How America Works (2021) s03e02 Episode Script

1
- Where there's
smoke, there's fire.
And where there's fire, there
might be barbecues blazing
or Boy Scouts camping
or chestnuts roasting.
Or there might be
thousands of acres
of forest burning
out of control,
threatening countless lives
and billions of
dollars in property.
A couple years ago,
the men and women
at Fremont Fire
in Northern
California allowed me
to suit up with them
and enter a burning building.
Under their close supervision
and in full turnout gear,
I was led into this building
and given a four-inch hose
that was spewing hundreds of
gallons of water every minute
and directed to knock down
an enormous wall of flame.
It was terrifying.
Nothing compared to what
you are about to see,
but I learned on that
day that television
and the movies were
simply incapable
of capturing the reality,
the intensity, the
danger, the sound,
and the sheer terror
of fighting a fire
that's truly out of control.
What these people do on our
behalf is mind boggling.
And a simple thanks
just isn't gonna cut it,
so let me say it like this:
Our nation's firefighters
are the best among us
and a critical part
of how America works.
(tense music)
Of all the public servants
that keep our country running,
few are quite so essential
or iconic as the fireman.
After all, it takes a
certain kind of somebody
to run into a blaze when most
of us would run away from it.
But thanks to the elite few who
are willing to do just that,
millions more have
a fighting chance
against the almighty flame.
It's an ongoing battle
that plays out more
than 3,000 times a day
of across our country.
And nowhere on a larger scale
than in the great outdoors.
Out here, more than
a million acres
of land are incinerated
each and every year.
And when those fires
collide with civilization,
they can result in property
destroyed and lives lost.
But not if our nation's wildland
firefighters can help it.
Take the ones at Grayback
Forestry, for example.
Here in Southern Oregon,
they work off the grid
and around the clock
to ensure nearby towns
and their citizens are kept
safe from backcountry blazes.
And today, that means
conducting what's known
as a prescribed burn,
or simply put, creating a
forest fire they can control
before Murphy's law
lights up one they can't.
It's a technique through
which firefighters
like these will
neutralize 3 million acres
of burnable land per year.
And it starts with a
good bit of prep work.
Just ask Lance Wolters here.
- We have to make sure that
everything is absolutely perfect
so that we don't lose a burn.
Everything's gotta be secured
and controlled before we
put fire on the ground.
- [Mike] To do that,
Lance and his
colleagues will create
a fire-resistant
perimeter, or line,
to keep the burn contained,
all 1,000 acres of it.
Then, when conditions
are just right,
they'll light it all up
and keep an eye
out for any embers
that try to jump the line.
First though, they'll need
to ensure there's plenty
of water standing by.
And that is where
Lance comes in.
- Yeah, it looks like this
is gonna be a real good spot.
We'll be able to patrol
this line right here
with the engine.
We'll get a hose lay
ran all the way up
over this ridge down here.
Make sure we're on
this draw real tight.
Everything is under control
and burning exactly
like we want it to.
- [Mike] For this burn,
Grayback will need about
30,000 gallons of water,
or enough to fill a really
big backyard swimming pool.
But up here in the mountains,
Lance and his team fill what's
known as a pumpkin instead.
- They're super mobile. We
can carry them around with us.
They're easy to drain,
roll back up, move on.
And so we will have
the 1,500 gallons
of water that's in this,
plus the 1100 gallons that's
in our engine at all times
for a good supply of water.
Okay, now that this is filled,
we'll go ahead
and disconnect him
and send him on his way out
to get his next load of water
so that we got
water coming back.
- [Mike] With 2,600 gallons
of water now staged on site,
all that's left is
to lay out some hose,
about eight football
fields' worth,
strategically placed
for maximum coverage.
But a seasoned pro
like Lance can knock
that out in minutes flat.
- [Lance] Everybody struggles
at the very beginning,
but we do so much throwing hose
that you get pretty good at it.
- [Mike] Once that's done,
Lance will also need to
install about 15 lateral lines,
which are basically
just offshoots
from the main hose
placed every 200 feet.
- So this is gonna be our first
lateral that we'll hook up.
