There are a few different types of handcrews that fight wildland fires: Type 1 Interagency Hotshot Crews (IC), Type 1, Type 2 Initial Attack (IA), a very brief description of these crews may be found in Chapter 30 of the Interagency Mobilization Guide. There is a Type 3, I do not mention them here because I am not quite sure what they do and have not been able (so far) to find a good reference
A good chart explaining what each of these crews do may found in the Wildland Fire Incident Management on page 129. According to the aforementioned chart a Type 2 IA crew is usually a crew of 20 with a crew boss, broken into three squads. There are three Sawyers, probably one to each squad. They are a national resource. The crew does fireline construction and can perform burnout operations.
Enjoy this video, under eight minutes shot from a helmet camera giving us a small peak of what it is like to be on a Type 2 IA handcrew.
Direct link to video uploaded by Matthew McKirdy
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