Todd Sexton, Garden Valley Helitack, Boise National Forest

July 28, 2007 – During the first weeks of July myself and others of the Garden Valley Helitack and crews of the Boise National Forest could hardly believe what was happening. As fate would have it hainses of six high and dry lightning produced more than one hundred IA's overnight, and with little to no resources available nationally we knew we were in for a ride. As the resources of the Boise National Forest dwindled and the fire grew larger it became apparent that we could only call dispatch and wish for reinforcements because the crews were all out and helicopter time was at a premium.

 

I was the IC on a fire called the Basin Creek fire and it started out as two acres, but after an hour it was up to three. The ground fuels were not as much a factor as the spotting from the Sub Alpine Fir and because we were a long distance from a dip site buckets were becoming increasingly ineffective. The solution to the problem came in the form on the Klump Pump.

 

The problem with a conventional fold a tank is the logistics; find a level spot, set the pump up, wondering if all of the fittings arrived, fill the tank and hopefully start the pump. The spot that we had to put the tank would have been marginal for a fold a tank because of the uneven surface and tree stobs, not to mention that it would have taken hours to set up.

 

We received our Klump Pump and had it filled in about one hour (about half of a fuel cycle) while it was being filled we laid out the hose and once it was filled started the pump and proceeded to spray water. The first tank of water was used for suppression and it worked, it bought us the time we needed to limb trees and line the spots, effectively stopping the spread of the fire.

 

The final size of the fire was estimated to be about three and a half acres, which by the way, worked out to be a little over and acre per person as there were only three of us on the fire.