Calvert forest ranger returns after battling California fire

Friday, Aug. 28, 2009

Long, of Prince Frederick, served as one of three squad bosses on the assignment. Initially sent on Aug. 7 to help battle the Big Pole fire one hour west of Salt Lake City, the crew spent a couple days "gridding" in Utah before being called further west to help fight the 90,000-acre La Brea fire just east of Santa Maria, Calif. "Gridding," or coal-trailing, is when fire crews scan "black" areas that have already been burned by fire for hot spots to ensure new fires don't sprout up.

In California, the firefighters helped hold the line for burnout operations, during which crews identified remaining fuels that could feed the forest fire and burned them under controlled conditions before the main blaze could spread. If any flames jumped the line and started new fires, Long's team helped put them out. Chaparral and sagebrush were the two main fuels targeted for burnout, Long said. The team also helped grid the La Brea fire.

The Maryland Forest Service has been sending crews to help with out-of-state wildfires since the 1970s through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Forest Service, State Fire Supervisor Monte Mitchell said.

For Long, it was his first trip to California — previous assignments have sent him to Montana, Nevada and Idaho (twice). During his trips to Idaho, Long helped fight the Blackerby fire — which torched nearly 5,000 acres — and the Tongue Complex fire, which burned more than 46,000 acres.

"I think I've been across that whole entire state," Long said of Idaho.

Along with Long, who worked as a forest technician at Savage River State Forest before joining the Maryland Forest Service in December 2004, firefighters from the state Forest Service, Wildlife and Heritage Service, Natural Resources Police, Resource Conservation and Development Board, Department of Agriculture and various fire stations made up the remaining crew members.

While the bulk of the assignment was spent containing the blaze, the crew members did get a brief respite, Long said. One day after getting off work early, the team took a quick trip to Guadalupe, Calif., and caught a glimpse of the Pacific Ocean.

"Our whole entire crew, we had really good morale through the whole trip," Long said.

The 20-man crew typically stays together on assignments, but if necessary could be split into three separate "initial attack" crews, Mitchell said.

Long was one of the three type-5 incident commanders, or squad bosses, serving under the group's crew boss.

"Rick does an excellent job and the entire crew did an excellent job with good evaluations from their crew supervisors," Mitchell said.

When he isn't off battling fires across the country, Long is stationed out of the state forest service's county field office in Prince Frederick.

Depending on the season, he spends most of his time putting out local brushfires and developing "forest stewardship management plans" for private property owners who want to use their forested land for commercial, wildlife or recreational purposes. The plans are drafted after performing surveys of the species, size and basal area of the forest's trees.

jnewman@somdnews.com