Prescott Fire Department - 'Esse quam videri'

Dear friends,

Please, I would like you to spend five minutes watching this amazing video the Prescott Fire Department released weeks ago to honor the nineteen Granite Mountain Hotsots killed in the Yarnell Fire:

 

I would like you to share it as much as possible too; it is very important that those guys are not forgotten.

Thank you very much.

Fascination Florida

Hello everybody,

How are you doing there, wherever you are? Hope you're doing great. I am in Spain, now for five weeks since I arrived from USA. I am still trying to figure out the way not to forgive anything happened there. Pictures, videos, notes, documents, reminds,... Everything it's absolutely important to keep in mind as much as possible.

Even though I was in the USA only a few weeks ago, it seem to be years ago. I am missing all the people I met there, all the activities we did, the knowledge everyone shared with me,... It was not only the people, but the environmen as well.

Hopefully you have some time to spend watching this amazing travel guide about Florida, called "Fascination Florida". It's not the kind of things I did there, but you can see the best of Florida, and some tourist stuff. Enjoy it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSmPQ75gqWE&list=PL35D2BB70304C87AE

Best wishes.

That's all folks!

No doubt this is going to be the saddest blog post.

My USA learning experiencie, has arrive to its end. Tomorrow I'll leave and go back to Spain. On the one hand I am happy for returning home. On the other hand, I am really sad. It is hard to say "goodbye" to that much great people I've met here. You know? Probably you won't see them never, ever in your life. And that's too sad.

First of all, thank you very very very much Prof. L. K for your treatment. I've been here like a King: every single day has been a new adventure, new challenges. Always learning. I really really appreciate your time, your shared knowledge and your hospitality. I've no words in English to really express how grateful I feel to you. Thank you. And that, of course, includes C. T.

Thank you very much Mike, I really appreciate your time. You've been making my life easier here, picking me up, driving me up, showing me your field work and sharing your knowledge both in science and in american culture. Thank you very much, friend.

Also thank you all Michelle, Jesse, Adam and Danielle. I am so glad for having met you guys. I hope we'll met again, maybe in Spain.

Of course, thank you very much to Domingo M.; who gave me this opportunity, making it possible in less than ten days. Working hard answering my thousand questions and fighting with my hundred fears. Pushing me to be here! I totally appreciate this present you gave me, your time doing it possible. Thank you very much.

Finally, thank you everyone who has followed this blog and especially the ones who had left their comments.

I'll write another post, but just about general things that happen to me here; funny things and also weird things. So that won't be a serious post.

Thank you all and see you soon...

The begining of the end

Hello again guys,

How are your doing? I hope you are doing great. Here I am starting to feel sad. That's close to finish. In four days I will be back in Spain, and my USA learning experience will arrive to its end. Actually, only the face part, because there are still many things to think about, to "ferment" in my brain. Therefore, the learning part will be always with me.

I have many things to speak about, so I don't know where to start. Let's see a couple of photos showing fire effects:

I took those only two days after doing FF80 prescribed burn, in Lakeland, GA. As you can see, Serenoa repens is fully fire adapted. Besides being really flamable, it starts to resprout in only a few duys after the burn. The trunk is horizontaly-oriented and it's really fire-resilient. That species recolonizes fastly burned plots.

In this other pictures, you can see some fire severity visual indicators:

They are not the most accuratest ones, but they are useful and fast to see and interpret. You can pay attention to the scorching height, to the ground cover consumption and to the soil impacts. Also, you can make a overall rating of the impacts in the landscape. It is really impresive how much we can learn only taking a look over a recently burned area. In two photos we have enough information for being speaking two days. Even though this is a little plot and not the best example, you can find some interesting things.

Let's go ahead and talk about the firing techniques. That is one of the most important things when planing a burn in situ. I mean, not making the plan, but deciding how to implement it. There are some statements that you shouldn't include in your plan; you have to write those by and large. For example, the firing techniques. You have to ve flexible, because the field conditions may differ from forecasted ones. Therfore, adapting firing techniques is essential. While it is true that in the same plot, with the same conditions, and the same crew, you can expecto to use the same techniques, you should not be tempted not to reassess continuously your plan. Hence, you have to know all the firing techniques and its safe way of implementation.

(*) remember: 1 chain = 66 feet = 22 meters.

