It is a dark and stormy evening. Time for a tale of a fire crew that became a legend.
We were sent against our will to an Eastern Oregon conflagration. Valuable dead lodgepole was on fire. (sarcasm). This was back in the days when our fire guy would not send crews away to such places because, "If something starts up here, I need my people because we have real timber here, not that lodgepole." He would wait till the big bosses made him do so. Plus, we did not need the overtime because we made just as much by staying home. We got to do broadcast burns on weekends and evenings and after that was over, patrol the district on the weekends.
Anyhoo, we had been put on nightshift during week two of our tour de Oregon de east. Nightshift means you have to try to sleep during the hot day in a noisy firecamp. Nightshift is an exercise in sleep deprivation and makes for some cranky people. The fire grew and soon became too big for the type 2 overhead team so a type 1 team moved in. They looked around camp, which was located in a meadowy spot with scattered dead lodgepole around, and decided all the snags needed to be cut down. So, fallers went to work. One tent was hit, but that crew was out. We could not sleep with saws going and trees falling around us.
We were cranky, did I mention that? We were not young enough to be easily intimidated, and half of us were permanent employees. We first tried to work through channels to get the falling stopped. We suggested they fall during shift change. Nope. We got called whiners. The falling went on.
Our sawyer, who was a heck of a worker, and hot tempered at times had had enough. He disappeared. Soon he reappeared with a uniformed Security guy in front and in back. They announced they were sending him home. He had been in the Plans tent (where the big shots are) and fired up his saw and was revving it up yelling "COULD YOU :censored:ING SLEEP WITH THIS GOING ON? COULD YOU? :censored::censored:
They said they were sending him home. We stood up and said then we're all going home, and our people will back up our decision. We told them we could make just as much money at home, and get sleep too.
The security guys' mouths gaped open. They were speechless. The camp boss arrived. They started stuttering--we had ruined their moment. We began moving to pack our gear.
The camp guy then said, "Well, we'll keep you on, but don't do it again." (what a wimp). The falling quit. We went back to try to sleep, and they began falling during shift change. We were branded as "trouble makers", which we did out best to live up to, because when we got sent to Pendleton for a day off, and they told us we could not leave the fenced in rodeo grounds, we climbed over the fence and went on into town. Nobody got into fights, the guys bought nice colorful neckties at the Goodwill Store to wear back in firecamp for supper....But we were called, "That Crew" and we got put in the short bus to ride home when it was time, instead of the comfy tour bus.
That's my story of getting into trouble IN camp.