Living With Fire Podcast
Living With Fire Podcast
August Isernhagen: A Perspective on Wildland Firefighting
We interviewed August Isernhagen, Division Chief of Wildland Fuels with Truckee Meadows Fire and Rescue, about his career as a wildland firefighter. Isernhagen shares some highlights and challenges he's experienced along the way, as well as some tips for residents, if they ever come in contact with wildland firefighters. "Approach them as a trained professional. This is what they chose to do as their trade and show them that respect, in their expertise, for what they know," said Isernhagen.
Welcome to the living with fire Podcast, where we share stories and resources to help you live more safely with wildfire. Megan Kay, your host and outreach coordinator for the living of fire program and joined today by my boss Jimmy Roice-Gomes. Hi, Jamie. Hi, Megan and our student worker content creator Jordan Buxton. Hello. Jordan is joining us today. He was part of the interview and had some great questions I wanted to get his take on the interview as well. This episode, we sat down with August Iserhagen, who is a deputy chief of wildland fuels at the Truckee Meadows fire and rescue. It was a great interview, he talks all about wildland firefighting from his perspective and gave us a lot to think about when it comes to the job of wildland firefighting and how we interact interact with wildland firefighters and what we as residents and homeowners can do to make their job a little easier and keep them safe. So let's, I kind of want to hear you guy's thoughts on the interview and let's start with whoever wants to go first. Jamie?
Jamie Roice-Gomes:okay, I thought it was a great interview. I like how he gave some insight perspectives to wildland firefighting. Most of the public doesn't realize some of this stuff. So pretty fascinating.
Jordan Buxton:I agree with that wholeheartedly. I think that Auggie did a really good or August,
Megan Kay:he goes by Auggie.
Jordan Buxton:I think that he gave a really good perspective on not only the seasonal wildland firefighter perspective of you know, he only fights fires, but the career wildland perspective. As someone who worked through the ranks and you know, has fought in fires for almost the last two decades, I think that he had unique insights, especially as someone who, as he kind of put it would rather still be, you know, in the pits fighting with the guys.
Megan Kay:Well, I think that, yeah, that's definitely where the action is. But he's also, he also mentioned, it's nice for him to have spend time with his family. Because that's one of the aspects of being wildland firefighter is, there's adventure, but you never really know where you're going to go and for how long you're going to be there. Yeah, I think that I was really excited to get to sit down with him. Hopefully, we get to talk with more firefighters in the future. I just, I just think that their experience fighting fire in the wildland urban interface, like residents and homeowners, and just people who live with fire on a daily basis can learn a lot from it. And also, their stories are just interesting and engaging. So I'm always down to hear to hear them. You know,
Jamie Roice-Gomes:I think it's important that we thank wildland firefighters for what they do. It's a big job. And it's not easy. And they're doing a lot.
Jordan Buxton:So I thought it was interesting actually how he brought that up. How he talked about how in other areas. You know, he does it he kind of brought up why it is like this, but how wildland firefighters are shown gratitude in a greater way or in a different way, I guess, then around Northern Nevada, right? How like he was talking about fires in Southern California and how, you know, residents drop off supplies and goodies and you know, food and, you know, loads of other things to fire stations when firefighters from other places are there. And I just thought that was kind of interesting considering how much fire we deal with here that we don't necessarily have a greater community response in showing gratitude.
Jamie Roice-Gomes:Yeah, me too. I wonder if it has to do with the fact that we always have wildfires here. And so we've kind of become immune to it
Jordan Buxton:kind of jaded. Yeah.
Jamie Roice-Gomes:I mean, where is it in another area if they don't experience wildland firefighters, or sort of wildland fires every year? Maybe it's just it's new. And I don't know. I mean, it's sad but interesting.
Jordan Buxton:Last night, I drove by a lot in downtown and there's a bunch of Callfire rigs out there right now and I was actually thinking about how I wonder if there's a way I should be showing them gratitude. I mean, these guys aren't even from here and you know, their rigs are part. You're getting ready.
Megan Kay:Yeah, folks want to show gratitude. AndI said that he mentioned in the interview It's always good for morale when they can see, you know, like signs, saying thank you firefighters, maybe that will give them a little bit more motivation, you know, not that they need it. They're, they're very highly motivated individuals. But you know, just kind of make them feel good. make their day a little bit.
