Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Wed Seriously Update

It's been a great day here in Estes!

We headed over to the local middle school this morning for day 3 of work projects. We helped do a lot of 'end-of-year' and deep cleaning of classrooms, lockers and the auditorium.

After our lunch break we got to spend about 45 mins with a PIO (Public Information Officer) from the Incident Command Center. The middle school is the staging ground/HQ for the Cow Creek Fire - currently burning at over 900 acres. They have taken over the entire first floor of the school and have a very smooth running operation.

There is a special catering company from Arizona that has several trailers, refrigeration units and other support to fee the nearly 300 staff fighting this fire. The firefighters on the line have to have a minimum of 9,000 calories/day - so this operation comes in with all they need to stay nourished.

The Cache has all the supplies they could need for their job - tools, tents, sleeping bags, clothes, you name it they probably have it. What I found really interesting was when an incident occurs a team can be on the ground and completely operational within 24-48 hours. There is a primary cache located in Boise ID that orders are placed and needed supplies/equipment can be put on a plane for an emergency flight into the impacted area.

These guys & gals mean business - I hope you'll take the time to ask the youth about their experience learning about the fire operations. Oh, and next time you think prices are high on printer ink - try $1,500 for the six cartridges it takes to print the maps the teams need for briefings and getting things under control.

The kids are off at free time and then to dinner - we'll then have some small group time, a basketball tournament and our campfire.

More later...

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