Fire and Smoke - Controlled Burn

coldclimb

Well this weekend we had another controlled burn, and as I was finishing up the engineer's training, I got to drive a truck instead of working. So between filling up the 45-pound Fedcos (big waterbags with squirtguns attached) and supplying hoselines, I snapped a few photos. I'll try to cull it down to the best, cause I shot a lot! The whole gallery is available here:
http://www.morffed.com/gallery/8088969_rdNbb

I'll kick things off with some fire!




A crew on a brush truck from Willow keeps an eye on the flanks of the fire.




The drip torch operator goes back for another pass with the holding crew standing by.




The Alaska Division of Forestry came for the fun, and brought their air support with them.




Smugmug is having difficulties right now, so I'm gonna cut this post off here, and post more later. Stay tuned!

coldclimb

The DOF Tanker swung in for a few retardant drops, which are always impressive to watch.




Crews secure the edge of the burn to keep it from getting into other fields.




Smoke builds as we finish up a field and drop over a bluff to burn a hillside below.




These guys get to do all the hard work keeping things under control.




Of course for us at the top of the hill, the burning going on below produces some unpleasantness in the form of hot smoke rolling all around us. How are you supposed to find and extinguish spot fires in these conditions?




So that's the highlights of our controlled burn. It was a long day, but we got to see a bit of fire and have some fun. Hope you all enjoy the pictures!

Azzaro

Hi coldclimb..... When I saw the first picture it didn't look like it was very controlled.
Nice set of pictures thanks for sharing........azzaro

DaddyO

Neat set. Nice work as usual.

coldclimb

Thanks guys! Azzaro: yeah we got some decent flamelengths. We burned in strips so each burn was about twenty feet by the width of the field, and in the middle of each strip it got nice and hot! The edges were pre-burned and had crews standing by in case.

jeffmeyers

Cool series. Good work!