

I can't really speak about CAL  since I don't know much, but wild land guys don't get 14/2? We got 14/1 and it was murderous.

I worked with CalFire Corrections in 2007 in Yosemite.  I went out as single resource LEO1, security - not by choice - mainly for the OT.  Their squad boss told me I couldn't be armed .  Of course, I was armed.  That's my job.  Besides I saw some crazy shit during my time in the valley.  Those guys, not so crazy.  They were a hand crew, had some sawyers and did a respectable job.  I remember that they kind of slacked during mop up but, really, who doesn't?




cheers,

Haha.  Can't we just agree - that as fucked up as we may be - neither the Feds or CalFire are as straight up fucked up as any typical Texas wildland crew ???




cheers,

sure, I wasn't trying to start too much drama.  I just don't agree with using convicts on fire.  I actually have never fought fire in Texas and can't recall ever seeing a handcrew from Texas

Great guys, but some of their methods are so full of WTF. Seeing a dozer operator fatally burned over is unfortunately one of the more clear memories I have of fighting fire In Texas.

I am pretty sure my son is on 14/2