The ashen wasteland that met us when we were out on the scene.
My colleague stomps in some fire.
No smoke without fire.
My other colleague, not quite as occupied. :)
The trees had in many places taken autumn colors due to the extreme heat that dried them out completely.
More ashen wasteland.
And hey, here's some ashen wasteland.
The moss on these (and many other) rocks had burned.
One of the civilian helicopters that water bombed the area (and, some people working in the worst areas too. The showers were appreciated during the warm daylight hours, but not so much in the middle of the night. :)). It carried around 800 liters of water each run, and we had two of those. The larger military chopter (Super Puma) carried about 1500 liters.
More ashen wasteland. If you haven't figured it out yet, it's sort of what's left after a wildfire.
Same ashen wasteland, but a slightly brighter picture so you can see into the distance properly.
Smoulder of the type we put out countless of.
More smoulder, this illustrates how hard the smoke pillars were to spot.
Ashen wasteland with artsy white balance. Wee, look at me! I can do art!
This picture was taken during our midnight feeding if I recall correctly. The firemen are having a look at the (really bad) map of the area to determine where we are working.
I sat down at the back of the fire truck for a while and enjoyed some light.
Back to the woods we go...
And we are back for the four o'clock cuppa. The sun is starting to rise and since we were shipped out, I haven't had time to take more pictures until this one. Artsy white balance once more. :)
Normal white balance. The metal things that are on the ground next to the ruined cabin are hose winders and nozzles.
The ruined cabin. We had no idea what it used to be, but probably some old work shed of some sort.
This is our drop-off point, and the fourwheel is going off with the other group to their drop-off. From here, we walked some 2-300 meters to where the hose ended. From here, we also laid some hose that is perpendicular to the one seen. That lenght of hose extended some 2-300 meters to what's to the left of this picture, where the really bad terrain was.
Suddenly we noticed open flame next to a path we'd used -all night-. The smoulders and ember fires can really pop up anywhere.
It quickly burned out and we poured some water on it to make sure it didn't come back.
I kicked a branch that was lying on the ground and as you can see, the fire came through very fast and burned out all the undergrowth, but didn' really do more than blacken the tougher stuff.
The very tired and dehydrated (as you can see by my bottom lip) sergeant finds time during hose lugging for a gimmick shot.
Impromptu clothes hanger, together with some ashen wasteland and watering cans.
His head was actually smoking here, but it's kinda hard to see. Still a good shot of a very tired hero.