1.- Backing fire:

A backing fire is started along a baseline (anchor point), such as a road, plow line, stream or other barrier, and allowed to back into the wind. Variations in windspeed have little effect on the rate of spread of a fire burning into the wind. Such fires proceed at a speed of 1 to 3 chains per hour. Backing fire is the easiest and safest type of prescribed fire to use, provided windspeed and direction are steady. It produces minimum scorch and lends itself to use in heavy fuels and young pine stands.

2.- Strip-Heading fire:

In strip-headfiring, a series of lines of fire are set progressively upwind of a firebreak in such a manner that no individual line of fire can develop to a high energy level before it reaches either a firebreak or another line of fire. A backing fire is generally used to secure the base line and the remainder of the area then treated with strip-heading fires. Strips are often set 1 to 3 chains apart. The distance between ignition lines is determined by the desired flame length. This distance can be varied within a fire to adjust for slight changes in topography, stand density, weather, or the type, amount or distribution of fuel.

3.- Flanking fire:

The flanking-fire technique consists of treating an area with lines of fire set directly into the wind. The lines spread at right angles to the wind. This technique requires considerable knowledge of fire behavior, particularly if used by itself. It is used quite often to secure the flanks of a strip-heading fire or backing fire as it progresses. It is sometimes used to supplement a backing fire in areas of light fuel or under more humid weather conditions. It is useful on a small area or to facilitate burning a large area in a relatively short time when a line-heading fire would be too intense.

This method of firing can stand little variation in wind direction and requires expert crew coordination and timing. For safety, all lines of flank fire should be ignited simultaneously and all torch people should keep abreast of one another.

4.- Point Source fires:

A prudent burning boss will often switch from strip-heading fires to point source fires as the day progresses and continuous lines of fire become too intense. When properly executed, a grid of spot ignitions will produce a fire with an intensity much greater than that of a line-backing fire but somewhat less than that of a line-heading fire. Timing and spacing of the individual ignition spots are the keys to the successful application of this method. First a line backing fire is ignited across the downwind side of the block and allowed to back 10 to 20 feet into the block to increase the effective width of the control line. A line of spots is then ignited at some specified distance upwind of the backing fire and the process continued until the whole block has been ignited.

To minimize crown scorch, ignition-grid spacing is selected to allow the spots along a line to head into the rear of the spots along the downwind line before the flanks of the individual spots merge to form a continuous flame front. The merger of successive ignition lines thus takes place along a moving point rather than along a whole line at the same time. Merger along a moving point can be ensured by beginning with a closely spaced square grid (2 chains by 2 chains is recommended).

It is important to say that this is a general and generical description. That means that you can combine techniques and that you MUST adapt them to your own conditions. Also that each of them can be built using another one. For example, you can do a backing fire control line/black area using strip-heading fire to make it wider. Also, if doing ignitions Fire Boss realises that strip-heading fire generates too much intense fire behavoir and point-source ignitions are not enough, he/she can ask the ligthers to use dashes (that means: dash of X meters on fire, hole of Y meters without fire,...). You have to be flexible and always pay atention to the changes in weather!

Those are the main firing techniques you'll use in most of the prescribed burns. However, there are more. Even though they are not as usual as the previous ones, they're sometimes useful, so we have to know them.

5.- Aerial Ignition:

When ground ignition techniques are used, the downwind spots will usually coalesce and burn out before the whole block has been ignited. In contrast, aerial firing permits ignition of a block to be completed before the downwind spots have burned out. This does not present a problem at the damp end of the prescribed burning window when actual fine-fuel moisture is near 20 percent. Rapid ignition of a block reduces both flying time and the time needed to complete the burn. However, when using aerial ignition techniques under "traditional" ideal burning conditions for line-backing fires with actual fine-fuel moisture near 10 percent, rapid ignition of the entire area can result in an increase in fire intensity to unacceptable levels. You would then have little recourse except to let the area burn out and hope that damage is limited to just a loss in overstory growth.

Some experienced burners start firing early in the day, before the fuel is dry enough to carry fire well. They reduce the distance between spots within a line to less than 2 chains by 2 chains. The increased number of ignitions creates more heat and helps dry the surface fuels, especially when a helitorch is used. The distance between spots must be expanded as the morning progresses and burning conditions improve. Otherwise, the spots will merge laterally forming lines of heading fire that get too intense before reaching the next downwind line of ignition points. The distance between lines can also be increased as necessary to maintain a square ignition grid.

6.- Center and Circular (Ring) firing:

This technique is useful on cutover areas where a hot fire is needed to reduce or eliminate logging debris prior to seeding or planting. It works best when winds, if any, are light and variable. This procedure should never be used for underburning because of the likelihood of severe tree damage as the flame fronts merge.

