UPPERWEATHER.COM _{-Meteorological Musings}

I was going through some MetEd courses, which I love to do all the time because they keep me fresh on forecasting skills (of which I really have none). When I came across a course on the History of The Incident Meteorologist Program, which is really just a video. It is really neat to watch and quite informative. In the video Ed Pulaski was mentioned. I find it really interesting because there is a tool that we use when fighting forest fires called a pulaski.

I fought on a crew made up entirely of Mexicans (except for myself), for two years. While on that crew they always called it a Pulachey. They told me it was a Spanish word and that we (English speakers) said it wrong. I took this at face value, but now I know the real story, and I wish I could go back and tell those guys off. Oh well.

Anyway Ed Pulaski was apparently quite a guy. In his wikipedia profile he is credited with saving his crew of 45 men. He is also credited with inventing, (or reinventing) the pulaski.

A pulaski is an awesome tool, and still the tool of choice for many wild-land firefighters. It is a tool that has an axe head on one side, and a sideways one on the other side. This way you can chop small trees and roots with one side and still dig line through some heavy duff with the other. Usually the tool I fight for.

Fireline is dug by twenty men/women in a line with shovels, pulaskis, mcleods, and other tools. They all take one or two strikes at the ground and move a couple of feet down. This way, by the time the twentieth person gets there, the line is quite deep and wide. If you are an ambitious fire-fighter, you always reach for the pulaski. The ones with the pulaskis, usually work the hardest. I say usually because there is always the exception to the rule, and really if there are no stumps and roots the whole dynamic changes a lot!