Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires
Posted by simplisticthoughts , Tuesday, August 24, 2010 9:20 PM
So just when I had thought my Alaskan blogs had come to a close, my last day proved otherwise. So, there I was driving the bus back from shuttling the Noon Wilderness trip to the put in, talking on my phone to Princess Tour Desk manager Leslie, when in mid conversation, she cuts me off to ask me if our boatyard was on fire. Since I last saw it, there was no fire so I had hoped in my absence it didn't catch fire. Our conversation was cut short with a series of "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh...Brittany, there's a fire heading towards our tour buses, I've got to go!" ...click. Dumbfounded, I put the bus pedal to the metal and booked it down the highway back to the office to inquire about this fire.
I call our office manager Sara Mae, who was at the boatyard at the time to fill me in where Leslie had left off. Mine and Sara's conversation proceeded as followed:
Me: "Sara Mae, what's g"oing on?! I talked to Leslie and she said something about a fire at the boatyard?
Sara Mae: "Dude, there's a big fire behind the boatyard that is heading this way if the wind changes at all! We're evacuating all our stuff, what do you want me to grab?!"
Me: "No way, crazy!! All my bags are already packed in my room, just grab those!!"
Sara Mae: (frenzied) "I'm on it!!"...click.
I inform our other office girl, Tabitha, that I am grabbing a crew rig and heading back to the boatyard to see what is truly going on and to grab anything that needed to be grabbed. So, here I am, driving this beat up, "drive by shooting" looking van with a trailer attached going as fast as I can- I get over the hill and there it is; a huge cloud of smoke right in the vicinity of our boatyard! I get to camp and the fire appears to be about 100 yards east behind our living quarters with a wind blowing north (definite favorable wind direction). I get in my room and literally it is spotless, Sara Mae did a more than adequate job of evacuating my stuff...if you ever need to evacuate in a hurry, she's your gal. I found Sara Mae up at the Chevron in the photo person's Subaru chock full of mine and hers belongings.
Fortunately, the people of Healy, along with our raft guides responded quickly and hastily to get the fire quenched. Helicopters were flying in from every direction dropping water on the fire lines. People in bulldozers were knocking down trees to make a fire line, etc...even the coal mine people brought in there ginormous water tank! Needless to say, the fire was put out without too much damage. They say the source of the fire was from a squatter's campfire that was improperly put out. At least it provided an eventful last day of work and left me with another story to write home about. And remember kids, "only you can prevent forest fires!"