We run gated wyes on our lateral
so that we can keep it closed
in case we don't need
to use that water there.
Always keep our trunk line
as it continues to open
so it eliminates
any waste of water.
We don't ever wanna
waste any water
'cause water's hard to come by.
- [Mike] Actually, with the
nearest river 10 miles away,
it's really hard to come by.
And since the next
truckful won't arrive
for another 90 minutes,
it's on Lance to conserve the
water he has as best he can.
- We'll go ahead and get
some pressure coming down.
Check all these fittings
and make sure we got
no leaks anywhere.
Josh, go ahead and
start pumping water.
Let's go ahead and run
pressure up just over 100.
So you see the hose expand
all the way completely full.
You can feel how tight it is.
You don't ever
want it too tight,
but I mean, good, firm
on your trunk line,
especially when we're
checking for any leaks.
We got good water down here.
And now we'll just
walk our line back up
and make sure that there's no
leaky spots, no blown hoses.
So far everything
looks real good.
Last gated wye lateral
coming off. No leaks.
It's what we wanna see.
(tense music)
So now we'll continue
on up the line and
Oh shit.
(tense music)
Yeah, go ahead and shut down,
shut down. We got a leak.
- [Mike] A hefty water
supply is critical
to keeping controlled
burns, well, under control,
but it's not the only method.
There's also the
rather sizable task
of creating a
10,000-foot perimeter
to keep this burn contained.
A fireproof line, if you will.
And heading that up are guys
like sawyer extraordinaire
Garrett Ahrens.
- We prepare ourself
by doing project work.
We're out here on these
steep inclines every day,
kind of thinning out all
the trees, making spacing.
Try and do everything
that we possibly can
to make it easier
to control fire
if it happens to come
through this area.
- [Mike] It's a pretty
straightforward concept:
Remove anything that burns
and the fire should die
out when it hits the line.
But pulling that off
is all about strategy.
- [Garrett] Then we're gonna
bring the line up through here,
kind of come to the right
where it's not so thick.
- [Mike] By maneuvering
around the heavier stuff,
Garrett and his team can clear
100 feet of brush every hour.
But when working in
such rugged terrain,
the odd setback is bound
to happen sooner or later.
- So right now, it
just threw my chain.
This happens pretty frequently.
As simple as a
little stick you get
between your chain and your bar,
and it kind of just pops it off.
- [Mike] Fortunately
for Garrett,
popping a chain back on
is something he also
does pretty frequently.
- Wanna loosen your bar nuts,
kind of get your chain slid
back down to your sprocket.
Once you're on your sprocket,
you can roll your chain
back up to your nose,
slide that over,
and you should build to just
get it all tightened back up
and back to cutting.
- [Mike] Garrett and his
fellow sawyers are experts
at clearing steep
terrain by hand.
But for your more mild slopes,
Grayback also employs
heavy machinery.
And at the helm, guys
like Nathon Wheelock.
- All right, this is
my starting point.
I'm gonna try to make it up
here. Looks a little steep.
We'll see what we can do.
- [Mike] Just like the sawyers,
Nathon's mission is to cut the
fire line for today's burn,
about 3,000 feet of it.
And to do it,
he relies on a machine
known as a masticator
to chew through trees
and undergrowth.
- The goal: Clear
this thicker brush.
Kind of down to
chips, if you can.
It leaves less fuel
when it's chipped up.
Kind of disperses it a
lot better. Come on, baby.
- [Mike] In the right hands,
this masticator can lay down
about 300 feet of
fire line per hour,
but in the thicker brush,
Nathon must also ensure
he doesn't push his
equipment too hard.
- Come on, get off there.
Now we got a branch
just hung up in here,
and I don't want
it to catch a hose.
So take 20 seconds
to get it off,
and then we can keep on going.
- [Mike] But as Nathon's
about to find out,
the damage he's trying to avoid
may have already been done.
- Come on. Not
getting any movement.
Houston, We have a problem.
- [Mike] You don't need
a degree in pyrology
to appreciate the
destructive forces of fire.
It's kind of built into our DNA.
