Red 26

I'm back from Red 26- it was a 2 hectare fire about 15 miles north of Bak Lake started by lightning. We got dispatched on Wednesday to a smoke report near Sandy Lake (northern fly in native reserve). As soon as we lifted off we saw 2 smoke columns- neither of them had been called in yet. We did fire reports for both of them- Red 26 (2 ha) 1 km hose lay to the fire through a swap, Red 27 (15 ha) 1 km hose lay to the fire up a rock cliff and then continued up to Sandy Lake. Red 28 was 20 hectares but it wasn't in a zone that we action so it was called a BOB (being observed) fire. By the next day it was 120 ha so now they have started putting crews on it. By then we'd been flying for an hour and a half so we had to set down in Sandy Lake to refuel and then we were instructed to go back to Red 26 as a second crew in. The hose lay to the fire was through a swamp where you had to hop from pile of mud to pile of mud- if you misjudged you sunk up to your hips in sludgy swamp water. New meaning to the word 'soaker'. The black flies were relentless- and we saw a bear twice when we were up at the fire but luckily he stayed away from our campsite. By the time I had gotten to the fire (after cutting helipads) it had been killed by the water bombers so there wasn't much left. We got pulled off Sunday morning- good thing because we got about 40 mm of rain last night. Glad I wasn't in the bush for that!

A is Bak Lake, B is Sandy Lake

Refueling H-36 in Sandy Lake My crew member's knee brace came today!!! That means he can join us and we're a full crew- good if there are any out of district/ province dispatches. With all the rain we're pretty sunk for fires for a while- the far north may still have decent numbers though. Missing everyone- I hear it's beautiful down south. <3

McKenzie Island!

Just had 2 days off, spent them on McKenzie Island!! After a week of rain/ snow/ freezing temperatures and windddd, we got 2 BEAUTIFUL days! Gorgeous. My crew leader lives out there- it's an island about across from Cochenour. There's a person ferry that goes to and from the island. You can get cars there on the winter roads, other wise it's boat access only. 125 people live on the island, there aren't any stores or businesses there. Real estate is really expensive in Red Lake because of the mines, but the island is a little more affordable. There are a bunch of fire people who live on the island and boat to work every day. I got to shoot a gun for the first time!! It was so cool :D I asked what kind it was 5 times but I still don't remember.. I know it was a shotgun- a 12 gauge. My first time I hit 3 targets in 3 shots- a natural. It had pretty good kick back and it was LOUD. We also went fishing- I bought my fishing license. A guy on my crew caught a walleye but I didn't catch anything. Then we went back to my crew leaders house and had an amaaazing BBQ dinner. I even tried a deer burger- my crew leader shot the deer in the winter. Everyone talks about how good game meat is and one of the main reasons I don't eat meat is because the animals are kept in little cages and aren't treated well while they're living. Game seems a lot more humane so I figured I'd try it out. I'm glad I tried it because it's been about 10 years since I've eaten meat and maybe I'd changed my mind. Nope- I'm not missing out on anything great... it tasted alright but I didn't like the texture. I'm good with my veggie burgers :) We had a campfire at night and played darts- I can't aim darts like I can aim guns apparently though, got beat quite badly. I'm hoping the weather stays like this and we dry out... crews are starting to come back from out East so hopefully we're out next!

Crew member and crew leader playing darts.

Brewski, crew leader's dog <3

Red 18

Had my first fire of the season on Wednesday- Friday! We got dispatched at 230 in the afternoon on Wednesday, from the air it looked pretty good- my crew leader scouted it as 0.1 hectares with a 1000ft pumping distance (from water to the fire) and even commented "the walk doesn't look to bad". Wroonngggg. Ended up being 3000ft through alder bushes and swamp haha. It took us a bit to get hose to the fire and I got to see some decent fire behavior! Trees torching off which I love the sound of! Once we got the fire wrapped it was easy going. We stayed 2 nights in the bush (swamp).. I had a really good time. Got to do a lot of cutting and more experience on the saw which is always a good thing. It was a lightning fire- from the day before. Our indicies were really high but we just got POURED on today!! Think that'll put us back in low hazard for a while. I've got 4 days off- thinking about going to Kenora or Winnipeg for a night or two... don't know what to do with myself for 4 days! Hoping we bounce back to high indicies quickly!

All trained up!

I've spent the last 2 weeks in classrooms, various courses. The first week was my S200 course (crew boss course) at Vedette Lake which is Fort Frances' forward attack base. It felt weird to be back there, but it's a beautiful spot for the course. We were in the sauna every night and I made it in the lake twice. (It was freeeezing). I got to see a lot of the people I have met on fires for the past 2 summers, which was nice to catch up. I really enjoyed the course as well. We went more in depth with indicies, what they mean and what they predict. More about the weather and how to read weather maps, and how to tell whats going on with the weather from looking at clouds and the wind. We also learned how to read and use a GPS (as a crew boss I carry one now), how to convert basemaps and block numbers to eastings and northings. I learned about that stuff last year with my crew leader but it was a good reminder. We also talked about our responsibilities on the fireline and on an initial attack. Crew boss is responsible mostly for nozzling the initial line and ensuring the crew members know where the escape routes and safety zones are. After the S200 I went to Dryden for Occupational Health and Safety Supervisor course... since I'm a crew boss I'm considered a supervisor so I took this course to find out all the things I could potentially be liable for. It was only a day but it felt like I was there forever. I didn't enjoy that course as much, SO boring. It's pretty hard to make Health and Safety an interesting presentation. Then Thursday and Friday of this week I was doing Standard First Aid re certification on base. That was a little better than the Occupational Health and Safety course but not by much. I'm so glad to be done with all the classroom learning. Next week we're at the forward attack base Monday to Friday. It's called Bak Lake- I haven't been there yet but I've heard it's nice. We had a bit of rain last week but our indicies are slowly climbing so maybe we'll be dispatched to a fire from there. Usually that's where they cover alerts for the Far North regions- Pikangikum, Sandy Lake, Deer Lake etc. We've had 9 fires so far, mostly in Pikangikum a few weeks ago there were about 7 in a weekend- all human caused. I've got the weekend off and it's beautiful out!! I did laundry and some errands today and might be going golfing tomorrow. Tonight is the wedding social for one of our techs and everyone on base (and probably in town) is going. I'm looking forward to that, should be a good time. Happy early mothers day to the best mom and grandma in the world! <3 Love you both. And to all the other mothers out there. You're amazing.

