For any history buffs or wildland buffs, here is an NPR story about the book “The Big Burn”, a book about the 1910 fire that burned 3 million acres in 2 days, the largest in US history. The wildland fire burned through parts of Washington, Idaho and Montana. Author Timothy Egan tells the story of how this disaster helped bring a spot light on the newly formed U.S. Forestry service, with the thanks of the popular Teddy Roosevelt.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129750575

Direct Mp3 download: http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/13/129786970/npr_129786970.mp3

Photo from Flickr

Ok, so I’ve made it over the Church raise. I made it to the top of the Ariel ladder and back down again. I’ve made it through the confined space drill with sweat dripping down my face and barley enough room to move my elbow a few inches to manage to crawl through like a catepilar. I’ve completed the CPAT with seconds to spare, and ran so much that my shines have burned so bad i would have thought…well…that they were on fire!

But, after all that, one of the things that intimidates me the most about starting as a probie with a fire department is being asked on the first day, “Hey Probie, Whats for dinner?” Imagin, it’s your first day, and you have to make up to 4 other firefighters happy with not only your choice of dinner, but also your preperation and cooking skills. From my experience, just cooking for two picky kids has been tough, so cooking enough of something that a bunch of firefighters will all like sounds like tough, stressful work!

Luckily, the internet comes to the rescue again! There is a mass of recipies out there on the web, specifically geared toward firefighter crews. From message boards to printed books, there is lots of info for the cooking novice to make a good impression his first day.

My #1 pick can be downloaded here: http://www.firefighters.org/pdf/Cookbook.pdf Author Doug Wetmore had not only put together a collection of great recipies, but it can also be printed out double-sided and you will have a handy book in your back pocket ready to go, and all for free! Below are some other handy links, so enjoy and good luck cooking!

http://www.firehousechef.com/

http://www.firehouse.com/forums/showthread.php?t=110058

http://www.amazon.com/Firehouse-Food-Cooking-Franciscos-Firefighters/dp/0811839885

And, finally, these pics are from candidate Suzuki. Enjoy:

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Next up are the ones from Josh Sauberman:

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Now that I’m done with the academy, I’ll have some free time to actually write about my experiences. The “grueling” 18 weeks actually turned out to be a lot of fun and I learned a lot. But first up, I’m gonna post the photos I’ve collected from my fellow candidates. First up are courtesy of candidates Forbes and Buckley, plus the one’s I’ve taken that haven’t appeared on the site yet:

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Click image to go to page

I’ve been really busy with the Academy, so I havn’t been able to post much. Now, finally, here are some photos from a really fun exercise we did involving…. REAL FIYA!

http://www.cityofmerced.org/depts/personnel/employment/jobdetails.asp?JobID=177

Due by Sept 25, sorry for the short notice!