Because of the drizzly rain, the next morning, the crew stayed in camp while the crew bosses hiked back up to check on the fire. I spent the morning sharpening the polaski's and axes. When the fire bosses returned to camp a couple of hours later, The fire was declared out, and arrangements were made to start helicoptering the crew back home.
I was among the skeleton crew of six was to stay behind to keep an eye on the fire for one more day, just to make sure there were no flare ups. We started to dismantle most of the camp which was packed up, and we piled all of the camp and fire fighting equipment near our heli-pad in preparation for its removal. The helicopter arrived mid-morning and began to ferry the crew out. The chopper could only carry 4 passengers at a time, but slowly the population of the camp shrank down to just a handful. As the last of the exiting firefighters boarded, and the helicopter sat ready to take off, Grant came stomping over to where we were organizing the fire fighting equipment and asked, “Has anyone seen Todd?”
We looked around and shook our heads, “No, why?”
“This is last helicopter for the crew, and he’s no where to be seen.”
We all dropped what we were doing, and spread out in the forest around the empty camp site looking for him. A chorus of “Todd, Todd.” rang out throughout the trees, but no Todd was could be found. Although concern was expressed about whether he might have had an accident, I suspect that most of us were secretly thinking that he was out there somewhere hiding. Eventually, the decision was made that those in the helicopter should be ferried out, and the helicopter finally departed without him.
We continued our search for Todd without success. The helicopter returned for JJ and I. We loaded up and where dropped off in a gravel pit near where Highway 16 crosses Dome Creek. We had a few hours to wait before our ride back home to McBride arrived and we took advantage of the situation by taking a very cold skinny dip in Dome Creek.
I heard later that Todd eventually returned to camp, and the Forest Service had to send another helicopter, complete with a RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) officer, to make sure Todd was returned back to McBride. When the chopper landed and the the policeman stepped out, Todd took off running, but they were able to catch him and fly him back.
I don’t remember what legal troubles Todd’s behavior led too, but Todd amazingly, never held any grudge against me. He would occasionally drift into McBride every year or two, and whenever he spotted me, he would come over and talk to me like I was his best buddy.
A few years later, when I had become a full time employee of the Forest Service, several times Todd actually came into the Forest Service office looking for me. On one such visit, he came to ask me if I would be a reference for him and write a letter to a court in Alberta saying that “Todd carried MACE (an aerosol pepper spray) to keep bears away.” I told him I couldn’t do that because I honestly didn’t know if he ever carried MACE.
On another visit, Todd told me, “You know that fire I was on, that was the second time I have been busted with a helicopter.”
As I look back at my expectations of going to the Greg Fire, I was totally wrong about everything. The only flames I saw were when I was staring into the camp fire as we ate supper. The only axes I handled were the ones I sharpened while sitting in camp.
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