Ironside Mountain - Oregon Oil Painting Landscape

Ironside Mountain - Landscape - 6x6 - Oil on Panel

This little mountain, hidden away in the remote desert nothingness of eastern Oregon, was the location of a wildfire that thankfully my crew did not have to hike to in 2007. The crew my husband was on, however, was not so lucky! I found the spot on Google Maps and thought it would be fun to "revisit" the area.

Holding the Line - Wildfire Landscape Oil Painting

Holding the Line - 6x6 - Oil on Panel 

NFS

Night ops. If you're lucky, you're handed a drip torch, which essentially is a watering can that pours flames, and begin fighting fire with fire. If you're not as lucky you'll get to spend the next several hours doing your best to not watch the active flame front, instead looking the opposite direction to make sure no floating embers light spot fires behind you. It's a dirty job, but someone has to hold the line.

Hillside Patterns - 6x6 - Oil on Panel - Landscape

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This little gem of a hillside is somewhere in Idaho, near Hell's Canyon. I've been going through a lot of my old firefighting photos looking for good references, and this view from near our base camp caught my eye!

Dirty Burn - Wildfire Oil Painting by Melanie Thompson

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In wildland firefighting, if a burn is dirty it means that the area isn't completely burned. Why is this important? When a crew is working to contain the fire by digging a line around it, the burned area (or the black) can be a safety zone if the fire goes crazy, since burned fuel can't be re-burned. Hence the often repeated wildland firefighting phrase "Keep one foot in the black." However, if the black isn't completely burned it can't be trusted as a safety zone, because of the possibility of the fire burning through that spot again.