Aspen Fire Sierra National Forest July 2013

[Aaronw]

Much of the tactical planning occurs over the hood of a truck. Here is a meeting of the Division Supervisor and various overhead on Division F.

 

 

[Aaronw]

Line of engines leaving for the evening

 

 

[Aaronw]

Another hazard of driving through a forest fire. Headed into camp one night a large snag came down blocking the road. It was short work for 25 hungry firefighters.

 

 

[Aaronw]

On our last shift the strike team put in three hose lays using a combined total of more than 20,000 feet of hose, 6 folda-tanks and 5 portable pumps.

 

The supplies dropped off at Drop Point 7 to complete the hose lays.

[Aaronw]

The longest hoselay was put in by two of the engine crews with the assistance of a Kern County Dozer who offered to haul the pump, fuel and hose up the hill for them. This hoselay extended over 7000 feet to a lake where the portable pump was placed to supply water. 

 

 

[Aaronw]

Some of the firefighters with the dozer operator (black helmet).

 

 

[johndanger]

Excellent pictures. Really fascinated with these incidents since I read about Esperanza. 

[FiveAlarmPhotography]

Awesome coverage and photos!

[Fire28]

Im curious do they always buy new hose for these fires? I always wondered how long some of these hose lays were? How big is the river pump to be able to pump through 7k ft of hose?

[Aaronw]

No they don't buy all new hose every time, but it does come from large regional caches where it is cleaned, tested and repackaged after use so even much of the used hose looks new when they are done with it.

 

I have received hose that has obviously been used, but a good amount of it is new. I couldn't even start to guess how much new hose is purchased each year by these caches, but I'm sure it is in the millions of feet realm.

 

The standard portable pump is the Pacific Marine (now Wajax) Mark 3, a 60 gpm @ 150 psi four stage high pressure pump that weighs about 60 lbs. At low pressures they can move about 100 gpm and have a maximum pressure of 380 psi but only move about 10 gpm at that pressure. That may not sound like much of a pump but these long hose lays are primarily for mop up, not direct firefighting. They are also frequently used in series or parallel to boost performance.

 

When greater volume is required these pumps are still useful to keep the folda-tanks full for engines to pump from. We had eight 1000 gallon folda-tanks at 4 water points being filled with these pumps to keep the engines and water tenders filled, just on our division.  

 

The hose lays we put in were placed along dozer indirect lines in preparation for a potential firing operation if the direct attack fails (as it has repeatedly done due to spot fires up to 1/2 mile in front of the fire). The 7000 foot lay only had 200 feet of elevation gain with a pump on one end (the high end, so it would be pumping mostly downhill) and two 1000 gallon folda-tanks at the other in case it needed an engine to support it due to pump failure or need for greater volume. The other hose lays were 3000 feet pumped from a creek by two Mark 3's in parallel (pumps in the middle and only 100 feet of elevation gain) and 3700 feet downhill from an engine with two 1000 gallon folda-tanks supported by water tenders. The trunk lays are 1 1/2" hose with a gated wye and 100 foot 1" lateral hose every 200 feet. 

[Aaronw]

Mark 3 pump and kit. They come with a custom 5 gallon fuel can with a port for the fuel line. A backpack carrier is available for packing the pump into a remote site.

 

The Mark 3 has been around since at least the 1950s and uses a 10hp Rotax 2 stroke engine originally designed for snowmobiles.

 

They are miserable, cantankerous, contraptions, but when they work they do a very good job. They also make a noise to wake the dead and will rattle the fillings out of your teeth.

[firesafe91]

Nice overview of a seldom seen aspect of firefighting. Thanks for posting!

[hank]

Good photos!

tHANKs

[nozzleman]

great photos did you by chance make the fire outside of Las Vegas? Carpenter 1.

[gmuhr]

Great photos!

[Aaronw]

great photos did you by chance make the fire outside of Las Vegas? Carpenter 1.

 

No, but we were initially moved to south zone to fill in behind all the resources sent to the Mountain fire near San Bernardino and the Carpenter fire. That is how we ended up on the Inyo National Forest for their expected lightning. Normally that would have come from one of the other South Zone forests, or the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada.

[rfletch06457]

Great photos and story from the wildfire side of fire fighting--Whole dif world from us others--THANK YOU