But just how much mayhem can
this chemical reaction cause?
Well, in a typical year,
the US will suffer from
more than a million fires,
from homes to automobiles
to industrial complexes.
And all that comes
at quite the cost:
Like $14 billion in damages,
16,000 Americans injured,
and another 3,000 lives lost.
Such are the stakes when
flames burn out of control,
which is why in Southern Oregon
the firefighters of Grayback
Forestry are conducting
a prescribed burn on
1,000 acres of land
before this tinderbox
touches off on its own.
But while clearing
the perimeter needed
to keep this fire contained,
machine Sean Nathon
Wheelock has found himself
with a machine that
isn't operating.
- I'm not getting function
in my controls up front.
So I don't know if I
caught a hydraulic line or.
Ah, yeah, there it is.
- [Mike] Hydraulic lines
like this one supply power
to Nathon's front assembly,
and replacing them can take
hours he does not have.
Fortunately though, that
may not be necessary.
- So if you look at these lines,
there shouldn't be any thread
that you can see that's visible.
So you can tell this one's
the only one showing thread,
so it got backed off of here.
So we'll just tighten that up.
And looks like that
ought to do it.
We'll see though. (laughs)
(tense music)
- [Mike] With the nut
once again tightened,
all Nathon can do now
is hope his quick fix
worked as intended.
- All right.
So yeah, I'm gonna hop back in,
move it around, see if
it's squirting out anymore.
If not, I think
we're good to go.
(upbeat music)
It's holding.
Got function back in.
My do-up seems to
be working good.
That was the only issue.
- [Mike] With another 2,000
feet of fire line to clear,
Nathon will need to
pick up the pace.
After all, he knows
better than most just
how important burns
like these can be.
- It ain't all about the
money as far as I'm concerned.
And I would say that
most firefighters have
that same mentality.
People's lives are at stakes.
People's homes and
lands and everything.
It's extremely important.
Just about finished
with the masticator.
We go park this
thing, grab the dozer,
and then I gotta go dig some
fire line and finish it off.
Come on, man.
- [Mike] Meanwhile,
higher uphill,
sawyer Garrett Ahrens and
his team's contribution
to the fire line is
also coming along,
with just 500 feet of
brush left to clear
before they can move
on to the next stage.
First though, Garrett will need
to remove some low-hanging fuel
that the fire might
otherwise reach.
- We'll kind of limb
up about eight feet.
And that's just reducing
the ladder fuels.
These are all ladder fuels.
When the fuel's
burning on the ground,
it's gonna kind of
creep up into the tree,
grab all these branches, and
that will start a crown run.
- [Mike] A crown run
basically just means fire
that makes its way
into the forest canopy,
which, for obvious reasons,
is something Garrett and
his team want to avoid.
So toward that end,
they'll also need to
clear the perimeter
of any dead standing
trees, like this one.
- If fire happens
to get into this,
it's gonna cross our line.
Kind of just spot me,
look out for this limb.
It might snap back on me.
Hopefully it'll hit
the ground safely.
- [Mike] Garrett doesn't
usually need a spotter
to drop a large tree,
but dead ones like
these are notorious
for falling in
unpredictable ways.
So his partner, Eli, will
keep an eye on the cut
and pipe up fast if
he spots trouble.
- Back cut, downhill.
(intense music)
(intense music)
(tree crackling)
Clear.
- [Mike] And with that,
Garrett and his team should
now be in the home stretch.
- All right, Eli, so we'll get
this bucked up, cleaned up,
kind of out of the way.
We've got roughly two and
a half acres complete,
so we're almost there.
- Sounds good.
- [Mike] Not far away,
things aren't
progressing quite so well
for water handler Lance Wolters,
who, while laying out
3,000 feet of fire hose.
- [Lance] Shut down, shut down.
- [Mike] Has discovered a leak.
- [Lance] Looks like this
hose has blown either inside.
It's not tightening up anymore,
so we probably got
a blown gasket.
And yeah, it's
definitely the gasket.
It's gonna have to be replaced.
- [Mike] For that,
Lance heads back up
to the water engine
where he keeps just
about every spare part a
firefighter could need.
