Update from Idaho: Likely Going to a Different Fire

Going to keep this brief, gotta go to bed! Biggest news is that management of this fire is downscaling to type 3, and it looks like they're reassigning me to another type 2 wildfire for the rest of my dispatch. Thursday, I drive to the Rattlesnake Fire near Elk City, Idaho. I'll post more about that later, probably well after I get there. This photo is from yesterday when my trainer Joe took me to 8000 ft elevation to get a better look at the Shower Bath fire.

Here are some small photos of the sights around camp and near the fire, click on them for bigger versions.
Coppery, smoky sunset a couple hours after a huge smoke column burst into the sky.

Chopper picking up water to douse a flank of the fire (not taken be me).

Check out the pyro-cumulus! Formed when heat of the fire made the air unstable. In the foreground is the mostly smoldering Shower Bath Fire... in the pyrocumulus is actually from the Red Bluff Fire, farther west behind the horizon.

Welcome to my office, hours 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. or so.

Camp life...

A Note to Daddy

I managed to grab the kids in one place at bathtime long enough for a photo greeting to send to their fire-chasing meteorological father! Evan wrote the sign on the right (though I helped him with the "M")! Both kids are writing their names well now; Autumn even informed me that one of her teachers wrote her name wrong, without the "n" at the end! We've been having fun - had a great three-day weekend with the kids and was back to work today. Yesterday we went to a wonderful free church-sponsored carnival that I read about in the local paper, and the kids had a blast. Today, their day care switched from day-camp mode to preschool, as all the kids here went back to school today. There were some new kids today, and Autumn reported she made a new friend. When I asked Evan at bed time what his favorite thing was today, he said "going to school" which helped me feel better about the guilt I was feeling for leaving them today! Well, I'm about to crash here - goodnight to all!

Idaho Wildfire Update: I made it here!

Well, after a flight cancellation and then sitting 3 hours on the runway in Atlanta during a lightning show, I finally arrived in Boise at 3:oo a.m. Eastern Time, after having got up at 4:15 a.m. the day before! After a good sleep, I drove about 5 hours to the Incident Command Post of the Shower Bath Complex, in Challis Idaho. I've been learning the ropes of an Incident Meteorologist since the minute I arrived yesterday afternoon. Today, the Fire Behavior Analyst took me out to the fire so I could get to know the situation a little better. The top photo shows how the heat of a wildfire can turn the side of a mountain into a lunar surface!

I was only close enough to the active burning to see smoke plumes rising from behind the mountain, while more minor smoke can be seen on the front. I also saw a pine tree torch up in seconds as the fire finished making its run up the terrain, but was not able to get it on camera.

Perhaps the biggest challenge in fighting the Shower Bath Complex (which includes the Shower Bath, Red Bluff, and Clear Sage fires) is the very rugged terrain. Take a look at the road the crew has to take to get to Shower Bath!

Well, I have to get to sleep, almost 10 o'clock. I'll try to update again in another 2-3 days. And now, a moment of appreciation for Marisa, who is holding down the fort with Autumn and Evan back home... Thank you, my sweet!

-Mark

WILDFIRE! Mark's been dispatched to Idaho

Just a quick update... which I am able to write because my initial flight got cancelled leaving me with a few spare hours.

I'll be near Challis, Idaho for the next couple of weeks... I've been dispatched to what is called the "Shower Bath Complex" which is a trio of wildfires in the Northeast Idaho Mountains. I'm in training to be an Incident Meteorologist (IMET), and this will be my first fire.

If possible, I will email Marisa photos and updates, and perhaps she'll be able to put some on the blog in coming days. But I will be very busy... 14 straight days, 14-16 hours of work/day. I'll be camped out with roughly 250 firefighters, incident staff, and support people. So far the trio of fires has burned about 110,000 acres, with an estimated containment date of September 30. It has also cost more than 20 million dollars to fight so far.

A few sites to try for more information:

http://www.inciweb.org/incident/934/

http://www.nazteam.com/assignments/index.html

http://www.challismessenger.com/

Wish me luck! And even more so... wish Marisa luck as she will be working her job AND taking care of the kids by herself until I get back.

-Mark

Photo credits: Smoke plume photo on right courtesy of the Challis Messenger (linked above), of the Shower Bath Fire. Fire photo at top from about a week ago, a different Idaho Fire (there are dozens going on right now), courtesy of the Great Basin Incident Management Team.

Vacation Photo Album

Our vacation to Michigan was just wonderful (the only problem being that we came home to a dead refridgerator at 3 a.m. Sunday morning! Here are some highlights from the week. Forgive the messy captioning; we are exhausted and wanted to get this post done before we hit the hay.
Evan excitedly swivels in a funky diner where we ate in Mackinaw City before boarding the boat to the island.

We had many beautiful sunsets and lovely weather on Lake Huron! This particular evening Mark and I went out on the raft to enjoy the sunset.

On our way back down, we had dinner with Great-Grandpa and the Drouillards. The evening was bittersweet though as two days before Marisa's cousin Jill was in an accident and has suffered severe damage to her leg. She has to keep it immobile for 6 weeks and face a second surgery. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers!

Uncle Joel took the whole week off to share vacation with us! We had so much fun with him there! Here Evan helps him mow. We love you Uncle Joel!

We were happy that Grandma Linda could come up for a day and night to join us! Here the kids enjoy beach time with their Grandmas.

We took a little trip to Ocqeoc Falls - not much when you're used to WV mountain falls, but the kids had a blast plunking around in the river... that is until Autumn got a soaker!

The last two days of our time at Grandma Laurie's cottage, Marisa's Aunt Mary came up with her granddaughters. The kids, whom we call cousins, had so much fun together, and the cuteness was out of control!

Mark and I got to go on a very romantic date to the Nautical Festival on Sunday night. Here we share a ferris wheel ride and get to know each other!

We had an amazing day on Mackinac Island. Here, Grandma Laurie strolls along gazing at the Mackinac Bridge. We rented bikes and rode around too, which was so quaint and fun!

Marley, Ellie, Evan, and Autumn get a free ride out to the sandbar!

Dad and Evan show off their blue eyes at a cute Italian restaurant where we snacked on the island.

Going On Vacation: Seeking Cooler Climate!

As much as we enjoy baking in the heat and humidity of a West Virginia August, today we ditch the popsicles and head for the cottage on Lake Huron (near Rogers City, MI)... meeting up with Grandma Laurie and Uncle Joel! We'll also be taking the exit ramp off of the Information Superhighway, but look for updates around August 13th-ish after we get back. In the meantime, enjoy the two new vid clips on the right:

1. Evan picks up WV Book and sings Country Roads - 1:25 - One of Mark's co-workers got the kids a WV book featuring the lyrics of that John Denver song "Almost Heaven... West Virginia" and it has become one of Evan's favorites.

2. Shortcake Antics - 0:35 -A quick clip as the kids try their best not to choke on strawberry shortcake while Daddy keeps making them laugh.

Also, in case you had missed them before, we put up a trio of videos in June: Learning 2 Bike, Trails & Tunnels of Grandview Park WV, and Roundin' Up a WV Hillbilly Dinner (squirrel chase). You can locate these on the right, under the two new video clips.

Adios, we're out the door! See you when we get back from Michigan.

-Mark, Marisa, Autumn, and Evan