Ending my internship with a bang (The Wildfire)

Hey everyone! this will be my final post, and while I will summarize my experience a little bit, I am mostly going to focus on the wildfire that ravaged our hillside and what I learned from that experience. 

So, Sunday morning I woke up at 5:45 am and went into Grand Tetons to do an 8.5 mile hike. I set a goal to go on a long hike every weekend and I have been successful so far. This one was particularly amazing, because I have gone on a lot of hikes, but on each, even if they aren’t crowded, you do not feel like you are alone out there. On this hike, I had a lot of sweeping lake and mountain views and the silence that only comes from complete isolation. On this hike I also faced my second biggest fear about being here, I had an encounter with a mother bear and her two cubs while alone. I obviously was fine, but It was super scary.

After this I stuffed my face, and went home as a massive thunderstorm rolled in. I sat down to enjoy a nap with the sound of

the rain but was woken up by an alert on my phone that said “Wildfire near Wildlife Art Museum. Leave now!” Panicked, I had to continuously reload the local news article bout the fire. It turned out to be caused by a lightning strike that hit a telephone pole on the same hillside as the museum. It only consumed a little over 60 acres of land (as far as wildfires go in this area, that is very little) however, the fire did come within 6 feet of some of the works on the sculpture trail.

I found out the following day that everything was basically fine, because we had an emergency plan in place. As soon as the fire broke out, the building was evacuated and security stayed behind. They called the curator, and the registrar. They also immediately turned off the air system, specifically the part of the system that brought air in from outside, but eventually all air flow was stopped. This helped prevent smoke from entering the building. The curator actually wasn’t allowed in initially, but his wife was with him so she gave the firefighters an ear full about how the artwork in there is his responsibility. After getting in, he and the registrar went through the museum with our cart and took down artworks starting with the most valuable according to TMS and moving down. They took down about ten pieces and moved them into painting storage. Then, as another storm rolled in, they were given the option to leave now, or stay until the next one passes, so they decided to stay. 

So essentially, we were just really lucky. Because there was no other wildfires in the area, we got everyone, the National Parks Fire Rescue, the town firefighters, and the Greater Teton Firefighters. So this was dealt with much faster than usual. Granted, our building is pretty fire resistant, but it all just could have been so much worse. The following day, the museum was closed to the public, and we had to go around and check the entire museum from the galleries to our basement storage rooms. Although there was never any visible smoke entering the museum we had several spaces that smelled strongly of smoke, and we had to figure out how to air them out. We had to check for any dust or detritus that may have come in through the smoke and we had to check all of our climate control systems to make sure there wasn’t any point where the rooms became too humid or hot. We did this several times throughout the day. Then after the smoke smell in the galleries started to fade, we started hanging the artworks that were taken down back up. Because these were the most valuable pieces, most of them were armed and we went through a very complicated process of reseting and testing all of the alarms. We also had to change all of the filters in the air system. Then we had to do another walk through today. 

Im sorry that this is such a long post, but I feel like I learned so much about how to react to an emergency at your museum, and how to make sure everything is ok after an emergency. 

In summing up my experience in the internship , it was the greatest experience of my life. I cannot express my gratitude in receiving this opportunity. I have learned a lot of practical things, like how to use TMS, how to handle fine art objects, how to respond to a fire, how to write copyright credit lines, and all kinds of stuff like this. However, to me, the most meaningful part of all of this was personal development. I have gone on more than 10 long hikes in the backwoods of the Tetons and Yellowstone National Park. I did the necessary research to find them, and I hiked them alone. I have faced a bear, several moose, hundreds of elk, and an insane weasel, all on my own. I have discovered that I have more courage than I ever would have known otherwise. I can handle so much more than I thought I could. Most importantly, I have gained a deep love for this area, wildlife, and our national parks. I cannot stop exploring, hiking, and adventuring when this internship is over. I will bring that passion home with me.