- No matter what breaks,
no matter what fails,
we can always replace
it while we're here
so that there's not a
big delay in the time
it could support water
'cause then that's
an opportunity for
the fire to escape.
- [Mike] Not on Lance's watch.
And with a brand-new
gasket in hand,
he should now be able to
fix this hose for good.
- Once you got that
new rubber in there,
you screw it back together.
And then we can
recharge the line.
Go ahead and send us more water.
There's our water
pressure again.
No leak. Looks good.
No waste of water.
That's what we wanna see.
- [Mike] That's one
leak dealt with.
But while inspecting the
last 1,000 feet of hose,
Lance is quick to spot another.
- So these little
leaks like this,
they don't seem like
they're that big of a deal
when it's just a little tiny
bit of water leaking out,
but when we're
pumping water all day,
we're losing hundreds of
gallons a day with a small leak,
and it can get worse,
which could blow the
line and jeopardize
when the guys are really
needing the water down below.
So tighten her up, and
hopefully that's all it is.
All right, let's go ahead
and pump water again, Josh.
- [Josh] Copy that.
- There we go. No leak.
Looks like our
entire line's done.
Let's go ahead and get
back up to the truck,
make sure everything's good
there, and get this burn going.
- [Mike] It takes a
whole lot of manpower
to fight our country's fires.
In all, just over a million
men and women working
for nearly 30,000
departments nationwide.
That's more of warm bodies
than you'll find
in law enforcement.
And it's because your
typical house fire takes
at least 10 people to put out.
Wildfires, on the other hand,
require far more than that.
Like the 30 personnel
at Grayback Forestry
in Southern Oregon,
whose sole mission today is
to safely burn a
1,000-acre plot of land
before man or nature lights
it up by accident or surprise.
But first, they
need to be ready,
which for sawyers like
Garrett Ahrens means digging
a 7,000-foot-long perimeter
to keep the fire
contained, all by hand.
- Right now we're just scraping
away all the leaf litter,
all the small little roots,
anything that's
possibly gonna burn
once the fire creeps
up to our line.
We're getting pretty
much mineral soil.
So once the fire creeps up
to this, it should just die.
What we don't want in our line
is this duffy,
rotten wood material.
This will still dry out and burn
and potentially cross our line.
Same with any roots
that are kind of
in the middle of
the line like this.
If this were to go
all the way across,
the fire could
potentially travel
that across the other
side of our line.
- [Mike] In addition to
removing duff, roots,
and other debris,
Garrett and his team must
also neutralize
larger fuel sources,
like this 60-foot oak.
- I want you to FDR
around the oak tree
and make sure the fire
stays out of that moss.
- [Firefighter] Got it.
- FDR is fuel density removal.
And that basically
just means we want
to take as much
burnable material away
from that tree to
keep fire out of it.
- [Mike] With the fuel
sources cleared from its base,
this oak tree should
be able to withstand
about 1,000 degrees
without igniting.
But for your more combustible
stuff like this dry stump,
Garrett's only option
is total removal.
- Sometimes you can remove
them if they're rotten enough.
You can kind of just
beat them out of the way.
Sometimes it is easier
just to do that.
- [Mike] With the stump cleared,
Garrett and his team make
short work of the final stretch
and wind down their shift
with 7,000 feet of
freshly dug fire line.
- All right, guys.
Line's tied and complete.
Let's call it a day.
- [Mike] Further downhill,
and thanks to precious time
loss to a hydraulic issue,
machine Sean Nathon
Wheelock still has
some catching up to do.
And with the brush now cleared,
he swapped his masticator
for a 16-ton dozer,
which should be able to dig
the last of the fire line
in next to no time.
- Going down from the top.
- [Mike] By working downhill,
Nathon can boost his pushing
power by about five tons
and keep his dozer positioned
for maximum stability.
But when working on
terrain this varied,
sometimes sidehilling
is the only option,
albeit not a great one.
(tense music)
(tense music)
- [Mike] While Nathon struggles
to finish up the fire
line, a couple ridges over,
another of Grayback's
teams is already gearing up
to start the prescribed burn.
