Wildland Firefighter

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A typical shift on assignment

Wake in a sleeping bag at fire camp around 5am, eat, briefing at 6. Drive or hike to the line. Dig and cut a break in the fuel, hour after hour, in smoke and heat, with a chainsaw crew ahead of you. Lunch out of a paper bag on the ground. More line, then mop-up: finding and killing every smoldering thing within a set distance of the edge. Back to camp after 14 or 16 hours, eat, sleep, repeat for about two weeks.