Jordan Buxton:I saw a lot of those signs last at the end of last season driving through NorCal, you'd pass through the little, the little towns, the ones that if the fire got there, they'd definitely be gone. And the high was highway was just lined with thank you firefighters. And
Jamie Roice-Gomes:There you go, Jordan
Jordan Buxton:Thank you for saving our homes, but it'd be cool. It'd be cool to see that. In Northern Nevada a little more. I will say, If you're when I was firefighting, like, it didn't happen to me that like, personally, but people did bring stuff down to fire camp sometimes. And it was nice, you know, like if they brought like baked goods, or maybe they paid for, if it was like a smaller fire, obviously, if it's a big fire. I don't think people have that much money. But there are a few times Yeah, where people would just like, pay for us to have some treats, you know, which was really, and when I say folks, I mean, he's usually like a local business owner, who was kind of one of the wealthy local business owners wants to cater an entire fire camp. Much appreciated.
Megan Kay:Well, don't cater the camp and get us some cookies, you know. But the I think that there are some cool organizations that if people want, I mean, I'm not an expert, but I do know there's one that I saw on Facebook called Ashlee's toy closet, and they collect donations for families that have been affected by wildfire, maybe lost properties homes, and they click toys to give to kids. So there definitely are these sort of more grassroots mutual aid efforts by just sort of regular people trying to help out so they are there if you find them. Anyway, I think that we all really enjoyed talking to Auggie and get to getting to pick his brain by wildland firefighting and I hope you guys enjoy the interview.
August Isernhagen:My name is August Isernhagen, and I'm a division chief with Truckee Meadows fire protection district. I oversee the wildfire and fuels program there.
Jordan Buxton:Can you explain the radio in the background real quick?
August Isernhagen:Yep, I apologize. The radio is going in the background. We're in red flag today. So I'm just listening.
Megan Kay:And a red flag warning for our audience who doesn't already know it means that there's potential for extreme fire behavior today because of low temperatures, high winds and what else?
August Isernhagen:high winds and low or RH's
Megan Kay:and low relative humidity yeah.
Jordan Buxton:So can you kind of give us an overview of what you do as a division chief at Truckee Meadows?
August Isernhagen:Okay. So Truckee Meadows started, we've always had a wildland component, it's one of our main areas of emergency response. And we've dabbled in fuels management here and there throughout the years, about a year and a half ago, in partnership primarily with NV Energy in the state of Nevada Division of Forestry. There was funding to be more proactive about the fuels management. Truckee Meadows created my position to have a division chief division means you focus on a primary area to have a division chief focused on wildland fire and fuels management in Truckee Meadows jurisdiction. other divisions within TM there's an EMS division for emergency medical services. There's an Operations Division for oversees the line staff in the stations and then there's a logistics training division that handles all the logistical needs and training
Megan Kay:and then for when we say Truckee Meadows, because I know you guys recently changed your name used to be Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District but now Truckee Meadows just Fire and Rescue, correct? Yes. And that's just in Washoe County.
August Isernhagen:Yep. So Truckee Meadows is responsible for emergency response in unincorporated Washoe County. So Reno has their own Fire Department Sparks as their own North Lake Tahoe out of incline has their own. And then our jurisdiction goes up to township 22, which is pretty much Palomino Valley like that northern boundary. However, through agreements with the county, we also take on their fire suppression north of that so essentially goes to the Oregon border to the north. They have a small department outside of Gerlach that is also run currently by Truckee Meadows that's kind of changing. And then there's a department outside of Pyramid Lake
Jordan Buxton:and so you're in charge of the fuels crews, but also those are the wildland firefighting crews.
August Isernhagen:Well, so the the our newest addition in the fuels program, their primary nine to five job is we're seven to five job is fuels, management Right. And that's what they're doing 52 weeks out of the year, they're year round. When there is a fire, their trade that what they've come up through is wildland fire. So they're fully qualified on that when they're on project. They're running out of a type five engine, which is an actual fire truck with water hose and tools,
Jordan Buxton:but it looks like a truck. Right?
August Isernhagen:Exactly.
Megan Kay:So it's not it doesn't have like a typical fire engine.
August Isernhagen:it's like a big lifted pickup truck, on how did you get the job? And what is your career in wildland juice. And so that's what they're on project. That's what they're in on project doing fuels management. Then when there is a fire, then they respond to the fire. Also, all of Truckee Meadows stations that we already have are fully staffed with wildland apparatus and all of the staff are cross cross trained for wildland. S the new crews are that's thei focus as wildland fuels but al of the Truckee Meadows crews ar trained and capable an firefighter for as a wildland firefighter? I took a kind of a wandering approach to that here. I've been doing fire and natural resource management for about 20 years. I started in high school as a seasonal park ranger for a couple years I knew I wanted to do something outside and and
Megan Kay:I don't even know seasonal park ranger?
August Isernhagen:Yeah for Washoe County.
Megan Kay:Someday I'll be a seasonal park ranger
August Isernhagen:So I did that for a couple years. And I do trainings with the Forest Service in the summer just to kind of learn what was out there I still didn't think I'd do fire apologize for radio. I still didn't think I wanted to do fire I wanted to go more like wildlife, but started going to UNR and then to help pay for school. Now I got a job as a wildland a seasonal wildland guy with Nevada Division of Forestry did a couple years of volunteering all risk in there also all risk mean structure fires emergency medical services that type of stuff. I enjoyed it but it wasn't really my
Megan Kay:the all risk side? yeah you enjoyed but it
August Isernhagen:It wasn't I didn't have the passion for it wasn't... like the wildland so I focused on the wildland. I was a seasonal doing that for six or seven years. Then I had, my wife and I had our first child and I got laid off and I was happy being a seasonal I thought I could do that forever. But then we had that first winter without health insurance and a brand new baby at home and so it's time time to grow up.
Jordan Buxton:Yeah, so that's that's something that I want to come back to. So let's because I want you to describe what that seasonality of a wildland firefighter
August Isernhagen:Okay,
Megan Kay:but, I don't mean to interrupt you. So you guys had a
August Isernhagen:Had a baby it was time to grow up. So I got a baby, job running inmate crews with the Nevada Division of Forestry. similar function. So 52 weeks out of the year those crews are going out doing project work fuels management, forest health, that type of stuff. And then during fire season, those those inmates are cross trained to respond to fires. So I did that for a few years. When I was a seasonal and bounced around a little bit I did a few years on engines I did a few years on helitack which is basically hand crew on the ground firefighters that get inserted by helicopter into remote areas.
Megan Kay:Very cool. By the way
August Isernhagen:Yeah. I went back to engines for a couple years then I became the crew boss for a while. Then one year helitack was short staffed. And I was brought into the chief's office and he asked you know, you've been running a good crew how'd you like to go to helitack a fair amount of folks wanted that experience. I said No thanks. I like running crew. And they pretty much said too bad. You're the only one with experience you're going so I ended up back in helitack I was there for a few years. So as a crew Boss, I was year round. And
Megan Kay:so when you say crew boss, do you mean with the the I inmate crews?
August Isernhagen:Both so, I did just inmate crews for a little bit, a couple years. And then when I ended up back in hellitack, I'd go to helitack for the spring, summer and fall and then come back to running inmates in the winter. And did that for a few cycles. Eventually, they created a battalion chief position over Hello tech because that's why they were always having to borrow folks as they didn't have any exclusive positions there. I got that position. And then my boss there pretty much required. He couldn't but he required me to go back to school to finish my degree.
Megan Kay:Degree in what?
August Isernhagen:Forest management and ecology at UNR so went back to school finished that. And then after four or five years of being the battalion chief there, the camp program manager position opened with Nevada Division of Forestry and that oversees the whole inmate program. That's 700 personnel us what 10 or 11 facilities across the state. So I took that job. The degree was key for that, obviously moving into those upper management positions. I was there for about a year and a half, I was always interested in climbing into upper management with Nevada Division of Forestry. Thought that's where I would stay. But then Truckee Meadows created this position and
Megan Kay:you jumped ship
August Isernhagen:everything lined up and and here I am. So I won't be as a client. How
Megan Kay:How long have you been with Truckee Meadows?
August Isernhagen:16 months 16 months? Yeah. And with NDF for about 18 years before that,
Jamie Roice-Gomes:what's the best part of being a wildland firefighter, in your opinion?