And at the forefront of
that effort are veteran
firefighters like Jake Adams.
- There's an awful
lot of legwork
that goes into a
prescribed fire operation.
So we gotta get out, scout
around through the terrain,
make sure that everything
is where we want it,
and everything's looking good
for conducting the operation.
- [Mike] As part
of that prep work,
Jake will also need to
conduct a smaller burn,
just to see how this
particular patch
of forest takes the flame.
- Time for us to get
our test fire going.
See if we've got
conditions in place now
to get this show on the road.
And we'll just put a little
fire on the ground in here
and see what kind
of reaction it has.
- [Mike] For that,
Jake employs a wildland
firefighter's best friend,
aside from water, of course.
- This is my drip torch here
with our three-to-one,
three parts diesel,
one part, gasoline mix.
Makes it easy to light.
What I'm trying to
figure out here is
to see if we can get this
fire to influence itself.
So we can see here that we
do have some receptive fuels.
It's started burning.
Now we'll see how well
it'll actually spread.
So we're gonna let
this kind of see
how much it starts to back
its way down the hill.
And at this point though,
if we're getting
the effects we want,
we can start running
strips across the hill
and start actually
getting our burn moving.
- [Mike] Well, not quite yet.
Because to start
the actual burn,
Jake will also need the go ahead
from Grayback's command center.
- We've got fairly
decent fire behavior.
I'm looking at,
out of the piles,
maybe three to
four-foot flame lengths
and about six inch to a
foot long flame lengths
out of the leaf litter.
Do you want us to
continue with firing?
- Good, copy.
- [Mike] As you might expect,
Grayback won't
approve a full-on burn
unless the conditions
are nigh on perfect.
So hopefully a little more test
burning will bear that out.
- Now we're gonna kind of
let this thing do its thing,
see how it reacts,
and then we'll make
our decision on
whether we go or
no go from there.
- [Mike] When it comes to
our nation's firefighters,
they say many of them
don't do what they do
for the money.
And okay, that tracks,
but the money they save
us is more considerable
than you might think.
That's because just one
firefighter holding down
a $45,000 a year salary
is likewise responsible
for protecting upwards of $100
million worth of property.
Then, of course, you've got
your volunteer firefighters,
whose services amount to
about $46 billion per
year free of charge
to the American public.
So yeah, it's safe to say
they're not the greedy sort.
Take the wild firefighters
of Grayback Forestry,
for example,
who, in Southern Oregon,
are earning more than their keep
by conducting a prescribed burn
on 1,000 acres of backcountry,
a burn that could save
countless square miles of life,
land, and property beyond.
That is, just as soon as
firefighter Jake Adams confirms
by way of a test burn
that they are ready
to start the real thing.
- We had our test fire
area right through here.
Things did come
together pretty well.
Fire was moving around,
backing down the
hill on its own.
It's exactly what
we're looking for.
- Test fire's
looking pretty good.
We are getting fire
to come together,
and it's starting to
back down the hill.
- [Mike] And with that,
it's time to light
up the mountainside.
- So we're just
starting out our burn,
getting our head
strip rolling here.
And so far, everything's
coming together really nicely.
We're able to stagger
our strips a little bit
and make this fire
influence itself,
come together on its own.
So, so far, so good.
With the gentle wind
we have right now,
it's actually helping
us out quite a bit.
You can see my fire carrying
a little bit more effectively
with this wind hitting it.
That's perfect, what
we're looking for.
- [Mike] But even though
the wind is in their favor,
the same can't quite be
said for the shadier spots,
which apparently
are still holding on
to a good bit of moisture.
- It's like night
and day difference
in the shade and the sunshine.
When we get into the
pockets of shade,
we aren't getting that fire
to carry nearly as well.
And it's just because in
those areas of sunshine,
that much warmer,
that much dryer,
changes the the
whole show for us.
- [Mike] To allow time
for the whole mountainside
to dry out, Jake and
his colleagues will have
to take a little break and
hope conditions improve soon.
- So at this temperature,
with our current conditions,
we're sitting at 60%
moisture content in the air.
And that stifles
our fire behavior.
