There’s even debate about which crew was the first hotshot crew. So where did the name “Hotshot” come from? Well, that’s a good question, and quite frankly, there’s a lot of debate about the its origins. Heck, you don’t even need to go to college (though it’s not a bad idea to go college first, or during, of course!) Fortunately, you don’t need to be a physically-dominant alpha male to be on a hotshot crew. For the sake of comparison, there are about 1,696 players in the NFL (32 teams x 53 Players = 1,696). Which means every year, around 2,000 men and women serve on hotshot crews. As of 2018, there are currently more than 100 hotshot crews. So when you hear Type 1 vs Type 2 crew, you can rephrase as “Hotshot crew vs. First, what what’s the difference between a Type I Crew and a Type 2 Crew? And what’s a hotshot crew?įirst off, a hotshot crew is more formally known as a Type 1 Interagency Hotshot Crew (IHC). Mission Accomplished! Let’s get a few things squared away. If you want to slay some fire-breathing dragons, handcrews are where you want to be.Īlright, so you’re now fired up about handcrews! Great. You’re going to see more fire on a handcrew than you will on an engine crew, a wildland fire module, a fuels crew, etc. Almost every single smokejumper has spent multiple years on a hotshot crew. And if you’re able to hack it on handcrew, that will give you credibility for whatever you do next. If you’re on a hotshot crew, and the Incident Commander orders some backfiring to be done at night, guess who’s getting the drip torches? You are. You’ll be assigned to do the hardest work. Twenty People who will all go from strangers to friends in 6 months. That aside, being on a handcrew is one of the best experiences you can have in fire. Though maybe I wish I had given smokejumping a shot, or tried to do a season on a helicopter. And to this day, I wouldn’t have done it any different. I will admit that with a smile! I spent my time in fire exclusively on hand crews. Game on, Fire.Īs you can see, I’m tremendously biased towards hand crews. But for those who have done it, it’s the way firefighting is supposed to be. When you’re watching television coverage of a fire, and you see a group of firefighters, swinging tools, punching in some gnarly line while sucking in dust and smoke, 9 times out of 10, you’re looking at a handcrew doing their thing. But the point that must be made is that the men and women who serve on Hotshot Crews, Type 2 and Type 2 Initial Attack Crews, bear the brunt of the physical labor that goes into fighting a wildfire. Hand crews are the backbone of America’s fire suppression efforts.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |