[cheerful acoustic guitar music]
[crackling sounds and engine noise]
[Narration] Wildland fire engines play a critical role in firefighting operations across the country.
[Narration] Engine crews respond to a wide variety of fires and incidents, from
the outskirts of cities to remote wilderness.
[Interview] Wildland fire engines get called out to basic grass fires right on the side of the highway, people throw out
a cigarette butt, they'll respond to a lightning strike of a tree that happens in the forest.
At a lot of the larger fires that we've been hearing about in the
news and the media, the type 3 engine is able to help out in addition to all the
other resources that are there.
A National Park Service type 3 engine is
configured with five personnel, one personnel being the engine captain slash
"engine boss," the next person down would be the engineer slash "ENOP" person, and then
three firefighter personnel underneath them, which configures the five personnel
for a type 3 engine.
The reason why I chose to be a wildland firefighter is because I like to go hiking,
running, and staying in shape, you get to see a lot of beautiful places around the
country, but most of all because it's fun. I enjoy being out here and doing the
best work that I can.
With a wildland engine, the fire itself could be acres,
hundreds of acres, thousands of acres, so you need to have the capability of
driving and getting and being more mobile.
We're able to bring water to the fire.
This means that we're able to suppress the fire more quickly using
that water, cool it off. We're carrying over about 2,000 feet of hose.
[muffled radio traffic, spraying water]
On our engine, we carry 500 gallons of water, chainsaws, hand tools, and a lot of fire hose,
so we are always ready to respond to all kinds of different situations.
[spoken] You guys all good? Yep.
Even though we're at Kings Canyon National Park resource, we aren't
confined to Kings Canyon, or the sequoias, or just national park areas.
Wherever there's a natural disaster, that's where we're used.
So when we're not fighting fires
we're usually training and drilling, pretty much getting ready for the next
call that comes in. When we're not drilling or training, we're usually
getting our equipment pretty much fire-ready,
getting it spec'd out, and keeping household stuff around here at our station as well.
You want to practice like you play and play like you practice,
that's how you get best suited for your job.
We get the opportunity to work
on a lot of prescribed fires here at the park, and because this park has so many
visitors, we get asked the question, you know, "Why is this burning? What are you
doing?" and it gives us a good opportunity to take time with those visitors, and
inform them about the ecology and fire's natural role in the environment.
[spoken] All right, that's good for a second.
When we put on this uniform, we represent the park, we represent our engine, we
represent the National Park Service. We always have to be respectful of each
other and give that example for others to build off of.
Our engine plays a crucial role in combating wildfires, and also utilizing fire use such as
prescribed burns within the parks, within the national park system, and the
Department of the Interior. It's just nice to be a part of not only our park, but the
wildland fire team as a nation.