August Isernhagen:The best, the best parts, right. And since I've moved into that program manager position at NDF, and now here with Truckee Meadows, I'm less operational and what operational means for those folks out there is less in the field boots on the ground swinging a tool, which kind of sucks because that's where that's the fun. That's where the fun is, right? My favorite parts about it were number one, the adventure, right? You never know. What's gonna happen today,
Jordan Buxton:Why? when you show up to work. There's a little bit of that adrenaline and like I said, sense of adventure. I like
August Isernhagen:I think it's? I don't know, it's a complicated traveling, another exciting piece about wildland fires, on top of not knowing what's going to happen today, you don't know where you're going to end up today. And so I've been on fires all over the western United States. And that's an exciting question. I think it's, there's obviously a piece of, it's not piece, you see a lot of areas that most people wouldn't see, right? Because you're not going to the tourist attraction, you're going sometimes you end up there too. But you're that's not the point, right? So you end up in the middle of nowhere. And see some cool sites. And then the last piece, the most like morbidly dangerous, right, but there's an elevated risk. important piece to me through the years has been the camaraderie. You know, I had, I had close friends in high school, I had close friends in college. But by far, my closest friends in the world are, are those that that I've fought fire with over the years? And sometimes you can end up in some sketchy situations. And that creates a bond. Another piece his ties to what Megan was talking about, kind of the cyclical nature of it, and the difficulties that go along with that. And, and a lot of people maybe don't relate to that, right? But when you when you are in a season focus job, and you're living with these people for six months out of the year, you just those bonds, I don't know naturally come about, you know, and especially like on the helicopter, there's a heightened level of risk there. And that's like the true definition of adventure, right? And just launch and take off into the wild blue yonder, and get dropped off on a mountaintop for four days. with your buddies, you know, and I think you'd be hard pressed not to have those relationships in those scenarios.
Megan Kay:Yeah, and there's no, there's no escape, right? Even if you wanted to, right. But the Yeah, I did, just for full disclosure, I have some wildland fire experience I was on actually was on an I wasn't on ever an engine with you. But I did serve as I was a seasonal NDF for two seasons. And then on a type two hand grew in Incline called the Slide Mountain hand crew, which is part of North Lake Tahoe fire protection district for two seasons. And then I was there for almost three seasons, but I got injured at the beginning of my third season. And decided not to come back. And decided to go to college. But yeah, so I can definitely relate to that seasonality because I did that for five years, basically of just, it was hard to break out of, like when you transition out of it. Like it was really hard for me to stay at a job for longer than a year. Right? Because I was just like, I I'm getting antsy, like when is it gonna switch? I don't it's like is it really just this forever?
August Isernhagen:that is difficult to become cyclical, right? Yeah, your life is based on the seasons and you start to expect like, just get November.
Megan Kay:Yeah, but definitely like is I didn't keep in touch with like the guys on my crew, but it's I definitely know a lot about them, at least at that moment to time. And they know a lot about me, right? You know, so it's like that will that will never change. But, yeah, those bonds are definitely pretty crazy.
Jamie Roice-Gomes:Conversely, what do you think is the toughest part of being a wildland firefighter
August Isernhagen:There are several I mean, some of it's kind of the stuff we're already talking about. The hardest part when you first start, there's a financial component, right because it's pretty much impossible to get your foot in the door without some kind of seasonal experience. So to do that you have to willingly take a job sometimes for two, three, my case six, seven, I know other guys that they go ten to fifteen years as a seasonal, and that financially is difficult, right? It's feast or famine you're getting, you're working all summer long and you're doing pretty well. And then in the winter, you're out of a job, right? And it depends which agency you work for whether you get benefits during that laid off time period or not. But the financial maintaining financial health, especially when you first start is one. Another one is family life. Right? And I'm married, I have four kids. And that has always been a struggle, especially when they're little, we were talking about it earlier, right? You leave in the morning to give everybody a kiss, you think you're coming back that night, but who knows? Yeah, could end up in Wyoming or Idaho or whatever that scenario is. And a significant other, can you know, they're usually aware of that possibility, but the little one, they can't, they can't process that the same way. So that one's hard. And then what else? I would say tying back to those close relationships is it's a small group, right? And people outside those relationships don't can't relate and don't have that perspective. Like even my own parents barely understand about what I've done in my career. Because it's just it's a it's, it's alien to most people,
Megan Kay:even my dad who was a Reno firefighter. his whole career retired as a Reno firefighter. He didn't really have much wildland fire experience. Like he did go on some wildland fires, obviously, but never for as long as I did. So he even tried to explain it to him like, like he did not relate. So the only people who were honestly relate other wildland firefighters, which I do have a few friends who were like on hotshot crews and helitack crews that just are in my circle of friends. And we always end up talking about it. Like whenever we're at or at a party or something even though we're no longer doing it. We always just like relate back to it. Or are following the issues related to wildland firefighters in the news and kind of trying to educate people about it.
August Isernhagen:I think those are those are kind of the hard parts what a lot of people would envision as the difficult pieces and some people think it is I've never had an issue with you know, in terms of like the physical element or sleeping in the dirt or eating MRE's or not having ice for your water, right, those types of things. I've always kind of enjoyed that. So yeah, different than what most people would think I would guess.
