Fire Brigade News
I am writing this article from Bozeman Montana, on our way to Yellowstone. I started noticing (and stopping at) many of the coffee places along the way. Most are small drive through buildings, I love the names, there is of course all the ubiquitous Starbucks, then there was Mountain High, Highway 2 brew, Human Bean, Dutch Process, Mud Hut, Expresso, Jump Start, one was a small log cabin just stating espresso, and my very favorite outside an air force base somewhere in Washington state, the “High Alert” with the building painted in camouflage. I have one more place to try tomorrow morning here in town.
Our big news is that is looks like we are finally going to have our annual BBQ!! A little late, but as they say, better late than never. It will be the Fire Brigade’s 35th anniversary and Frank’s official retirement party. So mark your calendars for July 18th at the State park and come watch the muster games and toast (and maybe “roast” Frank). I have been in touch with the master BBQers and they promise another delicious meal, with one of Holly’s fabulous chocolate cakes for dessert!
Our VFF class is progressing very well, we have such a great group going through it, only a couple more classes and they are done. We are getting geared up for 4 days in Hunter Liggett, for Wildland school, which is the first week end in June.
We ended last month with a record 30 calls for April! We hope it is not an indication of what summer will bring. The Park is to open this Memorial day which will bring more people back to the area.
On June 21st it will be the one year anniversary for the Basin fire, I don’t know where the time went. Most of the hills have new grass which is already turning brown. We seem to have more dramatic changes in the weather, from rain to heat waves with high winds, it appears we have missed a mild spring, much to my dismay. You can still see several areas where the fire came through that are not showing much re-growth.
2 days later….. in Yellowstone now, leaving tomorrow, Old Faithful is still spectacular if running a little behind schedule. It erupts about every 90 minutes now. The buffalo are the coolest most magnificent beasts, some had young calves at their sides, and all of them are pretty much oblivious of all us tourists. No internet in the park so I have to wait until we get to Jackson to send my report off.
Other Brigade things happening: Steve Daus has submitted the finished plan with the final numbers for the grant for clearing that Big Sur was awarded. The grant is for approximately $435,000 for fire clearance for the west side of Highway One. The project will not start until late this year probably, but it is very exciting to have been awarded the grant. The Marathon went off smoothly, we had extra help from our CERT members and auxiliary members. It was good to see Ken Comellos face there, flagging traffic and smiling in spite of getting up at 3:00 in the morning. The extra help is always greatly appreciated! We have one more Ann Simmons team building class in June, then we will have completed them all. At our rescue training last month the rescue team took a hike up the gorge to do a little reconnaissance mission. It has changed quite a bit since last summers fire. The water itself was not that deep but some of our usual ways to get up there have been completely moved or filled in by debris. The pool where we usually get called to for incidents is much shallower now. With the changes in the rocks and the river we discovered it will be even more difficult to carry out a patient. Remember, even though burn season has ended you can still continue with your clearing, 100 feet minimum around your homes.
In Jackson now, saw a grizzly bear on our way out of the park. Sending this off to Jaci now, she will be happy, I am on time!!
Martha Karstens