2. 2009

Crazy Mountain Complex Fire - Circle, Alaska

An engine crew assignment on a portion of a 500,000 acre fire complex in Circle, Alaska. We were on this fire for two weeks, total.
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Some areas of the road were veritable minefields of falling trees. Often, we would pass a car going the other direction and round a corner to find an impassible mass of debris just fallen into the roadway. Here, Danny Clemons clears a tree from the road as its roots continue to burn.
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Some areas of the road were veritable minefields of falling trees. Often, we would pass a car going the other direction and round a corner to find an impassible mass of debris just fallen into the roadway. Here, Danny Clemons clears a tree from the road as its roots continue to burn.

CMSFDCrazy Mountain ComplexFirefightingAlaskaDanny Clemons2009

  • Danny gains some altitude to survey the surrounding scenery.
  • In the distance, a faded orange glow announces another tree torching to the top.
  • Danny takes the fast way down a steep incline.
  • Fallen trees were a typical sight, and our job was primarily to keep the road cleared and open for all the traffic fighting the fire. We cut with our head up, keeping an eye out for the next ones coming down.
  • Danny Clemons makes a cut to clear the road of a fallen spruce.
  • Some areas of the road were veritable minefields of falling trees. Often, we would pass a car going the other direction and round a corner to find an impassible mass of debris just fallen into the roadway. Here, Danny Clemons clears a tree from the road as its roots continue to burn.
  • Danny Clemons bucks up a tree to get it out of the road.
  • Two crews prepare to move out on the fireline for a day's work.
  • A tired firefighter pauses for a bite of food.
  • Our job for this day gave us a bit of time to kill, so John wraps his P-Cord into a more convenient and accessible shape.
  • Danny tops off our container of saw fuel in preparation for still more cutting as the days blur together and fly by.
  • Danny bucks up some logs while John tosses them deeper into the ditch to keep the roadway clear for the locals once we're gone.
  • Danny Clemons tosses a log off the bluff to get it out of the road.
  • John Atwell hucks another log further off the roadway.
  • We happened to be standing by when a hotshot crew needed some water, so we filled fifty fedcos at the airstrip for a helicopter to longline them out to the crew somewhere on the fireline.
  • A helicopter moves in on our water supply for another bucket to drop on hotspots.
  • A chopper stands reflected in the pond we used as water supply as it moves in for another bucket.
  • The chopper moves in for a fresh bucket to haul out and drop on the fire.
  • Its bucket filled, the chopper takes off again back to where it's hot.
  • A camp robber prepares for its getaway with a crumb of MRE wheat bread.
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