Mr. is local Search and Rescue and they are running the Communications Center at the Rawhide fire 40 miles north of me. He was on radio shift tonight so he took me along. This is FASCINATING stuff. Base camp is in a pasture with no shade for miles but lots of prickly pear cactus. The sheer magnitude of inter-agency cooperation is amazing. We have city, county, Park Service, Forest Service, Hot Shot crews, fire crews from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota,a Chippewa crew and I don't know who all.

These people are working 13 hour shifts with shovels, pick-axes and a few pumper trucks with very long hoses. They are exhausted and the fire is only 30% contained. There are 2 Bell Ranger helicopters with collapsible 250 gal. water tanks dumping all during daylight as long as the wind is not too bad. Wind today was gusting to almost 30 MPH and they were still flying. They fly through the smoke, get as close to the ground as they dare and SPLOOOSH!!! Round trip to the water bin is about 5 mins. No large lake nearby so they have set up a huge tank. Didn't get to see that or the choppers up close, but next time we go up I will. Next time he's also going to take me to the back side of the mountain so I can see the biggest part of the fire and watch the choppers dump water.

There are 120 fire fighters, 4 Hot Shot crews plus support. I'd guess 175-200 people altogether and the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) has paid a mobile caterer to set up in the pasture. Amazing set up! 5 fifth wheel trailers set end to end in a T formation--complete commercial kitchen, prep/clean up area, storage area, and serving line. There is even an 8' long propane brill. Dinner tonight was fried potates, corn, steak, shrimp, salad bar and cheese cake. Incredible food for in the middle of a pasture in the boonies. One of the trailers has a walk in cooler and there is a refrigerator truck on site running from a generator. The amount of fuel used every day for all the generators, lights, etc. must be staggering.

Caterer is getting paid $20US per person per day......sounds damn cheap to me for what must be a $500,000.00 set up. Each of the 5th wheels must have a full ton truck to pull it. The set up is wonderfully efficient. You can tell that a Real Cook designed it. Got to talk to him too. He gets most of his food directly from the wholesalers and by-passes the retail outlets. I would volunteer to go up and cook, but with the injury/liability issue, I can't. I would LOVE to do this all summer. Wheee, would I be tired. (Actually, I just want the kitchen. I could park it in the drive and build dog trots. I don't think my banker would understand why I need a half million dollar loan.....)

And, this is a 'relatively small' fire even though it's been listed as a Large Incident. Only about 250 acres total. Not a patch on the 36,600 acre one in Montana. They hope to have it contained in 4-5 more days. Even though it is on Federal (BLM) land it has not yet been listed as an official Federal Fire. If it does go Federal, the SAR people and lots of other volunteers will get paid, and the fire fighters pay will go up. It's easily possible to take home $1500/week at a Federal Fire, but they earn their money.

There are shower facilities (if they are not too tired to use them), porta potties, and the crews sleep in little one man dome tents. There are these way cool 8 sided steel frame canvas tents that belong to the Rocky Mountain Fire District. They attach to the frames with velcro and have REAL hinged doors for the Command Tents. I lust after one.......got a smoke vent, windows, and everything. No way are these things going to come down. Well, maybe in a tornado/hurricane......

Pics will be taken if I manage to get back up before the fire is out and base camp gone. Can you tell I was fascinated????