Wildfire Fighter
By: Bryan Blake Jr.
RENO, Nev.- Most firefighters have a set schedule: in the firehouse for the majority of the day and out for emergencies. But the life of a wildfire firefighter is completely different. They spend their time in the line of danger and are constantly pursuing one goal.
“Wildfire is the only natural disaster that humans fight against. Hurricanes, tornadoes, and all the rest of them just happen,” said Nick DeRaedt, a wildland firefighter for the Silver State Hotshots.
For six years now, DeRaedt has spent his summers and falls protecting the western coast’s wilderness. DeRaedt, a University of Nevada, Reno, graduate was finishing a job in Southern California when he agreed to speak for a phone interview.
The Silver State Hotshots are a Nevada based wildfire suppression crew, as told by the name, but they also work out of state all over the western US and help other crews with difficult fires. Their website states, “Hotshot Crews are so named because of the need for tough, knowledgeable, rugged individuals who can be sent ahead of the main contingent of ordinary labor crews.”
“We get two weeks on the job and a short two days off before it is back to work,” DeRaedt said.
The life of an urban firefighter is anything but easy. But the life of a wildfire suppression crew is much harder. With little time between jobs, “Hotshots” need to be the best of the best.
“You only need a high school diploma. Then we need to take mental and physical tests to make sure we are up for the job, because it is tough,” he said. “You can either go to school and get classes on the basics [fire science]. Or the way I did it was, I became an EMT and I used that to take classes with the team that hired me or a fire academy.”
To be in this profession, applicants must be strong and capable of completing hard tasks. For example, firefighters must be able to cut down and remove dead wood in the line of fire, and carry people from burning buildings.
A typical day at work for DeRaedt is anything but ordinary. What they do isn’t so much carved in stone, but written in sand because every situation is different. The terrain of every new call is a huge determinate for the fire crew. Depending on how dense the forest is or how steep the slope is, they can only get certain equipment up to certain places.
“We are different from the traditional fire fighters because we are in the wilderness. But, most of our job is digging a perimeter around the fire and getting rid of its fuel. Fire has three elements: oxygen, heat and fuel. We can’t get rid of the other two so, we do our best to leave no fuel for the fire,” said DeRaedt.
People think that fire fighting is only dumping water on flames from aircrafts. But, it is so much more. Crews dig around the fire to set a perimeter and to try and stop the fire from advancing. Also, planes fly over the fires and drop fire retardant, a red chemical substance that is proven to stop flames.
“Fire affects people, when they move out away from civilization. When people’s closest neighbors are miles away … we have seen a whole bunch of houses burn down, and it is really sad to see them impact is has on families and their lives,” said DeRaedt.
In the past couple years the west coast has been decimated by wildfires. In 2017 and 2018 there were almost 130,000 fires on the west coast. Fires continue to impact people and their homes, but it is great to know that there are people out there protecting us against them.
DeRaedt loves his job more than most. He described fire fighting as a great job that fell into his lap, “I love helping the community and being outdoors.” Thanks to men and women like Nick DeRaedt, our wildernesses are protected.