7.- Pile and Windrow burning:

The objective of piling logging debris before burning it is to prolong fire residence time on a restricted area so that larger materials have time to be consumed. Some areas will contain an unacceptable amount of large, scattered debris that must be concentrated to ensure consumption. This material should be piled and not windrowed. Windrowing can reduce site quality by removing topsoil. Piedmont soils are also susceptible to compaction from the heavy equipment used, especially during wet weather. Full exposure of the soil to the sun and rain bakes the top layer. Furthermore, the direct force of raindrops will clog soil pores and often results in erosion on steep slopes. The area beneath the windrows is lost to production because the debris is rarely consumed completely and what remains makes planting difficult or impossible. Even when windrows contain breaks spaced every couple of chains, they still present a barrier to firefighting equipment and wildlife.

If you want to read more about that techniques (all of them), there are many prescribed burning guides which explain them. I've took that information from a Forest Service Southern Region technical publication (USDA).

Besides both having a good weather forecast and paying attention to changes in weather, you can improve your planning and implementation by being used to your fuels. The more you know about them, the more accurate will be your burn and the less unwanted results you'll have. That's why I recommend you to use, in adittion to Rothermel's thirteen, the Standard Fire Behavior Fuel Models:

http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_gtr153.pdf

I hope you enjoy!

Always full PPE!

I have realised that many times people does not wear full PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) in the burns. Therefore, I guess that they do the same wrong thing in fire fighting.

When we say: "safety, ALWAYS first", that means "ALWAYS". And that does not mean neither "that's not going to happen to me", nor "it is really unusual to happen", nor "NOMEX is heavy and hot", nor "I don't need a hard hat, I can see what's over my head", nor "that's uncomfortable". And I have heard that many times. Sadly, I can say that in some areas, the more experienced crew, the less percentage of PPE weared.

I know that's the most basic thing, the first stept to learn, the beginning of the fire figthing. However, it is frequently "forgotten". So, let's do a review of what's the meaning of full PPE:

1.- Hard hat: always well-fixed/adjusted to the head. That means use the fastening tape or the back chinstrap. You should be able to do handstands without losing your helmet.

2.- Eye protection: fundamental, essential, basic. If you get some black materia or a little bug, insect or simply dust in your eyes, you wont be able to see anything; that's not good in a full hazardous environment. Also prevents your eyes from irritation caused by smoke.

3.- NOMEX: full NOMEX clothes. You can use both overall or two-piece clothes. It should cover you from feet to neck. And please, if you find holes don't fix them, simply change your NOMEX. Also, please, wash your NOMEX.

4.- NOMEX gloves: they will protect you from wounds in your hands, that are the stuff you need to work, to use McLeod, driptorch, radio,... You know? Basic. They should cover the whole hand and, at least, another then centimeters of the arm.

5.- Fireshelter: unafortunatelly that's not frequent in Spain, but I am sure that's going to change. If you have one, please, carry it always. Here is an interesting video about how to use it and why to carry it. Please, watch it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJsY6foLh8o

6.- Leather boots: the same than gloves, you need your feet in the best conditions during all the day; safe and comfortable.

In adittion to that, I am used to carry/wear these other things:

- High quality socks: they will make your day more comfortable.

- Neck's NOMEX cover: sometimes situation become hot and hard enough for giving you a bad time, but not as much as for stop working. Use it! But always remember that it is good to have a little area of your skin "outdoor" exposed (you will know when it is too much hot for working there).

- Extra water: hydration is fundamental. You should drink water constantly, and not only when you are thirsty (thirst is the first symptom of the heatstroke).

- Extra batteries: you don't want to lose radio conection with the crew.

- Some sugar (candy, cookies, chocolate): just in case you star to feel low on energy! But that's really personal, it depends on what does your body need. So, that works for me, but could not work for you. Just know yourself!

- Compass: don't lose the North!

- Incident Pocket Response Guide (IPRG): you must know all in the IPRG. Nonetheless, carry it just in case you don't remember something in a bad moment.

- Whistle: if you get lost, that could help others to find you.

I am sure that I am forgottening something, but the fundamental stuff it is here. Please, use the comments area to let me know what else you carry/wear!

Please, be safe. Just, be safe. Safety first. Don't risk more than necessary.

SAFETY, ALWAYS FIRST!

