As the fire tried to jump the road, flaming brush and rocks came crashing down, slowing Courtland Ingram’s descent back to base camp. After a long 16-hour work day trying to manage the Orleans Complex fire that overcame a region of Northern California in July with the Missouri Conservation Department. Ingram found himself stationed at Idlewild Campground in Siskiyou County, California, Ingram slept, ate, and learned about the jobs he would be doing for that day during his summer away from school as a firefighter.
Up on a cliff, Ingram would sit and watch the fire in the valley below, smoke billowing and the scent of burning wood wafted through the air.
“It was an incredible experience [fighting fires],” Ingram said. “I often tell people that I watch [the fires], cause with a wildfire you can only do so much, cause your safety is most important.”
Firefighters one may think of in the city with a hose is not what Ingram’s day looked like. His job in managing fires mostly consisted of keeping properties safe and ensuring the fires couldn’t jump any creeks or reach any danger areas. Small brush around the trees catch fire much easier than the large trees do, so to help stop the fire in its tracks the firefighters did what they could to stop the fire from reaching its fuel to keep crusading through the forest.
“Sometimes when managing a fire, you need to start a fire, that’s called backburning, where you burn sections of the forest to help stop the fire from getting access to any fuel,” Ingram said.
Ingram heard of this opportunity through a friend who works for the Missouri Department of Conservation.
“He said that I think this is something you would like, you spend 14 days in a tent, get food from a semi, work all day, then come and finish off the night,” Ingram said.
The days were 16 hours long, filled with hard work like backburing, property protection, waiting for the fire to move, and more. Everything had to be on a very strict schedule.
“My days started at 5:20, where I woke up and got ready, breakfast was a 6 on the dot, then we have meetings to understand our assignments for the day,” Ingram said. [ “Then we break down into our individual companies, then even further down into our individual squads.”
Ingram recently started a new “outdoor recreation” class, based on his love for the outdoors and experience with outdoor activities. While he missed his students, he found the experience to be meaningful.
“I had a really great time fighting the fires, and I will definitely be doing it next year,” Ingram said.