Muldoon Local Helping Fight Wildfires

Wildfires have been raging in the western parts of the country and Muldoon has a local connection to the fire suppression efforts. Bobby Ivy, an employee of the Texas A&M Forest Service was assigned to the Lone Star State Hand Crew at the first part of August. He was part of a Type 2 Initial Attack Crew comprised of twenty Texas Forest Service fire management personnel. These are specially trained and qualified individuals from all over the state that were put together to help with large wildfires on the local and national levels.

The Lone Star State Hand Crew was put up as available on the national board and assigned the Parleys Canyon Fire in Central Utah, about 20 miles outside of Salt Lake City. They were rained out of the fire and put back on the board. They then were reassigned to the West Lolo Complex Fire in Montana. This was a 3,953 acre fire outside of Thompson Falls, Montana in the Lolo National Forest. Upon arrival were assigned to dig hand line. They dug for two days before the command was turned over to local authorities and the Lone Star State Hand Crew was released.

The crew then went back on the national board and sent further west. They were picked up for the Trestle Creek Complex Fire that was burning in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest in the Northern Idaho Panhandle and was located just west of East Hope, Idaho. There they were assigned to Whiskey Division on the 6,641 acre fire. Bobby and crew were assigned to patrol their line, seek out and extinguish any spot fires or hot spots. They worked eleven days on the fire before their line was declared cold and out. This was at the end of their assigned time on the fire line. They then headed home.

While out on assignment Bobby worked in some of the most beautiful mountainous areas. He and the crew hiked miles up into the mountains and hand-dug fire lines, cut brush and fought spot fires. All the time the group camped out in tents on trailheads. The weather was much cooler than what they would have been experiencing at home. Temperatures at night dipped into the thirties and daytime temps would at times top out in the high seventies. It was Bobby’s first experience with the big wildfires. He has expressed that he will again volunteer for the hand crew and will once again be out working hard in beautiful country.

Hogs

Be careful driving in the area. There have been a number of hogs hit on the roads. The dead animals then bring other hazards of buzzards feasting on the carcasses and flying up into oncoming traffic.

Have News?

If you have news for the columnist, you may email Joan at muldoonaggie@yahoo.com.