Burn, Baby Burn!

Dear Internet,
   

I’m a real firefighter now! Last week in Eminence, MO I was on my first prescribed burn, and this past week in Cape Girardeau I was on three more prescribed (or Rx) burns and even a wildfire!
   

The first burn was just a tiny little 8-acre patch next to State Highway 19, but it was cool because it was a stand of virgin (i.e. never cut) pine trees that were 200 to 250 years old. The area hadn’t been burned in 50 or 60 years, so the plan is to slowly burn off layers of debris so that the roots can adjust and work their way back underground. Anyway, ours was the first in that series of burns.

It was hot, and I breathed a lot of smoke. Fires are probably a lot nicer when it’s still cold out, but oh well. I got to run the drip torch (basically a canister with a spout to slowly drip gas, which you light on fire) to ignite the fire, which was pretty cool (albeit heavy!).

A drip torch

Last week, I was a team leader in training at Cape Girardeau. I’m considering doing a second year on ERT, so I think Quinn wanted me to get trained for that leadership role. Anyway, the training part was not a big deal, mostly a lot of paperwork.
   

And we did three Rx burns! Over 400 acres altogether, working with the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) guys in some conservation areas. They had us AmeriFolk mostly just monitoring fireline as they ignited it, which was fine with me - it was beautiful out, and we didn’t have to work too hard. The weather was a little wet to be burning, but the MDC guys seemed pleased enough with the result.

The team, looking badass in Nomex (fire resistant gear):
Kendall, Lucas, Sam, and Samuel.

And some various pictures of the Rx burns we did in Cape Girardeau:

I also think it's worth mentioning that while I was watching the fireline one morning, I wrote a poem about how thorns (i.e. the worst plant ever) should burn in a fire. It's based on a poem that Will wrote in the second grade about raccoons, and it goes like this:

 

I hate thorns, thorns I hate

But only I know their true fate.

On a hillside steep and smoky

Is where these thorns will give their last pokey.

See that fire? Holy cow!

Those thorns will burn, and they'll burn now.

And when all is said and done,

The score will be, Thorns: zero and Liz: one.
   

Wednesday of this past week, my teammates Lucas and Samuel and I went scouting a new project with our contact, Bob. We spent the day driving to a glade we’ll work on next week, seeing the housing we’ll stay at (and seeing the Education Team, staying there during their spring break for a retreat! What a cool surprise!), and later blowing some fireline on Russell Mountain.
  

At one point as we were driving through the town of Pilot Knob on the way to some McDonald’s for lunch, we passed a little fire up on the hillside. It didn’t seem to serious and already had some attention, so we drove on to Mickey Dee’s. When we got there, the power was out and the restaurant was closed. So was Sonic. We started to think, maybe this has something to do with the fire we saw... so we drove back. Bob got out to talk to the policeman there, then after a few minutes motioned for us to grab a few backpack leaf blowers and hike up the hill. We were on a wildfire!
   

We quickly grabbed the blowers and got them gassed up and started, hiked up the hill, and blew fireline around the perimeter. It was so smoky, at one point I thought I’d pass out! But I kept hiking up and up and eventually made it to clearer air. It ended up not being a huge deal - only about a quarter of an acre - but lucky that we contained it since there was a house nearby and a lot of blown-down trees just up the hill. The fire department and policeman there thanked us several times and one guy even tried to pay Bob for his time. He pointed to the MDC logo on his shirt and just said, “this is my job.” It was a pretty neat experience.
   

After that we went back to McDonald’s, truly hungry now, but they were still getting everything back on-line. So still no food for us...
   

So now I’m a real firefighter! Of ERT’s three foci (conservation, disaster, and fire), I think disaster might still be my favorite, but fires are certainly fun and adrenaline-y too, and conservation just become therapeutic after the stress of the other two!
  

xoxo,

Liz
   

P.S. One other update: my roommate Kat got a dog!! (Ironic, yes?) Huffey is a stray rescue pup, about one or two years old, and she is the sweetest girl. This is the ideal situation for me. I don’t have to be responsible for a dog (especially since at least five days a week, I can’t be), but I get to play with one! Yay!

Huffey!