Be also careful with the fauna! It is dangerous... Specially humans!

Learned lessons - Take home messages

Hello again friends,

One of the most importants things to do after living any learning experience (even if it was not supossed to be a learning experience; for example, simply supressing a fire, having an accident,...), it is to look back and LEARN.

We face all the days many LEARNING experiences. Every single day. We only have to want to LEARN. Sometimes we don't pay enough attention and we lose LEARNING opportunities. That's the worst thing we can do. It is always about LEARNING and LEARNING, about good and bad things. All we LEARN will make us better scientists, better people, more efficient.

I just want to share with you the main LEARNED lessons from the Prescribed Fire Training Center 20-day Course. Because (off course, in adittion to LEARN, science need to be SHARED: there are always people which will LEARN from your experiences). So, let's go!

DEBRIEFFINGS' LEARNED LESSONS (Merenciano made)

1.- Be always prepared for adjust the techniques/patterns/plans: be flexible.

2.- Brief LACES.

3.- Safety ALWAYS first.

4.- The better the communications, the more efficient the job.

5.- Use local knowledge.

6.- NEVER say "that's not going to happen to me".

7.- ALWAYS pay attention to weather changes.

8.- Never lose operation momentum.

TEN TAKE HOME MESSAGES (Team 2 made)

1.- Mitigate confusion and conflicting information by elimination multiple points of communication. Give leader's intent and use chain of command. Refer to number 2 (Jeff Darner).

2.- It something isn't complicated, don't make it complicated. (Martha Williamson).

3.- We are scientists; we have the tools to avoid luck (David Merenciano).

4.- Provide an environment where AARs are utilized for honest feedback and improvement (Martha Williamson).

5.- Take a minute and make a plan; don't make a plan a minute (Jeremy Bradley).

6.- Recognize when to change firing patterns to achieve objectives requires many variations in firing technique. Be flexible (various).

7.- Be patient. Let the fire establish and do its works, but maintain operational momentum (Peter Harris).

8.- Consider and integrate local knowledge and experience when formulating plans.

9.- More communication is not always better, but effective communicate makes operations efficient.

10.- If you ask a stupid question you are only stupid once; if you don't ask you are stupid all the time until you ask. Don't be afraid to ask the questions you need to ask to improve your situational aware (David Merenciano).

Those are really good messages. Me, I have LEARNT many things. I hope you guys, you can take some of that experience and make it yours. Just, please: ALWAYS SHARE LEARNED LESSONS.

See you later! Aligator!

Final destination: OSBS, Melrose, FL

How are you doing friends? Hope you are happy and ready to read a little more about my trip. This post is going to be one the more sad ones: the last burn occured, the Prescribed Fire Training Center 20-day Course has finished and it is time for goodbyes. But, let's go first with the last burns!

After leaving Lakeland, GA, we drove to Gainesville another time. Actually we weren't burning in Gainesville, but the lodging was there. Our next destination was the Ordway-Swisher Biological Station (University of Florida owned and managed) in Melrose, FL (http://ordway-swisher.ufl.edu/). Quote from their webpage: "The Ordway-Swisher Biological Station (OSBS) is a year-round field station established for the long-term study and conservation of unique ecosystems through management, research, and education. The Station is the largest facility (area-wise) that UF operates and currently comprises over 9,278 acres. OSBS is administered through the UF Institute of Food & Agricultural Science's (IFAS) Office of the Dean for Research. OSBS has a mosaic of wetlands and uplands that include sandhills, xeric hammock, upland mixed forest, swamps, marshes, clastic upland lakes, sandhill upland lakes, and marsh lakes. There is a variety of fauna which inhabit the Station including a number of state and federally listed species. Archeological sites on the Station show human presence and require more investigation. The most recent uses of the lands comprising the Station were cattle ranching and game hunting. Wildfires and prescribed burning have had a strong influence on the property".

Unafortunately the first couple days rained (14th and 15th April), so we weren't able to burn. Of course, that doesn't means that is not a burn day, because in PFTC "every day is a burn day", even though if there's no fire in the ground. We took that opportunity to take a look on the burn units, become familiar with flora (Pinus palustris, Quercus cerris, grasses) and fauna (turtles, snakes, fire hunts,...) and start writting the burning plans:

BURN UNIT 12 - (B-1a) - (no date) - OSBS, Melrose, FL
-Rain increased too much moisture in both fuels and ground, so that unit became unburnable (about 10 inches of rain in one day).


