Forest Fire

Thursday, August 7, 2008. In light of the helicopter crash that killed nine firefighters in Northern California yesterday, I wanted to do a post about a fire I witnessed in Montana. 

As many readers know, I make an annual pilgrimage to "Camp Lindbergh" each summer to renew the already close ties with Peggy and Ed (from Missoula), and Bill, from Colrain, MA. We rendezvous at Peggy/Ed's cabin on Lindbergh Lake (about 75 miles NE of Missoula, nestled between the Swan Range and the Mission Mountains. 

We were chilling on the dock--following our motto: start slow and taper off--when we started hearing helicopters. Then one flew by with a bucket swaying below. Yep, en route to a fire. Fast forward a couple of hours to early evening when Peggy and I tried to start the motorboat. No luck. Bill and Ed were off fishing, so our only option was to take the rowing shell. 

Peggy rows, and it's a spacious shell, but let me tell you, shells aren't built for passengers. but I wedged into the bow, facing Peggy, and cradled my camera gear in my lap. The water came within two inches of the gunnels. 

An hour later we were down-lake, across from the fire which had burned up a hillside and across the crest. A small plane circled--presumably a spotter. A larger plane dumped pink retardant and took off to re-load. A helicopter came straight for us, really, then hovered a 100 yds away, dropped it's bucket, dragged a few yards, then lifted and scudded across the lake to drop it. Back it came, making loop after loop, each dumping/re-loading cycle taking about 4 minutes. 

We pulled ashore, sat against a log, had a beer, a sandwich and a Snickers, and watched the show. Thank God I had my long lens (100-400mm), but I forgot the video camera. Dang. 

Fire fighters arrived by speed boat and we learned later from Ed (who is a battalion chief in Missoula FD) that the guys would work through the night. 

Between the fire fighters and rain storms the next day, the fire was put out in a few days. Apparently it consumed about 100 acres

I'd never seen a forest fire close up, and it was amazing to see trees explode into flame. I've posted a bunch of photos on my Flickr page. Cheers. 

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