I was in a BLM/Rancher Firefight in Nevada - 05/17/14
As a matter of fact, I've been in a lot of them where rancher and BLM were on the same side, like the one below.
![[Linked Image]](http://bucktrack.com/Smokejumper/Smoke_Jump/Smoke_Jumpers.JPG)
A wildfire in Nevada was heading for a remote ranch where two firefighters had just been seriously burned trying to save it. There was a group of Alaska Smokejumpers and Boise Smokejumpers (both BLM bases) standing by in a nearby Winnemucca, Nevada. For some reason, instead of us parachuting to the fire they sent us by van. When we got close the "civilian" driver saw the flames whipping across the road and decided she wasn't getting paid enough, so one of the jumpers took the wheel and we drove through the narrow flame front and got to the ranch shortly before the fire hit.
The only sensible option was to back fire, so that's what we did. The bright red dot in the extreme lower left in the above photo is one of the fusees we were using to light the backfire. Luckily it worked perfectly and we managed to hold the line. The rancher lady hugged each of us with tears running down her cheeks. The ten of us secured four more miles of fireline that night. We worked that day, all night, and until 8 PM the next day, a 35 hour shift.
We got our butts kicked plenty of times as well. I took the shot below from the plane just before we jumped this Nevada fire. We ended up dragging all our gear into a clearing as the fire burned all around us.
![[Linked Image]](http://bucktrack.com/Smokejumper/Smoke_Jump/Gobbler.jpg)
There are, no doubt, plenty of buffoons in the federal government, but there is also a whole lot of people trying to do a good job for the public. In considering the federal government, it's important not to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Smokejumping
A wildfire in Nevada was heading for a remote ranch where two firefighters had just been seriously burned trying to save it. There was a group of Alaska Smokejumpers and Boise Smokejumpers (both BLM bases) standing by in a nearby Winnemucca, Nevada. For some reason, instead of us parachuting to the fire they sent us by van. When we got close the "civilian" driver saw the flames whipping across the road and decided she wasn't getting paid enough, so one of the jumpers took the wheel and we drove through the narrow flame front and got to the ranch shortly before the fire hit.
The only sensible option was to back fire, so that's what we did. The bright red dot in the extreme lower left in the above photo is one of the fusees we were using to light the backfire. Luckily it worked perfectly and we managed to hold the line. The rancher lady hugged each of us with tears running down her cheeks. The ten of us secured four more miles of fireline that night. We worked that day, all night, and until 8 PM the next day, a 35 hour shift.
We got our butts kicked plenty of times as well. I took the shot below from the plane just before we jumped this Nevada fire. We ended up dragging all our gear into a clearing as the fire burned all around us.
There are, no doubt, plenty of buffoons in the federal government, but there is also a whole lot of people trying to do a good job for the public. In considering the federal government, it's important not to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Smokejumping
