island fire

Every year, we go through a review board where they test our line construction skills, and basic fire knowledge. in order for us to be able to leave for off forest ( go to another forest to fight fire) assignment. yesterday was our review. we got to the station in the morning, most of us showed up early so that we could make sure that all of our stuff was ready for our review. For some reason our review board was late arriving, which gave us time to go over some last minute training. when our review board showed up, they took us up into the forest to give them a line cutting demonstration. In order for them to get an acurate idea of our capabilities, they give us a paper (fake fire scenario) fire, which we treat like a real fire, and act accordingly. we started cutting (real) line on the paper fire through heavy brush that was approx 12-18 ft tall. after about an hour, we were almost tied in (connect our line to some one elses line, or back into our own line to fully contain the fire) when they threw a spot fire into the drill, several of us reversed back down the line to search out the spot fire and put line around it. once that was done, we noticed that one of our crew members was missing, so we backed out of our line and into our safety zone ( a place were you can safely watch the fire go by in the event of an emergency, without having to deploy your fire shelter) and set up a search and rescue plan. after we had located our missing crew member, they ended the drill and had us return down the mountain and back to the station. we got back to the station at around 1400, which is well after lunch. while we were grabbing a quick bite to eat, they set up several gps courses for us to test our gps and navigational skills. this turned into several hours of racing through the hills behind the station in full gear in 100+ degree heat. as soon as we finished the exercise, we heard the 3 tones come over the radio which signals that we have been dispatched to a fire. we load up into the buggies and off we go! the fire was located in the I five corridor (known for intense fire behavior every year) when we arrived at the fire it was around 1730, there were several engines, water tenders , a bulldozer and a few inmate crews already there along with several helicopters and air tankers to help with the air support. we jumped out of our crew buggies, and began hiking up above the inmates and engines guys. we then began cutting line along the black ( already burned) in an attempt to flank it and then cut ut off. during this process, several spot fires broke out across the line in the thick brush, and had to be chased after and put out. once we had line around the spot fires, we went back to putting in line around the fire. this took many hours, and much eye rubbing ( the sweat runs off your head and into your eyes, and the salt from the sweat makes your eyes sting and you cant see till you rub them clean) it was around 0100 when they pulled us off the hill. it is always quite the sight to see everyone coming down the mountain in the dark when all you can see is 20 headlamps bobbing up and down. once we were off the hill and loaded into the buggies, they took us over to the oak flat station were we slept the next 4 hours on the lawn. we then got up at five thirty had a quick bite and then returned to the fire line to finish mopping up ( make sure all the hot spots and smokes are out) the fire. we spent the day griding the fire and putting out all smokes that we found. they released us from the fire at 1800, so we piled back into the buggies and went back to the station. was a fun evening of line construction!