Megan Kay:Yeah, if that's if those are the difficult parts of the job and you probably shouldn't be in the job because that's just the job. During the wildfire, firefighters have a lot to do, make it easier for firefighters to defend your home, create defensible space now. Defensible space is an area between a house and an oncoming wildfire where the vegetation has been managed to reduce the wildfire threat. Proper defensible space doesn't mean removing all vegetation though. By following the lean clean and green rule, you can keep your property safe while preserving its natural beauty. Learn more about defensible space in our guide fire adapted communities. The next step in wildfire preparedness, you can find the guide in the resources section of our website at living with fire dot com. We're talking about the pros and cons of wildland firefighting, the sort of effects that I can have on your, your personal life. I wanted to circle back to a conversation we were having off mic earlier about like mental health. And you were talking you were talking about how well first of all just kind of unpack sort of some of the maybe challenges that are common with wildland firefighters like mental health wise and then what you mentioned the Truckee Meadows is actually being proactive and dealing with it. So I'd like to hear a little bit about that.
August Isernhagen:I think mental health in terms of the wildland community they get obviously it's going to depend on the individual. Like if you're like me, I eventually fell into a rhythm like we were talking about where life is just kind of seasonal, right? Summertime was fire focused. Fall was winter focused winter, or excuse me Fall was project focused, Winter was like hunting and relaxing time. Yeah, Spring was ramping back up
Megan Kay:Getting back into shape time
August Isernhagen:Just kind of get into that lifecycle. And then it's the natural ebbs and flows, if you will. I could see how that could be a mental health piece for a lot of people that aren't able to kind of roll with with that dynamic. The unknown is also another mental health piece. I would say probably the biggest one ties back to the family element that we were talking about right? issue, like if it can create marital issues, the job right, that same thing being gone all summer long and not present, how your kids take it, those types of things, as well as the stress from like we talked about the financial element when you first get started, yeah. All of those play into it, and we talked about it. Again, I've never felt wildland fire was anything extraordinarily dangerous or extraordinarily impactful in terms of what you see. But obviously, same thing. Every person takes that differently. And sometimes you see death and destruction and things that some people have a hard time coping with.
Megan Kay:Well, yeah, I mean, not everyone experiences an injury or them either themselves or maybe on their crew. But it does happen and it can definitely be traumatic, right? You know, like if you see your your buddy get injured, or you know, someone on our crew had, like a grand maul seizure had helitacked out that was a little intense. But the Yeah, just the, the anxiety and just the constant sort of anxiety, I feel it could definitely contribute to some mental health issues.
August Isernhagen:And you do get exposed to some of those traumatic events, right? They're not as often as, say, an all risk firefighter who's going on medical calls and car accidents and those kinds of things. Yeah. Or a police officer, you know, or somebody in the military. But it's still, the, the rate that those things happen is still elevated in the wildland world compared to everyday life I've been on I've been around three or four, four aircraft accidents, right. And I think almost in the wildland community, those might be it again, I'm not a psychologist, I would think those are have a more pronounced impact, because they're not exposed to it all the time. And some of those coping mechanisms aren't there
Megan Kay:again. Yeah. But yeah, I can't even imagine being would be my guess, in the aviation, like all the stress that would go into just the daily operations of that. Yeah. And that can take a toll on your nervous system. And imagine,
August Isernhagen:but yet again, I think it depends on the individual. Like when you're first learning your first Intuit It's a whole new world, everything can kill you. But then eventually, that you just you adapt. And that becomes the day to day way of things.
Megan Kay:Yeah. But it's so at Truckee Meadows, you guys hired a psychologist?
August Isernhagen:So, we have I don't know his technical title. But yeah, he's a doctor. And we give him he's basically on contract with the district. And in return he's available if we need him for a cism, which is a chronic critical incident stress management. discussion. Doesn't have to be that formal, as he's cruising around town hall stuff in a fire station and, and touch base with with the folks and if they want to engage or pull them aside, then they can do that. Not just about work stuff, just in general how they're doing. If we have near misses or injuries, we bring him into the fold to check everybody's mental health there. And then he's also really active nationally in the wildland fire community. So all spring, he's cruising around the western US touching base with hotshot crews, engine crews, federal government, state governments and and same thing, doing a lot of preventative maintenance. He likes to call it on the front end giving tools on how to deal with some of those stressors. So yeah, that's one element that are that's one aspect that that Truckee Meadows has we also have some of our internal folks, Battalion Chief Derek Reed, he was instrumental in starting the Nevada peer support network. And that was in conjunction with Dr. Steve also. And that was all focused on mental health of it started off fairly limited, read the fire community. But that's expanded for to law enforcement, medical personnel, the military, and now, it was the Northern Nevada peer support network. Now it's the Nevada peer support network. So I don't know how many different agencies are participating in that. But this spring, they put on a two day resiliency training at the convention center that was solely focused on mental health of emergency responders.