BURNI UNIT 13 - (C-10a) - 16th April 2013 - OSBS, Melrose, FL

****BRIEFING

-Size: 80,97ha (200.00ac).

-Fuel model: mainly SH4, TU3.

-Main winds: NE.

-Objectives: wildland fire hazard reduction, maintain grass cover, keeping fire regime returnability, kill 40% of Rosemary areas, renew sparse fuel areas, burn as much as possible hardwood/hammock areas, firefighters and public safety.

-Concerns: ticks, snakes, bees, turtles, snugs (few), sinkholes, power line (NE corner), fire hunts, dump (glass jars, cans,...), PVC pipes (toxic fumes), and firefighters and public safety.

-Burn boss trainee: Peter Harris.

 

****DEVELOPMENT

-Test fire was succesfuly conducted in C15 reference point.

-Team 1 built black line with BACKING FIRE and some strips from C15 to G2. Fire behavior was great so FIRB(+) decided to wide black line with STRIP HEADING FIRE in direction W-E. They also took care about sparse fuel areas and hardwood/hammock spots.

-Team 2 built black line from C15 to C14 and then to C13, burning fuels near the lake and trying to send high intensity fire to hardwood/hammock areas.

-Collaborators: 2 type 6 engines, 1 4X4 UTV, 1 6X6 UTV and six people.

-I can't specify more details about that burn because I was doing weather. I want to emphasize in that position "WX". I had never done that before and I realized how important it is and also how funny. It isn't all about putting fire in the ground. There are many factors to take in account and many important jobs to do while burning.

The responsible for doing weather and other observations is called FEMO (Fire Effects Monitor). He/she has to make weather measurements during the burn/fire and monitor fire behavior (rate of spread, flame lenght, fire effects, vegetation responde, smoke column,...). In our burns we only do weather measurements. Specifically, the following measurements should be performed: dry bulb, wet bulb, relative humidity, dead fuel moisture content (with correction), wind speed, wind direction and probability of ignition. Smoke must also be monitored.

I could write a explication about how to use weather belt kit, but I think it wouldn't be as better as the ones you can find in some guides (for example: http://www.pocketmobility.com/bonus/beltweatherkit.pdf). Basically, you measure both dry and wet bulb. Then you go to the psychometric tables and obtain the RH. With dry buld and other tables you find and correct DFMC and finally you determine de PIG. Smoke must be observed as much time as necessary, taking in account local and general winds, color, dispersion and density. All of that give us many information. Really interesting.

 ****DEBRIEFING

 -Great briefing.

-Quick execution of the plan once in the field.

-Good communication between lighters and FIRB but bad communications between both teams.

-Great job adjuscting firing techniques when weather changes.

-Jeff and Greg had to jump to the black because of a wind shift. Cloud cover changed expected weather and resulted both in many wind shifts and higher RH.

-Good job maintaining opperation's momentum.

-Efficient burn. Objectives MET.

****PHOTOS

Look at that smoke column! What's telling you? Many things!

And finally, fire warmed my neck:

BURN UNIT 14 - (G-2) - 17th, April 2013 - OSBS, Melrose, FL

****BRIEFING

-Size: 77,73ha (192.00ac).

-Fuel model: mainly SH4, TU3.

-Main winds: NE-E.

-Objectives: wildland fire hazard reduction, maintain grass cover, keeping fire regime returnability, kill 40% of Rosemary areas, kill 40% of Quercus cerris areas, renew sparse fuel areas, burn as much as possible hardwood/hammock areas, firefighters and public safety.

-Concerns: ticks, snakes, bees, turtles, snugs (few), sinkholes, power line (NE corner), fire hunts, dump (glass jars, cans,...) and firefighters and public safety.

-Burn boss trainee: Jeremy Bradley.

-WINDOW: 3hours 30minutes (time to accomplish the burn, determinated by Burn boss trainee).

****DEVELOPMENT

-Honestly, I don't remember how we burn this unit, hahaha. Let's guess what I would do if I were the BB(+):

-Test fire in south-west corner.

-Team 1: black line with BACKING FIRE built with a couple of strips from B34 to G13.

-Team 2: the same from B34 to G2 and then to G3. When they reach G2 Team 1 con black the whole south-western corner and burn the sparse fuels area.

-Team 1: burn the southern area with STRIP HEADING FIRE, building a solid line from G2 to G11 at the end, and cleaning the dump safely. Meanwhile Team 2 starts STRIP HEADING FIRE in G2 area, with N-S direction, and waiting Team 1 to advance as much as necessary to don't been smoked by its fire.

