Alaska Flame by LoLo Paige

Author:LoLo Paige
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Avoca Press Publishing
Published: 2022-10-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

“Wake up, fire call!” Angela startled awake as the Aurora Crew boss, Jon Silva, called to the women, “It’s go time!”

Angela sprang from her bed, along with Tara and Liz. The three women donned their Nomex yellows, pants, and boots, readied their fire packs.

“Aurora Crew, let’s roll!” yelled Silva. “Squad bosses, follow me.”

When they reached the parking lot, Silva instructed them. “Squad bosses: Take a truck engine and your groups to our staging area. Maintain radio contact.”

A smoke column rose about six miles away and a helicopter circled it. As Aurora Crew neared the fire in their three engines, Angela noted it burning a dense stand of Sitka and white spruce. The three squad vehicles pulled into a clearing, and everyone jumped out. Silva had trained them well during their first week.

The truck thermometer read ninety degrees, hot for this early in the morning. Angela and the others grabbed their gear while Silva briefed the crew on their direct attack plan.

“Liz, you’ll build a fireline on the right flank. Tara, your squad will dig line on the left flank. Squad Three, you’ll douse the tail with piss-pumps. Safety first. Know your escape routes. Stay in the safety of the black. Green means you’ll burn.”

Angela dipped a nod at Liz, glad to be assigned to her squad. She worked well with the other four firefighters on it, all Alaskans.

Silva pointed east. “I’ll be the lookout on that rise. Keep each other informed. Let’s go, girls and boys.”

Aurora Crew scattered to their three squad positions.

“Come on, guys, you heard him. Right flank.” Liz and Angela grabbed chainsaws and lowered goggles over their eyes.

The rest of the squad gathered their firefighting equipment and Liz led off, hiking at a steady clip. The others fell in single file behind her.

Angela’s boots crunched tinder-dry ground and inhaling pungent smoke made her adrenalin pump. Her squad set to work like a well-oiled machine, taking turns sawing trees and clearing away vegetation to create a fifteen-foot-wide fireline, to stop the spread of flames.

“Everyone spread out, ten feet apart,” Angela reminded the squad. “Remove all fuel by chopping out the vegetation and scraping down to mineral soil.”

Liz gave her a thumbs-up. Angela liked her squad boss. She knew her stuff and was a solid dynamo for such a petite woman.

It took the better part of the day to get a containment line around the fire. Around midnight, a village crew arrived from nearby Circle, Alaska, to do mop-up.

“Good job, Aurora. Let’s call it a day,” Silva called out. “Load the tools.”

Angela’s thoughts turned to Gunnar, as they often did when things slowed. He’d be proud of Aurora Crew for successfully containing their first fire. Too bad he wasn’t around to celebrate their first success.

As Liz pulled their engine into the parking lot, radio chatter picked up. Overnight lightning strikes blew up the Interior with fire starts. A Twin Otter pilot’s voice squawked. “Dispatch, taking a load of jumpers back to Fairbanks. Twelve souls on board.”

Angela’s ears perked up at the word jumpers and Twin Otter.

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