Megan Kay:Yeah, I mean, it's such a important issue. And I mean, just the with the wildland firefighter, just with wildland firefighters in particular. You know, our wildland seasons in air quotes, you can't see that but I just did air quotes, are longer and longer and yeah, and so folks are out on the line, like actively fighting fire for prolonged periods of time and getting exhausted. And so I just think it's anything, any sort of innovations, and being proactive and giving folks tools, but also just checking-in, right? You know, I definitely was. I was feeling I was pretty lucky, I had really good leadership that I was always really touching base and checking-in with stuff like that. I mean, there's, I feel like, you know, cultural factors, like there's also things that contribute to anxiety for sure. That could be
August Isernhagen:A stoic macho mentality,
Megan Kay:That were, maybe unnecessary. But um, for the most part, there was genuine like, concern for everybody. So that was pretty nice. I wanted to kind of switch gears a little bit, and talk about just things that you think that residents, homeowners, people in general, should know about wildland firefighters, like, what do you think that people should know about wildland firefighters, whether that would, it's in context of like during a wildl nd fire events, or maybe ju t in general, so that people k nd of understand who these fo ks are that are fighting these fires you know? I mea, obviously, everyone's dif erent, right? Like there's no, there's no stereotype, rig t? But the, you know, I just thi k i think that people would lik to think it's an int resting job that people want to now about. And especially lik, if people, if people are liv ng in the urban interface int rface, and the wildland urb n interface, and they're exp riencing wildfire, like the're going to come in contact wit, with firefighters. Yep. So it' be kind of interesting, it' be kind of nice to know, lik, maybe we'll start with thi, like, what's like some eti uette?
August Isernhagen:some etiquette? Yeah. Well, several times, I've experienced it through my whole career. Especially I don't know that it's centered, obviously, around fire, but just working for in the public sector in general, right? you interact with a lot of opinions out there, based, you know, regarding what you're doing, right? A lot of opinions and good ideas. I've interacted with tons of public when I'm out on project or out on fires, where you're getting that you're getting those inputs on something that maybe they don't understand, as well, right, but they still have the opinions. And obviously, in this line of work, emotions are high, right? Whether it's a project and you're cutting out somebody's favorite tree, right, or it's prescribed fire, and somebody is worried about it escaping or you're in the actual fire environment, right, and they're worried about their house. And so I think the main piece of etiquette is would be to approach approach them, as, you know, a trained professional, this is what they chose to do as their trade and show them that respect and in their, in their expertise, for what they know.
Megan Kay:Is there anything that maybe homeowners could now could do to maybe make wildland firefighters jobs easier? Yeah. Besides what you just mentioned.
August Isernhagen:the first question, and, you know, living with fire, talking about fuels management, defensible space, those those pieces, specifically is a piece of honoring and respecting what those guys do, would be to take some ownership in your own your own position in life, with your property, your home, that type of thing. They are fathers, husbands, wives, mothers that are coming into these situations to try to help and having that ownership to do what you can, before that scenario happens, I think isn't stressed enough, right? Because there is a bunch of work. this is the stuff you guys talk about all the time that can be done ahead of time, to both make it safer and more productive while the wildland folks are in there. As we treat as we train. We always beat it into everybody's heads that there's no bush worth dying for. There's no house worth dying for. Right? That's true to a degree, but if that were completely true, we just stopped fighting fire all the way to get all together, right? Because that's the only way to guarantee it doesn't happen. So there is a piece of that. We also tried to train folks not to get emotionally involved when there's homes and structures threatened and private property. We can say that all day long, but that is not accurate, right?
Megan Kay:Yeah, no one wants to someone's house to burn.
August Isernhagen:You instantly become more invested in What you're doing when it's somebody's private property? Yeah. And so having that ownership and making a difference to help before it's needed.
