Wildland Fire Dozers

KRob · Aug 6, 2011

I spent a couple tail ends of my summers on contract truck fire crews. I never did get to see any fire breaks dug in though. Spent most of my time bouncing around in an old 60-70s deuce and half refilling water blivets. We could go anywhere so they loved us once we passes inspections.

DIRTROAD · Sep 27, 2011

willie59 said:
what type of shelter is that referring to?

It is basically a little tent made out of heat resistant materials. It is a "last resort" type of defense against a flaming front. If you can't out run or out flank the fire, then you take the tent out of it's pouch and unfold it and crawl inside and pray!

JDOFMEMI · Sep 28, 2011

Known by many as a "Shake and Bake"

Shake it out, crawl in, and get baked

I AM IRONMAN · Sep 29, 2011

Fatality and injuries by Firefighters in The Black Hills

It takes a brave man to go into those fires! When I see forest fires up close, it always amazes me that they can even be put out!
Here in the Black Hills near Edgemont, SD. we had a fire last month that took the life of a brave young man, it would be very easy to get trapped in the fire. Maybe he didn't have the experience that some of you guys have had. I know you learn a lot fighting fire year after year.
Here are a couple of links.
The Wildlandfire forum has all the news about how it happened and notes from the Black Hills Natl. Forest Director.

http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail6162.cfm?Id=119463

http://www.wildlandfire.com/hotlist/showthread.php?t=21156

North Texan · Sep 29, 2011

Conditions can change so rapidly, it can cause problems in moments.

Here, the biggest danger is probably not so much the fire as it is the heat. What causes problems is firefighters put on a bunch of hot gear, and daytime temps this year have sometimes exceed 120 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat makes it almost impossible to put out and keep out a fire, and its easy to get too hot.

DIRTROAD · Sep 30, 2011

This dozer became high centered on a stump about two weeks ago and was burned over. The operator had to get out and run. This was in Texas near Bastrop.

Some say that it was intentionally high centered so it would get burned up and have to be replaced. I don't know for sure as I wasn't there personally. A co-worker took this pic with his phone and sent it to me.

I would hate to think that someone would put themselves in danger just to get a new dozer, but it wouldn't surprise me.

chevota84 · Oct 1, 2011

That doesn't look like it would have been to hard to get off of unless the fire was right on top of him. Is that a swing grapple on it?

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mitch504 · Oct 1, 2011

That's the fireline plow on the back.

chevota84 · Oct 1, 2011

Guess I've never seen one of those, you guys do stuff alot differently down there than we do. Any better pics of one?

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DIRTROAD · Oct 1, 2011

This one is from Arkansas

This one is from Tennessee

And This one is mine

A lift plow is the only way to go. Much better than a pull type plow.

DIRTROAD · Oct 1, 2011

Here's another pic of mine while not stuck:

DIRTROAD · Oct 1, 2011

Up close and personal of a RM-750 Lift Plow

OldandWorn · Oct 2, 2011

DIRTROAD said:
Up close and personal of a RM-750 Lift Plow
View attachment 84091

Thanks for the pics. Been wondering what they look like.

RangerJake72 · Nov 22, 2011

Here are a couple of photos of my assigned tractor plow, a 2007 JD 650J with a Fesco twin disc medium fire plow

DIRTROAD · Dec 23, 2011

Here is a video that I made about 4 years ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hiYz-Zthog&context=C3183ed9ADOEgsToPDskKODhltlGteaEvmOwkAUiYR

RangerJake72 · Sep 8, 2014

@Dirtroad, the lift type plow is likely better in the fuel types you have in SC, or further north and west, blowy leaf or grassy fuels,. I need the extra weight and heft of my trail plow to cut through palmetto or malelucca stands or pines, along with the heavier tractors to pull them. It all depends on your ground fuels and terrain. Same reason all of our tractors are LGP (and some have extra wide swamp tracks) for the soft sandy soils and wet boggy areas we work in down here in FL

JNB · Aug 20, 2016

Waking this thread up for more pics. I read this morning that there are 32 dozers on the Blue Cut Fire. That's a lot of iron. http://abc7.com/news/blue-cut-fire-68-percent-contained;-105-homes-destroyed/1477589/. Forty years ago this summer I was on an LA County camp crew. Seems like yesterday. My hat's off to all the folks out there putting their tails on the line. :usa

Desertwheeler · Aug 20, 2016

Yeah I keep seeing pictures on social media of some dozers and the fire. It was pretty intense. I don't live far away and the smoke was horrible.

I have always wanted to do the fire dozer thing too. An old buddy has three dozers he sends out to fires.

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JNB · Aug 21, 2016

Here's a bit of info on how contract dozers helped to save Wrightwood during the fire. http://www.scpr.org/news/2016/08/19/63738/how-wrightwood-was-won-dozers-defiant-neighbors-an/

Birken Vogt · Aug 28, 2016

I just came across this today.

From this posting: http://hotlist.wildlandfire.com/threads/54243-CA-SLU-CHIMNEY?p=220990#post220990

Wildland Fire Dozers

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