| A
blaze inside: how a 'Hotshot' firefighter jumps into
the fire
By Trevor Brasfield
March 20, 2008 | His nose was buried
deep into the dirt while the massive fire burned all
around him, he could feel the heat cooking his left
arm as he lay still and silent on the floor of the forest.
A fire was raging outside of his protective shroud,
and all he could do was listen to the shrieking and
war like sounds that had him engulfed in terror.
The number of wildfires raging across
the United States this year has been significantly less
this year than in 2006 when 89,975 wildfires were reported
to 79,727 this year. According to the National Interagency
Fire Center the amount of acreage burned this year is
less than 2006.
While the amount of structural damage
has increased this year over last, mainly due to the
massive California wildfires that raged throughout Southern
California in October of this year. While these fires
burn across the United States the people called to help
detain these blazes are most commonly referred to as
Hotshots.
They are employed mainly by the United
States Department of Agriculture and private agencies.
While there are over ninety-three crews are employed
by the USDA as of 2003, most of these are based in the
Western United States, but can be deployed all over
the United States.
Nick Sokolik is a 21-year-old college
student who for the past four fire seasons has been
employed by various forest fire organizations. Sokolik
is currently a USDA Hotshot fire fighter based out of
Ogden.
Sokolik began his career as a Hotshot
fire crewmember four years ago from the encouragement
of his high school football coach. He told Sokolik that
it would be great conditioning for the upcoming football
season at Ogden High. His coach was a Hotshot himself
and got the necessary paperwork for Sokolik to take
the written exam. He passed it and the impending physical
fitness test as well. He was then placed in the line
of fire so to speak and was to become a member of his
coach’s Hotshot fire crew.
After high school, Sokolik followed
a friend of his into the private sector of the forest
fire business, which landed him in Idaho for a summer.
“I did not like the private sector so much, the benefits
and pay were much worse than federal.” Sokolik recalled.
His last fire with the private agency
nearly ended in severe tragedy. They were on a ridgeline
about to give up on a fire line they had made when a
tree that they had not cut caught the eye of his boss.
“He grabbed my chainsaw and
ran down to start cutting this tree, it was not a big
tree but the fire was minutes away from over running
us when he started cutting into the tree,” Sokolik recalled.
He started cutting the tree too fast
and did not take the necessary safety precautions, and
when the tree fell; it fell onto his legs pinning him
to the ground. Sokolik and the crew rushed down to help
him and began cutting the tree into pieces because the
tree was too big for them to lift off of him. The crew
was cutting the tree up and the fire was coming closer
to them, the crew so mad at him for putting the crew
into that situation, and that danger (the fire) was
coming closer and closer to them. They freed him from
the tree and the biggest guy in the crew picked him
up and carried him out of there.
“I quit shortly there after,”
Sokolik said.
Part of Sokolik’s current job with
the federal government is to actually cause fires in
order to suppress them. He not only cuts trees down
with his 45 pound chain saw, he also carries a torch
that he lights up and drips fire from the flammable
liquid squirting out the tip.
These are prescribed burns and according
to the United States Forest Service, this is one of
many fire management tools they employ.
“Most people go to prison for
starting forest fires, and I get paid for it, so that
is pretty cool.”
This process specifically is called
back burning and is done when the winds are just right.
The torch that Sokolik carries burns the ground and
the wind moves the flames to the fire coming towards
him, and eventually all the fuel is burned up and the
fire “chokes” and is put out due too lack of oxygen
and fuel to burn.
Another method employed by Sokolik
and the Hotshot crew is one that is the most controversial.
It consists of clear-cutting all the available trees
in an area, digging a line down to the mineral earth
and only allowing the fire to burn what is inside that
line.
Sokolik is also part of an engine
crew, which has a big truck full of water that they
literally drive to the edge of the fire and wet the
fire down with its available cargo. Sokolik runs the
chainsaw for this engine crew and cuts trees down to
help the fire die off, while the other three members
of his crew use the truck and any available tool to
stop the fire from spreading.
When out on a fire there are certain
shifts Hotshots work, sixteen hours on the fire with
eight hours off, for fourteen consecutive days. Then
after completing the two weeks there is one day of R&R.
Sometimes a shower is available to the Hotshots but
mostly a meal and a cot is the only thing waiting for
them at the end of the day.