On a wildfire,
that's a great thing.
For a prescribed fire,
it's kind of a thorn in my butt.
- [Mike] Not far away,
machine Sean Nathon
Wheelock is dealing
with problems of his own.
Specifically, a patch of land
that still needs to be bulldozed
to complete the fire line.
Unfortunately for him,
a steep sidehill is making that
a little harder than usual.
- Sliding. Kind of hung up here.
I'm gonna try to
push myself out.
Hopefully this'll work.
See what we got.
I'll try my grapples to help
push me down this last piece.
- [Mike] But with a
little maneuvering.
- [Nathon] There we go.
- [Mike] Nathon
soon finds himself
back on gravity's good side.
(uplifting music)
- [Mike] And with only
100 or so feet left to go,
it's all downhill from here.
- [Mike] While Nathon
puts his dozer to bed,
further up the mountain,
some of Grayback's more
high tech equipment
is just hitting the scene.
That's because in recent years,
wildland firefighters have come
to appreciate the merits
of unmanned drones.
And the man behind this one is
chief pilot David McConnell.
- [David] The drone
itself has six arms.
It's a hexacopter, so
looking at six props.
- [Mike] With 50
pounds of lifting force
and a two-mile range,
this baby can provide
unmatched surveillance,
and if needed, start
fires of its own.
That is, just as
soon as David's gone
through the
pre-flight checklist.
- I'm checking the blades
for nicks, any cracks.
The next thing I'll do
is set up my take off
and landing area.
Okay. Controller is
on, battery charged.
- [Mike] And not
a moment too soon.
- [Mike] Because it seems
that David's services are
needed on the burn site.
- Go ahead, Sean.
- Copy that. I'll let you
know when I'm in the air.
- [Mike] A burning
snag means some
of the fire has made
its way into a tree
where it could easily send
sparks outside the fire line.
So David will need to
put eyes on the situation
to ensure it hasn't
done just that.
- [David] Adams, McConnell.
- [David] Yeah, I think
I'm on station right there
where you were talking about.
You got the drone
in sight there?
- So what I'm doing right now
is flying the control line
to make sure there's
no spot fires outside.
I'm seeing heat on the
correct side of the fire line
and none on the wrong side.
So looking good.
- [David] Copy that.
- [Mike] That's one
flight in the books.
But when conducting
a prescribed burn,
the calls never seem to stop.
- [David] Yeah, affirmative.
I'm up in the air
for Jake right now.
- [David] All right, copy
that. Head up that way.
- [Mike] Every 23 seconds.
That's how often a new
fire flares up somewhere
in these united states.
Every 23 seconds.
Small wonder then
that the firefighters
of our nation spend a
combined 300 years combating
those blazes every single day.
But here in Southern Oregon,
with wildfire season
just around the corner,
the folks at Grayback
Forestry aren't waiting around
for the next conflagration.
Rather, they've gone
on the offensive
and ignited 1,000 acres
worth of backcountry
to burn on their terms.
And now, just an hour or so in,
everything seems to be going
as well as can be expected.
Just ask Lance Wolters,
the man in charge of making
sure there's plenty of water
to keep this fire in check.
- One nice thing about this,
with this being a
controlled burn,
we have the ability
to take our time,
make sure everything's in place,
exactly how we want it set up
because it's a
controlled environment.
- [Garrett]
Unfortunately for Lance,
this environment
may not be quite
as controlled as he'd like.
- Oh (beep).
- [Mike] A fact evidenced
by an alarming lack
of water in this reservoir,
one that should be
receiving regular top offs
from the team's water truck.
- [Lance] T-6, Wolters.
- Yeah, watch your ETA. We're
getting real low on water.
- Copy that.
- [Mike] With the water truck
apparently running behind,
all Lance can do now
is relay the shortage
to the firefighters below
and hope they can make due.
- Holding, Wolters.
Be advised, we're
real low on water.
Try and use as
little as possible.
Even though this is a
controlled burn situation,
we can't be wasting water.
We can't waste water
with anything we do.
We gotta have it.
It's hard to get it.
It takes time to get
it in and out of here.
