Dozer transports burned on Salt Fire. Click on Salt Fire button. http://www.myfirevideos.net/default.aspx
To you who run toward a fire instead of away like Me , Thank You . Your a special breed .
that would be spooky. I've been on a few fires and they never let us get anywhere near the fire line withe the cats and lowboys we're always putting in back-burn lines or contingency lines but its still a blast. Hats off to the guys that are on the front lines :notworthy
Any kind of fire fighting is dangerous. It just seems like its more dangerous in a dozer since they aren't fast enough to get out of the way. We have had to use dozers here a lot this year because it has been so dry. With high temperatures and low humidity, its almost impossible to put one out with only water.
I was working in The Dalles, OR this summer, doing a little landfill expansion. Last day of the job , July 30th, I had a couple guys finishing up the operations layer and termination berm, and a couple guys loading up the shop van to move to the next job. Anyway, I went into town to get the oil changed in my pickup and was heading back up to the job and saw this guy cutting wheat just down the road from the job. Pulled over and took a couple pictures of him crawling along the steep hillside, and thought to myself, later on today when we are done, I'm gonna drive out there and see if I can get a ride in that brand new John Deere hillside combine. Got back to the job, grabbed my laborer and mechanic and we went and placed the rain flap in the termination berm so my hoe skinner could finish building it. Took us about 45 minutes to do it. We were all done, standing at the bottom of the cell and saw smoke boiling up from the top of the hill. Wow, we got us a fire going somewhere. The inspector says, Ahh those farmers burn their stubble all the time, thats all it is. I said "Your f ing nuts! They are cutting wheat over there, they ain't burning today on purpose!" So the laborer and I jumped in the pickup and hauled tail into the field, from the landfill's property, which borders right up to it. A few other pickups were driving out through the standing wheat to survey the flames. Me and Steve were sitting in some fallow ground watching. Pretty soon, those other pickups came to where we were and I told them I have 2 D-6's, a water truck, a blade, a loader and a couple hoes if you want some help. Hell Yea was the respose! Thats all it took and Steve and I where off. I grabbed the open cab 6, (left the GPS Cat finishing), Steve grabbed the water truck and Bernie, my mechanic grabbed the grader and away we went. Here are a couple of the before, during and after pics I managed to take. Scary stuff! The wind changed in one spot I was pushing a trail down about a 2:1 slope and the flames came right towards me. Burned the hair off both my arms, and also burned the frayed ends off the cuffs of my jeans. Later that evening, I get a phone call from the guy who farms the place. He couldn't thank me enough for putting my life in danger to help out. Told him it was no big thing. I saw a situation, did the only thing I could, which is help out the best I can. He said him and his cousin who farm together, were gonna be in the field for a while, and to come on up. So I went back out, drank some beer with them and had a good time. Made a couple new friends that day, thats for sure.
Awesome job JTL ! Oregon has a 55 bushel per acre yield in an normal crop year. Wheat was about $6.25 a bushel in July . Those farmers lost close to $350.00 an acre to that fire. Your generosity saved them a small fortune. Any idea how many acres were burnt ? I can't help but wonder if they can get crop insurance to cover fire losses.
They estiamted close to 600 acres of wheat burned and close to same in fallow and scab area's. This had been an execptinal year. The 200 or so they cut before the fire was yeilding in the high 80's. They had insurance. But the best thing was they lost no equipment, no body got hurt. One abandoned old house and run down barn was caught in the fire though.
There's a pretty good series somebody posted on youtube. Dozer Boss The follow-ups are pretty interesting, too.