The Life
When not on fire assignments, the crew performs project work such as prescribed burning and fuels reduction.
Living conditions while on assignments can be primitive. Fresh meals, soft beds, and regular showers are not to be expected. Field assignments away from home can last several weeks with daily work shifts averaging 16 hours, but can extend up to 48–64 hours. Sleep deprivation is common, as is routine exposure to dust, smoke, poison oak, extreme weather (both heat and cold) and other environmental hazards.
Hotshot vehicles become a home away from home during the peak of the season when Hotshots may rarely spend more than two consecutive days at their own station. These vehicles, also known as Crew Hauls, Buggies, Crummies, or simply the Box, carry Hotshots along with personal gear, tools, and everything else necessary to make the crew self-sufficient for several days.
Read more about this topic: Interagency Hotshot Crew
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“The woods were as fresh and full of vegetable life as a lichen in wet weather, and contained many interesting plants; but unless they are of white pine, they are treated with as little respect here as a mildew, and in the other case they are only the more quickly cut down.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Adolescence is a tough time for parent and child alike. It is a time between: between childhood and maturity, between parental protection and personal responsibility, between life stage- managed by grown-ups and life privately held.”
—Anna Quindlen (20th century)