Post by 204 on Feb 8, 2015 17:03:15 GMT -5
The Tetlin Ridge Assignment was by far my longest and most difficult firefighting operation; it was my first Crew Job too when I was a rookie. It was a weird one. At one point I'd overheard the IC (Incident Commander) talking to someone on the radio; saying that he had finished "speaking to/reassuring the President." I knew why we were here; wildfire started in the mountains and was headed towards an Indian Reservation to the west, but I didn't know we were technically working for the President on this one; still not sure of the particulars because I never asked him about it; didn't sound like it was any of my business. I was just there to follow orders and put out fires; FFT2 is one of the bottom rungs of firefighting; we're the grunt workers.
The next weird part of the assignment began after hiking further into the mountains, high in order to get a good lookout position. It was then that we discovered the hills were filled with rocks; our pulaskis were knarled to the point filing them wasn't getting them sharp anymore. Due to all the rocks we also had several instances of communications failures on our radios, which led to it's own set of difficulties and inconveniences.
We were two weeks in and only a week left when a small team and I stumbled upon something that gave us all the chills: In the middle of the woods we found two large/tall posts. On the posts were chains, and shackles. It creeped us out enough that we radioed it in for more intel; this wasn't mentioned in the debriefing and we usually have a good idea of what to expect when getting flown in. We heard back that they were decades old and nothing to worry about; we're on military land and back in the days of the cold war troops would train here. A few days later we were informed that there was a chance that chemical weapons had been buried in the area; not unlike LSD/PCP; the idea during the cold war was to use these weapons in an experimental capacity to nonviolently deal with hostiles, they disbanded the project though and disposed of the weapons: By burying them here, right under one of the biggest wildfires of 2013. If the tanks got too hot there was a concern that they could blow, and the weaponized narcotics released up into the air and across the fire. So that made us a little edgy for the rest of the week.
It was finally the last day; third week. We were expecting the chopper in the afternoon, but then when things couldn't feel crappier, Inversion sets in, stranding us for the next two days.
Inversion is a side affect of the fire creating it's own weather, usually happens after it's pretty much put out. It's like fog, but mostly smoke. Just thick and white for as far as you can see (less than a couple feet; you can stretch your arm out into the Inversion and not see your hand it's so thick.
That was creepy; felt like a stephen king novel at that point, which was when I got a great idea: Firefighter horror story.
I've seen books and movies about wildland firefighters; saving the day fighting fires, being bad asses; you know, just what we do best haha. But I've never seen a firefighter horror movie or story; and after learning about Inversion, I had the perfect premise.
The book I want to write called "INVERSION" is based on the true story of the Tetlin Ridge Fire, but only based on it; I'm going to make it cooler/scarier.
All the elements for the perfect firefighter horror movie were truly, really there on that assignment; it's just that we didn't have THAT bad of luck; the buried chemical weapons never ignited and mingled with the Inversion; basically what this book will be, is a bringing to life all of the FEARS I and my team all had on that assignment; we were all keenly aware that things could get scary-movie bad any minute. Fortunately we were all helicoptered out of there with no major injuries or PTSD (only one guy had to get evac early on; before Inversion settled in).
The next weird part of the assignment began after hiking further into the mountains, high in order to get a good lookout position. It was then that we discovered the hills were filled with rocks; our pulaskis were knarled to the point filing them wasn't getting them sharp anymore. Due to all the rocks we also had several instances of communications failures on our radios, which led to it's own set of difficulties and inconveniences.
We were two weeks in and only a week left when a small team and I stumbled upon something that gave us all the chills: In the middle of the woods we found two large/tall posts. On the posts were chains, and shackles. It creeped us out enough that we radioed it in for more intel; this wasn't mentioned in the debriefing and we usually have a good idea of what to expect when getting flown in. We heard back that they were decades old and nothing to worry about; we're on military land and back in the days of the cold war troops would train here. A few days later we were informed that there was a chance that chemical weapons had been buried in the area; not unlike LSD/PCP; the idea during the cold war was to use these weapons in an experimental capacity to nonviolently deal with hostiles, they disbanded the project though and disposed of the weapons: By burying them here, right under one of the biggest wildfires of 2013. If the tanks got too hot there was a concern that they could blow, and the weaponized narcotics released up into the air and across the fire. So that made us a little edgy for the rest of the week.
It was finally the last day; third week. We were expecting the chopper in the afternoon, but then when things couldn't feel crappier, Inversion sets in, stranding us for the next two days.
Inversion is a side affect of the fire creating it's own weather, usually happens after it's pretty much put out. It's like fog, but mostly smoke. Just thick and white for as far as you can see (less than a couple feet; you can stretch your arm out into the Inversion and not see your hand it's so thick.
That was creepy; felt like a stephen king novel at that point, which was when I got a great idea: Firefighter horror story.
I've seen books and movies about wildland firefighters; saving the day fighting fires, being bad asses; you know, just what we do best haha. But I've never seen a firefighter horror movie or story; and after learning about Inversion, I had the perfect premise.
The book I want to write called "INVERSION" is based on the true story of the Tetlin Ridge Fire, but only based on it; I'm going to make it cooler/scarier.
All the elements for the perfect firefighter horror movie were truly, really there on that assignment; it's just that we didn't have THAT bad of luck; the buried chemical weapons never ignited and mingled with the Inversion; basically what this book will be, is a bringing to life all of the FEARS I and my team all had on that assignment; we were all keenly aware that things could get scary-movie bad any minute. Fortunately we were all helicoptered out of there with no major injuries or PTSD (only one guy had to get evac early on; before Inversion settled in).
