Brna practices using a compass during guard school, a week-long training course for new firefighters.
Amanda Peacher / OPB
This season was busy and one of the most resource-intensive fire seasons on record in the Northwest. Throughout the summer, OPB followed 24-year-old Teresa Brna, a first-year firefighter with the Ochoco National Forest. We tracked how she did during training, and checked in with her in July and August, to see if firefighting was what she thought it would be.
As fire season comes to a close, OPB caught up with Brna one last time. Click "play," above, to hear the conversation.
Teresa Brna is ending her first season of firefighting both tired and content.
"I wasn't sure if I could really do firefighting," Brna said. "But I gained this sense of confidence: Here's a job that's physically demanding and at times, emotionally demanding, and I can do it."
Brna worked long days every week, sometimes camping in a tent near a fire for days at a time. She traveled on three different two-week details to fires around the Northwest, including one stint at the Canyon Creek Complex of fires. At the height of the season she was working long hours, and had few days off.
"I've definitely noticed that I'm more worn out than I was at the beginning of the season," she said.
The job required her to hike long distances across steep terrain, carrying a 40-pound pack. She described one time trying to ascend a hill that was so steep, her crew boss had to tie a fire hose to a tree so she and her crew could haul themselves up.
"It's neat to have that kind of confidence to be able to take yourself, with just your legs to wherever you want to go. Up the hill, down the hill or just digging line," Brna said.
As the season winds down, she said she feels changed.
"I feel older," she said, with a laugh. "All of the things I've seen this summer and the challenges and the joys I've been through have helped shape me as a person," said Brna.
Brna said she plans to travel over the winter, and take some time to reflect on her summer. But she expects to be back on the fire line next summer.
"At the back of my mind I know there's so much more to see," she said. "And there's so much more to learn."
Twenty-four-year-old Teresa Brna is excited about her first season of fighting fires with the Ochoco National Forest.
Amanda Peacher / OPB
