Boys (or Girls) and Their Toys

OK guys here is where you get to post the picture of your 900HP chainsaw that breathes fire, rocket powered snowmobile, or rowboat run on Wheaties, we leave that up to you what toys you want to share.
As always keep it clean and legal, but have some fun.

 

OK here are a few of my toys that I designed and built to fight wildfires with after moving to Montana in 1999 only to be faced with the "Firestorm of 2000"
If this stuff interest you you can visit my website http://www.wildfirefighters.com/about-obadiahs.html
or You Tube Channel. http://www.youtube.com/user/wildfirefighters

 

Some pictures of some of our Soft Track Skidgines that we use to fight wildfires with. They will go almost anywhere and carry life saving 1000 gallons of H2O to the fireline in large quantities. Big Bertha is ex-military and is known as a M548 used in Vietnam to pull Howitzers and amo through the marches to the US troops that relied on them to pin down the enemy when aircraft was not available.
Big Bubba is an ex logging machine that was designed for use in the Rain Forest of the US Pacific North West it left very little grown impact or compression as its footprint fully loaded is less than that of an average firefighter. Capable of building fireline at incredible speeds and knocking down Snags the size of VWs with ease. Hauling 1620 gallons of firewater Bubba is a hit with the Hot Shots who normally don't have much water to use as Type 6s and other engines can not reach that far into the wildfire. We bring a large safety factor to these crews that risk their lives to protect you and your property. Obadiah's built this equipment for them and their safety. We also possess a lot of firepower or shall we say water power with our CAFS and water cannons we can multiply our effectiveness considerably in areas where water is scarce.

 

Those are some cool toys. I'm not sure I could categorize them as toys, more like tools of the trade. A corvette at age 50 is a toy. Which means I don't have much for toys either.

 

I would also agree but my wife would not.
That is probably because she knows how much fun I had designing and building it all. Every time I return from a dispatch Smelling like forest fire and soot and dirt ground into the Pores of my skin, I'm grinning from ear to ear for at least a week. Because of that she says no one can have a crazy dangerous occupation and come back so much more happier than before the dispatch. ........so either I'm totally crazy or I'm not telling her the truth because no normal person should be this way.
I guess I agree. .....I love what I do or I would not of also volunteered at the local fire department too.
I know I'm crazy.

 

After viewing those pics, I got nothing...

 

Well then here's for all you truckers out there. Some of our Transports that get us there and back again.

The first picture is of two lovely lady firefighters in Durango Colorado, yes sir.
at the Missionary Ridge Fire, one of the best wildfires I have ever been on, if there is such a thing, the towns folk where the most greatful we have ever seen for saving Durango. Fighting wildfires takes us all over this great nation and we work some of the finest folks in the world.
The other pictures of transports we have owned and used
The Bottom is of Jim Massy of Olympia Washington, USFS Ret. my favorite truck driver.
The tractor set up was the worst set up possible, we could get stuck on flat land, but Jim cussed like a truck driver and we got through it together.

 

As time went on we improved and we tried new things. What worked best was a Water Tender hauling a 40 ton equipment trailer. It is heavy over the drive wheels for traction and short enough to maneuver.
On the other end of the extreme is the 53' 80 ton drop deck with wto machines and a dolly. Jim Massy drove this combo all the way down to Louisiana for Katrina. in tight quarters.

 

The best looking set up we had was a Maroon Custom Built Marmon that really look sharp.

Here are some more pictures of the Triples Set up that was like drivin a 100' snake down the road, poor Jim, aged 3 yrs on that trip.
We broke every DOT ruel in the book because we had been dispatched to Katrina and had Emergency Status from Bush which kept us out of jail, getting back is a different deal all together. To get back across all those states to Montana again, I had to buy another trailer and find a tractor and split the load.

 

Some amazing toys there Woody.

 

Thanks

 

Its been fun actually, even got to meet and shake hands with George Bush JR. on the Cedar Fire in El Caljon CA.


From here we were dispatched to the Old Fire just up the road. The 2003 California Firestorm made the Montana 2000 Firestorm look like kids play. We came very very close to losing Southern California.


Here are some of my team that make all this happen, could never do it without them.

 

Here is the rest of the story on that fire and how I was where I was when I was to be able to shake hands with George Bush.
Firefighter Engineer, Steve Rucker 38 yrs old gave his life on the Cedar Fire protecting other peoples property. This was Steve's Sendoff and it was as impressive as anything I had ever seen before or since. His family and hearse drove down the run way between hundreds of lined up engines on one side and cops on the other all with lights flashing. At the end the the runway was a C-130 with its ramp down, the vehicles pulled in, the ramp lifted and the plane taxied back down the runway again between all of us, circled to the outer runway and lifted off waving its wings goodbye, with three choppers behind. I don't think some heads of States receive more dignity, but none of it can bring him back.
It's only fitting that the real reason be spoken about and Steve Ruckers memory never be forgotten.
http://photos.dailynews.com/2013/10/photos-the-cedar-fire-10-years-later/#25
http://www.wlfalwaysremember.org/incident-lists/163-steven-rucker-cedar-fire.html

 

In all my life I have never seen such extreme fire behavior. I actually watched the fire leap a 8 lane California freeway like it was not even there. For the life of me I could not understand how you get 60 ft flame lengths from 3' sage brush and a few scrawny trees, but the stuff burns like gas. California fires are like nothing else anywhere else and always getting worse, yet was one of the first to enact bans against logging and proper management of resources by harvesting them. hmmmmm anybody really think this is working well?

 

That's some impressive stuff. Btw, I loved the time I got to spend in the yaak. 2001 I think.

 

Absolutely AWESOME Woody.

 

Woody, Just curious where they flew Steve out of on his final flight.. Quite a send off, reminiscent of the ramp ceremonies we have overseas when a fallen angel takes his/her final flight..

You're brining back memories.. Rode my Harley down "The 8" (interstate 8 for those of you not from Cali) going home from Yuma about 45 minutes before that fire jumped the highway.. Went straight to work to see what we could do.. Unfortunately, a ton of red tape (for safety reasons) required us to go through a bunch of training prior to the first water drop... Crews got out 6-7 days after it started but after 1/4 inch of rain so didn't get much done. Got to work with the regional aviation dude out of Sacramento... Did practice work at Camp Pendleton.... Will have to dig up some other photos..

Here's a couple of pics (not the best quality) of the guys getting ready to go out for the first time to do some work in the mighty CH-53E.... Unfortunately, we didn't get in the fight until 11/2... After the Cedar fire, everyone made a pact to be more prepared in the future so it wouldn't take a week to get the Marines involved... Unfortunately, OIF was ongoing, the relationships died, the training never happened and the same thing happened in 2007... After 2007, they learned their lessons and I believe they are ready to this day....

Very interesting stuff, needless to say.. A lot more to the back stories but I'll save that for another time..