Rookie Fire

*At 5am on the morning of June 2, our entire facility was woken up by the announcement that our fire crew had been anticipating for months.

-"SWIFT, Report to the Dome."-

In our world this is the equivalent of the bell going off at the local fire station. We all jumped out of bed and headed down to dress out and get our buggies loaded. For security reasons, they will not tell us where we are going but we all knew we were headed to the "416 fire" in Durango, Colorado. We had been following the news on the fire for a few days and we knew that it was growing bigger by the hour and it was now threatening structures.

We got dressed in our fire clothes, packed our tents and sleeping bags and loaded everything on our buggies, I wondered how it would be before I would speak to Sallie and the kids again. We have a pre-arranged standing call at 10am each morning and she knew if I didn't call that was her signal we had been dispatched onto a fire.

My entire body was full of adrenaline knowing that we were headed out to a fire (with a buggy that was 100% mechanically sound mind you). The drive down to Durango is typically a 4-5 hour drive but due to road closures from the fire, our drive took 7.5 hours. When we were within 100 miles, we could see the smoke billowing over the San Juan National Forest. The mountains in that part of Colorado are amazing-so majestic and beautiful.

As we got closer and closer to Durango, there were more and more emergency response vehicles on the highway. Hot Shot Crews from as far away as California, Montana, and Oregon, were following the same highways to reach the same destination. It felt like we were a part of some great war-time mobilization where infantry units were being summoned from all corners of the United States to come and fight a common enemy. Over the course of the next 16 days, I would realize just how true that comparison was. As we approached the fire location, ash was falling out of the sky, flames could be seen from miles away-we had no idea that we were getting ready to battle the 5th largest fire in Colorado State history.

As we pulled onto main street in Durango, I was amazed at how beautiful the city is. It was surreal to see the bumper to bumper traffic of fire response vehicles. There were buggies, engines, logistics semis, campers and every other type of vehicle imaginable. As these large caravans of fire vehicles made their way through the town, we were all greeted by residents with cheers and signs. (the residents of Durango and Hermosa would end up being one of the great highlights of my first fire.) It was like being apart of the world's biggest parade.

Base camp for the fire crews was at a ski resort located 10-15 miles north of Durango. The name of the resort-Purgatory. For our entire stay at the camp, I smiled every time I considered the irony that we were fighting a fire while based in "Purgatory!" The resort is not very big and looked like it had just been opened in recent years-it reminded me of the mountain I grew up skiing on-Beaver Mountain. We setup our own tents right under the ski lift-it felt so good to be in the mountains camping.

Forest fires are classified with 5 levels of severity. The small to medium fires typically fall into categories 3-5. The larger fires that require massive amounts of resources fall into categories 1 and 2. When we arrived on the 416 fire it was a level 2. The upgrade from a level 3 to level 2 is pretty significant for a couple of reasons-
a level 2 fire has 500+ firefighters and there is a huge logistical consideration to support that many people. Tent space, bathrooms, showers, food, computers for the Incident Management Team. As we were setting up our tent and camp, the semi-trucks were rolling in one after another with all of the support equipment for the battle that was about to begin. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and got ready to go to bed- we knew we a lot of work ahead of us. Our camp was located 3-5 miles from the fire but as I climbed into my tent to get some sleep you could see the black sky glowing in the distance from the flames of the 3000 degree fire. I took the rain flap off my tent so I could see the stars as I fell asleep. It was one of the best night's sleep I've had in the past 5 months.

I was awoken the next morning by my watch alarm-even though I had slept well 4:50 am hurts. As we lined up to go to breakfast, I was amazed at the transformation that had taken place overnight to base camp. Where there was only a field the night before, there was now a small city. Hundreds of temporary buildings had been put together during the night. There was an entire food are complete with a kitchen and tent to accommodate 500+ people. There were hundreds of ports-potties and huge semis full of bottled water and Powerade. I was proud to see that the caterer was a group called Mormon Lake Lodge-and the food they made us throughout the fire made me even prouder!

As we made our way through base camp, it was hard not to gawk at many of the other fire crews-especially the Hot Shot Crews. As an inmate crew, we're looked at as far inferior to the regular crews (the truth of this view is up for debate). For those of you who have ever seen the movie, "Cool Runnings", I kind of felt like we were the Jamaican Bobsled Team being compared to the German and Swiss teams. We were the Rudys on the fire-the truth is we train both physically and mentally as much as any of the other teams-we just have the stigma of being inmates.

Each morning the Incident Command Team holds a meeting to brief all of the crew supervisors on the fire and to give out assignments. One of the big announcements that came out of the first morning briefings was that in the coming days the fire would be reclassified as a Type I fire-the biggest one. And the funding for the project would be done through FEMA-it was awesome to be involved in a fire of this magnitude for my rookie fire debut!

We anxiously waited at our buggies for our bosses to come back and tell us what our crew assignments would be. We hoped that we would be apart of the initial, direct attack groups that would be on the front lines of the fire. Realistically, we knew we'd be given more of a supportive role where we conduct "indirect attack" on the fire-at least until we could prove to the fire management team that we were a good crew. Our bosses came back to let us know that we had been assigned to the "structures group". One of the reasons why the 416 fire had been moved to a Type 1-2 fire was because it was threatening structures-houses, ranches, resorts, etc. The Structures Team was put together to help protect all of the structures from being damaged by the fire. It was a unique assignment because it added an "urban interface" to wildland firefighting but as we had expected-it was as far away as you could get from the front lines of the fire. 

