Another Day Another Fire...

Saturday, I was headed back from shooting an assignment in Lake Stamford and decided to take a little different route home than I got there, and against my GPS's directions (because I'm not so sure she knows the best route). And, once again as I noticed the all too familiar plume of smoke in the air, and since I was headed in that direction anyway, I figured I'd just keep an eye on it. By the time I got back to Lake Fort Phantom it was really big and the scout plane and tankers were circling to make drops. I jumped out of the car real quick in time to get the big tanker making a drop. But, since the majority of the photos I've shot from wild fire lately has been from air units making drops I wanted to stick around and shoot some of the ground crews, hand crews, or the brush trucks. It sounds easy enough, but with the roads blocked off it's tough to get really good access. But, after waiting it out for a while the game warden who had the road blocked off took off. I'm not sure why, he just left, cool. I ventured down the road a little to one of the burning tree lines. I figured if I hung out there long enough one of the brush trucks would go work that area. And, my bet paid off, plus the field I was standing next to caught on fire too. It was kind of crazy, I got really good access here. I think part of it was standing next to one of the command vehicles, I figured if he was there I was ok too. I was able to get a few shots of the forestry service guys working the fire and decided to get out of there. I was happy with what I had and it was hotter than hell out there. It was time to go.