Some more photos of the real beginning of the fire season this summer. The Anahim Lake fire bust was pretty exciting, as my crew was the first on scene, flying into the lightning storm, assessing all the new fires, obviously there was some very extreme fire behaviour.

Laying on the runway at Puntzi as our helicopters take off for the night


Check out the fire taking off behind me near Anahim Lake


From Rank 1 to Rank 5 in 15 minutes, as I watched from the helicopter


My crew member Wes loading our gear after narrowly surviving a lightning storm the following night while camping near our fire


Safely in at the Eagle's Nest resort we watch the fires rage into the sunset across Anahim lake, the loon doesn't seem to mind

What a summer!
2006 turned out to be far better of a fire season than last year. There were actually fires to put out this summer, and it didn't rain for 4 months straight. Another bonus to this fire season, I became a crew leader at cifac, leading a 3-person Initial Attack crew, which was made especially enjoyable by my hard-working competent crew of Wes and Steve. There was huge turnover all over the Cariboo this summer, with cifac getting 6 of 11 new crew leaders. We got thrown right into it and were put to the challenge with the numerous lightning storms, hot dry weather, and dead beetle-killed pine throughout the region. One of the highlights of the summer was getting to be the first one flying into the lightning storm that started the huge fires below. Every strike started a fire. I have never seen a small wisp of smoke blow up into a huge fire raging above the tree tops within 5 minutes before! It was unreal. The lightning was constant all summer, great for initial attack, and as a result, many huge fires got going, great for the unit crews. This summer was also monumental in the fact that I finally got to go on a base change. Not only a base change, but 2 base changes. I went to Grand Forks in July, but weren't really needed once we arrived, so we spent our weekend at Christina Lake, then drove back on Monday, shortest base change ever. Then, as luck would have it, I got to go on an out-of-province base change to Thunder Bay, Ontario, the end of September, which is very unusual. There was nothing going on in BC, so every person from cifac got shipped out, to stay in a camp and cut trails and helipads around a 1500 ha fire. It was cold, and damp, but fun, and lucritive. I spent all of October doing fuel management, thinning and pruning trees to prevent fires from racing up the mountains near town and burning up the houses at the top. That was the hardest I worked all summer, glad to be done now. I am now slacking off, and in the midst of planning my next tropical getaway.
One of the huge conflagrations out by Anahim lake this summer

Another big one, rank 6. This is the weather system created by the fire, it is actually a beautiful clear day

Big Flames!

They finally let me out of the region! Heather and I in Grand Forks, check out the dragonfly on my forehead

Tankers hitting one of my fires on Quesnel Lake