We were assigned to a beautiful area called Hermosa Creek. Hermosa is full of beautiful mountain homes-many of which are surrounded by beautiful fruit orchards, groves of Aspen and HUGE Ponderosa Pines. When we were first assigned to Hermosa Creek, the fire was 2-3 miles away and entirely on the other side of the mountain. But computer models showed that there was a 30-40% chance that due to wind and dry conditions, the fire would make it into our area and threaten homes.

Even though our assignment wasn't what we wanted, we made the commitment that we would work as if we were on the front lines of the fire. So from 7 am to 8 pm everyday, we built fire line around every home we could. We cut down huge swaths of trees, bushes and grass. We meticulously dug 24" wide fire lines around every house and structure that we could. It was extremely tedious work but we took pride in knowing that if the fire made it down into the canyon-everything we were doing to protect people's homes was going to make a difference. We would make the drive back to camp each night and drive right past the front lines of the fire. You could see the flames on the mountain chewing through the trees like some great monster-and as bad as we wanted to be on those front lines-we knew we had our assignment and we would see it through.

On the morning of the 4th day our bosses told us the computer modeling was now saying that there was a 70% that the fire would make it's way down into the area we were working. This gave us all a greater resolve to do everything we could to protect the homes in the area from the possibility of fire. In the afternoon of that 4th day, the winds changed and the fire made a run that would change everything for us. The wind pushed the fire up of the top of the mountain and for the first time, we had a constant view of our enemy. In the course of an hour, all of the action on the fire, shifted to our side of the mountain. The Chinook helicopters, the 747 jets that were dropping retardant, all the support airplanes-everything was happening right on top of us.

 By the next morning, the computer modeling had the probability of the fire coming into Hermosa Creek at 90%. Instead of us being sent to the front lines-the front lines had been sent to us. We were proud to find out that we were being kept on our structure protection detail with the fire approaching. We worked around the clock to build fire line around the remaining homes. Bulldozers were brought in to build massive fire breaks in the timber-preparing for the oncoming inferno.

At about 3pm the wind picked up to 30mph and it was clear that the fire was going to make a push down the canyon and into the neighborhoods. I was absolutely amazed how fast and furious the wind can move fire. Within only hours, the fire had been moved from the top of the canyon to the bottom and it looked like nothing could stop it. We were now only hundreds of yards away from the fire that just a few days ago had been miles away. The Hot Shot Crews moved in and working side by side we did everything we could to slow that fire down. It was hard not to get distracted by the airshow that was going on above our heads-helicopters and jets were diving out of the sky to drop water and retardant to slow the from flames that were eating up the mountain. I was shocked how intense the heat was despite being hundreds of yards away. It was scary hot. But we all had to focus on our jobs and not let the aircraft or the heat of the oncoming fire distract us. 

The fire was so hot that it was moving through the tree tops-instead of along the ground. As the fire screamed down closer to the houses, the commanders put  their contingency plan in motion. Using our fire lines around the homes as a starting point, the Hot Shots handled the back burning, we stood our ground around the structures putting out any spot fires that were created by the inferno. The fire gave us hell until 10pm and then upvalley winds started and the wall of fire retreated. We were all exhausted but we were so proud as we loaded up our gear-not a single structure had burned. Our lines that just days before had seemed insignificant-had actually saved people's homes.

The next morning as we arrived into Hermosa to begin another day of work, we were greeted by huge crowds of residents. They had lined the streets to cheer us on. By the end of day, we had been given more cookies than you could ever imagine. Little kids would come up and tell us that they wanted to be firefighters-it was really special. The people of Hermosa were absolutely amazing.

We would spend 16 total days fighting the 416 fire. After the fire made it's push into Hermosa Creek it went over the mountain to the Falls Creek where we spent the next week protecting structures. I am so proud to say that not one structure was lost on our shift. 

The people of Durango/Hermosa treated us so well. They would cheer us on with signs every morning and night. Some of them even flashed us things we haven't seen in months. :)

Fire season is officially here and I can't wait to see what other adventures the Fire Gods have in store for the Juniper Valley Swift Crew.

Brandon Stephens, Weld County Jail, Wood Group, Sentenced, 5 Years, Prison, NFL, DRDC, Rifle Correctional Center, Colorado Department of Corrections, Jail, Judge Quammen, Steve Wrenn, Weld County, Executive, Oil, Gas, White Collar, Wood, BYU, Masters Degree, Colorado State University, SWIFT, Firefighter, Wildland, Sawyer, Fire, Inmate, Brandon Stokey, Miracles, Centennial Community Correctional Center, Delta Correctional Center, DRDC, Denver Diagnostic and Reception Center, Felony, Sallie Stephens, Greeley Tribune, Judge Thomas Quammen, DA Steve Wrenn, Weld County Court, Oil & Gas,. Halfway House, Centennial Community Correction Center, CCTC, Felon, 416 Fire, Silver Creek Fire, Spring Fire, Cabin Lake Fire