Page 370 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

happen between 11:00 p.m. and 2:00 in the morn- ing. Generators and tractors came in from all over the country. We were a 24-hour operation.”
SUPPORTING THE FRONT-LINE DEFENDERS
Redding’s field crew worked around the clock too. Chris Clifton, Aaron Paoli, and Quinton Hurl- burt were Peterson’s repair force out on the front lines. “We worked mainly on fire Cats—D6Ms and D5Ms,” says Hurlburt, a 2015 ThinkBIG2 graduate out of the Redding store. “There were a lot of electrical issues because when they’re run- ning from fires at high speed, wires break loose under the dashboard, and then machines won’t start. They had hydraulic leaks–main pump supply lines–so valves were leaking. People were running over stumps, which pushed the belly pan up, so they’d lose all their engine oil.”
“You couldn’t take your truck everywhere. Some- times it was backpacks and five-gallon buckets full of tools and catching a ride in on another Cat.
I would be working on somebody’s equipment, and then three more dozers would show up need- ing help. And CAL FIRE would be telling you to hustle because the fire was coming. Or a custom- er would be in a hurry to catch up with his crew after waiting around for the mechanic. With all that happening around you, you’re sweating bul- lets. Everybody’s hollering. It’s an intense envi- ronment. But you just tune all that out and focus on the problem.”
THE SIX-HOUR ADVENTURE OUT
During a fire, CAL FIRE’s policy is to send a fire truck to escort techs whenever they go out on field repairs. But the Carr Fire was so unpredict- able that even then, techs sometimes ended up in harm’s way. On day two, Hurlburt was working on top of a ridge where CAL FIRE had cleared out a safe zone. “It looked like a huge football field, and I was parked right in the middle of it. A group of eight dozers was there to start cutting lines down the hill toward the fire. I had to move after I fin- ished the repair because the fire was coming and
Left to right: Cat D4H Hurlburt worked on during the fire for Sunrise Excavating; View from inside Hurlburt’s field truck, driving into the fire
2 ThinkBIG is a 2-year, Cat-specific training program, which earns an Associate’s Degree in Applied Science. See the full story in CH20 ThinkBIG, pg 317.
368 | PETERSON: 85 YEARS AND GOING STRONG