On the morning of July 31st on the Carr fire, we were patrolling for spots on the southern end of the division we were assigned. The wind was out of the west and the previous nights burn was holding successfully , at around 1400 we were called by our Strike team leader (STEN)to meet with them about a mission for division (DIVS), (in route we heard that division actual was using his drip torch and lighting fire with the dozers that were assigned to the division) we met with our STEN and he told us that our DIVS wanted us to lay hose down hill toward active fire to light off a section of line at the top of the ridge along County line road after discussion with the other engine and the the STEN we concluded that the line was not wide enough to hold and that we did not know what the fire or DIVS were doing below. The fire at this point was flanking toward a drainage to the south as the winds would occasionally surface and increase the fire behavior moving it toward the north closer to the planned operation, the road and dozer line formed a 90 degree angle going north along county line road and to the west along a ridge above the papoose arm of trinity lake. The type 2 crew decided to move closer to the fires edge and construct line indirect in the drainage and wanted us to lay hose after they were done, there was a road below and we told the STEN and DIVS that we would feel a lot safer if we could go direct and lay hose from the bottom, the type 2 crew ended up taking our hose and were approximately 300ft out of 700ft to finish and were chased out of the drainage, that mission was abandoned and we were asked to work with the dozers down below where the DIVS had lit fire. I tied in with the dozer boss and tried to figure out what was wanted of us, I found out at that point that the DIVS was attempting to stay ahead of the fire by lighting off of the dozer line as we had heard on the radio earlier, the dozer boss had stated that he had been working with this DIVS for the past few days and that he had not felt safe with the DIVS actions on previous shifts. During the my discussion with the dozer boss the fire had jumped the dozer line 100 yards to the west of my engine the STEN trainee was scouting it while my engine and the other one were getting in position to attack the spot, the engines started laying hose as I tied in with the division trainee and I asked him what the fire below us was doing, he had told me that the fire was not active below and that we had plenty of time to take care of the spot I turned around to meet with my crew and they were approximately 5 packs into there lay 500ft when DIVS trainee called to abandon the hose lay that it had crossed there trigger point below us, I had found out later that there were no resources below us holding the line along the ridge line that extended to Trinity lake approximately two miles of line. We pulled out of that portion of line back to County line road as the DIVS trainee got accountability for the resources, while the DIVS trainee was finishing up the accountability the DIVS actual was planning to fire from trinity mountain road up toward county line road within a plantation, as I was sitting with DIVS trainee I was able to discuss that I thought that was a bad idea and thankfully the type 2 crew he was asking to perform the burn talked him out of it as this would cause head fire and would create a lot of holding concerns. |