Fire Team #4 of Region 3

by William “Bill” Cadola

In the year 1973, the Region put together its Class 1 fire teams. This decision was made so that large fires would be managed by the best possible firemen available. These teams would also be available for out of the Region assignments. There were six teams formed and they were placed in on call status – two hours, eight hours and 24 hour calls.

Team #4 was made up of the following people:

Bill Howard                         Plumas National Forest                               Fire Boss

Harry Taylor                        Klamath National Forest                             Plans Chief

Gil Davies                            Klamath National Forest                             Service Chief

Chuck Lundeen                   Regional Office                                            Finance Chief

Jack Horton                         Modoc National Forest                               Safety Officer

Hank Mostovoy                  Tahoe National Forest                                Line Boss

Bill Cadola                            Klamath National Forest                            Line Boss              

A year later, I was made Deputy Fire Boss and Al Watson and Dick Caulkins were the Line Bosses.

The first fire assignment for Team #4 was an out of region fire on the Nezpierce National Forest in Idaho. We were flown to Grangeville and given the low-down on the fire, then things got interesting. Bill told Hank and I to go take a look at the fire and then give him a report. Hank took one side of the fire and I took the other. My side was fairly steep and had lots of rocks and fairly light fuel. It looked to me like a couple of good crews could get in and hold it fairly easily.  Yeh! Three days later, as the fire went rolling by camp, Bill wanted to know how things were going. The one bright spot was when I had a Cat line put in the tree line next to a meadow. The Fire Director for the Region was real pleased. So was I as it turned out to be the final control line.

The next day we were given two fires in the Salmon River drainage. One was in a clear-cut unit that was as steep as a cow’s face. The other was in green timber and just as steep. Hank and I flew the fires and he took the clear-cut fire and I then flew to the other fire. After looking the situation over, I made contact with the crew leader of the hot shot crew and discussed the plan of action. It was fairly simple. Finish constructing the line and hold. In addition to his crew, he had a crew of Civilian Conservation Corps’s from Florida – should be no problem – wrong again.

I felt things were in good hands and decided to walk back to camp. At the bottom of the fire was a small stream and I found a good looking place to cross. About halfway over, I slipped on the rocks and went for a swim. A sign of things to come. On arriving at camp, I informed Bill Howard of the situation and we decided to drive to Hank’s fire and give him a hand. When we arrived, Hank was jumping up and down asking where I had been.  My crew leader was trying to get me on the radio, which I did not have. The fire had gotten away from them and they needed help. Knowing Hank, I felt he was just pulling my leg, but he said, “look for yourself.” To the south was a large column of smoke but it did not look like it was in the area of my fire. However, I took the truck Bill and I had and took off for the scene. On arriving, I found the fire had crossed the road and was burning to the ridge top.  Later, we found evidence that someone had set the fire across the road, using large kitchen matches. We found out that the Florida Civilian Conservation Corps crew did not want to go home yet.

The final phase to this assignment was when we were released and flown to Missoula. The Region set us up for the night in a very nice motel and we began to wait for the trip home. That night, most of the Team went out for a Chinese dinner. We thought Harry Taylor was going to eat out the place. Jack Horton decided he should do his laundry, so he went out on his own. Jack was to share his room with Hank Mostovoy. Hank didn’t know this. We got a wake-up call about 4 a.m. Hank packed his bag and came to the bus. We asked where Jack was and no one seemed to know, so away we went. Come to find out, Jack was sound asleep in the room that Hank just vacated. We never really did get the low-down on all this. Two days later they returned Horton to the Modoc National Forest.

All in all, this first assignment was just what we needed. We all learned a lot about each other.

Printed in Memorable Forest Fires edited by Gilbert W Davies and Florice M. Frank © 1995