July 6. Dispatched to Souther California. Spent the day traveling and anticipating.

July 7. Gap Fire. We got redirected once in So Cal. Santa Barbara bound. A couple of the guys got to see the Pacific for the first time. One Hotshot saw the ocean for the first time.

We arrived late to the fire line. Put in some hose and mopped an edge of the fire that had gotten hot the day before. Lots of houses in some really bad spots.

July 3-5. Wind blowing into the fire nicely.

July 3-5. Fire picked up a little but the rains never let it get any bigger then this.

July 3-5. Long Fire Use. Burning down to the road.

July 3-5. Long Fire. The whole crew is together again. This shoot is of us bringing the fire to the road before we left for the night.

July 3-5. Long Fire Use. We got approval to fire use the Long Fire. For most of us this is our first fire use. Fire use is different from a controlled burn in that you might put some fire on the ground to corral the fire and keep it controlled. However, mostly as a crew member you just watch it and check for spot fires. Easy work. The district ranger wanted the fire well documented so I got to be the official photographer. Since we didn't have much to do I hiked around getting pictures of flame lengths and the lighting tree.

July 2-3. Long Fire Use. On the second we got dispatched to the Silver Fire but got canceled. On the third we got dispatched to two separate fires. One squad went to the Water Fire. While my squad went to the Long Fire. When we arrived the fire was scouted out and determined to be a lighting strike. This time of year is monsoonal rains in New Mexico. That creates a great opportunity for a fire use fire. To use a fire instead of suppressing it takes approval from high up in the Forest Service so we spent the day watching the fire. Also we did a little burning to keep the fire in check. Since the location is close to our base we spent the night in the barracks while the other squad got rained on all night.

Picture is of Dewey joking around with some safety glasses he found on the side of the road.

June 29-July 1. Rest and Relaxation. Went to Flagstaff. Had a good old time. Only damper was the news articles about two helicopters that collided during medical evacuations in Flagstaff. One of the six people that died was a Hotshot who was being flown to a hospital for an allergic reaction.

June 28. We spent the next couple days moping up different edges of the fire. Today we got released for paid days off. This picture is of the sun set from fire base camp which was a high school.

June 26. Big Matt walking the road that was burned off of.

June 26. We ended up griding in the green most of the day for spot fires. Sounds like the crews doing the burning today had some good action.

June 26. The column growing as the burnout meets the main fire. This area of NM near Albuquerque had burned earlier in the season. The fire next to this was the Torigo Fire and it consumed numerous homes.

June 26. Another picture as we zoomed by the burnout.

June 26. Big Springs Fire. On the 25th we staged in Ruidoso. When we arrived on the Big Springs fire several hotshot crews had already been working for several days. They were in the middle of a burnout and Gila was the odd man out. My squad staged in our trucks for spot fires off a road while the other squad IA's some 20 spot fires that had just started. This picture is from the buggy as we patrolled the line.

June 24. Mop-up on the Diablo Fire. Ended up 80 acres. Found out today in the news that a guy got eaten by a mountain lion in Silver City a mile from were we had been snagging the road to the Gila Cliff Dwellings. First reported kill in NM 37 years.

June 23 Diablo Fire. In route to the fire we got a mention on a local Ruidoso radio station. Something about Gila Hotshots going to protect homes. On the way our buggy broke down with about a mile to get to the fire. The serpentine belt stripped off and cut the wire to the fan clutch. The buggy kept over heating but Brian our squad leader was able to limp into the fire by coasting down the mountain with the engine off. This picture is a long expose of our mop-up that went till around midnight.

June 22. Jesse working with the diggers. I think he's trying to trade his Pulaski for my saw. Not going to happen.

June 22. Dropping slurry.

June 22. Another slop over. Picked up by air tankers we moved in and finished it off. Some of the drops were so low to the ground that they tore brush out with the slurry. I wouldn't want to be anywhere near that.

June 22. Close up of our Charlie Brown Christmas cactus of coffee mugs.

June 22. Hotshots love their coffee. Morning cowboy coffee made on my camp stove.

June 21. Alex ran the squad as a fire fighter 1 trainee. Rich is burning out with a fuse while the holding crew stomps out the grass and swats it out with branches. A much faster technique then putting in hand line.

June 21. Bonnie Fire. Located on BLM land near the Lincoln some 27000 acres burned. Today we burned out some line and a road to stop a slop over from the day before. I took this picture as we hiked in.

June 20. Andy and Brian showing off some elk sheads they found shortly before we few out.

