Building America - The CCC: Entry

8.00 PM This is August 24 and we just got back from a fire we went out on August 21st. It was on Heaven's Peak which is about 8000 ft high. It took us about 3 hours to get to the top and she sure was steep. After we reached it, it turned out to be a blazing hell and we could not even get near it without endangering our lives so we had to wait till night till it calmed down a bit and then we fought it for about twenty hours straight then we got relief by another crew. We went back up on the top after a rest of six hours and tackled it for another twelve hours and then we had it under control and then we were relieved again. We went back up on top again to patrol it for an eight hour shift to see that it didn’t jump the trail and after we were up there about three hours a string wind blew she jumped the trail and started to burn again. It blew the sparks over a five hundred foot cliff and they had to lower us by ropes to fight it. One fellow fell and was all banged up. I learned that he died today. We sure did have a hell of a time trying to put a forest fire out on the side of a eighty percent cliff. After our shift was over they pulled us back up to the top and we went back down the trail. When we got to the bottom of the mountain they told us to report to our home camp for another fire as big as that burning on our side of the lake.

Robert

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Comments from Chris

If you remember at the beginning, Robert said he was writing this down to let his mother know of his adventures. What do you think she thought when she read this entry? What an amazing and dangerous few nights.

It turns out, this is one of the biggest and most destructive fires in Glacier National Park history. Thousands of acres and many structures will be destroyed. This will be driving Robert's activities for the next week.