More Flame Fun
Forrester, Dennis Rhoades tells me, spring fire season ends when the oak leaves get about as big as a squirrel’s ear. This year that will be a welcome sign.
Last year Kipp Woods, Exec Producer for Missouri Outdoors assigned me stories about Operation Game Thief (OGT) and Operation Forrest Arson (OFA), programs created in cooperation with the Conservation Federation of Missouri in the 80’s to provide a phone hotline for regular folks to tip off authorities about near do wells. OGT was easy. Each year there are a number of tips that lead to arrests and convictions. OFA on the other hand was a tougher assignment, not as many cases. The OFA story fell to the bottom of the list.
Last month I hit pay dirt. Dennis Rhoades out of the MDC Camdenton office pointed out though few of the calls lead to arrests, the hotline still provides desired information which often gets firefighters on the scene sooner than without the tips. Dennis was very interested that we wanted to do a story. “Those news people from Springfield come out and set up at the tail end of a fire and do their report with a few smoldering bushes in the background. That’s not what these fires are all about.” He was ready to scramble aircraft if they could get a camera crew in a position ahead of the flames. In my five years with the program, that was a first.
The dry spell of the last 18 months has greatly heightened the potential for fires. Foresters in south central Missouri tell me they know there are folks just waiting to hear of a ban on outdoor burning like an antsy third grader waiting for the bell at recess.
With the promise of rain unfulfilled last Sunday Dennis encouraged me to send the video crew down. I put things in motion with Director of Photography, Tom Newcomb. He and audio/grip Jerry Wheat began packing with intent to depart St.Louis 6 AM Wednesday. Thinking this shoot probably didn’t justify my expense; I’d planned to let these guys go it on their own. Tuesday weather reports were changing constantly. The chance for fires continued to grow but the weather front had stalled.
I had gotten to know Dennis well enough by now to see that personnel in that part of the state would provide significant interviews for this story that for almost a year seemed to have no angle. Rather than risk the expense of a day of shooting and travel on a fire that might not show, I decided to rendezvous with the crew in Lebanon, MO to shoot my interviews at least.
Wednesday morning we met Forrester Steve LaVal at the office. They rescheduled a prescribed burn on MDC property for that morning to provide us the opportunity to get our shots. They were sure that by the time that project was finished; reports of wildfires would be coming in.
The ground fire is pushed by the wind. In order to shoot the real excitement, the camera crew needs to be ahead of the advancing fire line. The heat and smoke was very uncomfortable at times. Through the smoke Tom got shots of the MDC guys tending he line. Sometimes they just stood or squatted, watching. I wasn’t sure if they were forcing a calm attitude to regulate their breathing or if the smoke had started to shut their brains down.
With stinging eyes and sinuses we made our way to the side of the fire line away from the smoke and heat. Jerry said he never thought clean air tasted so good.
There is so much to know and fear about these wildfires, how powerful, fast and destructive they can be. These firefighters are remarkable. It became apparent to me the kick these guys got from “outsmarting” the fire and forcing it to die, not with streams of water but by determining it’s course, moving ahead and cutting off the fuel supply.
From there we went to the wild fires that had been predicted. Tom got great shots and our interviews were excellent, way beyond the norm. This story that last year had no angle is going to turn out great.
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