Watch CBS News

Pike Hotshots Always Ready For The Next Fire

MONUMENT, Colo. (CBS4) - Wet weather this May is helping the fire danger in parts of Colorado. The risk of wildfire is now low to moderate across most of the state. But the exception is southeastern Colorado, where dry conditions continue to keep the risk high.

On Tuesday CBS4 environmental specialist Paul Day visited with an elite firefighting team getting ready for the next big fire after cleaning up the last one.

Mike Alexander leads the Pike Hotshots based in Monument. The 21 man elite firefighting team has been getting ready for the next wildfire after cleaning up from the Snyder Creek blaze near Kenosha Pass. The hotshots were called in because the human-caused fire burned hundreds of acres at high elevation in difficult terrain.

"Our specialty is known as 'cutting line;' building fire line. So we use chain saws and hand tools," Alexander said. "We use chain saws to cut brush and timber on the edge of a fire, then the hand tools come in behind the chain saws and scrape away all the organic matter, duff and dirt."

Their chainsaws are modified to run faster.

"They cut a lot real quickly," one firefighter said.

Hotshots must be in top physical shape because they pack in everything.

"This one, I carry another saw kit in here, which is another five or six pounds," firefighter Matt Teele told Day while showing him a pack.

The pack weighs about 43 pounds.

Transported in special buggies, they respond to high priority wildfires with the experience, training and all the provisions necessary to battle a blaze as long as necessary.

Hotshots frequently work long hours under primitive conditions without hot meals or showers.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.