I was on the verge of heat exhaustion on my first brush fire. I was in half bunker gear and half Wildland gear (Bunker pants, Wildland shirt). The call came in at about 23:00 two nights after we spent 6 hours out on a fatal interstate wreck. Some powerlines came down in the woods and lit the duff on fire but I was out there falling asleep on my feet while we waited for the power company to kill the power. This was on a night where it was 100° during the night with 80-90% humidity. We spent 3 hours out there and holy hell was that hot. I ended up getting sent back to the rig with an LT. as my "buddy" for personnel accountability purposes. We made our way back to the engine and I hopped into the back while the engineer cranked the A/C. Wound up downing 3 bottles of water after stripping off the gear and my T-shirt. Me sitting in the engine in just my socks and shorts pounding water must have been a fairly comical sight looking back on it now lol.
I was on the verge of heat exhaustion on my first brush fire. I was in half bunker gear and half Wildland gear (Bunker pants, Wildland shirt). The call came in at about 23:00 two nights after we spent 6 hours out on a fatal interstate wreck. Some powerlines came down in the woods and lit the duff on fire but I was out there falling asleep on my feet while we waited for the power company to kill the power. This was on a night where it was 100° during the night with 80-90% humidity. We spent 3 hours out there and holy hell was that hot. I ended up getting sent back to the rig with an LT. as my "buddy" for personnel accountability purposes. We made our way back to the engine and I hopped into the back while the engineer cranked the A/C. Wound up downing 3 bottles of water after stripping off the gear and my T-shirt. Me sitting in the engine in just my socks and shorts pounding water must have been a fairly comical sight looking back on it now lol.