1998 a Summer to Remember

The Redmond IHC was out for 82 days in 1998. We worked 15 fires - from Alberta to Orgeo to Florida to Alaska. The crew spent 17 days in the classroom and 80 days on fire assignments.

Along with thousands of other fire personnel, we were shipped to Florida for the '98 fire siege there. More than 2,000 fires there burned a half million acres in just 40 days. At one point during the summer, every single county in Florida was dealing with fires.

Florida burns when it's green, burns when it's wet, and even burns when it's black. The Redmond Hotshots spent a little time in Florida, and we came back with a few photos and a lot of memories ...

Here we are hacking our way through the jungle in Florida. Vegetation includes palmetto, gallberry, wax myrtle, and southern yellow pine. The swampy "bays" in Florida suck down both hotshots and dozers, and also contain goodies like snakes and alligators.

Filling bladder bags. Water was in scarce supply in Florida in 1998 the worst drought in 50 years. Some areas of the state were at 9 percent of normal precipitation.

Just some of the equipment on the Florida fires.

Here is two Redmond Hotshots, one a dozer boss trainee, in Florida. Some of the jungle that we had to negotiate was choked with hardwoods and cypress.

How many ways are there to transport hotshots to a fire?

Redmond Hotshots relaxing after a hard days work.