I carry an old military ALICE setup with a belt and suspenders. I have a shelter, butt pack and two canteen pouches for my junk. Then a bladder pack that goes on my back and a pouch for my GPS unit on one of the shoulder straps.
We try not to work too far away from the tanker - which means that all but a water bottle stays on the vehicle. Our forestry firefighters carry more, they are the ones that do the dry firefighting - for the most part.
I'm firm in my belief that a proper rake-hoe is big, yellow, has tracks and something like 'D9' written on it somewhere...
I carry a thielsen line pack....I use a combi-tool.....My tool depends on where I'm fighting fire....I carry lots of stuff with me...For that I am a crewboss....If anyone would like to know what carry I would be more than happy to give them the list....Most of the time i wont be doing a whole lot of grunt work (Diggin line)....But I always carry a tool with me....
Mine is a Nimrod, it's alittle bigger than the Thielsen. Which is both good and bad, I can carry more stuff, but that translates to mor weight. With a Camelback add on I carry 1.5 gallons of water. The only thing I will trade my combi for is a saw!
I typically wear a Thielsen Dozer harness, carries my new gen fire shelter, compass, snacks, extra gloves and a water bottle; along with a radio harness for my BK portable. my tractor plow is my "tool", so I don't carry much gear with me, extra stays on the transport, except my cooler, in case it turns out to be a long night with no dinner
Thielsen line pack and am on an engine now for Grayback Forestry,Medford Oregon
Permalink Reply by Dave on August 31, 2009 at 3:59pm
As an Engine Capt in OR for the US Forest Service, I currently use a Nimrod pack. I can detach the pack and just keep the shelter for those fires where I won't be very far from my engine, and then when it's a hike in, I can put it all together again. Most of the time I just keep it all together though... that way everything is in one spot. It's heavier, but I look at it as conditioning for when I do have to hike in. I have used several forms of pack over my nearly 20 years of fire fighting, Eagle Gear, Pack Shack, Top Stitch and of course the FSS yellow. I think my favorite was the Top Stitch, followed by the current Nimrod. Everyone has one they find fits them better than another.