Megan Kay:Communities located in wildfire prone areas need to take extra measures to live safely. There are many ways to prepare communities and properties for wildfire, including creating and maintaining adequate defensible space and hardening homes to withstand wildfire. This could mean altering or replacing certain components of the home. Our wildfire home retrofit guide will help you better prepare your home and communities for wildfire. You can find the guide in the resources section of our website at living with fire dot com. Something that I think is interesting that exists now and feel free to comment on it that didn't exist when I was wildland firefighting. Which is also that's a whole thing to unpack there too, is just the term wildland firefighter. Like often. That's not actually the designation. It's usually like forestry technician, or just seasonal. But as it's understood that the job is you're a wildland firefighter. But when I was working on a hand crew and on an engine, there wasn't a whole lot of social media. You know, Instagram wasn't around Facebook was there, but it wasn't that big. And, you know, there's always been this sort of impulse to share stories and to connect with other people who are doing the job. So you know, my crew always did like a video right at the end at the end of the year, which was like usually, like really intense music and just like highlights of all this
Jordan Buxton:A shot of the plain dumping.
August Isernhagen:Yeah, we used to do the same.
Megan Kay:Which is awesome. But that is still made and then uploaded to YouTube. And that was your way of kind of like, putting it out there like this is what we did this season. But now there are lots of like Facebook groups and Instagram accounts and YouTube influencers around wildland fire so people
August Isernhagen:I dint know if I have a heartwarming can really kind of educate themselves and dig into the culture. There's one podcast that I listened to, it's called Anchorpoint it's Brandon Brandon was while ex wildland firefighter, former wildland firefighter and he he actually lives in Reno has a big audience but yeah, his podcast is huge. And it's I just love that there's this culture now where people can talk about it and there's an outlet where they can like find like-minded individuals or people not like minded but you know, people with the same experience, right? That didn't really exist when I was firefighting. So it was like, you either don't The only way you can meet other wildland firefighters was like, in camp right? You know, yeah, I thought that was I just think that's pretty cool. So feel free to comment, but I still want that anecdote and that heartwarmin story
Megan Kay:I have kind of an interesting story about helicopters. So just sorry, this isn't this podcast isn't about me. No, you're good. You're the host. But I'm always I've always I never got to ride on a helicopter. And it's one of the things that I regret, or I can't regret it because it's nothing. It's nothing that wasn't my choice. It's just one of the things that I'm kind of bummed that never happened. But the because part of the reason I wanted to be on the crew that I applied for was when I was at NDF, I got assigned to the water tender one time, which is the it's an interesting gig. If you guys if people listening have ever been on a water tender. I was on the water tender that day which usually is no big deal it's like you drive the water tender to project work or wherever you just have to be on it in case it gets dispatched to a fire. Well I got dispatched to a fire out in like Winnemucca right with the other guy was on the water tender with and we ended up being on this fire for like two weeks or however long, a long time. And we were stuck. Just like at the airport. And our whole job was to just like fill up the various the
August Isernhagen:Pumpkins. Yeah, the pumpkins.
Megan Kay:Yeah. So it's like we would just be going back and forth from the hydrant all day. Yep, that's all we did. And it was really boring. In my opinion. It's a very important it's a very important job. But um, and then this crew, the crews kept getting, they were be ng flown in and out every d y. Because they weren't like sp king on the fire. They're just like we're getting a ride very day in the helicop er to and from the fire. And I w s just like, this is I'm so jeal us of this crew and I found o t who it was the Slide M untain Hand Crew. I was like cool. I'm applying for that crew. And because in my mind I didn't know anything, I was ust like, wow, that crew flie on helicopters. And I neve
Jamie Roice-Gomes:I got a, I got a question for Auggie. Do yo got to fly in a heli opter. The two, two and a half seasons I was on there, but yeah got close. I one time we like taped up all our tools, had our anifest everything ready beca se you have to weigh ever thing. Because it's very, you now, it's a, it's an airc aft. In case you guys didn t know, a helicopter is an a rcraft, but we got very close a d we just never did it. So t ey decided that they would t ey were fine with letting us h ke the 13 miles. So we did. B t anyway, have any stories of how ike, um, like the community h s, like rallied around like fir fighters after a fire and like, ade like baked goods or someth ng like that?
August Isernhagen:Yeah. I think it has a lot to do with culture and demographics of the community, right? I've been on tons of fires in Southern California, and down there, emergency responders are kind of viewed in a different light than up here. I don't know if that's political leanings or what that is, but down there, there's so many donations and baked goods and snacks and socks and baby powder that gets dropped off at the stations like it can't ever even be used by the firefighters just comes out of the woodwork up here. That's not as common. Again, it's I think it's just the demographic difference but all of those big WUI fires, right wildland urban interface fires it's a heartwarming piece right is all the signs that you see especially when it's kids painting and those kind of things saying thank you.
