Fire near Kobuk

Well, it was only a matter of time. 

Fire season is officially here.  Last night, we were put on standby for a fire north of us about 150 miles.  There is a fire that is gaining momentum in the area of Kobuk which is a small village just south of the Brooks Range.  In case you didn’t know, the Brooks is the northernmost mountain range in Alaska.  When you pass this mountain chain you come to what is called the North Slope.  This is where most of our oil comes from but more about that later…I’m getting side tracked as usual!

After we went out of service for the evening, I had maintenance to do on my bird.  Yeah, I know it’s a helicopter but I’ve always called them birds.  I had to change a seal on my engine.  Seems it decided to get leaky on me!  I had my pilot do a ground run this morning so I could do what is called a leak check.  This is done to ensure that the problem has been fixed and not gotten worse.  Everything looked good so my pilot loaded up her bird with gear and passengers and left me sitting high and dry!  I am now on call while they are gone for about a week.  I call this sleeping for dollars!

A plane load of smoke jumpers left yesterday.  They are the initial attack crew for a forest fire up here.  Yes, they parachute out of a perfectly good airplane to go fight fires.

Two more crews showed up after they left, ready for the next call.  The two Fire Bosses that have been stationed here left also.  Late in the evening two very large scooper planes showed up on the ramp.  These two planes can dump about 3000 gallons of water on a fire in one load.  They also have the capability to skim the water in a river or lake to replenish for their next load.  They also took off this morning.  I do not know what type of airplane these are but will find out.  They are made by Bombardier which is stenciled prominently on the tail sections.  I’ve been told that when they come back I might be able to get a tour of the inside if the crew isn’t too busy.  That’ll be fun and I’ll make sure to get pictures!

I’ll just have to wait and see how all of this plays out.  When everyone else gets busy, it turns out to be my down time.  I’ll keep you posted on the happenings.  I know I promised to post every day, but seem to have gotten side tracked by everything going on.  I will get better at keeping a good log of what happens here.  Once again, thanks for checking out my blog.   Stay tuned for more to come from Galena, Alaska!

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