“I use baby wipes to bathe
in, mostly I use them for my armpits and to keep my
ass from chaffing.”
A hotshot has to keep very good care
of their feet, they get very dirty on the line, there
is dirt, dust, soot, ash, water, and many other creatures
and inconveniences invading their feet, and body for
that matter when they are literally inches from a raging
forest fire.
“Fire fighting is definitely
not for everybody, a lot of times in the private sector
you get young kids who think they have brass balls,
then after one day they come up with excuses like they
have to go home and take care of grandma, or mom, you
know some shit like that.”
The sounds of fighting the fires
is deafening from the constant growl of the chainsaws,
the trees exploding, and the constant roar of the flames.
Sokolik describes it as an earthquake, things shaking
and moving and the constant sounds make for an eerie
scene as well.
“It’s kind of like war you’ve
got burned areas that look like a nuke went off.”
As a firefighter they have to be
constantly aware, they have to know wind patterns, how
fire reacts to certain trees and grasses, and even terrains.
Fire is very unpredictable, as Sokolik found out this
past August Fourth near the Utah border in Southern
Idaho.
“I was working as a lookout
on a ridge for my crew below, my boss has me doing these
things in order to train me to be a crew boss someday.”
The fire was burning on another ridge
nearby and it was heading towards where the crew was.
They were preparing some fire suppression tactics, and
Sokolik was to let them know by radio where the fire
was at and where the winds were. Then all of a sudden
the winds shifted behind him and the fire followed suit.
Now most people would have turned and run, but as he
knew and many others know no one can out run a wild
fire at all. Sokolik radioed to his crew boss and informed
him of where and what was going on. He told Sokolik
to deploy his fire tent, which is a silver fire retardant
tent that looks like a giant silver Twinkie. There are
many have precautions that need to be taken when a person
is about to be overrun by a fire. One main thing is
to remove all the available fuel nearby, like leaves
and grass. So Sokolik dug out everything nearby, he
then dug a hole in the dirt for his nose to go into,
this is done to prevent the hot warm air trapped inside
the tent from burning your lungs and killing you. The
air in the pocket dug into the ground is less hot and
keeps you alive. He did this so he would not breathe
air that would burn and scorch my lungs causing me to
die. He then climbed into the tent and awaited the fire
to burn over him.
“I had to put on a Nomax face
shroud on just like the suit I am required to wear so
as to protect this pretty ass mug of mine.”
Sokolik had a radio nearby that his
boss was giving him instructions as to where the fire
was and to give Sokolik words of advice. Sokolik stayed
in that tent for forty-three minutes. While the fire
raged all around him he could feel the heat and temperature
of the blaze inside of his protective Twinkie, it began
to cook his body from the inside out like a Turkey on
Thanksgiving. Literally Sokolik was inside of an oven,
and he was baking, he could feel the heat on his extremities,
and on the back of his neck were it was exposed from
the protective Nomax material. Even with the heat Sokolik
was enduring inside the tent, the noise the fire was
making was beginning to pay a heavy toll on the psyche.
“ The noise is almost deafening
like an even larger earthquake. I had to give up all
hope of leaving my protective tent and running away,
that is how you die. I laid there motionless listening
to the radio and the sound of the fierce winds in the
center of the fire.”
He felt his left arm cooking with
the intense heat of the fire on top of me. The pain
was almost unbearable, the heat was searing inside much
hotter than any fire he had ever been in. The longest
forty-three minutes of his life came and went. The radio
crackled with his boss’ words telling Sokolik he could
leave the Twinkie, the fire was gone and he was safe.
After leaving the tent Sokolik had nothing more than
an intense sunburn on his body as the extent of his
injuries.
Sokolik’s actions on that day helped
save the lives of his crew and even himself.
This led to him being commemorated
by all those involved with the fire, he was told to
take medical leave, and to go back to school. He has
since cleared his head and believes this upcoming summer
he will be back to fighting fires throughout the west.
He has never told anyone of the actions
he took and the fire he encountered on that August day,
not his family, not his friends. He does not want anyone
he knows to worry about him, and think that his is or
has ever been put into danger.
Time will tell if Sokolik ever goes
back to fighting fires but one thing is for sure of
the more than ninety-three crews of men and women, the
hotshots will definitely be on the job, to help protect
and defend our homes and National Forests from the deadly
flames of a wildfire.
SL
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