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Wildland Gear - what do YOU carry in your pack/turnouts?
Ok, it's the dead of winter, I'm tired of plowing snow. Let's talk Wildland! What does everyone keep in their pack? How about their Wildland Turnouts?
Pack: EpiPen, 5 fusees, parachute cord, small first aid kit, 3 liter camelback insert, compass, shelter, extra socks, knife, spare radio batt's, granola bars, extra gloves, bug spray, bug wipes, a couple of Bic lighters, boot laces, RedBook, warning tapes on carabiner, belt kit weather kit. Drywipes (get em wet with water and you have soapy wash cloths for cleaning - EasiCleanse Bath is the brand name), Small container of Purell, prepack of gatorade, lemonade and Iced tea, bandana, small digital camera sometimes, or a disposable camera
Britches: Epipen, extra gloves, spanner wrenches for both toy hose and regular, leatherman on my belt, bug wipes, bandana
Coat: EpiPen, mini-redbook w/redcard, Pen, small notepad
Away Bag (for state mobilizations): Socks, yes, another Epipen, underwear, boot laces, hygiene ditty bag (toothbrush, paste, etc), pre-measured packets of gatorade, lemonade, iced tea to dump into a 1 liter bottle of water, extra bandanas, extra set of britches and coat.
Probably too many EpiPens, but well, if you're allergic to bee's, I'm your guy to be around!
Anything I'm missing? I have a portable GPS, but am reluctant to rely on battery operated devices in the field...
What say you?
Pack: EpiPen, 5 fusees, parachute cord, small first aid kit, 3 liter camelback insert, compass, shelter, extra socks, knife, spare radio batt's, granola bars, extra gloves, bug spray, bug wipes, a couple of Bic lighters, boot laces, RedBook, warning tapes on carabiner, belt kit weather kit. Drywipes (get em wet with water and you have soapy wash cloths for cleaning - EasiCleanse Bath is the brand name), Small container of Purell, prepack of gatorade, lemonade and Iced tea, bandana, small digital camera sometimes, or a disposable camera
Britches: Epipen, extra gloves, spanner wrenches for both toy hose and regular, leatherman on my belt, bug wipes, bandana
Coat: EpiPen, mini-redbook w/redcard, Pen, small notepad
Away Bag (for state mobilizations): Socks, yes, another Epipen, underwear, boot laces, hygiene ditty bag (toothbrush, paste, etc), pre-measured packets of gatorade, lemonade, iced tea to dump into a 1 liter bottle of water, extra bandanas, extra set of britches and coat.
Probably too many EpiPens, but well, if you're allergic to bee's, I'm your guy to be around!
Anything I'm missing? I have a portable GPS, but am reluctant to rely on battery operated devices in the field...
What say you?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Oldman on
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Seems like a BIG overkill on the epi, and you forgot the 200' of hose. Use the portable GPS, just carry extra batteries for it, if you can find the room. Sounds like you are already loaded down. Carrying all of that must make a Pulaski seem light. I can honestly say I do not miss those seasons in the New Mexico mountains.
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Permalink Reply by Paul H on
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Yeah, we have a ton of bees up here, and I'm highly allergic. We tend to pump and roll (see our attack engine/Brush engine in my pic), and are rarely more than 50' away from the truck, but if I need to strap on the toy hose, I can.
My pack's only about 10# when I'm away from the truck, which isn't unreasonable. The bug spray is a 1 ounce spraybottle that I can refill, and the rest of the stuff is really for personal comfort on the fireline.
I've been toying with the GPS, and really need to get more comfortable with it...
Thanks for the reply, was wondering why no one replied... does not every department have a wildland component, or are y'all just Metro?
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I was just giving you a hard time. I am the only on my department who is wildland certified. We do have occasional grass and woods fires and are in an interface zone so the potential is there. We are usually able to get on them fast enough that it's not a really big deal.
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Permalink Reply by Geanine on
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Well, down here in FLA, we get Brush fires.. We don't spend much more than our shift on the fire line. Unless we come back after shift for extra money and structural protection and mop up.. I make sure I carry some endurance food snacks... You can get them at any running store. They are like little gummy drops that will help with your energy for several hours.. I also carry granola bars and gum. The gum helps with the soot in the mouth. In our dept. we never know when or what we will eat on a fast moving interface fire..If you ever come to FL remember that EVERYTHING green or not will burn...... there is not safe area other than the black...
Sorry I don't have much to add to this.
