He's seen the western U.S. wildfires first hand and is returning to continue fighting the infernos.
Jim Grant is stationed at the Rhinelander U.S. Forest Service office and is a Forest Fire Management Officer. He's been out west between July and mid-September in Idaho and Montana. Right now there are 10 states with active fires.
He says the wide scope of the fires shortened resources...
"....there's still over 20,000 firefighters out right now. The competition for resources was very frustrating because basically we didn't have any firefighters left in the country. Everybody was committed. Being at a level 5, which is the highest level of preparedness we can be at nationally, that's normally when we activate the military.."
He says some National Guard resources are in play. He says there are 435, 20-person civilian crews at the blazes plus other assets. He says the conditions were tough for firefighters to do their jobs. Temperatures have been near 100 degrees every day with humidity a very low 6 percent, only making the situation worse.
Grant says they've been seeing more and more fires....
"...the smoke was unbearable at times. It shaded out the sun for days. Not just locations in Montana and Idaho, but pretty much the entire state of Montana...smoke after smoke every day. It's sad to see the citizens out there have to deal with this...."
He says there is a lot of dead trees and brush to fuel the fires.
He says there are many standing dead trees and at times it's not safe to put firefighters in there....
"....we're never going to eliminate the risk, but the risk keeps getting higher and higher and unfortunately there were some fatalities this year out west. We carefully engage. The number one priority is the safety of the public and firefighters....."
Grant says they get up at 5:00 a.m. and they go to bed in a tent around 10:00 p.m. after a stressful day. He's assigned to returned to the fires for another tour.
