Building A Custom Cycle

Defining the first cycle

As said in the previous post I’ll be undertaking a custom firefighting cycle due to committing to firefighting for a long period of time.

Starting off we’ll define the Anchor Course. Being a wildland firefighter will be the anchor course, it’s a complex job and I still have a lot to learn. It’ll include taking trainings, learning job duties, and refreshers and the systems of the engine.

This isn’t a formal course, but more on the job training.

Anchor Course

I’ll be working as a wildland firefighter in Idaho. Likely costs will be low due to earning money while working, and the productive hours will be on the job. The cycle will last from March 15th until June 15th, then will transition into a work cycle as the season picks up.

The anchor course will be 160 hours of productive work hours. 12 weeks means putting in 13 hours of productive time a week.

Things that count as productive time:

• Training

• Responding to wildfires

• Working controlled burns

• Working on equipment/the engine maintenance

• Daily physical training

• Project work, clearing roads or prepping burn zones are examples

• Doing station projects/chores

• Completing important admin tasks

Firefighting can have some sitting around so those idle hours mostly won’t count unless I’m learning something. They’ll be filled by academics and reading. It’ll be important to keep an honest account of truly productive hours.

Next on to the academics.

Academics

The academic portion of the cycle will be 120 hours, focusing on learning important knowledge for wildland firefighting. The main trainings will be on weather, tactics, fire behavior, wildland firefighting history and practices, and learning about mechanical systems/technology used in the job like pumps and hydraulics.

Some courses may not be exactly related to working on an engine, but a greater understanding of firefighting is an excellent investment and at least makes me a more capable crew member.

This will be 10 hours a week of studying.

NWCG and other Self-Enrollment Courses:

• RT-130 Firefighter 2 Refresher Training 4 hrs

• Meteorology: An Introduction to the Wonders of the Weather 12 hrs
  (Great Courses) $39.99 cost

• S-290 Intermediate Wildland Fire Behavior Online portion 20 hrs

• Introduction to Wildland Fuels 2 hrs

• Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy .5 hrs

• FI-110 Wildland Fire Observations and Origin Scene Protection for First Responders 3 hrs

• Firefighting Orders and Watch Out Situations 2hrs

• FI-210 Wildland Fire Origin and Cause Pre Course Work 3 hrs

• Understanding and Collecting Fuel Moisture 3hrs

• PSM-008, Protecting Wildfire Personnel from Smoke .5 hrs

• Gov Risk Management 101 1 hr

• Weather Information Management System Basic Navigation 1hr

• Smoke Management and Air Quality for Land Managers 1 hr

• ICS 200 Basic Incident Command System for Initial Response 3 hrs

• ICS 800 National Response Framework Introduction, 4 hrs

Additional ICS potential courses

• IS-230 Fundamentals of Emergency Management 3 hrs

• IS-235 Emergency Planning 3 hrs

• IS-240 Leadership and Influence 3hrs

• IS-241 Decision Making and Problem Solving 2hrs

• IS-242 Effective Communication 2 hrs

• IS-520 Introduction to Continuity of Operations Planning 2hrs

Personal Study

• Studying multiple fire reports on fatality fires, injuries, burnovers for 30hrs. These includes workbooks making it a more academic pursuit.

• Studying diesel engines, hydraulics, pump systems, hoselays, vehicle electrical systems, small engines on chainsaws and pumps 23 hrs

Totalling 120 hrs up to potentially 135 if the additional ICS courses are taken.

That list is long….

Anyways, we can begin going into the reading.

Reading

This portion of the cycle will focus heavily on the history of wildland fire, biographies, cloud and weather books. Conservationist, mining, and logging books also. A few structural firefighting books too. 90+ hrs total

• Young Men and Fire

  by Norman Maclean 5 hrs

• The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America

  by Timothy Egan 5 hrs

• The Thirtymile Fire: A Chronicle of Bravery and Betrayal

  by John N. Maclean 4 hrs

• Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire

  by John N. Maclean 4 hrs

• The Esperanza Fire: Arson, Murder, and the Agony of Engine 57

  by John N. Maclean 4.5 hrs

• On the Burning Edge: A Fateful Fire and the Men Who Fought It

  by Kyle Dickman 4 hrs

• Smokejumper: A Memoir by One of America’s Most Select Airborne Firefighters

  by Jason A. Ramos 3.5 hrs

• Fireseason: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout

  by Philip Connors 4 hrs

• Fire on the Rim: A Firefighter’s Season at the Grand Canyon

  Book by Stephen J. Pyne 2 hr

• High-mountain Two-manner: A Montana smokejumper recalls hitting the silk and the books in his college years

  By Frank Fowler 3 hrs

• Ghosts of the Fireground : Echoes of the Great Peshtigo Fire and the Calling of a Wildland Firefighter by Peter Leschak 3 hrs

• Last Man Down: A Firefighter’s Story of Survival and Escape from the World Trade Center By Richard Picciotto 3 hrs

• Report from Engine Co. 82: The American Firefighting Classic

  By Dennis Smith 2 hrs

• River of Fire: The Rattlesnake Fire and the Mission Boys

  By John N. Maclean 3.5 hrs

• A River Runs through It and Other Stories

  By Norman Maclean 3 hrs

• Glory Days of Logging

  By Ralph W. Andrews 2 hrs

• Deadfall: Generations of Logging in the Pacific Northwest

  By James Lemonds 2 hrs

• A Sand County Almanac

  By Aldo Leopold 2 hrs

• Man and Nature

  By George Perkins Marsh 3 hrs

• The Mountains of California

  By John Muir 2 hrs

• Big Timber Big Men: A History of Loggers in a New Land

  1 hr

• American Sportsmen and the Origins of Conservation

  By John F. Reiger 3 hrs

• The Fight For Conservation

  By Gifford Pinchot 2 hrs

• Lochsa Story: Land Ethics in the Bitterroot Mountains

  By Bud Moore 2.5

• Fire and Brimstone : the North Butte Mining Disaster of 1917

  By Michael Punke 2 hrs

• My Adventures with Your Money

  By George Graham Rice 2 hrs

• Roaring Camp: The Social World of the California Gold Rush

  By Susan Lee Johnson 1 hr

• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

  By Robert Pirsig 6 hrs

• The Cloudspotter's Guide

  By Gavin Pretor-Pinney 1.5 hr

• NWCG Fire Weather Guide 1 hr

Things I’ll Be Watching

In addition I will be watching a documentary about the 1910 fires in Idaho and Montana, called The Big Burn and another called Fire in Paradise about the 2018 Camp Fire burning the town of Paradise, CA.

For videos I’ve selected a couple of several hour diesel mechanic video courses to increase understanding of how the actual systems on the engines work. This will go with pump videos, hydraulics, small engines, and how electrical and fluid systems work on large vehicles.

Reflection

For reflections it will mostly be working on writing and editing the weekly updates, and not much else. There will be 3 hrs a week of reflection for a total of 36 hours throughout the cycle.

DFS

For the fun part, I’ll be practicing swing dancing a few hours a week and going to various events on weekends. Music events is probably a good possibility if done right. Possibly will take some martial arts if time allows.

End

That defines the firefighter cycle pretty throughly I’d say, excluding some incidental costs.

If there’s anything that could be improved in the article please feel free, have a good one.