A Long, Hot Summer

WAITSBURG – If asked, Waitsburg High senior Trey Potts would have no trouble writing a typical "How I Spent my Summer Vacation" essay. His summer was anything but dull, though it may not qualify as a vacation.

The 18-year-old spent his entire summer fighting fires for the Clearwater-Potlatch Timber Protective Association (C-PTPA). That was aside from the one week he attended the Kiwanis Youth Law Enforcement Career Camp in Shelton, Wash. Both experiences had a significant impact on his plans for the future.

Potts said he learned about the possibility of wildland firefighting as a summer job when WHS principal Stephanie Wooderchak suggested it last year. The former Prescott Pool lifeguard was intrigued by the idea and immediately sent off an application to the C-PTPA.

Potts first applied in August 2014, when he was still 17, knowing he would be 18 by the time fire season rolled around. Persistence and patience paid off for Potts who ended up sending in several applications (and receiving a rejection from one camp due to a lack of available housing) before he was contacted by the Warden at the Boehls, Ida. camp at the end of May.

Potts met with Fire Warden Steve Trombley and was hired on at Boehls, a small logging camp which offered living arrangements and a cookhouse. Potts left school a few days early to attend a week-long fire school in Headquarters, Ida.

Potts said fire school covered the basics of firefighting, engine types, safety, watch-out situations, and teamwork. He'd already been warned about the physical test – walking three miles in 45 minutes, carrying a 45 lb. pack – and was able to pass it on his first try.

Potts arrived at Boehls – located about three hours from the nearest town – by helicopter and was the first of his six-member crew to arrive. He wasted no time in getting to work.

"As soon as I got off the helicopter the warden and I took off to look at a fire that had just been put out," he said. "The fire was a very, very small fire – about a quarter acre – called Scramble. So when I got there my job was to mop it up. It was the perfect beginner's fire."

Potts said the summer started off slow, and the crew spent a good deal of time working around camp. During down times they laid hand lines around logging areas to be burned under prescribed burns later this fall. They also worked clearing out brush and widening roads.

Potts said his first crew fire was called Homestead and happened several weeks after arriving at camp.

"That was our first time working as a team and we got to learn what our strong suits were and what we needed to improve on," Potts said.

Potts said standard procedure is to put down a scratch line to contain the fire, then put enough water down to get rid of any visible smoke. They would then check the fire several days in a row, watching for hotspots, smoke, and improving on the line.

"Almost all the time you're going to miss a spot or two under a tree or in the tree roots that's still hot. They have potential to creep along the root systems and go across the line and start new fires," Potts said.

C-PTPA contracts with the Idaho Department of Lands and essentially performs as a fire protection district within the state of Idaho, protecting acreage owned by federal and state agencies as well as private landowners, according to the Association website.

"We deal with small fires – we're smoke chasers – we get on them as quickly and safely as possible," Potts said.

"Some fires might be three miles away but it can take two hours to get there because the roads are so bad. Our goal is to get them while they're small. There is a lot of high value timber in the Boehls area, so we want to get them out quick," he added.

Potts said he worked the Homestead fire for about five days and then things "went dull." He said the next smoke report called in by loggers led him to the smallest wildland fire they dealt with – one that he had the honor of naming.

"Lightning had hit a tree after a rain and there was a smoldering piece of rotten wood, about three feet long and two feet wide. We followed procedure and dug a line around it, dry mopped it and dumped our water bottles on it," Potts said.

Because it had visible smoke it was labeled a fire and given a name and number. Potts named it the Baby Timber Creek Fire for obvious reasons.

Potts said his experience firefighting was full of mixed feelings. "When it was quiet for a long time you pray for lighting so you can have a fire. When you get a fire, you never want a fire again. You just want to be done with it," he said.

As summer heated up, so did the fires. Potts returned home with plenty of firefighting stories; many that include flying in by helicopter and one that left him sleeping overnight in the woods with nothing but the clothes on his back.

The "big fire" started Aug. 19 and Potts said he thought the crew was still working on it when he interviewed with The Times last week. He said the lightning-fire started in tall timber on a near-vertical hill. A small spot fire eventually got away from the crew, raced up the hill, and jumped the road.

"At that moment we knew we'd lost it and there was nothing we could do," Potts said. "We tried to call for copters to dump water on it but Orofino had a big fire, Lolo had a big fire, Clarky had a big fire and all of them were threatening homes, so every time we'd get a copter coming our way it would get called back."

Potts said the fire grew to 700 acres and was named the Last Inch Fire because it started near a deer/hunting camp on the "last inch of civilization." Potts said it was especially sad because it was the first fire Warden Trombley had lost in 37 years. "We tried everything we could to not lose that fire," he said.

"Our fire warden is especially good at getting us water wherever we need it," he said. "We used tactics like everything from rolling in over a mile of hose from the nearest creek to dropping blivets (large bladders filled with water) from copters for us to fill from."

Once the Last Inch Fire took off, C_PTPA called in resources. Potts said he worked with two "rap attack" (rapelling) crews from Alberta, Canada, and a crew from the Yukon. Loggers used bulldozers to help put in lines and a 40-person Type 2 Hand Crew from Virginia joined the fight. Potts said he learned different tactics from many of the crews.

"Canadians love their water. They'll get water anywhere. Give them a stream of any size and they'll use plastic bags, rocks, whatever they can to dam up a creek and get enough water flowing to run a pump. We had water in places we thought we couldn't get water," he said.

At one point Potts said, the former six-member camp housed roughly 100 firefighters.

Potts said a favorite part of his experience was learning so many different skills. He especially enjoyed driving a 1961 6X6 manual, diesel military rig, and the six-wheel-drive, independent suspension water tanks they called Gamma Goats.

"I'm pretty sure the rigs we had at Boehls are from the Vietnam War – they're from that era," he said. Riding in the helicopter was another favorite experience – one he never tired of.

While Potts didn't get any down time this summer, he did take a one-week break from firefighting to attend the Kiwanis Youth Law Enforcement Career Camp in July. Potts wants to become a fish and game officer and had applied to the camp before learning he'd been hired on at C-PTPA.

The camp accepts only 24 boys and four girls from across the country, and gives cadets a taste of what a real police academy is like. Cadets learn teamwork, discipline, leadership and attention to detail, while learning about the variety of jobs available in law enforcement.

Potts said the camp was an experience he won't forget and highly recommends it to anyone even slightly interested in a law enforcement career.

"It was a real eye-opening experience. Not only did we learn that we have to trust and be willing to risk our lives for our partners, but for everyone you see on the street," he said. "Because that's what you have to do in that job. A person can treat you the worst you can imagine but as a law enforcement officer you still have to protect them and put your life on the line for them."

Potts said he left law enforcement camp with an even stronger determination to become a fish and game officer . . . eventually. While his long-term plan hasn't changed, it will most likely be delayed.

Potts said he plans to take advantage of the opportunities firefighting has placed in his path. After graduation, he hopes to get hired by the Bitterroot Hotshot Crew in Mont. or the Lone Peak Hotshot Crew in Utah.

"I want to have fun with fire – travel around and meet new people," he said. "I want to continue the fire career for a little bit. It turned out a lot better than I imagined it would be."