WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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[cheerful acoustic guitar music]

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[crackling sounds and engine noise]

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[Narration] Wildland fire engines play a critical role in firefighting 
operations across the country.

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[Narration] Engine crews respond to a
wide variety of fires and incidents, from

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the outskirts of cities to remote
wilderness.

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[Interview] Wildland fire engines get called out to basic grass fires right on the side of the highway, people throw out

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a cigarette butt, they'll respond to a
lightning strike of a tree that happens in the forest.

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At a lot of the larger fires that we've been hearing about in the

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news and the media, the type 3 engine is
able to help out in addition to all the

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other resources that are there.

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A National Park Service type 3 engine is

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configured with five personnel, one
personnel being the engine captain slash

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"engine boss," the next person down would be the 
engineer slash "ENOP" person, and then

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three firefighter personnel underneath
them, which configures the five personnel

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for a type 3 engine.

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The reason why I chose to be a wildland
firefighter is because I like to go hiking,

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running, and staying in shape, you get to
see a lot of beautiful places around the

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country, but most of all because it's fun.
I enjoy being out here and doing the

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best work that I can.

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With a wildland engine, the fire itself could be acres,

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hundreds of acres, thousands of acres, so
you need to have the capability of

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driving and getting and being more mobile.

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We're able to bring water to the fire.

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This means that we're able to
suppress the fire more quickly using

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that water, cool it off. We're carrying
over about 2,000 feet of hose.

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[muffled radio traffic, spraying water]

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On our engine, we carry 500 gallons of water, 
chainsaws, hand tools, and a lot of fire hose,

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so we are always ready to respond
to all kinds of different situations.

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[spoken] You guys all good? Yep.

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Even though we're at Kings Canyon
National Park resource, we aren't

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confined to Kings Canyon, or the sequoias, or just national park areas.

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Wherever there's a natural disaster, that's where we're used.

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So when we're not fighting fires

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we're usually training and drilling,
pretty much getting ready for the next

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call that comes in. When we're not
drilling or training, we're usually

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getting our equipment pretty much fire-ready,

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getting it spec'd out, and keeping
household stuff around here at our station as well.

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You want to practice like you play and play like you practice,

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that's how you get best suited for your job.

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We get the opportunity to work

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on a lot of prescribed fires here at the
park, and because this park has so many

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visitors, we get asked the question, you
know, "Why is this burning? What are you

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doing?" and it gives us a good opportunity
to take time with those visitors, and

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inform them about the ecology and fire's
natural role in the environment.

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[spoken] All right, that's good for a second.

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When we put on this uniform, we represent the park, 
we represent our engine, we

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represent the National Park Service. We
always have to be respectful of each

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other and give that example for others
to build off of.

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Our engine plays a crucial role in combating wildfires, 
and also utilizing fire use such as

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prescribed burns within the parks, within
the national park system, and the

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Department of the Interior. It's just nice to
be a part of not only our park, but the

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wildland fire team as a nation.