Wildland Firefighters return home after battling multiple regional fires
Fort Hall Wildland Firefighters, from left: Bow Evanson, Tayshaun Nappo and engine boss Karl Mosho.
By LORI ANN EDMO
Sho-Ban News
FORT HALL — Four Fort Hall area wildland firefighters recently returned from a number of different fires and are awaiting to be called out again.
Karl Mosho, engine boss, he, along with Tayshaun Nappo, Bow Evanson and Taja Williams, were ordered up from the Great Basin Task Force. It was comprised of six different engines — a Type 6 from the Idaho Falls District, Carson City District, two Type 4s from the Twin Falls District, a water tender from Utah and an engine from Fort Hall. There were two task force leaders – one qualified and one trainee.
Nappo and Evanson are firefighter twos. Williams is an engine operator – she drove the truck while Mosho ran with the fire crew on the ground.
He said they were asked to go to Winnemucca but when they were en route they got ordered to go to the Big Grass Fire that started in Oregon. After they were able to finish that mission, they were ordered to the Bug Fire in Reno, Nev. where they were on it for five shifts (16 hours per shift but could go to an extended shift up to 24 or 36 hours). From there they went to a new fire called the Shoshone Fire by Fallon, Nev. “So, we took our task force there,” he continued where they worked five shifts there.
Then they were called to a new fire that started on the south side of Reno called the “Hawk Fire.” “That was the big one that was threatening,” Karl said.
They were gone for a total of 17 days.
“It was fun,” Mosho said. “My guys got to experience a lot of different things – Tayshaun got to do some firing operations on the Big Grass Fire in Oregon – he got to play with some fires with the drip torch.” They did multiple burnouts doing fire operations on multiple fires. Unfortunately, he said some homes were lost on the Hawk Fire because of how erratic the wind and the weather was, “so we had no control over what the fire took on that.”
Mosho said he’s in his 19th season with fire management in Fort Hall noting it’s his second year with the Wildland Fire Service. The camaraderie keeps him in it, “You know you go on these fires, do a hard shift and guys are all out there sweating and then being stressed out. But then, when everything’s done and over with, get to have some good laughs.”
Nappo said it’s his first year as a wildland firefighter as previously he worked for two years on the camp crew, “I really enjoyed it so I decided I wanted to move up,” to wildland field. He’s been having a lot of good experiences and just keeps on learning. “Just this recent fire we’re on, with the task force, it was good to see a lot of different things – it wasn’t just focused on one assignment, it was multiple, so it was good.
Tayshaun said he had a good time and yeah, some things were difficult but he just kept hydrated. “We looked out for each other out there, made sure we all drink water, took electrolytes.” He did a lot of training preseason and while on the camp crew. He said he intends to keep working in the field. His family members including his grandmother Carol Nevada and his mother Jessica Bercier were firefighters, along with other relatives.
Bow Evanston said he enjoys getting the chance to learn and meet new people from different areas especially the Great Basin. It was nice getting to see the different areas between here and Reno. In addition, moving around a lot to different fires during the two weeks they were gone. “But the best one was probably assisting over at the Hawk Fire, once it started, protecting structures then moving around from different structures to different areas during that same fire. It was a lot of fun, a lot of hard work, some restless nights but in the end, it’s pretty worth it,” he said.
Evanston is in his second year of firefighting with the Fort Hall crew. He also has experience firefighting back home in Arizona as he’s Mojave from the Colorado River Indian Tribe.
Currently, Mosho said they are here at the local district and they’ll start working their way back up the rotation list as they’re currently on the bottom. “But as of right now, we are available for initial attack here on the local district.”