We can't waste water.
- [Mike] He's not wrong,
but for the moments, there's
not much Lance can do
but wait for the truck,
and in the meantime, give
the site a quick walkthrough.
- I'll start going
over the engine.
Keep continually
monitoring everything
and just be cleaning
stuff up nonstop,
making sure
everything's good to go.
Oh (beep), is that
outside the line?
Hey, Holding, Wolters.
Looks like we got
fire outside the line.
I'm gonna take a
look at it myself.
- [Mike] While Lance deals
with the spot fire
further downhill,
and having waited out
some wet conditions,
fireman Jake Adams and
his colleagues are back
to burning and
making good progress.
- [Jake] Things have dried
out a little bit more.
We've got our humidities
down, our temperatures up,
and now we're back in business.
- [Mike] Even so,
humidity levels here are
still on the high side,
so Jake and company are trying
a more aggressive approach
to maintaining their burn.
- We aren't getting the fire
behavior we were hoping for
to carry our fire,
which means we had to change up
and move into that
stack and sweep format.
We're just gonna have each
lighter basically chasing
the next so that we'll
develop rows and rows of heat
that'll progressively build up
and dry out the fuels to
get our fire to carry.
Conditions are
constantly changing.
And so as lighters,
we have to be
constantly adjusting
and observing the conditions
and making fine-tune
adjustments as we go.
- [Mike] But as Jake's
about to find out.
- [Mike] The conditions
for this burn
are still changing.
- [Mike] Jake knows all
too well that smoke headed
for a nearby town means
it's just a matter of time
before the burn is called off.
So to have any chance
of finishing up today,
they'll have to work fast.
- With any luck, we'll be able
to get this thing finished up
and complete ignitions
before they shut us down.
It's a hurry up and get
this thing done, so.
- [Mike] Lucky for Jake,
he's not the only one
laying down some flames,
at least not for long.
- Copy that. Right on
the line of fire there.
- [Mike] Pilot David McConnell
has also received orders
to ignite some of the more
far-flung reaches of the forest,
the kind that only his
drone can safely reach.
But to do that,
you'll need to affix that drone
with some special equipment.
- So this is our
aerial ignition device.
And what it does is holds
ping-pong balls full
of a chemical called
potassium permanganate.
And what it does is
through this contraption,
it'll actually inject these
balls with regular antifreeze.
Causes an exothermic reaction.
You get about 30
seconds before it pops.
They drop out, and that's
about a 30-second delay.
- [Mike] That 30-second
delay is critical
to delivering flame
on time and on target.
But to make that
happen as it should,
David will first need
about eight ounces
of antifreeze loaded
into the works,
which apparently is
easier said than done.
- Pump's not working.
The pump that we used to put
in antifreeze isn't
pulling antifreeze.
Not getting a prime,
not getting any suction.
I can't just pour
it into the chamber
because the way
this is pressurized.
In order to deliver precise
amounts of antifreeze,
it has to go into this
pressurized chamber,
and I can't load it
without pressure.
- [Mike] Fortunately for David,
a run-of-the-mill syringe
should do the trick.
- [David] And we're
getting antifreeze.
One of the biggest things
about being a firefighter
is being able to
adapt and overcome.
- [Mike] With plenty of
antifreeze now in the tank,
it's finally time to
see if David's setup is
in working order.
- Okay. Taking off.
(tense music)
(tense music continues)
Coming in to land.
Let's see how they
look. One so far.
Second one's right behind.
Okay. Yeah, four out of four.
I'm satisfied with the test.
I think I'm ready to call
and get some ignitions going.
(gentle string music)
- [Mike] It's been a
roller coaster of a day
for the folks at
Grayback Forestry,
who, while conducting
a prescribed burn
in Southern Oregon, have
been plagued by humidity,
shifting winds, and kinks in
the waterworks from hour one.
And now, with smoke from
their fire making its way
to a nearby town,
it's all hands on
deck to finish the job
before they're
forced to shut down.
Fortunately for his colleagues,
drone pilot David
McConnell is ready
to rain fire from above
and coming in hot.
