My day as a fire lookout nearly ended at hour 6

I took a temp gig on a fire tower near Missoula last summer, and by 2 PM the wind hit 40 mph with zero smoke on the horizon. The boredom was so intense I started naming pine trees, which is not a skill listed on any resume. Has anyone else had a job that was somehow both terrifying and mind-numbingly dull at the same time?

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jessicaw5422d ago

There's this weird thing where your brain goes into survival mode for a threat that never shows up, so it starts making up its own drama just to stay awake. You basically become a professional at doing absolutely nothing while also being ready to sprint down a ladder if a spark shows. The scary part isn't the fire, it's realizing how fast your mind can turn a quiet afternoon into a full-blown emergency simulation. Also, naming pine trees sounds way more useful than what I did at my old night shift, which was counting ceiling tiles just to feel something.

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