When I hear there’s a fire and I’m going on it, at first I get excited. Then I get all logistical. I want to know everything I can about it. The call comes over the PA, and we hustle to our lockers and put on our fire-resistant clothing, flight suits and harnesses with belly bags with our survival equipment — so that if we rappel into the fire and then the chopper for some reason can’t get to us, we won’t be stranded out there.

Sometimes they drop us right in the middle of thick trees and we descend through branches. Then we hike into the bottom of the fire, which is typically the safest place to approach one because fires go uphill. It wants to spread in all directions, find its fuel, in the white fir, the huge trunks, the downed logs. Our job is to cut a tree line and take away the fuel from the fire. Right next to the fire is most effective. So we get as close as we can stand. Then we just start sawing. Chips are flying and causing flare-ups. It’s hot and loud. Often there are aircraft roaring above, dropping water. And we’re wiping sweat and dirt out of our eyes, constantly trying to keep our vision clear. We’re eating 8,000 calories a day just to keep up and drinking tons of water.

We usually sleep on the ground, no tent or anything. We build a little fire, find some mushrooms or something local and make some gourmet backcountry cuisine. We joke that our job is Extreme Picnicking. It’s a good time to get to know one another and bond. It annoys boyfriends and girlfriends when we get going about firefighting, so our nights around the fire … that’s our chance to be geeks.

Read the article “How Was Your Day . . . Forest Firefighter?” on ozy.com.