Grande Prairie Fall 2004

Here are a couple of pictures of the Grande Prairie Regional College that were taken last fall. Not a very high quality educational institution; however, it did make for some pretty nice scenery pictures.

Sunday, Muddy Sunday

This was a fun day near the beginning of the 2005 fire season where we got paid double time to build helipads and relocate 45 gallon barrels full of Jet B fuel for the helicopters. It was a nice and muddy right-of-way that would have to stage quite a few big choppers. It was kind of nice because we had to spend the last 2 days sitting around camp waiting for the fog to go away so we could fly out. It was not such a fun day for that guy stuck in the mud though. Haha sucker!

OH! Look at the Bambi.... Bucket

This is a 212 filling up a 1500 gallon bladder with its bambi bucket. Takes some precision to drop that bucket of water into that bladder without spilling too much. At one point 2 guys had to get right into the bladder with to guide the bucket and lift up the edge of the bladder inorder to limit the amout of water lost. Needless to say they got a little bit wet.

BC Forestfire Fighter Bootcamp

Strike Team X-Ray
When I arrived at the fire in Lytton, I found that the other 4 people from my strike team at the Merrit Boot Camp had been offered positions on crews and they were all working on the one fire. Was never able to work directly with any of them but it was good to talk to them again.
From Left to Right it is Mike P., Scott, Chris B., Chris T. and myself.

Crazy Looking K-MAX

The heavy helicopter, K-MAX. With only enough seating for a pilot this puppy costs a few thousand dollars per hour.

Whoa! Its Windy Here

Here is the Rappel Helicopter comming in to pick up the Rhinos from a long hard day in the black spruce desert (top), and take us to the fire (bottom).

Cool Silhouette Picture in the dust

First Fire in 2005

This is the first fire we went to this summer. We were called out at around 6 pm on a saturday. It was about an hour out of town. As you can see it was getting pretty smokey and dark out. We were there untill close to Midnight when it was too dark to work. There was just a little too much smoke for Mr. Weak Stomach Darren who lost his cookies after.

Charlie Squad!

This is a picture of my 5 man squad from the Fort St. John Rhino Unit Crew. From left to right it is Me, Darren, Ian, Jesse, then Sarah.

Getting Closer!!!

This picture was taken about 5 seconds after the last

Hot Hot Heat

This is a picture of me burning off at the top of Cabin Ridge in Lytton. There were 8 of us lighting the fire with drip torches. 7 of the people were down the hill from me spread out in a diagonal line across the slope so no one would get entrapped by those lighting fires up the hill from them. This sucked for me being at the top because the fire was infront of and below me. To make it worse I had to make sure the inside 10 meters was burned off cleans. Therefore, I had to zig-zag my way across the top. This ment that the fire was getting big and moving really close to me. Hence I was running like mad around trees and across the slope. Needless to sat it was very hot.

Cool Fire Pic From Lytton, BC.