Today I spent several hours on the south end of the Myrtle fire in the Black Hills of South Dakota where firefighters were successfully conducting an extensive burning operation in Cold Brook Canyon and Song Dog Road. They usually had the wind at their backs and the milder weather along with a little rain yesterday minimized any extreme fire behavior, but the fire still burned extremely well. It only took a few drops out of the drip torches to convince the fire to spread quickly from the firelines and roads into the timber. The temperature maxed out at about 90 while the relative humidity was in the high 20s.
Firefighters enjoy burning operations. It’s not as physically exhausting as constructing fireline, for example, and it can be very satisfying to conduct a well-planned and skillfully executed burnout. You can very quickly see the effects of your efforts, whether they are positive, or if you’re chasing spot fires across the fireline.
Two of the crews working on this operation today were the Sawtooth and the San Juan Hotshots. It is always a pleasure to see such highly trained and experienced crews work. This was not a simple burning operation, and it involved igniting some distance away from the firelines to draw in the heat that was later generated closer to the lines. These crews did it as if they do it every day, with very little verbal direction from the supervisors. They know their jobs. The only raised voice I heard was when someone running a drip torch completed her assignment, stopped to extinguish the torch with her back to what she had just lit, and didn’t realize that 3-foot flames were heading her direction and were about 6 feet away. Someone said “GET OUT OF THERE!”. And she did. Safely. No harm done.
(More photos are below.)
thank you so much for sharing such amazing photos and keeping information available to the public. My mother and stepfather have a home near Pringle and your photos showed me just how close the fire was to their home.
Great story and pictures. I have learned much from you after finding your blog just a short month ago–many thanks.