Be Open To Talking To People

[Photo: Chris Ayer]

With no particular start date, the 2023 Region 3 fire season (or fire year, if you are so inclined) has taken it's sweet time in ramping up; however. Arizona seems to have entered another burn period last few weeks. Therefore, while I am sitting in the demob line waiting to go through finance, I thought I would share some perspective from my last 5-day assignment as a single resource tending a support tender where air conditioning was minimal and temperatures hovered around 102-105 degrees and vehicle dash readings around 111 degrees (I am going to ignore the 118 degree reading.)

As some of you know, I am a 7-foot, quiet individual. Because of my stature, quiet demeanor, some people find me intimidating and take a while to warm up to me. When people do talk to me, the conversation is generally a quick one about how tall I am. My engine boss and mentor tells me I need to smile more and be more friendly. Who knew my last assignment would take me out of my comfort zone. 

The road to the fire was a narrow one way in and out road with an extremely tight 90 degree turn on a hill directly into a cattle guard. I made it in and out once with my tender and felt accomplished with my  skills and the event did not end with a “Dear Chief, I have to inform you…” I determined it was best to leave my tender at a turnout and hitch a ride to and from camp each day.

Because my task force and division were busy every morning with actual fire business on and crews were doing the real work on the line, I was forced to become a hitchhiking nuisance and get out of my normally stoic shell. After sitting on a tender all day with nobody to talk to, I was as chatty as I have ever been. If I wanted to get back to camp, I had to ask people for a ride. Asking for anything has never been something I was comfortable with; but before I knew it I had made more friends on this fire than I ever have. I was catching rides with safety, law enforcement, and random type 6s. By day three, I was waving at every person that drove by; and if they happened to stop, I was striking up a conversation. One local state battalion commander would jokingly look the other way or cover his face when he drove by; if he stopped, I was pulling him into a 20-minute conversation. He made the joke in base camp not to make eye contact or stop for the tender operators; I was undeterred by that statement.

When I’m on my engine or in classes, I tend to migrate to people I know. The wildland fire community  has so many people who have extraordinary experiences and knowledge. Most of the time, we have no idea about these people because we don't engage with them.  I was so focused on being sure I didn’t die of boredom or dehydration, and not getting to work on my position task books I almost missed the opportunity to learn and grow from people I usually never talk to. Moving forward I’m making a deliberate effort to engage more with the engines, crews, overhead around me. You will be shocked and surprised by what people have to share just by striking up a conversation.

I would like to say thank you to a couple of individuals who went above and beyond the call of duty on my assignment: 

• Rob Martin (Safety Officer) - was willing to drive me anytime, and went out of his way to check in and share his wealth of knowledge.
• Ben Evans - (Task Force) always checking in and being sure that somebody was coming to get me. Ben stopped randomly throughout the day to chat which is much needed as a single tender operator. 

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Christopher Ayer is a Firefighter/Firefighter Type 1/Paramedic for Corona De Tucson Fire Department in Tucson, Arizona. The expressions and views are those of the author.