Scott- Actually, a really good friend of mine that I've known and went to school with since kindergarden's dad is half owner of Oregon Woods Forestery, so I guess I kinda had an in. But really they usually have a shortage of fire fighters all over the western US. You apply, have to pass a physical that includes running 2 miles in under 15 minutes (IIRC, it was a while ago) and then attend classes for about a week to get certified.
It's a kick ass job but you work your ass off big time. You work 28 days straight then get 3 days off. You work a minumim 16 hrs a day (unless your waiting in camp to be deployed, in which case you still get paid a minimum 16 hrs to sit
) and can work up to 72 hrs straight with even longer hrs on special occasions. Sometimes they can't get you back in to camp so they drop you supplies (food, drinks, and these weird paper sleeping bags) and you have to live out by the fire in a safety zone. It can be a loooong time between showers when this occurs but it isn't often.
It's really like a war zone because you have Helicopters bringing in and taking out crews, Sky Cranes dropping HUGE buckets of water and bombers dropping fire retardent. It's nuts and really dangerous. It's great though.
Steve- It is, I highly recommend it to everyone.
Hardy- I imagine that you understood everything but "crown fire" and maybe "spotting across the line".
A crown fire is when the fire is in the tree tops. They can go up extremely quick and hot.
Spotting across the line is when the wind carries hot embers across the fire line and starts a new fire in a green zone.
Oh we got to do back burning operations too. Now that's a trip, you dig, doze or use a natural break (water, rock, ect..) to create a fire line. Then when the winds shift back into the the fire you start a forest fire at the line and burn the woods back into the black (already burnt area). It's crazy.
