A Daughter's Perspective

(Photo: Jim Bell)

Today on our blog, we share the raw words of Cristyn Bell, the 15-year-old daughter of Region 3 wildland firefighter Jim Bell. She shares the family perspective of wildland firefighting.

Thank you, Cristyn!

A phone call is such an innocent thing for most people; but for my family during the summer it means something totally different. It all starts with a phone call, which usually begins with “hey buddy, are you ready to go to work?” Which means my dad is gonna be leaving to work til his hands bleed. These innocent calls can come any time, anywhere. During a birthday party, a family vacation, a 4H event.

My dad is a wildland firefighter, and has been since before he meet my mom and before I was even born. So honestly I am raised in the business. The majority of the summer my dad is on fires. He is out in his green and yellows working till his hands bleed, figuratively but maybe working them to the bone. Every roll ends the same way he does his two weeks or the fire is out, whichever comes first. Meanwhile we are at home hiding from the summer heat, excited to see him home again.

My dad goes all over the nation fighting wildfires. He has protected historical landmarks, people’s houses and has been in so many national parks to even count. He was on the crew that protected the Chicago stump in 2004, 17 years ago even before I was born. They wrapped it in structure wrap ( which is the same fire shelter material, really like insulated tin foil) so when the fire came by it wouldn’t be touched. After the fire blew by they spent the next 6 hours picking every staple out of that historic stump. Every time my dad goes on a fire he comes back with wild adventurous stories, like once he and a friend were in an ATV They had it floored going up a mountain and were hanging drip torches out the side trying to start a burnout. I don’t know if I believe them, but it sounds like a lot of fun.

When my dad is out on fires my family and I continue life as normal, missing him the whole time. We still do the same things that we would usually do. We just save a few special things for when dad is home. One thing that we do to pass the time is hang out with other wildland families. One time a couple families got together and we all went to the drag strip. One of our favorite parts is the wildland family BBQ and swim parties.

When my dad is out most of the summer on fires he ends up missing birthdays, the Fourth of July, family vacations. He has also come close to missing Christmas once. Because of this we have learned to maximize the 48 hours in between assignments that he has to take R&R. In that 48 hours he tells us all about the fire and how they got around it, the cool places across the nation they traveled. Every fire has a different story. Sometimes they work along side other crews like the Genghis Khan Hotshots (that’s for another story). But sometimes they get stuck in the middle of California on a 21 day severity assignment never even seeing a fire. During the 48 hours that’s when we have birthday parties and other celebrations or when he helps me fix the clutch on my truck. It’s also dads time to get some sort of a rest… that doesn’t always happen.

One thing that my siblings and I love is when he go on fires in California. So, California is special they decided that every wildland firefighter would get a 5 pound lunch that has 6,000 calories. Some science guy did the math and to be active for 24 hours you needed an intake of 6,000 calories. But what was in these lunches made it the best part! The bags look like they raided a convenience store to fill them up to 6lbs. They would always have the most awesome snacks, full size candy bars, protein bars, un-crustables! My dad and his friend started getting a big cardboard box and filling it with whatever people didn’t finish. My siblings and I call them “fire food!” and would trade it like Halloween candy, except for the two week old smashed ones they go straight to the trash. Dad would also bring home old fire maps and explain what they did with the fire and what the topography and weather was like. In doing this he inadvertently taught us about fire behavior. When the news reporter would talk about wildland fires we were able to read through the script and know what was going on, same with containment!

One thing that wildland has given us is a group of other wildfire families. These are the people who would drop anything, they are doing and come help. They are used to working till their hands bleed so they can get a lot done. They have become an extended family to us. We would have big get togethers and sometimes it would last 2-3 days. And almost all of them would end in giant bonfires or lots of fireworks, they are all firefighters so it’s ok.

I think one of the most important things that my dad has done is teach us about fire behavior. Now that we know how fire works we aren’t too worried, but always a little because you never know what could happen. Even though my dad can leave at any time, it will only last 2-3 weeks. And I know while he is away he is saving people’s houses, ranches, national forests, and some really old stumps.

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Thanks to blog contributor Chris Ayer, Firefighter, Type 1/Engine Boss Trainee/Paramedic/Wildland Coordinator for Corona De Tucson Fire Department in Tucson, Arizona, for bringing Cristyn's work to our attention, to Cristyn for her powerful perspective, and Jim and Cristyn Bell for permission to print. The expressions and views are those of the author.