I was working in The Dalles, OR this summer, doing a little landfill expansion. Last day of the job , July 30th, I had a couple guys finishing up the operations layer and termination berm, and a couple guys loading up the shop van to move to the next job.
Anyway, I went into town to get the oil changed in my pickup and was heading back up to the job and saw this guy cutting wheat just down the road from the job. Pulled over and took a couple pictures of him crawling along the steep hillside, and thought to myself, later on today when we are done, I'm gonna drive out there and see if I can get a ride in that brand new John Deere hillside combine.
Got back to the job, grabbed my laborer and mechanic and we went and placed the rain flap in the termination berm so my hoe skinner could finish building it.
Took us about 45 minutes to do it. We were all done, standing at the bottom of the cell and saw smoke boiling up from the top of the hill. Wow, we got us a fire going somewhere. The inspector says, Ahh those farmers burn their stubble all the time, thats all it is. I said "Your f ing nuts! They are cutting wheat over there, they ain't burning today on purpose!"
So the laborer and I jumped in the pickup and hauled tail into the field, from the landfill's property, which borders right up to it. A few other pickups were driving out through the standing wheat to survey the flames. Me and Steve were sitting in some fallow ground watching. Pretty soon, those other pickups came to where we were and I told them I have 2 D-6's, a water truck, a blade, a loader and a couple hoes if you want some help. Hell Yea was the respose! Thats all it took and Steve and I where off. I grabbed the open cab 6, (left the GPS Cat finishing), Steve grabbed the water truck and Bernie, my mechanic grabbed the grader and away we went.
Here are a couple of the before, during and after pics I managed to take. Scary stuff! The wind changed in one spot I was pushing a trail down about a 2:1 slope and the flames came right towards me. Burned the hair off both my arms, and also burned the frayed ends off the cuffs of my jeans.
Later that evening, I get a phone call from the guy who farms the place. He couldn't thank me enough for putting my life in danger to help out. Told him it was no big thing. I saw a situation, did the only thing I could, which is help out the best I can. He said him and his cousin who farm together, were gonna be in the field for a while, and to come on up. So I went back out, drank some beer with them and had a good time. Made a couple new friends that day, thats for sure.