Although the crew was assigned to the District, the area is interwoven with National Forest, Wilderness Area, state, and private land. The Southeast Appalachian region is experiencing extreme drought and it does not take much to start a new fire. The crew was always prepared for any Initial attack responsibilities. One of the new starts had the crew assisting the local Turkey Creek Volunteer Fire Department (VFD); and after a quick response which kept this fire small, the VFD was able to get their limited resources back to their station. The Turkey Creek VFD invited the crew back to their station for a home cooked dinner and the crew was able to feel like they had an early homemade Thanksgiving dinner.

There are many fires that are caught early and kept small by the various resources in the area, but due to the drought conditions and the terrain within this region, any start has the potential to grow quickly. This was the case with the Quarry Creek fire that began in the night of 11/16. The crew responded early in the morning, and began by providing structure protection for a number of houses near the fire perimeter and then conducted small burn out operations around those structures to secure the fire perimeter.

But due to ongoing conditions the fire quickly spread and became a large fire at over 200+ acres. The resources (bulldozers, engines, hand crews) in the area used forest roads, river drainages, and old logging roads to begin to control the fire. On the third day a large burn out operation was conducted. The CT engine took the lead on operations that contained the fire.

As the crew was one of the few engines on the fire they were integral in providing water and mop-up tools to the hand crews, and at the same time continuing to hold and mop-up along a forest road.

The crew continued working on this fire for numerous shifts, but finished off their assignment by returning to Initial Attack and responding to small fires as needed by the district. On Thanksgiving Day the crew was served a delicious turkey dinner provided by some gracious local residents at the 1996 Olympic Canoe and Kayak venue on the Ocoee River in the Cherokee National Forest. The crew returned home on November 25.