(This is a question I asked in one of the wildland groups, but thought I'd share with everyone...)
Can anyone explain to me why it seems the mid-west and east coasters have such a hard time wearing the proper wildland ppe on fires? I am forever seeing pitures of various levels of dress; from "full bunkers" all the way down to levis and t-shirt...... At the very least, WHERE IS YOUR SHELTER!!!! Now don't get me wrong, I see it on the west coast as well (however, not very often) and I understand that there are A LOT more volunteer dept's over there and most have little to no budget and some require members to buy their own gear. But come-on!!! We need to be safe out there. And please don't get me started on some structural dept's mind set reguarding wildland firefighting......GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!