Jamie Roice-Gomes:That's really interesting
August Isernhagen:Often times they'll forget oftentimes as those requests come in the incident management teams the teams on these bigger fires they try to redirect those people to the Red Cross or nonprofits right because when we're on these big fires the big fires not necessarily all the little initial attacks but you're pretty well logistically taken care of right so there's a there's an incident command post or and a camp they get set up and it's essentially like Burning Man it's a city that just gets built in a parking lot right and they're they feed you and there's a medical tend to get ibuprofen and there's supply tent to to go get new gloves right and so you're pretty well taken care of. And so oftentimes on those big catastrophic ones like we have right now right Dixie, those donations are much better served to go to those nonprofits like Red Cross and help with the people that are evacuated and may have lost everything
Jordan Buxton:a couple of years ago I can't I can't remember the year one of those camps is actually set up in the schools sports field down the street from where I grew up to down the street from my parents house it was there their engines from Colorado, New Mexico, Yep, a couple from New York that it was the entire block them I grew up on was just lined with the engine crews
August Isernhagen:One of my more memorable fires there's hundreds but one of the more fun ones in retrospect and this is a unique piece about the firefighting community right is often times when you're the most miserable and broken afterward you look back and those are the the times that you laugh and it's it's funny. I was I was on helitack and we got flown into a fire up by pyramid I don't remember the name of it. And we spent we flew up first thing in the morning and it was off doing its thing in the cheatgrass and we spent the entire day just hot lining, right and so hot lining is a term when you're like at the active part of the fire you're not mopping up you're not controlling the edge but you're like actively suppressing trying to fight fire. And it's oftentimes the most physically arduous but it's also the fun right you're in you're in the excitement aircraft are dropping all around you and there's flames and you're sweating and we so we did that all day from probably eight, eight thirty in the morning to I guess five or six at night and we got picked up off the line. Most of us were pretty close to running out of water because on the helicopter you you've traveled light right because you're our program's main focus was initial initial attack moving fast on those scenarios. And so we're flying back to to the heli base our support vehicles are in Stead to resupply on water and MRE's and stuff. But on the way there we found we we spotted another smoke over and story counting somewhere So he turned to go there. Obviously it needed it needed some attention. It was starting to crown through the pinyon Juniper, right and so we landed, we offload there. The helicopter takes off to give us bucket work. He's he goes actually he went back for fuel. And then we call in smoke jumpers, they're gonna come in and help us because they're sitting in Stead smokejumper plan comes over, they dropped their guys and part of their gear. And then a thunder cell moves over. And so when a cell moves over, two things happen, right? One, oftentimes your fire blows out because of the wind events, right? The downdrafts that come out of it, and two, you lose your aircraft, because they can fly for the same reason. And so our helicopter couldn't come back. The jumper plane got sent back and landed, and we're still out of water. We're still out of MRE's. We get drenched. There's lightning crashing all around us, probably two or three strikes within a quarter mile of us. The jumpers got blown around in the wind. So they're scattered out trying to figure out where everybody is. And that was our night, we went to bed with no food, no water, soaking wet, and in the middle of nowhere in the rocks. And you go to bed thinking like, what am I doing with my life? But then, you know, after a week or two, you look at your buddy and you just chuckle about it, because that's part of the adventure
Megan Kay:Dang.
Jamie Roice-Gomes:I would imagine that it was a really like bonding moment with your colleagues. Right?
August Isernhagen:Afterward. Not in the moment, right? Because people are thirsty. They're hungry. They're cold. They're wet. Yeah, temper start to get testy. I remember having to call one of them out. Because he was complaining about I don't remember what the water I think. I had to tell him like, complaining about it isn't helping anybody. Shut up. We'll get water in the morning.
Jordan Buxton:Yeah, They'll drop you some water when they can.
August Isernhagen:but after the fact Yes, then it's bonding, but in the moment it can be testy.
Jordan Buxton:And that's why those relationships are so strong. You go through more with these people than you go with like your freakin' spouse sometimes.
August Isernhagen:Now, there's been numerous times myself in the crew, especially on the helicopter, just flown into the middle of nowhere, like I said, For three, four days. Here's you know, 10 cases MRE and a bunch of cubies. Cubies are five gallon boxes of water and some batteries and we'll see in a few days. Go stop the fire. Yeah.
Jordan Buxton:Thank you for listening to the living with fire podcast. You can find more stories about wildfire and other resources at living with fire dot com. The Living fire program is funded by the University of Nevada, Reno extension, Nevada Division of Forestry Bureau of Land Management and the United States Forest Service.