I Love Red Lake

So I've been here for almost 2 weeks now... and I LOVE it here. The people are great, it's a very different vibe than the last 2 summers in Fort. The town is beautiful, and there seems to be a force field for bad weather. These huge systems are coming straight towards up and then they just divide and completely miss Red Lake. While Southern Ontario and even lots of Northern Ontario have been getting snow, rain and hail we've been sunshine and beautiful weather! Last week I also go promoted to a crew boss.. so now I have a new crew. At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to be a crew boss but I accepted. Since the turn over rate is higher here, people move up the crew system a lot faster so a 3rd year crew boss (like me) isn't uncommon. I went out chainsawing for my first time this last summer... I was nervous at first getting back at it but it came back to me pretty quick. We've also been doing some pump set ups, trying to remember everything I've learned the last 2 years. We've got about 1/2 the crews here, and the rest will be filtering in next week. The bunks have been do-able but I imagine it's going to get pretty hectic when everyone gets here. I go to the SP-200 course next Monday until Saturday. It's the crew you have to take to become a crew boss. I'm really looking forward to it, it'll be a lot of good learning about fire behavior and how to scout fires. It's at Vedette Lake FAB (forward attack base) which is in Fort Frances- not a bad place to spend a week. We've got 10 people going from Red Lake, a good group of people. I might head into Fort for a night to say hi to everyone. We haven't had any fires yet but Kenora has had about 25 and Fort and Dryden have had a few. The indicies (dryness of the trees/ ground) are really high for this time of year and receptive to lightning. At this rate we're in for another summer like last year but it's always so hard to know. We could have a whole bunch of rain and end up getting no fires all summer- you never know!! Hope all the snow and crazy weather has stopped at home. <3

Red Lake- Day 1

Well, I made the drive! It went faster than I thought surprisingly. Took me about 24 hours driving time.
Its COLD up here, much colder than home. Although today it got sunny and nice out during the day.
The bunkhouses are about what I expected. My room is tiny; 2 beds, 2 little nightstands and 1 cupboard. I share a bathroom with 3 others (when others get here). There's only 1 other girl here right now (warehouse girl) but she's in another pod. There's ONE kitchen for all of us.. About 35 people- mostly guys. I can only imagine what it'll look like in a month. Hopefully its a really busy summer and I'm not here very often! Then there's a TV/pool/shuffleboard/foozeball/cards/game room (wicked!) which I'm sure will be rowdy soon enough.
My crew seems good so far!! My crew leader has been a fire tech for the last few years but was missing action on the fire line so he's back- that means he'll have a lot of knowledge and hopefully get us some sweet gigs on fires! My crew boss I met 2 years ago in BC and I worked with his brother. He's really laid back and fun so I was pumped when I heard I was on his crew. And then the other crew member is from sioux lookout, its his 2nd year working fire.
Today was my first day. We wheeled barrels of gas around "the boneyard" (a yard with a bunch of stuff in it). It feels good to be back at work, no easing in, just straight into manual labour. :)
The base is right on the lake it is GORGEOUS!! Can't wait for it to get warm!
I got a tour of Red Lake- its actually bigger than I was expecting. I told that someone today and they laughed- its really not big so what was I expecting?! Population is 4500.. About half of fort frances. A lot of the population are miners, there's a huge gold mine up here. Since miners make a lot of money, it apparently makes rental houses really expensive. Pretty standard pricing compared to Southern Ontario but for the North its expensive.
After work today I went with all the guys from the bunks to play road hockey! It was awesome. They've got a great paved court in Balmertown. (Which is about 5km away- has a few other restaurants/ stores).
Looking forward to the rest of the week- hover exit training tomorrow!
(Heard it was beautiful at home today- hope everyone enjoyed the heat!)

Hi Ho, Hi Ho... back to work

I've been home for about a week, and in another week I'm back off to Northern Ontario for my job. I'm doing forest fire fighting again, but I'm going to be based in Red Lake this summer instead of Fort Frances. I was looking for a change of scenery and I've heard a lot of good things about Red. My buddy from Fort Frances also got hired there so we'll be sharing a room in the bunkhouses. Red Lake, unlike Fort, has bunkhouses were all the fire rangers live for the summer. I've got my fingers crossed for a summer like last so I won't actually be spending much time on base!

I'm not looking forward to the drive... it's SO long, it always seems like I'm never going to make it. But once you're there it's so worth it, can't wait to be back.

The fire season is already in full swing, Kenora has already had 13 fires! (Red Lake is still at 0 haha) but it's early so you never know what's going to happen.



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