-Collaborators: 2 type 6 engines, 1 4X4 UTV, 1 6X6 UTV and six people.

Now, looking the GPS tracks, I have remembered that we didn't that. We do something similar but, instead of breaking the unit in two simultaneous opperations, we did strips all over the unit, with N-S direction:

****DEBRIEFING

-Perfect timing: we met timeframes' objectives. Absolutelly efficient burn.

-Good and fast decisions, with efficient use of resources.

-Need to improve in switching people assignements (breaks).

-Burning with 86% RH.

-Keep one eye in weather, always have good situational awareness. There are always things to learn.

****PHOTOS

 

BURN UNIT 15 - (G-6a, & G-6b) - 18th, April 2013 - OSBS, Melrose, FL
BURN UNIT 16 - (I-2 & I-3a) - 18th, April 2013 - OSBS, Melrose, FL

We burned both units at the simultaneously, breaking the crew in two teams.

****BRIEFING

-Size: 39,68ha (98.00ac) + 6,07ha (15.00ac) + 9,72ha (24.00ac) + 12,55ha (31.00ac).

-Fuel model: mainly SH4, TU3.

-Main winds: E-SE.

-Objectives: wildland fire hazard reduction, maintain sandhill ecology, keeping fire regime returnability, kill 40% of Rosemary areas, kill 40% of Quercus cerris areas, renew sparse fuel areas, burn as much as possible hardwood/hammock areas, firefighters and public safety.

-Concerns: ticks, snakes, bees, turtles, snugs (few), sinkholes, power line (NE corner), fire hunts, dump (glass jars, cans,...), old fences, and firefighters and public safety.

-Burn boss trainee: Peter Harris.

-WINDOW: 2hours 30minutes (time to accomplish the burn, determinated by Burn boss trainee).

****DEVELOPMENT
a) G-6 unit:
-Test fire succesfully conducted in the north east corner of the sparse fuels (close to G8).
-Team 1a: black line using BACKING FIRE and one strip from test fire to G11. At the same time two lighters firing the Rosemary patches.
-Team 2a: burning the sparse fuels area and doing black line from test fire to G8. Then one lighter from Team 1a did STRIP HEADING FIRE from the north limit to the south boundary. These lighter and Team 2a repeated the opperation in the opposite direction.
-Team 1a: STRIP HEADING FIRE for burning the whole north corner.
-Both teams: STRIP HEADING FIRE all over the whole unit, with N-S direction. Paying special attention to Rosmary and Cat-faces patches.
 b) I units:
-I wasn't there and I don't know what they exactly did.

****DEBRIEFING
-We had very intense fire behavoir. High flame lenghts and fast rates of spread. That all resulted in four spots quickly controlled (small size).
-Efficient burn, with some communications bugs.

****PHOTOS

Guess who drew the briefing's map:

 

 

 

That was the last PFTC 20-day Course's burn. Even having burned more than 500ha, I feel totally athrist of prescribed fire. The next day we all met in the PFTC facility, we close the modules, ckeck the vehicles, sharpened the tools, write our evaluations, shared our photos and ate a great food cooked by Mike D.

And that's all, my friends! PFTC 20-day Course done. Probably one of the best experiences in my life. High quality training, high quality trainers, perfect environment and awesome teammates. THANK YOU VERY MUCH EVERYBODY.

Thank you Greg, Mike, Miranda and Caroline, from PFTC, for doing that possible. Thank you for working hard finding burning opportunities and giving us the necessary knowledge and tools. I appreciate so much the opportunity you gave me accepting me in the Course, even though I wrote you late. Thank you very much.

Thank you Deb, field cordinator for your incredible skills. You are simply AWESOME. I am so glad for having been as much lucky as for meeting you in this Course. Perfect leadership, excelent firefighter skills and awesome way-of-thinking. I hope we met again, in Spain, USA or anywhere.

Thank you all guys, Jeff, Duse, Jeremy, Peter, Martha and Jesse. I am going to miss you all guys. I will never forget you. I know it is really hard, but I hope we met again; life is long and you never know what trails are you going to follow. Thank you very much. I have to say that it was hard to me to contain the tears while saying goodbye. You will be always fighting fires with me.

And, for all of you: in the next posts I will write about fire effects, sandhill flora, firing techniques, fuels, learned lessons and many other things. Hope you enjoy reading.

Thank you very much.