KCFD: Waste Not, Want Not, It's a Win, Win For All
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Nick Smirnoff (NPPA)
"C" Shift firefighters from Station-13 housed temporarily at the Golden Hills CSD Offices inspect the newly milled skirting for their pre-fabricated quarters. All skirting is rough hewn timber from Alpine trees. Standing is Kern Fire Captain Keegan Smith. Kneeling is Engineer Jesse Waldowski and Firefighter Ryan Fox.
Harvested trees from Alpine Forest find new home as furniture and construction lumber for use by Kern County Fire.
Nick Smirnoff (NPPA)
14 foot lengths of tree trunks are cut into rough planks on this water cooled moving band saw. Operating the saw is Crew 81 Foreman Casey Payne.
Kern County Fire Crews at Camp-8, newly housed at the old Monroe High School have a working smaller scale saw mill. Fire crews 81 and 82, under the leadership of Crew 81 Forman Casey Payne, and Crew 82 Forman Craig Estep, have been helping in the harvesting and removal of Bark Beetle infested trees in the Tehachapi area. The infamous Bark Beetle kills a pine and moves on to a new host. By the time the dead pine is cut down, the damaging beetle is long gone. Some of the cut logs are taken to Kern Fire Camp-8 where they are cut into 14 foot lengths and milled into serviceable pieces of wood.
Cut on a 14 inch wide water cooled moving band saw, after milling into "planks", the lumber is cut into various sizes such as common 2x4s, 4x4s, up to 8 x14 inches. This "rough hewn" lumber is then taken to the department's planer where it is trimmed to common lumber sizes. The lumber is sanded and before long a book case or office counter appears at a nearby fire station.
New County Fire Station 13, located and housed temporarily in the Golden Hills CSD facility, has just had "rough hewn" rustic skirting added to its modular building. Camp-8 crew members are also using this milled lumber to add a raised patio deck for use by the station's firefighters.
