Fires!

We are meeting some friends at two o'clock to run through Chuck's 8 stage multi. Never liking to start that late, we decide to go get his daily (and his 800th) cache a few hours beforehand. As usual, we have plans to meet on Quaker Bridge, Chuck coming into Wharton from the west on Quaker Bridge and me coming in from the east behind Batsto. I am just turning onto Penn Swamp Rd (which turns into Quaker Bridge), when my phone rings. "Have they been doing any controlled burns out here today?", Chuck asks. They were, I tell him, but not now. He informs me that there is a ton of smoldering spots all along the road. I ask him if he sees any brush trucks and he tells me that he hasn't seen any. So I call the emergency number for Wharton and the guys asks where I am. I tell him that I am not sure of the exact location of the brush, but will call him when I get closer. I run into a lost old man and tell him to follow me in his Jeep to get him out of the woods and make my way towards Chuck. I meet up with Chuck, direct the old man the rest of the way out and get back on the horn with the emergency guy. He asks me a million questions and I give him all information and then tell him I have GPS coordinates. He wants no part of it. He tells me he is sending someone and we drive of of one of the side unnamed roads. More smoldering brush all the way in. Still no signs of help, I call a fireman that I know. Tell him where we are and he tells me that they were doing a controlled burn in the area yesterday, but it got away from them. They must have thought they had it out, but didn't quite get it. He promises to call Central and have them check it out. He calls me back and tells me that they are sending someone. We drive further in. Spend about a half anhour looking for a cache on the banks of the Batsto River, find it and head out. We still haven't seen any brush trucks. Halfway out, we saw flames. Get out of our vehicles and grab the bucket. I start to beat the flames and Chuck goes down to the river and gets water. Two bucketfuls of water and shovelfuls of dirt, we get it under control. But it is still smoldering. I call my fireman friend back and he says to call 911. I think about this and decide that it would be too much aggravation, they would never know where we were. So we get in the trucks and rush to the ranger station, passing little patches of fire on both roads. Get to the ranger station at Atsion and it is closed. I see a number for Batsto and dial it. Finally! A very nice lady answers and as I am explaining to her what went down, she asks me if I am the person who called the emergency number before. I tell her that I am and she says that they got the message but had no idea where to send the trucks. I gave her the coordinates and she assured us she was sending someone right out. We left and went to meet our friends.

We met the people we were supposed to on time and walked them through the multi. They left and me, Chuck and another buddy., Mark decided to hang out and explore the area a little more. It was an old abandoned underground radar station. We get to the station and there is smoke pouring out from the roof. Some kids had started a fire and left it burning in a "pit" they had made. They may have thought that they put it out, but the cushion of an old chair they were using must have stayed smoldering and then flamed up. So we beat that one down, made sure it wasn't going to cause any damage and left.

I swear I am going to join forest fire services......