- [David] Copy. Am I
right overhead right now?
- Okay. Yeah, I got a defined
line of fire there now.
- He said I'm able to start
dropping at my discretion,
slowly and carefully,
so that they all go
exactly where I want.
- We've got 22 balls
out so far. 23, 24, 25.
So with the constant
coordination
between that ground
contact and myself,
I can put balls exactly
where they need them.
And it should be just
about everything.
Coming in to land.
(tense music)
Adams, I'm on the
ground and packing up.
- [Mike] Further downhill,
firefighter Jake Adams
is also under the gun
to light up the
last of his section
before a nearby
town is smoked out.
(upbeat music)
- We've had a little
bit of a wind shift,
which here on the ground
isn't really affecting us
in a negative way.
However, it's now
pushing our smoke
towards town a little bit more
than we were hoping
would happen.
We're so close to
finishing this up.
We can finish this out,
and then start mopping it up
and putting it to
bed for the night.
- [Mike] That's
the hope, anyway.
So long as the last of
this burn comes together
as Jake planned.
- Our overall objective is
to kind of create what we
call a mosaic burn pattern.
And when we come up here
and look at the way that
this fire's burning-
- [Operator] Everything firing.
- we have a pretty
mosaic pattern in effect.
We're breaking up
that continuity
so that if a natural
fire comes through here,
it doesn't have
enough fuel to get up
and make a really big push
that could be a
problematic fire.
We were able to generate
the proper conditions
to get the objectives met.
All fires stayed in the lines,
all firefighters came
off the mountain.
It's a good day.
- [Mike] Further
up the mountain,
things aren't winding
down quite so smoothly
for Lance Wolters,
who, while waiting
for some desperately
needed water to arrive,
finds himself with a fire
of his own to put out.
This time beyond the boundaries
of the prescribed burn.
- We got fire outside the line.
Just outside the first lateral.
I can see the lateral myself.
I'm gonna go ahead and
get it and get it up here.
- [Mike] Spot fires
like these happen
when the wind carries
embers over the fire line.
And when they do, it's
critical they're dealt with
before they burn out of control.
- Happens all the time on
regular fires and burns.
That's why we pay attention
to what's going on.
Try and get this
all knocked down.
All right, looks
pretty good to me.
We'll just keep an eye on it.
- [Mike] That's
one crisis averted,
but quelling the spot fire
cost Lance even more water
that they can't
really afford to lose
- [Lance] Come on,
Tom. Where are you?
Just in the nick of time.
Look at how empty
that pumpkin is.
- [Mike] With 1,500 more gallons
of the wet stuff on hand,
Lance and his fellow
firefighters can finally finish
what they started today.
- All right, the crew
just got confirmation
that we got water back.
They're opening up, finishing
up the mop-up right now.
Sounds like most of
the burning is done.
We're gonna mop everything up
and start wrapping things
up to get out of here.
- And with that, the
firefighters of Grayback enter
the home stretch
of today's burn,
one that may well save hundreds
of square miles of forest,
not to mention the people
and structures they're in,
from one of the most
destructive forces on earth.
And while most of
us may not think
about the dangers of fire
until it's hot on our heels,
we can thank our lucky stars
that the firefighters
of our nation do.
Because without them,
even the smallest of
flareups could wreak havoc
of apocalyptic proportions.
So just be grateful that,
in the worst of times,
we can always count
on people like these,
men and women who are
among the very few
who can stand the heat
of how America works.
This is the part
where I tell you
you can make a pretty
good living fighting fires
because you can.
But the truth is, of all
the firefighters I know,
and I know a few, none of
them are in it for the money.
They do it because they
feel called to do it.
Right now there are a million
men and women fighting fires
in America.
That's career, volunteer,
and paid per call.
But their numbers decline
every single year,
and fire seasons get
worse every single year.
So the need for
more firefighters is
clear and present.
If you feel the call,
if you think you
got the right stuff,
check out the many opportunities
at mikeroweworks.org/haw.
In the meantime,
big thanks to everybody over
there at Grayback Forestry.
You guys are the best.
Thanks for doing what you
do. Be careful out there.