June 20. Long exposure of the bone piles burning up in the dim light. I had to buy a new camera to replace the one I broke recently. I'm still getting used to it. The pictures don't seem as sharp and the high lights tend to blow out more then my old Canon's did.

June 20. In the morning we eat MRE's and moped up the fire 100%. When we few out no heat was left in the ground.

June 19. Peak Fire. Totaled 1.5 acres and was started by lighting. The whole crew was brought in so that the fire could be buttoned up in a day. More cost effective for the forest to do it that way and it leaves us available for other fires. We worked into the night to open up the hot spots and bone pile heavy fuels.

June 19. Peak Fire. Initial Attack. After being release from Dipping Springs we headed to a heli spot to be flown into the Peak fire. Located in the Lincon Wilderness area. The pilot was great and flew us around the fire so we could get a good look before hiking in.

June 18. Bubba getting ready to fly out at the end of the day.

June 18. Steep and nasty country. One of our sawyers Jesse twisted his ankle fairly bad and choose to be flown off the hill to see a physician. I watched it happen... I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often considering the weight we carry and the terrain we work in. He was back to work the next day and carrying a saw again after just a few days. I think I fell today at least a dozen times myself.

June 18. Nothing like taking in the view from a mountain top that you didn't have to climb to. Feels like cheating a bit but the view is the same.

June 18. Dewey goofing around as we wait for the rest of the crew to fly in.

June 18. Heli ride. One last edge of the fire remained. Our line from the 17th didn't need to be burned so we few the crew to a mountain top to mop up the last of the Dripping Springs fire.

June 17. In town getting dinner at a museum set up as fire our base camp. Nice sun set from the parking lot.

June 17. The column we saw on the 15th pushed the fire to 2000 acres. In case the fire continued to push we put in line on the White Sands missile range. Not my favorite practice. Last year on the Range 9 fire at Fort Hachucha we had unexploded ordinance going off during a burnout... This picture is during lunch when all the crews working that line had coolers full of iced water brought out on ATV's. I think the temps hit 103.

June 16. Let the mop-up show begin.

June 15. After the completion of our burn the fire picked up on the back side of the mountain range giving us a nice show. The biggest column we've seen yet this season.

June 15. Ended the burn by meeting Silver City IHC's who brought fire to us.

June 15. The property owners home that we protected with the burnout. You can see a Forest Service engine doing structure protection.

June 15. Lots of line holding in my future. Saw teams don't often get to burn. They need us for spot fires. Notice how we space out on the line and look into the green.

June 15. The Burnout continues... Notice the homes in the back ground. Nice olympic size pools!

June 15. And the Burnout begins. Smokey Bear IHC is burning out in the opposite direction as Gila IHC. Fairly fast paced burnout since the fuel is light (grass).

June 15. Keeping our heads up for increased fire behavior. Its time to start burning the line!

June 15. View of the fire in the early morning just before the burn out. Minimal activity but the temps hit 105 degrees mid day with single digit RH's. What looks calm now will not be soon.

June 15. We worked with Smokey Bear Hotshots. So far one of the best hotshot crews I've worked with. This pictures is of the diggers tying in with Smokey Bear IHC.

June 15. Dripping Spring Fire. Burnout operations. With homes at risk our goal was to stop the fire early even if we had to burn off private property. With the owners permission we put line in around the property tied into a road then lit off.This picture is of the diggers working towards the end of the fire line.

June 14. Dripping Springs Fire. After our snagging project we headed back to Negrito for our days off. About 7pm we got dispatched to a fire in Las Cruses NM. We spent the night driving and arrived around midnight and bedded down. Rarely do crews travel all night. The reason we did is the risk to private homes boarding the BLM land that was burning. This picture is of the fire in the morning.

June 13. Snag falling. After being released from the Kneeling Nun fire we got some project work near Silver City on the road that leads to the Gila Cliff Dwellings. Fun project work. All we had to do was drop big dead trees that could hit the road if they fell.

June 12. Kneeling Nun Fire. We stayed on the Kneeling Nun for three days. The fire was pretty much under control when we arrived. We put in a small chunk of hot line and mopped up for a few days. Finally worked with an Americorps NCCC fire crew. Unfortunately they aren't the Colorado crew I was on. The Americorps crew was based out of Cali. Erin and I talked to them about being a hotshot a little and tried to recruit one of them that our over head noticed as a potential hotshot.

June 10. Kneeling Nun Fire. Well we've been sitting around Negrito and working for the last week. Matter of fact all the hotshots in the region have been around their respective bases. Today we left for an 88 acre fire outside of Silver City, NM. This fire came just in time to keep the crew moral from slipping. This picture is of me and Rich in the buggies on route to the fire.