Firestorm Wildland Fire Suppression Inc

Crew showed up a bit late. Crew chief apologized, explaining that equipment they had hoped to use was unbeknownst to them removed from truck by other Firestorm employees that morning. That said, the crew went quickly to work and, except for short water breaks, worked continuously until job was completed...about 6 hours later. Work took longer to complete than I or they expected because some of the equipment they had. One crewman's trimmer in particular lacked the power and string strength needed to efficiently and effectively cut thicker stemmed soap plants. The trimmer head on this trimmer kept binding up with plant debris and/or the trimmer string kept breaking, which led to considerable down time for this crewman. Also near the end, the quality of cutting and material removal declined a bit as crew was obviously becoming exhausted. At end of their session, the Crew Chief again apologized and indicated that if we had them back he'd be sure they had the equipment needed from the start. Having performed the above for several years before hiring out this job, I know how difficult it can be if one doesn't have the right equipment. So despite the setbacks, I'll ask Firestorm back again as the price was reasonable and the work can be done more quickly if one has the right equipment--namely a powerful trimmer with high tensile strength string (for grass and soap plants), a good brush-blade saw (for poison oak), and a good small chain saw (for oak stump sprouts). With the above I have alone been able to cut this zone working alone, and then remove poison oak and woody debris, within a half day. My only other recommendation with respect to hiring any fire suppression crew would be to instruct them that if they encounter any larger woody debris (for example fallen limbs), they remove and dispose of those offsite as well. Tossing this material into the greenbelt simply adds fuel and increases the intensity of the fire in the greenbelt, which would seem to me to somewhat defeat the effort of creating an effective fire suppression zone.

Combines work with neighbors but doesn't seem to pass any efficiencies along in the price. Hard to judge how much time spent on my property since much was spent on neighbors hillside. It is difficult and hazardous work so glad to have someone else do it.

The owner came on time, began work, and finished in tow days having a helper to do it. The tree was taken down a while later. I knew all this from the beginning. I have used them in the past.