The state’s Division of Forests and Lands wildfire crew couldn’t have picked a better day than Saturday to leave the state.
With a coming storm, the day’s fire danger rating was a Class 1, the lowest level that can be declared using the state’s ranking system of 1 through 5.
But as the crew loaded their gear and climbed onto a bus, they were headed to different territory: the Rocky Mountains, where thousands of acres of forest fires have been raging for the past week. They don’t know where, exactly, they’ll be assigned, but the fires they are likely to face are of sizes unheard of in this state.
The smallest, two miles south of Frisco, Colo., is 84 acres, and is believed to have been caused by human activity, according to the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center. By comparison Stoddard, N.H., saw a 100-acre brush fire last year that required response from more than 100 firefighters over two days, and included the use of water-carrying helicopters and a National Guard Blackhawk.
The largest current western wildfire is simply dubbed the “Peekaboo” incident, named after the Colorado mountain ridge where it started. The lightning-sparked blaze began sometime earlier this week – and with 0 percent of the 11,700-acre fire contained on Saturday, it’s unlikely to shrink any time soon.
But that’s what members of the wildfire crew signed up for, said Doug Miner, a forest ranger with the state’s Forest Protection Bureau. He said requests for help with a series of fires usually take a few days once they are posted before volunteers sign up to help.
Not this time. The New Hampshire wildfire crew and one firefighter from Connecticut picked up this assignments within minutes of its posting on Wednesday, Miner said.
“It really speaks to how busy the Rocky Mountain area is getting with fires,” he said. “…They’re already begging for resources.”
Crew members were bused to Harrisburg, Pa., where they will join four other teams from the Eastern states before flying to Denver on Sunday. The crews will be on a two-week deployment plus travel time, and are likely to work 12- to 14-hour days.
Western states can’t afford to staff the number of firefighters needed to combat huge blazes year-round, so they rely on on-call wildfire crews to pitch in. And Miner said the New Hampshire crew is one of the best around, known internationally for their work ethic. When fires rage in the Quebec woods, they’re often called first.
“We try to make the assets available nationally because there’s a lot of value to our state program, as well, when we have these firefighters going out and gaining that experience and knowledge. They’re better trained to deal with larger fires back here in New Hampshire when we do have them,” Miner said.
Just ask Ron Klemarczyk of Hopkinton who has been with the wildfire crew since 1977, one year after it was founded in the state. He’s been to all four corners of the continent during his 22 trips with the crew, and has become a chainsaw expert. He’s no stranger to the fires they’ll be facing.
“One of the things you see out west that you don’t see here is that there’s a lot of high terrain, extremely dry terrain,” he said. “And water is fairly scarce, so that’s going to be an obstacle.”
Klemarczyk started out as a firefighter, but has since worked his way up to squad boss, and will be responsible for four firefighters once he gets their assignment. He was 23 when he saw his first 100,000-acre blaze. Unfortunately, fires of those size are relatively common nowadays, Klemarczyk said, due to climate change.
“It was spectacular,” he said. “You weren’t prepared for the amount of fire you saw.”
Then there’s David Smith of Newbury who just finished his freshman year at Southern Maine Community College and is working as a live-in intern at the Scarborough, Maine, fire department. He’s never seen fires this big, and most of his courses are geared toward New Hampshire-style fires. He’s anticipating he’ll learn a lot.
“I’m a little nervous, sure, but I’m mostly excited for the opportunity,” he said.
Is Klemarczyk, with 40 years of experience, nervous? He laughs when asked, but then his face becomes serious.
“If it’s a really spectacular fire, you run away and take pictures,” he said. “It’s different than a structure fire when there’s a human life in danger. No amount of acres is worth a human life.”
(Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. Caitlin Andrews can be reached at 369-3309, candrews@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @ActualCAndrews.)