The Veteran’s Fire Corps Team, Flagstaff Arizona, not only tackled their second full week with Crew 4 in the Coconino National Forest, but had the opportunity to tackle their first real-life fire as well. Well into the dusk of Monday evening the yearly monsoons reeked havoc within the Coconino National Forest and a single lightning strike set ablaze nearly three quarters of an acre before emergency fire crews could begin fighting it. The wildfire took place within the Crawley wilderness area and was aptly named: The Crawley Fire.
Under the direction of Aaron Greyser, the VFC Team assisted in the containment and final mop-up of the area fire. Although the wildfire was small and nearly contained, a few hundred and thousand hour fuels remained ablaze and hot, smoldering ash still littered the are. Mop-up consisted of digging hand line, water placement with hose-lay and bladder bags, and finally fire-line grid patterns that checked for any remaining heat. The fire was called all-clear and contained after less than 40 hours after the initial lightning strike, and James, Eric, Brian, and Davon of VFC Flagstaff had seen their first real-world forest fire; albeit a very small real-world fire.
