In The Box

My day was rather uneventful, another day in the office.  My evening last night was a little more exciting.  Somewhere around 9:00pm, I got word that lightning had started a wildfire at one of our northern properties.  There were already some park staff and two of our fire trucks on the scene, but they asked me to bring another truck and call in some more park staff.  When I arrived, the county fire department was there as well.  The crew that arrived first had battled the fire a little, but the humidity was on our side and it remained manageable.  If it was left overnight though, there was no telling what it might do as the weather conditions changed.  The Division of Forestry also responded to help with the matter and they had equipment to create a firebreak around the fire.  There wasn't much that we could do aside from wait for the firebreak to be put in.   The majority of us headed home.  We didn't do much and I never actually saw the fire, but it was a good exercise. 
Today, several people went back to the fire with a crew from the Division of Forestry to work on further containing the fire.  It was still burning so they burnt out a little more of it to make sure that there was no fuel around the fire, no way for it to spread.  We will have to check it again tomorrow, but it is under control.  Hopefully it rained up there this evening. 
I didn't get to join the group at the fire today because I had to finish up the webinar training program that I have been participating in for the past few weeks.  Before the webinar started at 9:00, I had to send an e-mail, reporting the fire to all of the people who oversee the park from above.
By lunchtime, the webinar was over and my training was complete.  I still had more work to do in the office though.  I responded to some e-mails that I had flagged earlier in the week that needed attention.  I reported a staff injury to our workers compensation line.  I wrote up a memo to inform staff of some down time in a program that we use to report our hours.  I got out of the office only a couple of times to take care of a few things here and there.  I had to help receive and relocate a shipment of 1100 pounds of doggie poo bags (don't worry, they were new bags).  I also paid a visit to the ranger station.  It was another wildly hot and humid day.  The temperature was in the high 90's but the real feel temp was 109!!! I was glad that I wasn't on the fireline.
The day was over before I knew it and once again, I hadn't taken any photos.  When I got home though, I took my dog out and found a giant juvenile Lubber hiding from the rain under the roof of my back porch.  It is almost full sized at about two inches long, but it has not yet changed to its adult coloration.  It wings are also just starting to grow.  It is an awkward teenager at the moment.


Thought of the Day #8
With my shift in job positions from Park Ranger to Assistant Park Manager, I do less of one part of my job that I truely love.  Interpretation is my passion.  I really enjoy teaching people about the environment and helping them to discover and connect with their surroundings.  This blog has given me the opportunity to continue to interpret the things that I see with people, even if they are not park visitors.