This crew put in just shy of 1,000 hours of overtime last season, several members said. Including overtime, some wildland crews can put in well over 2,000 hours in a single season. In wildland firefighting, deployments of two weeks or more are common and days on the fireline can exceed fourteen hours, meaning that firefighters need to be mentally and physically prepared for the taxing work. With fire season just around the corner, Amaya and his crew are putting in hours of physical training and classroom learning to prepare themselves for another challenging half-year of work. “You want your feet toward the fire,” Young, a 22-year-old Douglas native, answered correctly. Referring to the fire shelters that all wildland firefighters are required to carry, Amaya asked the crew where they would put their feet, “If we had to deploy, God forbid.” Wearing their signature fire-resistant green pants and yellow shirts and weighed down by heavy packs, hand tools and a saw, Amaya’s firefighters then trudged up to the summit where they had an informal discussion of what they would do if a blaze was racing up behind them. Jorge Amaya, who has been the superintendent for the Nogales-based 10-man squad for about eight years, nodded toward the obvious answer. ![]() Forest Service firefighter Tony Young asked with a wry smile at the base of a short but punishingly steep hill off of Ruby Road Tuesday morning. ![]() Original Link: Forest Service crew preps for wildfire season
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