Bureau Of Land Management/Flickr Creative Commons
I heard on the news last night that this summer has been declared the worst wildfire season in our nation’s history. Wildfires poses some of their own hazards to us as the RVing population, so I thought I’d ask a friend of mine, who fought wildfires for years as an air tanker pilot, for some advice and hints.
Here’s his email:
“A big wildfire ain’t like in the Planes movie — you don’t see a large amount of trapped tourists threatened by fire… you see property threatened and folks evacuating. Depending on population density, mandatory evacs can cause roads to be choked with people leaving an area that is threatened, which in turn can cause snarls and delays for men and equipment trying to find the quickest way to the fireline.
Remember the fire in Bastrop a few years ago? That was the worst wildfire in Texas history. If I remember correctly it burned over 1600 homes, which was 1500 more than the second worst fire in Texas history. The day that thing started, I was at a roadblock at the corner of Hwys 21 and 95 for several hours and it was absolutely packed with evacuating families traveling away from the fire with whatever they could carry, and in the other direction brush trucks, command vehicles, dozers, pump trucks, and pickups full of VFD were making their way to the flank. It was a very orderly mess.
For me personally, the irony was that this time I wasn’t flying, and this time my family’s ranch was dead in the middle of that huge fire, and I never made a single drop on it. But I spent weeks afterwards cleaning up, rebuilding fence, feeding and watering ours and other folk’s cattle while they built fence, sitting on the porch with a 30/30 to keep the looters out, hauling hay, driving the tractor for us and others, all those community rebuilding type things.
So having been at both ends of wildfire, here’s my advice: If you’re at a campsite in a National Forest or Park and you see smoke, report it immediately. If you get an evac order, don’t whine about how long you’ve planned this trip, or how disappointed you and your kids are, just pack your stuff and git! If you’re traveling and see a big column of smoke on the horizon, go somewhere else. Don’t clog up the highway so you can get a dramatic picture, don’t squat on the shoulder and rubber-neck, don’t flag down the BLM or Forest Service crews and ask em what’s happening, don’t be a moth attracted to a flame.
Here’s what you do: find an alternate route to where ever you’re headed, watch it on the news that night, and if you’re at a gas station or cafe and you see a group of folks in green pants and yellow shirts who look whip strong and like they’ve been rolling around in the dirt for a week, say thank you, shake their hands, and buy their sandwich. They don’t get paid near enough to keep that fire over on the horizon instead of in your backyard.”