I've heard a lot of firefighters talk about this is a problem. He says they've gotten injured and even died in car accidents, tired and in a rush to get home after a fire. Pete can't stop worrying even when they're off the fire and get to go home. A lot of them are pretty new to this job. He's in charge of a bunch of guys in their 20s. It feels like dumb luck that Pete hasn't seen a death on his own crew. Suicide and PTSD have risen among wildland firefighters. Afterward, another member of the crew who'd been upset about his death went missing. Little T was once in a fire where a plane accidentally dumped thousands of gallons of flame retardant on a firefighter from another crew, killing him.Īnd then, earlier this season, a squad boss like Pete died while fighting the El Dorado fire in Southern California. Firefighters get cut by chainsaws, crushed by boulders, and into car wrecks on dirt roads. There's so many ways you can get hurt or die on a wildfire. But the ash is probably the biggest part because you're just constantly breathing in ash. So your boots are getting torn up on these big boulders. [(SUBJECT) ZACH HANSON: Every day, you're like, we're doing it again? Again, we got to go up there? And there is about a foot of ash the whole time on the ground and your foot sinking into the ground. Here's one of the rookies on Little T, Zach Hanson. They had to keep going back there for two weeks. It's a brutal 2.8 mile trek to their job site. They then drive out on a narrow backcountry road, pull up alongside a mountain, and start hiking in the wilderness. They even carry their own stretcher because if one of them gets hurt, they're on their own. After that morning briefing, they load onto their buggies with backpacks crammed with chainsaw fuel, tools, and water. Here's a typical day for the hotshots at camp. Little T is now majority Latino with a lot of first generation firefighters like Pete, kids of immigrants. They sleep in their uniforms so they can squeeze in a few extra minutes of rest each morning. And they sleep right on the asphalt, right next to where they work in tents they've pitched. Like most people at the camp, Kory and RJ work 16-hour days. The base camp that Miki met RJ and Kory at, it was like a mini city with a makeshift laundromat, a cafeteria, a mechanic shop, sleep trailers with triple bunk beds. Putting out a fire that large is a mammoth task. When Miki visited, the Creek fire had been going for nearly two months. They have the same day over and over and over, until the fire's out. After that, the hoses go out to the fire line again, then back to the hose rolling crews, then back to the place where they're cleaned over and over, week after week after week, which is life at a fire camp. Next step in this process, they wind the hoses up in coils, put them on pallets, wrap them in plastic wrap, and send them to be cleaned.
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