Wrestler out west fighting fires

Charlie Pesch is on a four-month firefighting job for the federal government. His base camp is in Esterbrook, WY which is near Laramie, WY.

Charlie is a student at Mankato State University and left for this job as soon as spring semester was done in the middle of May. He has been training and getting certified in many areas of fighting forest fires.

The day after he was certified as a firefighter he was sent to the “Brian’s Head” fire near UT, on June 24. There are over 1400 firefighters at this fire and nearly 1500 people have been evacuated.

It’s burning over 40,000 acres and growing with hot temperatures and strong winds. It’s located in southern Utah and burning in the Dixie National Forest. As of Tuesday, it was only 8 percent contained. It was started by a resident in a back yard brush pile in southern Utah. The fire season is just starting in the western states. When this fire is contained he will be on call to go onto the next fire. Firefighters are two weeks on, 16 hours a day, then one week off.

Charlie’s specific jobs for this fire are “swamping” which is clearing brush from a line created by bulldozers. He is also on a spotting team. This team spots ember fires that start from floating embers.

This teams races down to the new starting ember fire and puts it out as a containment strategy. His connection with this work is through various former Scott West Wrestlers out of Belle Plaine and Jordan, MN. There are eight former wrestling teammates that are fighting fires out west.

Charlie is the second oldest son of J.D. and Paula Pesch of Minneota. He is a 2012 graduate of Belle Plaine High School and current student at Mankato State University.