G
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We're 560+ SqMi of rural, so we're all wildland trained, and about 80% of us are red-carded. As you'll see from my pic, our attack engines are combo, with a leaning towards wildland capable. Frankly, I like wildland better than structure, but I'm weird that way.. :)
I wonder what % of the folks are wildland/urban combined like we are.
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Yeah, I'd heard about the green burning. Weird. Do y'all carry your structure gear for all wildland? In wildland season, if we go on a structure call, we throw wildland gear on the rig, and conversly, if we go on a wildland, we throw structure gear on board as well. Our Station Capt is (thankfully) pretty anal about it, and while not every station is, we've seen the benefit of his insistence several times...
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Hey Paul,
Mostly it's always Wildland season. Now that we have had some cooler weather, it dried everything out and the humidity has dropped. So we are prime. We haven't had much rain latelty here either.
We always have our structure gear ready in the unit, and most of the folks carry a seperate bag with wildland gear in it. During the time when we know that it's hot/humid/ and dry, our department will allow us to wear our green pants for shift work so that we are ready. Most times the guys change at the station before or enroute.
Speaking of wildfire-We call them Brush fires. Last week the temps got around 50 during the day, some workers were trying to keep warm with a burning pile of wood--Well it was also blowing 20K winds, so the embers blew into the brush and it ran hard and fast. We have ALOT of Urban interface issues. I belive the call was made to let the fire burn, with priority on protecting exposures. We had trucks down every driveway. We don't try to stop it, just protect what we can.
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Permalink Reply by Kevin King on
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No where but black or wet anywhere,well rock.
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He Geanine: Yeah, we call it wildland... we have brush fires, but ya know, it's a terminology thing. We end wildland around November until May/June if we're unlucky, July if we are lucky. We're under snow right now.
We have a ton of urban interface issues - from people not wanting to keep defensible space to high winds. We sent 2 crews to SoCal this year as well.
Generally, we put them out if we can, or create a line and backburn. But we always get them out. Of course, exposures are always #1.
Stay safe.
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Oh, absolutely on the books man... leave em on the truck. I have a little notepad that I carry with me, and a small reference booklet about the size of a notepad that I carry with me, but anything more, it stays on the truck.
My reference booklet has neighboring agencies and their equip, frequency references, small maps of our district, etc. Maybe 30 pages? And it fits in my breast pocket. I also keep my redcard in there, so that's the primary reason I carry it (I usually leave my wallet in my POV before we take off, carrying only my license, VISA, and Redcard (and any money my kid's hadn't swiped out of said wallet...))
I'm 160# and my pack weighs (less water and shelter) about 7 pounds, and it's 4.5% of my body weight. It's about 16 pounds with full water and shelter, again, 10% of my body weight.
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Hello Paul,
All of our front line personnel are Wildland Certified. We have had several get deployed to California to N. Carolina. Some were in parks picking up trash as a Strike team and others were on the front lines in California. I decided to stay and work their OT.
We usually make a stand with the Engine backed into the driveways, lines pulled to protect the structure then move to the next street/neighborhood as the fire goes over.
Last year, we had a heavy fire load, fast moving fire 3/4 mile wide moving toward a Urban Interface neigborhood. As an aspiring DC last year, I got to be on the residence closest to the oncoming fire with a group of 4 week newbies. You should of seen their face- well, you couldn't because their EYES were so big. The Plane with retardant flew within 150 feet of our location and dropped retardant ahead of the fire and when it hit it, it DIED within 100 feet of us...I've only heard of that happening, but I got to see it first hand. WOW what a site.
Here's the kicker--Two residences down, there is a TIGER rescue with over 30 Siberian Tigers in cages--The owner wanted Animal Control to shoot them if the fire got to them so they wouldn't suffer. We were worried of them getting out.!! So there were Gunman everwhere..
Top that one!!
Thanks, stay safe!!
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Roger that Geanine... I love watching newbies as the beast approaches (now you know why I carry extra underwear in my pack... I make a TON of money.. ;)
We call out the PBY's PDQ around here, as soon as we get a second alarm, PBY's are enroute. Call em early, call em often! :)
We get a fair amount of wildlife issues here as well, a couple of bears, LOTS of deer (Bambi is NOT your friend when she is running from fire...), some elk (for such a big animal, it can sure haul ass!) and an occasional moose. Never had to deal with Tiger rescue, I wonder what my toy hose will do to defend me... Hmmm.. prolly nothin.
I learned something really cool this year tho, if you've got a bee's nest in a tree, you can use class a foam and it kills em. (very important for us who are allergic!)
Stay safe everyone!
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